Songs to impress "normies"

A J said:
I've had non-musicians marvel at how I can sing and play drums at the same time. Also, many of them are amazed at what we can do with our feet. They seem to think our feet are doing things completely independent with what our hands are doing.
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Great GREAT little statement here A.J.

This is why, and I will always stand by this.....

Drumming is a very difficult instrument. It is not easy. It gets to a point where new things fall into place easier, but we are having to be aware of what ALL our limbs are doing at the same time. We are needing to apply specific pressures against all the surfaces we are striking with each limb.

Just take a simple double paradiddle as a 6/8 groove. Then say do upbeat 8ths on the hihat and 1 on the bass drum. There's a lot going on there.....but we kinda don't really notice this as we get well trained in internalising it all.

It doesn't take much for one bum strike on any surface to stuff things right up. And we've got nowhere to hide.

That is why there are so few of us around.

Drummers are by far are held in the highest regard by me and I really appreciate the skills involved.
 
Benthedrummer said:
This is why, and I will always stand by this.....

Drumming is a very difficult instrument. It is not easy. It gets to a point where new things fall into place easier, but we are having to be aware of what ALL our limbs are doing at the same time. We are needing to apply specific pressures against all the surfaces we are striking with each limb.

Just take a simple double paradiddle as a 6/8 groove. Then say do upbeat 8ths on the hihat and 1 on the bass drum. There's a lot going on there.....but we kinda don't really notice this as we get well trained in internalising it all.

It doesn't take much for one bum strike on any surface to stuff things right up. And we've got nowhere to hide.

That is why there are so few of us around.

Drummers are by far are held in the highest regard by me.
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Most of us have been playing drums so long, sometimes we forget that what's simple to us can be very complicated to someone else. The two guys in my band (bassist and drummer) can keep a simple beat on drums. They're biggest problem with drums is the sheer physical effort to play. After just a short time, they're exhausted. I guess it's the same thing if I try to play bass guitar. I can do very simple things on the bass, but after a short time, my fingers start to cramp.

Another good point you make is the scarcity of drummers. In my neck of the woods, everyone's a guitar player, but hardly anyone touches drums. In the past few months I declined two separate offers to join two bands. One band is an established gigging band. The other is a newly-forming band with experienced members. Both bands have the same problem: finding drummers.

Personally, I think the reason for the shortage of drummers in my area mostly boils down to logistics. Drums are heavy, take up a lot of space, and don't transport easy. Just learning how to play the drums requires a sizeable practice space and a family (and neighbors) patient enough to endure it.
 
A J said:
Personally, I think the reason for the shortage of drummers in my area mostly boils down to logistics. Drums are heavy, take up a lot of space, and don't transport easy. Just learning how to play the drums requires a sizeable practice space and a family (and neighbors) patient enough to endure it.
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Very true mate.

I guess the attractiveness of it all is off-putting for a lot of people out there.

Anyways, I'd better let the thread stay on topic.
 
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I think a lot of drummers ARE normies. Mike Portnoy scored a lot of "greatest drummer of all time'' trophies just by playing quads and simple odd time beats. You can imagine if he knew his rudiments back in the 90's he would have alienated much of his audience.
 
for me, it is sort of generational based...

my high schoolers seem to be enthralled by anything "retro" right now....which is the same things that my Gen X freinds like

my middle schoolers are more enthralled with "fast and loud"

most of my non musician friends in their 20's-40's are enthralled with "familiar", or fast and loud...

when people ask me to "play something cool", I usually revert to any Rush stuff that I know, regardless of whether THEY know it, because a lot of it has a good combo of groove and technicality. I also sometimes use Dave Mathews Band songs as well like "#41", or Sting stuff from the first 4 albums...lots of good groove+tech in that too
 
I show them this:

Playing (at the same time and while talking to them to demonstrate)

1 The hats closing on 1,2,3, and 4 so chick, chick, chick, chick
2 The bass drum on 1, then 3 and 4
3 The snare on 2
3 dual hits with the ride on 1, 2, 3, and 4,
5 Me talking to them while starting each part individually then joining them to play all together, then one by one taking them out until only one is left and stopping.
That or playing the Painkiller or Hot For Teacher intros.
 
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Duck Tape said:
I think a lot of drummers ARE normies. Mike Portnoy scored a lot of "greatest drummer of all time'' trophies just by playing quads and simple odd time beats. You can imagine if he knew his rudiments back in the 90's he would have alienated much of his audience.
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Same can be said for Joey Jordison, and others that play nothing too complex yet they are considered best of all time.

I remember one example pattern that Neil Peart was teaching it was something super simple (by itself) one bass drum hit followed by two hi hat chicks (boom, chick, chick), the difficult part came when you have to keep that going while also playing two different patterns on the toms. I can't do it to this day. I think is not that it is that complex I believe you have to alternate one foot with one hand and you can play that pattern much easier but I never really had the patience to try to unlock it. but if you can play that you definitely impress me.

I think you can hear some of that pattern here:


Now being impressed doesn't mean I particularly would enjoy it, to me is not that musical and just falls short to keep my attention for long.
There are much simpler parts that are just more engaging than all that.

Now for all the electronic drum haters Neil Peart played Roland and Kat percussion for a lot of his music (so a hybrid kit at all times) except of course in the early days when e-kits didn't exist. You would not call those fake drums either but if anybody else dares play e-kits is not real drums?? c'mon!. Electronic drums are drums just like an electronic piano is a piano they just look different but in the end the result is the same. (just more convenient).
 
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"Let's Dance" by David Bowie.

You close a strong set on this song an EVERYONE will be dancing. I've personally been on stage for this many times. It always works. Shoeless hippies in the woods, drunk mom's, stuffy office people, old rednecks. Everyone.
 
I tend to prefer playing what wildly impresses myself but is difficult to hear for others beyond the urge to 'move along' with the song instead of tearing it apart to pick at its unfamiliar pieces.

Not do-able by purely wrenching the complexity knob from light to heavy...it can sound active(where most drum work in the industry does not) while not blaring its activity to overwhelm the rest of the components of the song.

You know the drummers I'm talking about that do this well... ; )

If i concentrate on trying to 'impress' others, it becomes a thought trap that warps my expressed taste...something i found insidious, destructive and coming from a lack of confidence/self value.

A great song/song execution scales with the musical skill of the listener, imho....and being impressed by a song is the listeners reward for developing musical ability not my reward for making the song....my reward is in listening to myself as well, not in adulation generation.
 
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Doraemon said:
Come Together is a good example of an instantly recognizable part.


Messhuggah, Slipknot, Tool might be a bit outside of what average people would know or appreciate (unfortunately).
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Surely they can't fully appreciate what is being played but sometimes they are at least impressed by what just happens to be great musicianship.

I enjoy watching non-musicians' reaction videos to the likes of Meshuggah, and they always rave about the drumming.
 
Lots of cool suggestions so far!

Here's one I'll add. Always seemed to impress people as well as get them up and dancing. Bonus points if you can rock Don Brewer's fro while singing and playing. 😁

 
I'm probably the odd man out here. Prior to taking up drums, I was only mildly aware of them in recorded music or even live music. I only heard the bass guitar. Of course, I couldn't ignore the occasional drum solo like in Edgar Winter's Frankenstein (here, at 4:05), but that was about it. Now-a-days, I'm more impressed by "tasteful" or "appropriate for the song" drumming, than I am for blazing solos or mile long fills. Russ Kunkel always comes to mind - I'm more impressed by what he doesn't play.
 
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