How to Play a Very Slow and Soft Song

D

Drumolator

Platinum Member
How does a drummer play a slow, soft song? Pretend that you wrote it. Try it because it works. Peace and goodwill.
 
Push pull stroke said:
Playing slow and soft is usually more challenging when you’re young, don’t you think? But I agree, it’s a skill set that can be practiced
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Depends on what you were playing when you’re young. One of my first steady gigs when I was 13 (first year of high school), I got sucked into playing drums for the show choir- at the same time I was listening to and playing along with Dave Brubecks’ “Time Out” record - so a lot of that brush playing and quiet jazz stick playing got applied to the show choir because they aren’t very loud. Of course, I also experienced my first rock band at the same time, and also played in the marching band and concert band, so I had at least three different mentalities going on during high school as to how I should be playing. Looking back on it, I consider myself lucky to have had those experiences - because right after I graduated, I auditioned for and got into Disney - and I remember that audition being a test to see how I’d play different types of music in addition to being able to read basic stuff. You just got be an open book when you’re a kid and play and learn everything you can.
 
circle round here..

 
 
 
Drumolator said:
How does a drummer play a slow, soft song? Pretend that you wrote it. Try it because it works. Peace and goodwill.
Click to expand...
Slow songs are tough for me to play, but that's because there's generally a lot of emotion attached to them, which makes it difficult to either not speed up or otherwise vary the tempo; the songs posted above are good examples of this.

This song always gave me trouble:


I like the idea of pretending to play a slow song as if I wrote it, although another thing that worked for me was to play to songs that I was able to more easily emotionally detach from. Here are a couple of them (which, by the way, I happen to love... whether it be the song, the album, the artist, or whatever...)



I don't know what it is, but dark lyrics in slow songs make it easier for me to play.
 
I learned how to play slow and soft by playing drum in church in the early-to-mid 1990s...especially in churches that had never had drums before.

Just work with the bass player. That's all I can tell you.

Playing fast and soft is much more difficult, but I can do that too.
 
Love playing slow & soft, if not just because it's another important technique and different than other songs. Really enjoy contributing to the process of making the song as beautiful as possible (or sad, etc.). Whatever the feeling that the song is conveying I try to go there with my own mindset & playing.
 
I’d try playing slow and soft ROFL. I don’t think that is what OP means. I’m thinking he means-left to your own device playing to a soft-slow song how would you do it-design parts in a song you are writing seems the OP request? I could be wrong. My go to slow soft would likely use brushes or cross sticking in parts like beginning. Depends on genre of slow soft?
 
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