100BPM "solo issue"

kevlionel

Junior Member
hello drummerworld!

I have an issue with a song of my band.

It's a funky song, 100BPM. The main groove is like 16's on the hi-hat and backbeat on 2 and 4. I'm playing with headphones (click).

At the end of the song, our singer introduces the band members. Each musician has 8 bars (4/4) to "solo". My problem is the tempo (100BPM) to play the solo. In my opinion, it's too slow to play 16th or sextuplets but too fast to play 32's. I'm kinda desperate, everytime trying to come up with something I am happy with but it just doesnt work. I usually play it "safe" meaning that I play only few notes.. not faster than sextuplets... sometimes I even play the main beat with some slight extra notes. However, I really want to play something giving justice to the song. To be honest, the stuff I play sounds like s*it to me... these 8 bars are supposed to give me shine and the spotlight is on me. I just can't make it happen with a 100BPM click in my ears.

What would you do/play to "present" yourself at 100BPM? Any ideas, suggestions? youtube examples? Do you agree this is a difficult tempo to solo? or is it just me?

thanks for your input guys. appreciate it.
cheers
 
hello drummerworld!

I In my opinion, it's too slow to play 16th or sextuplets but too fast to play 32's.

I would have to disagree with this, I just tried some 100bpms and 6tuplets feel great! I think your biggest concern shouldnt be cramming in as many notes as you can, especially if you are playing to a click. A drum feature can be something cool like a funky groove or a jungle groove type thing. Start with your drum pad with a click on 100, and just play running 16th notes and had accents, find a motif that you like then apply on the drumset. Sometimes a little melodic development can be just as cool! Play it on the snare, then move the accents around the kit, and use that bass drum! Good luck dude!

-Mike
 
It will sound a lot faster to the audience than to the guy playing it :)

In 8 bars, I would come up with a rhythmic theme and improvise around that, blended with the main groove of the song, basically what drummerjunkie said. It helps if you keep a constant quarter or 8th note going on the kick/hi hat/tambourine/cowbell
 
i wouldn't sweat it so much. just be musical & funky as hell. one basic idea is to do a "groove solo" for 4 bars (same song groove but move around the kit, change the groove a bit & add accents) & then 4 bars of a traditional drum solo...crash on 1.

RE: "32nds" don't forget the "cobham rudiment" for this tempo (2) 32nds and (2) 16ths. RL-RL. essentially 16th notes grouped in 3s. makes for a nice solo hemiola, over-the-bar-feel.
 
You could mentally switch over to 200bpm and play something at _that_ tempo. I find that it's easier for me to play 8ths at 200 rather than 16ths at 100.
 
A 'funk break' a la funky drummer or Amen break?

I vote for this. Right now I have a click playing through my speakers at 100bpm, and the funky drummer break is sounding pretty good in my ears over it.. It also happens to be exactly 8 bars long on the recording!
 
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