Being dragged out of the 60's

Hollywood Jim

Platinum Member
An interesting thing happened this week. I have been asked to be the drummer in another band. This is my third band.

The first band that I am currently in has been playing 60’s and 70’s music. Piece of cake for me.
The second band I’m still playing with is a tribute band for the Blues Brothers. Again 60’s and 70’s type music. Right on, no problem.

This week I rehearsed three times with this new third band. They are playing more modern music. Here are a few songs from our list.

Shimmer --- By Fuel
My Own Worst Enemy --- By Lit
Anything --- By Dramarama
Hey Jealousy --- By Gin Blossoms
Gel --- By Collective Soul
Everybody Talks --- By Neon Trees
Smooth Criminal --- By Alien Ant Farm

Needless to say I’m being dragged into the modern age. I’m playing it very straight right now. Besides, most of this kind of music seems to require very straight drumming.
But I’m discovering it is a challenge to create fills and improve the groove for these songs. This music is strange to me.
It seems that there is less space for creative drum playing with this music. But it is great to learn a new style of playing. I'm enjoying it.

By the way I especially like “My own Worst Enemy”. It is a fun song for drums !


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Sounds exciting! However, I think you're right - if you just keep slammin' the 2 & 4, you could use that for pretty much all music and get along. I'll believe the term "Modern Drummer" when the job actually changes ;)
 
Shimmer --- By Fuel
My Own Worst Enemy --- By Lit
Anything --- By Dramarama
Hey Jealousy --- By Gin Blossoms
Gel --- By Collective Soul
Everybody Talks --- By Neon Trees
Smooth Criminal --- By Alien Ant Farm

...most of this kind of music seems to require very straight drumming.

Of the songs I know, yes, pretty straight ahead. But most pop drum parts are, and really always have been basic. Well, at least, when it comes to making money with the music.

That's why the "time beat" became the "money beat".

But I’m discovering it is a challenge to create fills and improve the groove for these songs. This music is strange to me. It seems that there is less space for creative drum playing with this music.

Not everything needs creativity or "improvement" per se. is there a benefit from trying to force new, supposedly imaginative, modern parts, whatever that entails? Face it, most newer, popular music has the same drum parts that were implemented 20, 30, 40, and 50 years ago. Of course way back then, there actually were new drumming styles that were evolving.

Today, most of the new music is creative in terms of production value and sounds, not parts, and especially not drum parts. Little is really evolving in terms of popular music (and by 'popular', I mean the songs bands play in order to get paid.)

BTW, Gel and Hey Jealousy and Anything Anything are no less fun just because they're straight ahead drum-wise.

Most of what I play is very straight ahead, and I use maybe 20% of what I am capable of on the drums. But I love playing, I don't lament about the parts I don't get to play, and I've made a full-time career of it. Go figure.

Bermuda
 
BTW, Hey Jealousy is a lot of fun, nice kick/cymbal pushes and an energetic feel. No "time beat" there!

Plus they're the hometown band! I think they're playing at the Mason Jar Tuesday night! :)
 
it is a challenge to create fills and improve the groove for these songs.

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improve the groove?

I mean no disrespect ... but who do you think you are that you could "improve" the drumming for these very popular songs ?

in all honesty.... no one wants to hear your take on Shimmer or Hey Jealousy

my advice is do your job and play the tunes properly
 
My Own Worst Enemy, by Lit, can be a fun song to play. It came up in the set list in a cover band that I was playing with a few years ago. By the way, they're a local band in my neck of the woods. They own a joint called The Slidebar which is about 10 minutes from where I live. (a little useless information for ya)
 
Bo, Bermuda and Tony:

Thank you for your comments. You all bring up great points.

Yeah, it was a little pretentious of me to suggest that I might add some creative fills and improve on the groove. However, I think music is an interpretive and expressive form of art. If you want to hear a song played exactly the way it was recorded, then put on the CD. Don’t go see a live performance. Live music is the place where musicians interact with each other to create musical art.

I agree my number one job is to keep a solid beat. And I need to learn the song as it was written and recorded. But in a live performance part of my job it to entertain the audience and create musical art.

If you want to hear a song played on the drums exactly the way it was recorded, every time it is played, don’t call on me to be your drummer.
I play it a little different every time. (Yeah, maybe I should be a Jazz drummer.)

Here is my list:
#1 Keep a solid rhythm
#2 Help to make the band sound good
#3 Play the song as good as or better than the original
#4 Have fun doing 1-3


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However, I think music is an interpretive and expressive form of art.

Agreed, absolutely.

If you want to hear a song played exactly the way it was recorded, then put on the CD. Don’t go see a live performance.

Are you suggesting that musicians in a performance setting with an audience - even if they do play a song exactly like it was recorded - somehow compares with listening to a CD?? I've heard a few musicians come up with that rationalization for not playing/learning parts, and I don't get it.

Live music is the place where musicians interact with each other to create musical art.

Create, yes! But when you're in a cover band, you're no longer creating - you're recreating. There's a large difference, and the players' approach is adjusted accordingly.

If you want to hear a song played on the drums exactly the way it was recorded, every time it is played, don’t call on me to be your drummer.
I play it a little different every time. (Yeah, maybe I should be a Jazz drummer.)

There's room for both. If you decide you just can't bring yourself to play covers the way they were intended and get paid, then don't. There are a lot of guys who'll cheerfully do those gigs. I'm one of them, and nobody, and I mean NOBODY has ever questioned my playing the original parts, every time, no surprises, no trying to make it my own. Am I predictable? Yep. Am I consistent? You bet! That's why I get to do what I do.

Bermuda
 
improve the groove?

I mean no disrespect ... but who do you think you are that you could "improve" the drumming for these very popular songs ?

in all honesty.... no one wants to hear your take on Shimmer or Hey Jealousy

my advice is do your job and play the tunes properly

Really, only I can do that. Bands love it when I play a different song with different breaks while they play what they called. Lots of times playing in a different time signature just spices everything up. But my big trick is counting up to 27 before starting to play. Audiences really dig that ;)
 
If you decide you just can't bring yourself to play covers the way they were intended and get paid, then don't. There are a lot of guys who'll cheerfully do those gigs. I'm one of them, and nobody, and I mean NOBODY has ever questioned my playing the original parts, every time, no surprises, no trying to make it my own. Am I predictable? Yep. Am I consistent? You bet! That's why I get to do what I do.
Bermuda

I get it. I really do. I have never been paid to play an exact drum part.
And I could learn it and play it exact every time especially if I got paid to do it. (But it sounds like work.)

So far I have had the freedom to play as I like (with very little pay of course).
I play well enough that no one has ever complained. But I get what you are saying!

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And I'm not saying don't be creative and expressive. But do so in the right context, like an original project, or playing genres that demand it, such as jazz or fusion or Latin.

A cover band is a cover band, not much we can do about it but play the parts and take the money.

To be fair, as someone who grew up with and loved the music that I play in various bands, it's a treat for me to 'be' those drummers and play their parts. Many of those songs are so embedded in my heart and soul, I can't help but play the original parts, it's not hard work at all.

Coming up with "better" parts would be an insurmountable task for me, although I have no problem correcting parts that were simply played badly back in the day, and there were a few. In those rare instances, I suppose I do sound better.

Bermuda
 
It's hard sometimes to learn music that isn't what you would normally listen to. I know what you mean Jim. I had to learn some newer songs that don't exactly appeal to me, but at the same time, are good songs. It's just a different generations music. It's good to stay somewhat current. It's really the natural progression of the working musician. The longer you do it, the more far away the newer music is to your comfort zone. Sometimes it's necessary to pry open your brain to cop something you normally wouldn't gravitate towards. But being open minded and open to suggestions is the very thing that keeps you young. So it's all worth it bigtime. You have a great attitude, you're so positive. I would love to hear some of your playing Jim.

I change parts to suit my playing style. Songs morph naturally over time into things that are....more interesting. Music....cover songs, originals or remakes....when playing live...they're all all just a vehicle for musical expression. Trying to feel the song fresh every time is what I shoot for. Like it's the first time you ever played it. Not a formula that you try to re create the same every time. Being a slave to a certain part has it's place for sure. But trying to breathe some fresh air into something....as long as it's done tastefully...is refreshing too. I try to seamlessly move between the conservative part and the refreshing part and back... based on of course what the rest of the band is doing. It's good to accept the new music, at least the stuff that doesn't make you gag.
 
Those songs are old, dude! lol

Seriously though, certain songs have signature things that people expect you to play. Learn those for sure. But as for learning a song note-for-note like on the record, I never had the patience for that. Get the feel right and if your bass drum groove isn't exactly the same in bar 46, who cares? It's the overall feel that counts for me, not the minutiae. If you need to work to make the song feel right then absolutely put in the time it takes to get it right.

Not disagreeing with Bermuda's approach. I just never found it necessary to go deep into the minutiae to make an audience happy.
 
My experience in a cover band for the last 4 years has been that I try to learn the song as faithfully to the original recording as my skill set will allow.
I noticed that after the song is in our regular set list for a while, I seem to develop my own way of playing the songs. I stick to the original arrangement and nail any signature fills that the crowd might expect to hear, but I might change a fill going into a chorus or solo to something that is a more natural feel to me. Once that happens, I play the same parts and fills all the time.

it seems to happen gradually. Maybe as we learn new songs my memory of the "exact" parts fades a bit. It never gets to the point of not respecting the feel of the song and I always try to put the same fill in the same place.
My bandmates have complimented me on my consistency and predictable feel.

We usually get 2-3 gigs a month and we get a fair amount of compliments from the crowd and the owners, so it all seems to work out.
 
It's hard sometimes to learn music that isn't what you would normally listen to. I know what you mean Jim. I had to learn some newer songs that don't exactly appeal to me, but at the same time, are good songs. It's just a different generations music.

And that's the difference between an older drummer that grew up with certain music while learning to play, and a younger drummer who, no matter how much he immerses himself in those older songs, can't play them in quite the same way. And, vice versa.

We all have aptitudes that are largely predicated on our background. I can easily play the 'oldies' I grew up with, with the correct approach. Even where it may not be the original part, I know what sensibilities of the era go into those songs, and what kind of parts work. A younger drummer that didn't live and breathe those songs, can't. Sure, he can learn the parts, but they don't come from the same place inside.

Same for me playing certain genres that I didn't listen to in my developmental years, such as hardcore punk. Are the parts hard? Are the songs too fast? Am I not able to slam? None of those are issues. It just comes down to, that music, that style, isn't in me. I can play the parts, but it's just not the same as someone who was doing it at that special time in their life.

So while I like a lot of modern pop & rock, I don't play it with quite the same accuracy, authenticity of feel, and fervor, as I do the material from the '50s thru '70s. But I do pretty good on the newer stuff, too! :)

Bermuda
 
The new pop music, from a drummers perspective....IMO most of it is fairly dumbed down as far as the drum part goes, but that's the secret to it's success. It just seems less human and more mechanical to me. But that's the new sound. Talking new top 40 only. It's just as challenging, but lacks inspiration IMO.
 
I noticed that after the song is in our regular set list for a while, I seem to develop my own way of playing the songs. I stick to the original arrangement and nail any signature fills that the crowd might expect to hear, but I might change a fill going into a chorus or solo to something that is a more natural feel to me.

Thank you. This is exactly what I was trying to get to.

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The new pop music, from a drummers perspective....IMO most of it is fairly dumbed down as far as the drum part goes, but that's the secret to it's success. It just seems less human and more mechanical to me. But that's the new sound. Talking new top 40 only. It's just as challenging, but lacks inspiration IMO.

reading this made me think of Joe Walsh

check out what he says here .... I think you will dig uncle L

"there's no mojo, there's nobody testifying .... "

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