Meytal Cohen? She plays, right?

Mine is probably a very unpopular opinion. As a drummer, I find that she lacks any real meaning and doesn't seem to have her own technique. She seems kind of fake, and I just get weird vibes from watching her play. She doesn't seem to REALLY enjoy it.
Something else that bugs me is that her and her videos always seem to be overdone, with too much emphasis on looking good rather than just playing and sounding good. That said, I have only watched, I dunno, 5 or 6 of her covers. I just don't enjoy them. I also think that a big reason that people watch her is because she's a female drummer, which is not a good reason. At all.

Maybe I'm wrong. Probably am

I feel the same way about Meytal Cohen completely. She just seems ,in my eyes, really weak while she drums. As if there is no passion, power or real flow in her drumming.
 
It's kinda funny that everyone here is talking about Meytal. I'm indifferent about her playing as I don't find any real fun in the music she's picked to play, but she's got gazillion hits on her Youtube video and a thread here dedicated entirely to her playing.

I'd say that's good capitalization on something, regardless of talent.
 
Last edited:
Nancy - that was an awesome post! Situational insanity? Ha - consider that stolen!

I think MC is taking the vapid route. I suppose she can "play", but it hardly matters if she can't be bothered to apply it to anything. I have zero sense of what her own instincts might tell her to play in a musical situation and therefore can't begin to consider her ability to contribute as a musician.
 
It's kinda funny that everyone here is talking about Meytal. I'm indifferent about her playing as I don't find any real fun in the music she's picked to play, but she's got gazillion hits on her Youtube video and a thread here dedicated entirely to her playing.

I'd say that's good capitalization on something, regardless of talent.

Exactly. I'm not a fan at all of the most of the music she's into. That's not a comment on her or her abilities. Just that genre of music.
 
Cool Karen Carpenter was a drummer-from Wikipedia:"Carpenter started playing the drums in 1964. She was always enthusiastic about the drums and taught herself how to play complicated drum lines with "exotic time signatures," according to her brother.[8] Carpenter's drumming was praised by fellow drummers Hal Blaine, Cubby O'Brien, Buddy Rich[11] and by Modern Drummer magazine.[12] According to her brother, Carpenter always considered herself a "drummer who sang." Despite this, she was not often featured as a drummer on the Carpenters' albums. She was, however, the only drummer on the album Ticket to Ride and on the songs "Mr. Guder" and "Please Mr. Postman." The role of drummer in the Carpenters entourage was mainly taken over by Hal Blaine as she went from behind the drum set to the front of the stage.[13]"
Wow that's pretty cool. I was fixing to suggest she be on Drummerworld but she already is-big dummy I am should have known this.


It is easy to forget how very very few female drummers there were at Karen Carpenter's time... I'm sure she would have played drums a lot more if she were let out her box more. Drums are still a masculine instrument for most people, so its great to see so many great female drummers ... even if they are still talked about in terms of their looks.

Regarding Meytal: You can hear her play a bit without the backing track at the en of this clip.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOIbXofCEGE

Its definitely her, and not edited that much. She is playing mostly tension free (though I'd want to tune up that bass technique) .... she isn't playing with a ton of energy, though. It seems to me her playing could have a bit more of an edge... but that is personal taste and I expect with the right balance of real musicians around her I'd love it. Many great drummers... and even more great bass players are the same way.

I do think that she wouldn't get so much attention without the look, but having a look has always been a part of the game.
 
To anyone who thinks playing hard is about the amount of muscle you have... yeah, sorry, you're wrong.

Playing hard and loud is about your body movement and using your bodyweight, not your muscular mass. If you're using your muscles to play hard then you are doing it wrong. That's why some clowns break multiple sticks during a single set. I can play hard at all my practise sessions and gigs and only break 2-3 sticks in 2 months, sometimes not even that.

Most of the women I see who play drums and play relatively softly and laid-back do so because that's how they choose to play.

Anyway, with regards to Meytal... Personally, if someone looks good but their playing is poor, I get bored and stopped watching. I used to watch Meytal's videos in her earlier Youtube days, but I'm not a fan of the music she plays so I stopped watching her play. That's not a reflection on her playing, I just don't listen to music I'm not interested in :p

I would have to say I'm a big fan of Emmanuelle and Anika. They both to me seem to be exploring territory and creating their own voices, although I think Emmanuelle needs to get out of all those pop gigs and start playing a bit more of Vinnie Colaiuta's stuff :p
 

Dame Evelyn Glennie is possibly the most inspired musician I have ever had the pleasure of experiencing. Her passion is otherworldly, never mind the fact that she is a miracle who plays an instrument at the highest levels while being deaf.

There is no one else on earth like her.
 
All I meant was the extra bulk of the male torso seems to be valuable to drumming.
I think you're way off with this. It's technique, & powerful strokes are all about stick speed, not strength.

I remember being treated to a Bonham style drumming display by my classic percussion teacher many decades ago. She weighed no more than 80lbs max, was in her 70's at the time, & powered out on a 26" + 18" + 14" kit at a volume that was uncomfortable.

I also know a number of female drummers of slight frame who can rock out with the best of them - typically better actually.
 
First, you don't see that she is indeed pretty muscular? Second, I said outright that I wasn't talking about powerful drumming. And what I was talking about was set drumming, where your body is central to all the motion. All I meant was the extra bulk of the male torso seems to be valuable to drumming.

Absolute and utter cobblers.

'Bulk' has very little to do with how hard you can hit the kit. I've seen skinny folks whack the kit hard and make it shake, I've seen big guys play with finesse. Sex has nothing to do with the amount of power you transfer into a kit. A kit can only get so loud before it becomes inefficient to hit it any harder. Players like Dave Grohl hit the kit incredibly hard but they're not actually much louder than somebody like Elvin Jones (who did hit hard at times but not as hard as Grohl). Drums choke at a certain point.

If you're playing with half-decent technique, you're playing with a combination of your fingers, wrists and arms. You can choose which muscle groups to activate depending on how much power you want to transfer into the kit. Only when you're using your arms does body mass come into it and even then, a slight individual has more than enough body mass to choke a kit unless they have a specific muscle weakness or physical condition.

Females can hit them just as hard. Trust me.

Stick speed matters too and that's going into fast-twitch and slow-twitch muscle fibres. Explosive muscles and muscles for endurance...
 
First, you don't see that she is indeed pretty muscular? Second, I said outright that I wasn't talking about powerful drumming. And what I was talking about was set drumming, where your body is central to all the motion. All I meant was the extra bulk of the male torso seems to be valuable to drumming.

I've found that sexist comments regarding drumming are usually due to ones own short comings.

Volume is directly due to velocity and stick weight, not arm density or torso strength. I recommend you find a good teacher that knows these basics.
 
The only reason that women wouldn't play as well as men is because that is what society tells them during their formative years.

Unless you're able to get an extra triplet out of your trouser snake, there's nothing that we've got that they haven't... Well, besides an intact self esteem and 5000 years of socio-mental conditioning.
 
Ok, as this is turning into one of those kind of threads, I'm going to come out & nail my colours to the mast. Based exclusively on my personal experience, & taken as an average across all the players I've worked with, female drummers are the better musicians. In fact, I'll extend that to other instruments too. I use the term "musicians" deliberately, because ultimately, that's what matters. I don't know why that's my experience, it just is. If I was to take a real stab at the reasons, the top ones would probably be management of ego & the ability to focus on what's important. I think a greater appreciation of the importance of dynamics would feature in there too, as well as equal importance on playing the spaces as well as the notes.

I hate generalisations, but as this thread seems to encompass them, there it is. Let the flaming begin.
 
Back
Top