How Close to the Original Part when Playing Covers or "Slopping Through"

DrummerCA35

Senior Member
How close do you guys and girls learn your parts when you're playing covers? For example, if you're playing "Walk this Way" you'd certainly play the drum intro as it was done, I would think. Or songs with key drum parts/fills/phrases that are part of the song structure.

But take a song like "Jump" by Van Halen where there are some weird things going on with the drums like during the guitar solo. Our band is going to try it. It sounds like 4/4 time to me during this section, but with really odd syncopation and so forth. I'm thinking a lot of you guys could play it in your sleep. For me, to do it like the recording would mean listening to it multiple times, trying to either write it out, or find a written drum tab out there, or watch Youtube videos of people doing a drum cover. I saw one with a 14 year old girl doing "Jump" that sounded great. Or I could just "slop through" that section and NOT spend the time to learn that odd part during the guitar solo. I don't like "slopping through". I doubt that anyone would notice or care. But I would know. If there were some drummers in the audience who knew the part I could see them saying "Hey, man, that guys not playing it right! What a sh**head! I will study some videos like this one: http://www.onlinedrummer.com/drum-lessons/how-to-play-jump-van-halen-guitar-solo-on-drums/

Similar to Don't Stop by Journey. I've learned the first couple of sections pretty close, as the beat changes, with the cymbal bell thing and all, but never quite got the last section/beat thing down exactly right. If I sat down and spent the time I could, and I'm planning on it.

Generally, I try to do the drum parts justice and keep the flavor of the original. Sometimes change things intentionally here and there, or add things. But where you have to actually study the parts and break them down and work them out...how far do you guys go with this in trying to stay close to the original?

Thanks for any responses.
 
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Hi DrummerCA35,

Something similiar was discussed here recently, my take on it is that if I'm in a covers band (as opposed to say a band that takes songs and plays them in a different musical style) then I do my best to play as close to the original as I can. I know I'll not do it justice but by trying to get close to the fills and feel then hopefully enough will get through to give a good result.
I also agree that all musicians need to hit the key parts/fills/phrases and can kind of blag the other bits, however (& I hate myself for saying this :-( ) I consider the drum part during the solo on Jump to be one of those key parts. I'm not one to stand at the back of a room wearing a black Tour Shirt with my arms folded looking only to trip people up (and trust me, I am manna from Heaven for people who want to do that) but as a Van Halen fan I've heard that song many many times over the last 32 years (HOW LONG?) and "for me" it's ingrained in my head how it should sound. That's not me saying I could sit down now and play it because I couldn't but in that one example you've given I've always heard the part as a combined guitar and drum solo and for me it has to be right.
As for Don't Stop Believing, I've heard people say that bit is played open handed and when you do it that way it makes sense, not that I can or have :)

Sorry for the negativity on the Jump thing, it could honestly just "be me" but the danger is that for every song there could be someone in the audience who knows the song and smiles more broadly when they hear the things they like about it done right. That being said I wouldn't walk out or insult the drummer because I live in a glass house myself so don't throw stones.
 
Obviously, do the best you can. But unless all those people that would be judging the band performance are either buying all the drinks and food to help you get paid, I couldn't care less what they think. The guy paying the band is your barometer for how well you're doing. People do the same thing in college where everybody is critiquing everybody, but none of those people are paying your bills.

Sorry for the reality rant ;)
 
I work things in this order:

Song structure, starts, breaks, and ending
Groove (HH, Ride, back beat etc)
Key fills

Then I keep getting closer and closer ALL THE TIME. There are parts I know I will never get just right and those I do my best. The hertas at the end of rock n roll by LZ for example. I cannot play them fast enough!
 
here is one of the charts to "dont stop" i found: http://thedrumninja.com/downloads/dont-stop-believin-journey-drum-transcription.pdf i love working on this tune...it's like a musical independence exercise. my goal is to get it up to 160 ish & see if it evolves from there. EDIT. found another 1. i even have another printed version from some other site: http://www.teacherweb.com/tn/stlouis/rickneal/dont-stop-believin---drum-set.pdf

i find that i play covers as close as possible / as soon as possible given the timing & how fast i can digest it. for me, even playing the same covers for 4 years at a clip, they evolve & get closer to the "right" / album version. i'll drive down the road w/ the tune cranked & hear subtle things.

the other thing is...sometimes i dont stick to the originals. when i find unmusical fills, rushing, weird stuff in there. but classic hits like "rosanna" or "what is hip" with iconic grooves & fills, i transcribe & damn near play it note for note.
 
I wouldn't call it slopping through, unless it sounds sloppy. A lot of album versions are spliced together. The drummers don't even play them like the album live, unless it's Neil Peart or something.
 
By using the word slop, I think you know the answer. :)

I actually submitted a new article this morning for my DRUM! column, aptly title Playing Covers.

Bermuda
 
Depends on the song, the band and the drummer..... I always strive to get the key fills right, but lets be honest.... Only musicians know most of the key fills, or would notice if they are missing. The average patron in the venue doesn't know them. Some are very distinctive, and if you deviate completely from those, a few folks might realize its not exactly how they remember it, but they probably won't care or even be able to identify what it was that was different.

Plus, depending on your band, the song isn't likely to sound like the record anyway, with all the overdubs and processing and production. Sometimes you gotta make your own arrangement of a song that works for your band, and that might not allow the drummer to try and duplicate certain parts. Our band plays a version of Carry On Wayward Son as a 3 piece, with no keys. We can't put everything in there... (nor can I play the drum part in the breaks exactly, either, but I get the basic feel for it down).

Still, most of us wanna "do it right" or as closely as we can. I know that when I hear a bar band play Born To Be Wild or All Right Now and the drummer doesn't at least get close to those signature fills near the end, I kinda shrug my shoulders a little, but those very same drummers probably do many things far better than I do, too.

I don't think I'd wanna tackle playing that part in Jump and getting it correct. The rest of the band better have a really good sense of time on their own, cuz they aren't gonna be able to key off you. At least many musicians that I've played with would struggle with that, done correctly. Sneaky complex. Good luck!
 
I try to come as close as possible.

Like someone else said, for a new song, I generally get better at it over time as I learn the song better. I may start by writing a chart to make sure I get the basic tempo and feel right and any stops. Those are non-negotiable and if you miss them, it will sound bad to the audience; you don't have to be a musician to notice mistakes like that.

After that, I'll focus on signature fills. Not all songs have them, but for those that do, getting them right is something people will usually notice.

So that's to start with for a new piece of music. After I've had a chance to get to know the song, I may continue to learn the part and try to get even closer to playing it just like the recording.
 
I always try to learn the original parts note for note, and if possible, the exact stickings too.
I think that's how you improve as a drummer, outside of books practice pads and so on. Maybe I'm a little obsessive with it, but I will sit there for hours and days...and on.. to make it happen. hah
You can always dial back the tricky parts when playing live, if needed. But I prefer to have something tight enough to NOT need to do that, if there's an audience.
 
Just slop through. That's good enough.

:p

If your guitarist doesn't do a mirror image of the leads, you probably don't want to do those fills in the lead. I tailor my part to my guitarists part, which is hardly ever like the record.
 
It all depends on what your and/or your band are looking to do.

Are you looking to play something note-for-note the way the original band recorded it? Most of those bands don't even play their songs the way they recorded them... If so then, you'd want to play the song as close to the record as possible, including most fills, rhythms, stops, et cetera.


I've played with jazz and rockabilly groups that did "covers" of pop songs... obviously a good deal of jazz is playing other people's songs, but using a unique arrangement. I've worked in bands that have taken pop songs and arranged them as jazzier tunes, or as a 50s rock and roll song. If your band has a specific niche or style, this is a great way to add popular material, but still make it your own. I played for a group that did a rockabilly version of Sympathy for the Devil and people would go absolutely crazy for it. That's not really "slopping" through it, but often it means the drum part is completely different.


I guess you have to figure out what the band is going for.
 
Just my $0.02: I always try to play as close to the radio version as possible. So do my guitarists, bassists, and vocalists.

Our thinking is that's how people who like songs want to hear them. There are exceptions (obviously in jazz, but sometimes in rock we'll play something of our own) but they're rare. People just expect that dumb solo in 'Radar Love', they expect 4-on-the-snare for 'Satisfaction', and they expect that syncopation in 'Jump' (which I am also working on right now, along with 'Dance the Night Away', which are really fun to try to play as Alex did, particularly on a bop kit).

Sometimes if I physically can't play the original I'll make some substitutions, like if it's fast hi-hat eighths I'll play quarters really sloshy. But I feel cheap doing it.
 
After years of just getting by, about 5 years ago I started actually listening closely and sometimes charting the fills.

Most of the time, playing it close or correctly will not be outwardly noticed by a large majority of people but maybe subconsciously they will think it sounds a little better.

Now days I at least get the basic kick pattern right :) High hat and ride patterns often get lost in the mix (to me) so I guess and/or play what feels comfortable.
 
I personally like playing as close to what the original drummer played, because to me that's the fun and the challenge; getting the part right.

But I'm also pragmatic when it comes to finding the right balance between what is "correct" and what will groove. Sometimes you need to simplify the part to keep everyone else together and keep the song flowing. Or maybe the rest of the band is going in a different direction too and it makes sense to change up the drums.

Specifically with that displaced pattern in Jump, I'd woodshed it until I could play exactly what AVH did, but be ready to keep straight time if it throws the other guys off.

I'll also say (oddly enough) that both Jump and Don't Stop Believin' once got me a gig with a band because I came in and played THE part when all the other guys they'd played with were just "slopping through."
 
For me it depends on the genre and how popular the song is (or rather was) on the radio. With classic rock I tend to stick to the original as much as I can. Sometimes If I can't quite get a certain fill I'll try to make a reasonable facsimile. In blues, there's a lot more freedom to do different things, as long as the song doesn't suffer. Most of my playing these is with a surf band. While the style seems at first glance to be pretty rigid, I find that I can change things up a little bit and get away with it. When we do Wipeout I keep it pretty close to the original. I might not get the rimshots in the exact place, but as long as I get them in there somewhere it's ok. My band does more traditional surf music, but in the surf/punk scene anything goes.
 
Specifically with that displaced pattern in Jump, I'd woodshed it until I could play exactly what AVH did, but be ready to keep straight time if it throws the other guys off.

That is one of the songs I decided to play straight in order to keep things on track. I call creative license on that one :)
 
Are you looking to play something note-for-note the way the original band recorded it? Most of those bands don't even play their songs the way they recorded them...

That is often helpful in how to approach the song - see how the original band pulls it off live, how they handle endings, etc. If the actual band takes some license, it's acceptable for a cover band to do the same.

Most of the time, playing it close or correctly will not be outwardly noticed by a large majority of people but maybe subconsciously they will think it sounds a little better.

It is largely a subconscious thing. The general public knows if a song makes them feel good, or not.

I personally like playing as close to what the original drummer played, because to me that's the fun and the challenge; getting the part right.

And it's fun to be different drummers. You'll never be criticized for playing the original parts, typically you'll get compliments from your bandmates.

Bermuda
 
I like to be exacting, but that's just me. I'm an anal bugger! :) That doesn't go to say that I don't enjoy and appreciate someone who mixes things up a little.
 
If your guitarist doesn't do a mirror image of the leads, you probably don't want to do those fills in the lead. I tailor my part to my guitarists part, which is hardly ever like the record.

This. Alex's part is a fantastic thing to nail but will sound naff if EVH's guitar solo isn't there.
 
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