How to you construct your parts?

drummingman

Gold Member
For quite a few years now I've written all of my drum parts out for every original song that I play. Every beat, every fill, everything written out down to the note. And although I do think this is a good way to do things as it forces me to come up with new ideas that I feel that I never would come up with off the top of my head, doing it this way is starting to feel a bit sterile to me. I almost feel like I'm overthinking things sometimes making the drumming more academic feeling than anything else (at least for me. I can't speak for the listener).

Even though I knew how to read and write music back in the day I hardly ever wrote out any of my drum parts. I mostly came up with things and then played by memory. At times I feel that certain aspects of my playing back in the day were overly simplistic because of this. But my playing did have a certain spontaneity and freedom to it back then as well that I sometimes feel is lacking today.

What I've been thinking of doing is combining both my current way and my old way of constructing drum parts. Writing out ideas while at the same time leaving certain things open for more spontaneity and creativity off the top of my head. I'm thinking that taking this approach may add a bit of spice into my creation of parts in the sense of everything not feeling so mapped out. This will still allow me to push and innovate in my drum part writing while at the same time allowing for the spontaneity that I have not been using in my playing for quite a while.

How do you construct your drum parts? Why do you construct your parts the way you do?
 
I just play until I discover something I like, I never write things down. We usually get together with the guitarist and start jamming to a new riff, we might play the same riff for twenty minutes and just see what feels good.
Sometimes he has an idea in mind for the drum part and I just build from there.

Sometimes the first thing I play is just right, sometimes it takes 6 months for the parts to develop to where I'm happy with them.

And the songs are never locked down, note to note. The feel of a given day determines very much what and how I play.
 
Depends on what I'm playing. Some things I create are going to be like lines on graph paper... or tiles on a sidewalk, other things will be like a flagstone floor with random pieces fit together and covering the desired area.

Sometimes it's a color match rather than shapes.

I'm weird.
 
For an original I go with my first instict, as I presume that is what the mood and feel of the song sugests. This may change a little as the new song develops and if something sounds wrong on a recording I change it, but instinct and feel are my guides, and I never write anything down. Listening to the lyrics and the feel of the music do it for me.
 
I certainly don't write anything down. Usually the guy who writes the riff has a feel for what he wants the drums to do and we feel it out while playing it a few times. As we arrange the song things will change and the parts get cemented. I don't really worry about perfecting anything until its time to record then I make sure everything is right.
 
As others have said, the feel of the song is a big thing for me and determines what my drum part will be. The first time we jam an idea I will often feel exactly what I want to play instantly. Every now and then there will be a little section that I will sit down and work out a nice little part that follows some guitar detail or that really adds to the song. Never write anything down, as I often remember what I come up with, and seeing as my band can progress through songs and riffs very quickly, writing anything down would just slow the creative process.

I think it is about what works best for the genre you are playing and the creative process of writing songs.
 
I base my part on what the others are playing always. Even if it's a cover song and if the other rhythm parts aren't exactly like the original, I make my part work with theirs.
 
I listen and come up with something basic and then fine tune it over time. I also record everything so that I can hear the parts out of the context of the practice space and work on them at home between practices so that I can use practice time to fine tune the fine tuning! I never write anything down, but have been considering starting to do that with one of my bands because a lot of the material is sparse and oddly timed and I find that sometimes I come up with a killer part but then don't play it exactly the same way the next time I sit down to play it, which is annoying.
 
I base my part on what the others are playing always. Even if it's a cover song and if the other rhythm parts aren't exactly like the original, I make my part work with theirs.

I was in a good originals band and I found that the feel and even structure of the song sometimes changed to suit what I was playing. Anyone else had that input into the music, when the song was originaly writen by another band member?

It was a real "Band" and all the members brought there own thing to the party. No one was ever told what to play so the songs developed from the basic outline almost organicaly.
 
I also record everything so that I can hear the parts out of the context of the practice space and work on them at home between practices so that I can use practice time to fine tune the fine tuning!


This!

Although I don't record everything, but when we are working on a new song I like to record a couple of takes and listen back the next day. It's funny, the things you hear listening at home compared to actually playing
 
Original songs— I listen to the whole song and figure out the groove that best fits to the parts. If the song has say, two distinct parts, I'll try to form one beat that can be changed minimally for each part. this way, the cohesive groove stays apparent.

Lead ins, or fills before changes are based on the feel of the upcoming change.

I try to think like a sculptor and not a painter. I want to subtract from the bass drum in verses, or contemplative parts and put the upbeat (or the "and" beat) back into the measure before the change and or if the change needs a driving feel.

That's mostly the method I go with.
Fills get longer towards the end of the song.

Generally, it's a simple concept that works most of the time.
 
There's no end to the methods employed by writers.

You might take one of your academic grooves and use it as a foundation, writing the rest of the song around it. You might be asked to compliment someone else's music and pull a sympathetic part from your imagination.

When I'm in a pinch to come up with a part, I use a trick from my guitar days. I reimagine the song as played by the Beatles/Zepplin/Rush/Pantera/Whalers and see if it inspires a part. It's great fun as well.
 
Part of it is listening to the other players and aiming the get the band sound good for the particular tune.

Another side of composing parts is listening extensively across a range of styles. When you hear, say, a bass line that reminds you of a song you know, it's natural to play something like the drummer on the track with the original bassline. Listen to enough music and you should be able to work out decent drum parts to go with most music that comes your way.
 
With basic rock stuff, I generally can feel what kind of groove would work best and try to add flourishes based on where the accents are in the other parts. Often I'll pick one little fill concept and improvise on that for most fills in the song. I find that with more basic stuff, the more important element is getting the right texture, which is usually just picking the right cymbal and cymbal pattern for a section.

I haven't done enough retrofitting drum parts to other people's complex music to really comment on that here. It would also take a long-ass time to stumble through an explanation of how I come up with drum parts for my own more complex music, but very broadly, it's all about the interaction between kick and snare as it relates to the riff. Also, I try to keep deviations outside of a groove thematically related, so I'll often take a melodic motive and translate it into a fill so it's theoretically a 'purer' song. But of course, I also sometimes just think something sounds good. Everything in moderation!
 
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