Scott K Fish
Silver Member
Need to be convinced Ringo was a good drummer? Try playing Beatles music.
By John Kelly Columnist August 31 at 8:23 PM
I’m here to tell you that playing music is harder than it looks. Even playing the drums.
This was driven home recently when I was asked to play drums at a private party for an evening of Beatles music.
But until I tried to play the songs properly, I never realized just how tough it is to duplicate — approximate, even — Ringo’s drumming.
Sure, you know the signature drum figure in “Come Together” — bum bum biddley bop, tapita tapita tapita tap — but do you know how many times it’s played before you go to that bit with the organ/guitar solo? Or how many times in “Birthday” you play quarter notes on the snare after each guitar lick?
Or listen to something that seems fairly simple: “In My Life.” The drumming is so spare that it seems as if Ringo’s hardly doing anything. But get it wrong and the whole thing falls apart.
I survived my Beatles gig, even the fiendishly tricky “Eight Days a Week.” That’s the good thing about music as opposed to, say, brain surgery: Nobody dies if you get it wrong.
Full Story
Scott K Fish: Life Beyond the Cymbals
By John Kelly Columnist August 31 at 8:23 PM
I’m here to tell you that playing music is harder than it looks. Even playing the drums.
This was driven home recently when I was asked to play drums at a private party for an evening of Beatles music.
But until I tried to play the songs properly, I never realized just how tough it is to duplicate — approximate, even — Ringo’s drumming.
Sure, you know the signature drum figure in “Come Together” — bum bum biddley bop, tapita tapita tapita tap — but do you know how many times it’s played before you go to that bit with the organ/guitar solo? Or how many times in “Birthday” you play quarter notes on the snare after each guitar lick?
Or listen to something that seems fairly simple: “In My Life.” The drumming is so spare that it seems as if Ringo’s hardly doing anything. But get it wrong and the whole thing falls apart.
I survived my Beatles gig, even the fiendishly tricky “Eight Days a Week.” That’s the good thing about music as opposed to, say, brain surgery: Nobody dies if you get it wrong.
Full Story
Scott K Fish: Life Beyond the Cymbals