Please bear with my rambling. I kind of wanted to just get this down in print.
I was talking about this with a buddy that I jam with from time to time. We were placing drummers (and other musicians) on a sliding scale ranging from "shredder/virtuoso" on the left, and then "soulful use of empty space" on the right.
We had an easy time finding guys that landed on that left end of the spectrum. We both agreed that the far left would be occupied by single stroke BPM champions and other drummers of the sort.
As the scale moves further right, you'd find stuff like drum corp guys, metal music, Buddy Rich (bebop kind of stuff).
We also agreed that the ideal drummer for any gig tends to lie right in the center of that scale. Someone that has the bag of tricks to show off, but that lets the empty space and "feel" do the talking. Drummers like John Bonham would be found here. Phill Rudd is known as the quintessential "four on the floor guy", but we both felt that his place was almost further to the right of the center.
One thing I had a hard time defining was the actual name for what one would call the right side of the spectrum. I called it the "soulful use of space". At first I was referring to it as the "tasteful" side of the spectrum, but that also didn't seem like the right word for it.
Anyways, what do you think of this abstract visual representation of drummingt? Me and Nate (my buddy) were also sort of tossing around the idea of what a 2nd axis would include. We though maybe the x axis would be this spectrum I'm discussing, and then the Y axis would range from hard hitters on top to soft brush guys on bottom.
But yeah. Thoughts? Where do you think some famous drummers are found on this? Any idea of a better name for each end of the spectrum? Where do you see yourself on this scale?
It would be kind of cool to come up with a numerical value (a point on a graph) to represent each drummer and then chalk it up as a visual on the site.
I was talking about this with a buddy that I jam with from time to time. We were placing drummers (and other musicians) on a sliding scale ranging from "shredder/virtuoso" on the left, and then "soulful use of empty space" on the right.
We had an easy time finding guys that landed on that left end of the spectrum. We both agreed that the far left would be occupied by single stroke BPM champions and other drummers of the sort.
As the scale moves further right, you'd find stuff like drum corp guys, metal music, Buddy Rich (bebop kind of stuff).
We also agreed that the ideal drummer for any gig tends to lie right in the center of that scale. Someone that has the bag of tricks to show off, but that lets the empty space and "feel" do the talking. Drummers like John Bonham would be found here. Phill Rudd is known as the quintessential "four on the floor guy", but we both felt that his place was almost further to the right of the center.
One thing I had a hard time defining was the actual name for what one would call the right side of the spectrum. I called it the "soulful use of space". At first I was referring to it as the "tasteful" side of the spectrum, but that also didn't seem like the right word for it.
Anyways, what do you think of this abstract visual representation of drummingt? Me and Nate (my buddy) were also sort of tossing around the idea of what a 2nd axis would include. We though maybe the x axis would be this spectrum I'm discussing, and then the Y axis would range from hard hitters on top to soft brush guys on bottom.
But yeah. Thoughts? Where do you think some famous drummers are found on this? Any idea of a better name for each end of the spectrum? Where do you see yourself on this scale?
It would be kind of cool to come up with a numerical value (a point on a graph) to represent each drummer and then chalk it up as a visual on the site.