Is this sacrilegious or what?

Between working at music stores and hosting a million drum clinics and going to PIT way back when, I've seen/heard enough drum solos to last me a life time.

Even when seeing Rush or Dream Theater in person, I'd really prefer they skip the solo and play another song.
 
I'll take Peart over all four of them, and anybody else you can come up with. :) What is it about this place that it seems to be a pre-requisite to diss good ol Neil. Can someone help me out with this?

Hold on there, Turbo. I wasn't dissin' Neil at all. My basic premise is that I prefer to hear good songs. I love what drums do during the songs, but I prefer a really short drum solo (maybe 16 bars) with some kind of ostinato pattern going on underneath from the rest of the band. I don't think the other two guys in Rush are capable of playing an ostinato pattern, anyway ;)
 
I'll take Peart over all four of them, and anybody else you can come up with. :) What is it about this place that it seems to be a pre-requisite to diss good ol Neil. Can someone help me out with this?

Yes. It's not actually happening.

It might seem that way because you are very sensitive about Neil?
 
I'll take Peart over all four of them, and anybody else you can come up with. :) What is it about this place that it seems to be a pre-requisite to diss good ol Neil. Can someone help me out with this?

It's just you.

Really, I've been listening to Rush and Neil since I was 12, and I'm 41 now.

I have every album, I've seen them on every tour since Power Windows, I have all the DVDs, I've read Neil's books, and I have a wall full of Neil and Rush posters at home.

But I don't feel this forum disses Neil, nor do I see a reason to get bent out of shape if someone does.

Rush is a great band. Neil is a great drummer.

But music and drums do not begin and end with Neil. There are a ton of other drummers who are just as valid.

Seriously, read Neil's book, Traveling Music and read how much Neil loves and respects other artists from Frank Sinatra to Linkin Park to Madonna.

If Neil himself can be open to listening to a variety of different music and different drummers, then it shouldn't be that hard for Neil's fans to being open to listening to a variety of different music and different drummers.
 
Interesting how these conversations go.

I'm also not a fan of drum solos. Some of them are cool. I used to really like Neil Peart's All The World's A Stage solo when I was much younger, but felt they started going downhill after that (35 years ago!) and now they're just yawn fests. Drums without music are *mostly* boring to me, except Papa Jo Jones. There are others too, I suppose, but they're not coming to mind at the moment. In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida and Bonham's not stop bleguda-bleguda-bleguda-bleguda triplets with tambourine quarters are definitely not high on my list of enjoyable solos.

Was watching Buddy Rich's West Side Story solo just yesterday and was amazed at how bored I got watching him play the snare drum for so long. It gets old even though he's so obviously monstrous with it.

Ditto for Cobham. I always respected his ability to really play, but his busy style has always left me a little cold.

So. Why is it that Stewart Copeland gets so much heat for bashing drum soloists when this very thread has many of us sharing similar anti-solo opinions? (other than he's purposely poking his punk finger in the eye of the whole idea to get a rise outta the loyalists)
 
I'll take Peart over all four of them, and anybody else you can come up with. :) What is it about this place that it seems to be a pre-requisite to diss good ol Neil. Can someone help me out with this?

Look at it that way, as probably a lot of you might have guessed, I'm a huge fan of Simon Phillips and have and continue to follow his every move on the music business, and he's by far my favourite drummer of all time, but the fact is, I'm not a fan of his solos (damnit, I've said it now!!!), while I find them technically impressive (like Cobham's solos), they bore me to be honest.

Now I feel it's perfectly OK to admire and adore a drummer and make him your mentor in your taste of music, but you have to allow for other people tastes, and it's not because they choose to ignore Neil Peart drum solo on a CD or DVD, that's implying that they don't like Neil or that they think he's a bad drummer, they just prefer to listen to what he does within a song, as I do with my hero, Mr Simon Phillips.

And by the way, I love Neil Peart and Rush and I have (almost) all their records... :))
 
Mike's response kinda' opens up the door on alot of inner conflict in our little world, eh?

I look at it like this: you are cool if you can change your note-to-dollar ratio. If I can sit there, laying it down for a packed dance club, and not play a solo, much less any fills, and make $300 a night, that's way better than playing a million notes and a 20 minute drum solo for $25. Yet the macho musician in all of us wants to be the soloist for the few hand claps you get. Weird. Charlie Watts approached it right, I say ;)
 
It's just you.

Really, I've been listening to Rush and Neil since I was 12, and I'm 41 now.

I have every album, I've seen them on every tour since Power Windows, I have all the DVDs, I've read Neil's books, and I have a wall full of Neil and Rush posters at home.

But I don't feel this forum disses Neil, nor do I see a reason to get bent out of shape if someone does.

Rush is a great band. Neil is a great drummer.

But music and drums do not begin and end with Neil. There are a ton of other drummers who are just as valid.

Seriously, read Neil's book, Traveling Music and read how much Neil loves and respects other artists from Frank Sinatra to Linkin Park to Madonna.

If Neil himself can be open to listening to a variety of different music and different drummers, then it shouldn't be that hard for Neil's fans to being open to listening to a variety of different music and different drummers.
When did I say i only listened to RUSH, or Neil Peart. Hello. I have 4000 sounds on my ipod, and Rush doesn't have that much music. I rarely listen to RUSH anymore. Not sure what your point was buddy.
 
Not sure what concerts you guys have been too, but the drum solo is usually one of the most exciting parts of the night. Listen to the crowd next time. I love hearing just drums. Especially when there are lots of them, with lots of different sounds. Maybe most on here don't like them because they can't do them. Hmmm. I know I can't, but I still love them. I still feel like I am on a Guitar site some days. :(
 
Not sure what concerts you guys have been too, but the drum solo is usually one of the most exciting parts of the night. Listen to the crowd next time. I love hearing just drums. Especially when there are lots of them, with lots of different sounds. Maybe most on here don't like them because they can't do them. Hmmm. I know I can't, but I still love them. I still feel like I am on a Guitar site some days. :(

Let's change gears - anybody really how to correctly finger a G chord? I mean, how do you do that with just your middle, ring, and pinky fingers? That's the hardest dang chord I can't play!

;)
 
Let's change gears - anybody really how to correctly finger a G chord? I mean, how do you do that with just your middle, ring, and pinky fingers? That's the hardest dang chord I can't play!

;)

Depends if you're using the barre form or not. If you are, there are at least two iterations of the barre form in that position (third fret). The open G is just a matter of practice!
 
Let's change gears - anybody really how to correctly finger a G chord? I mean, how do you do that with just your middle, ring, and pinky fingers? That's the hardest dang chord I can't play!

;)
I have one of those little guitars if you want to borrow it. :p
 
Let's change gears - anybody really how to correctly finger a G chord? I mean, how do you do that with just your middle, ring, and pinky fingers? That's the hardest dang chord I can't play!

;)

I can only play the intro of "Smoke On The Water" on the guitar...:(
 
If you guys really want less drums, just buy guitar music. :)
 
Let's change gears - anybody really how to correctly finger a G chord? I mean, how do you do that with just your middle, ring, and pinky fingers? That's the hardest dang chord I can't play!

;)

G never gives me a problem.

C on other hand always escapes me, which is funny given it's the easiest chord to play on a piano.
 
Mike's response kinda' opens up the door on alot of inner conflict in our little world, eh?

I look at it like this: you are cool if you can change your note-to-dollar ratio...
Admittedly, that thought did occur to me, but ultimately I thought it was valid to bring it into the conversation. His views (toned down a bit) are not out of line with what's being expressed in this thread.

About the dollar-to-note ratio... are you still cool if the ratio stays the same no matter how many notes you play? This is the case with me not making any money (worth noting) at the gigs I do. However, I do get those who appreciate my particular brand of overplaying.
If you guys really want less drums, just buy guitar music. :)
Seems like you're kind of missing the point there.

There's only two kinds of music - the good and the bad (and subjective as all giddy up). It's not that I necessarily want less drums - I just want less boring and more interesting drums. Usually, more interesting drums comes with more interesting music, but not always. Oftentimes, interesting music doesn't include drums at all.

To me, the music has to come first without regard to it being "drum music" or "guitar music" etc. All I'm saying is that music that's just there to prop up a show-boating drummer gets old fast - like Dave Weckl's elevator music bands! Love his drumming to death (one of my guilty pleasures) but I gotta keep the windows shut and the volume down though - I even wear a Richard Nixon mask just in case someone sees me!
 
Seems like you're kind of missing the point there.

There's only two kinds of music - the good and the bad. It's not that I necessarily want less drums - I just want less boring and more interesting drums. Usually, more interesting drums comes with more interesting music, but not always. Oftentimes, interesting music doesn't include drums at all.

To me, the music has to come first without regard to it being "drum music" or "guitar music" etc. All I'm saying is that music that's just there to prop up a show-boating drummer gets old fast - like Dave Weckl's elevator music bands! Love his drumming to death (one of my guilty pleasures) but I gotta keep the windows shut and the volume down though - I even wear a Richard Nixon mask just in case someone sees me!
I know buddy. I'm just being a pain in the ass tonight. Think my meds are wearing off. :) I love drum solos. Always have. I love the sound of toms, and solo's on big kits usually involve lots of tom work. Good and bad music is really up to the individual isn't it?
 
G never gives me a problem.

C on other hand always escapes me, which is funny given it's the easiest chord to play on a piano.

F was my problem chord (haven't touched a guitar in years) ... D minor was okay but getting the B and top E strings down right next to the nut did my fingers in. I always had problems with playing clean bar chords too - there was always a buzz somewhere. It always seemed to me that you needed fingers like The Hulk to press down a barre cleanly.

Admittedly, that thought did occur to me, but ultimately I thought it was valid to bring it into the conversation. His views (toned down a bit) are not out of line with what's being expressed in this thread.
Seems like you're kind of missing the point there.

There's only two kinds of music - the good and the bad (and subjective as all giddy up). It's not that I necessarily want less drums - I just want less boring and more interesting drums. Usually, more interesting drums comes with more interesting music, but not always. Oftentimes, interesting music doesn't include drums at all.

To me, the music has to come first without regard to it being "drum music" or "guitar music" etc. All I'm saying is that music that's just there to prop up a show-boating drummer gets old fast - like Dave Weckl's elevator music bands! Love his drumming to death (one of my guilty pleasures) but I gotta keep the windows shut and the volume down though - I even wear a Richard Nixon mask just in case someone sees me!

Good post, Mike!

HEY EVERYONE!! MIKE IS HEAVILY INTO ELEVATOR MUSIC!!
 
F was my problem chord (haven't touched a guitar in years) ... D minor was okay but getting the B and top E strings down right next to the nut did my fingers in. I always had problems with playing clean bar chords too - there was always a buzz somewhere. It always seemed to me that you needed fingers like The Hulk to press down a barre cleanly.
I have to agree on the F. It is getting easier though.
 
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