I'm a human drum machine

Bo Eder

Platinum Member
With all due respect to some of our more intrepid drum students here, I had a gig this weekend and discovered that on this particular gig, I'm basically the first 5 patterns of a pre-programmed drum machine. Literally, I spent one whole set just playing what I wrote out below, and funny thing is that it worked. In fact, the patrons wouldn't stop dancing. The band on top of me is doing enough with their notes that when I add more me, it just detracts the groove.

I know, this band could've just used a drum machine, but really, how exciting is that? The human touch is important, and I think there were enough tears in the tempos that it seemed very human.

It also helps if you have a bass drum that can actually occupy the space of a whole note too ;)

So my lesson for the day: master these grooves below at all tempos and with too much feeling! Then you can go practice the Black Page.

Just a note from the trenches ;)
 

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I felt this yesterday night. My band played about 40 songs and Id say roughly 30 of them they could have easily used a drum machine, but as you stated it lacks human feel (First and foremost), ability to adapt to when we mess up which happens for us at least, and I guess this counts as feel but good dynamics etc.. Something else I feel is a big thing is the ability to improv and fluctuate tempo on the fly. Once you program the machine you have to play to it, it can not play to you. Plus those other 10 or so songs what would they do then lol.
 
Good call - this would cover most of the tunes I do. Trouble is, the singers like to slow the tempo at various places. A drum machine would be impossible for them.

Davo
 
It's funny...people want to play double kick at 240...trying to get to 280....but really, THIS is what works best for people who want to dance. By far. It's a SURE THING. It's what, the very first beat most people learn? I would go as far as to say that this is the most ultimate-est dance beat ever invented. Nothing can top the money beat and it's variations in their ability to make females get up on the floor and shake what they got. And Bo you're right. A drum machine playing that beat vs a human playing that beat... give me the human every day of the week. Machine perfection sucks. Human perfection rocks though.
 
And just think of how many famous drummers and bands have toured the world and made millions of dollars doing just what Bo did this weekend. Kenny Aronoff, Charlie Watts, Ringo Starr, the list goes on and on.
 
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About 90% of what I'm playing for the show is a variation on those beats. They're timeless and accessible to all. They make people dance.

I love very technical stuff, but the truth is that for most bar gigs, this is what gets people fired up. And sticking to this will really build a following for any cover band.
 
Well you just made my day :) I just had a 4 hour rehearsal with the new band yesterday and I often feel bad becuase this is 90% of what I play (with a little fill thrown in here or there when I'm really feeling froggy). I feel like I'm often not doing enough...nice to hear that the more accomplished players are doing the same things.

As for being a human drum machine...I got the comment (compliment?) yesterday after a song: "Wow, there's just no rushing you through a song is there?" Once again basically pointing out what a steady beat I keep...almost to a fault...lol. Who needs a stinkin' drum machine?? Hopefully I'm at least throwing in a little accent or two so I'm not completely machine - like!

But I figure of all compliments to get...it's one of the best. I'd rather play steady and simple than complex and be all over the place.
 
The band on top of me is doing enough with their notes that when I add more me, it just detracts the groove.

Everyone should learn this ^

Songs need X number of notes. Sometimes a lot of those notes are from the drums but generally, not so much.
 
If anybody's seen JR Robinson's DVD "The Time Machine" he does a demonstration of doing a precise right-on-the-beat groove, then switches to "JR" mode and makes it feel good. No click. Just the best groove player out there switching and proving that a human feel is superior. Basically moving the backbeat slightly behind the beat, keeping the 1 and 3 right on top of the beat and tying it together with the hi-hat, does it.
 
As for being a human drum machine...I got the comment (compliment?) yesterday after a song: "Wow, there's just no rushing you through a song is there?" Once again basically pointing out what a steady beat I keep...almost to a fault...lol. Who needs a stinkin' drum machine?? Hopefully I'm at least throwing in a little accent or two so I'm not completely machine - like!

Yea Mar you do have great meter. That's the one thing that really jumps out when I hear you play. I guess you're a natural. I wasn't. I had to learn meter. When a song requires a steady unchanging beat, the #1 mistake most drummers make, myself included, is they think that it's too "boring" or that they are "not doing enough". Which couldn't be further from the truth. In fact it's completely opposite. The audience, and the musicians, love a drummer who can play a steady unchanging feel good beat for a long time. Why? Because every other drummer thinks it's boring to do that and then they feel they must get all "creative" and stuff and basically it just serves to ruin the feel. So if you can maintain the feel for a length of time, people can relax because they know what's coming. It's my contention that most people crave predictable from the drums first. You have to give them that for a while. Then, when you do need to play something, how do I say, that is a little more involved, it really makes a statement. Not that playing a steady beat is not involved, it is.

I love groove. It's like novocaine. You just keep hitting the same spot in the same way, with the same intensity, and after a while, it does something. It makes you feel loose and relaxed. You feel good. The key is "after a while". Of course groove is music dependent, and doesn't fit everywhere. I'm talking music that requires a groove. If you hear a band do MJ's "Billie Jean"...I think the great majority of people, musicians and non alike, want to hear relentless beat and not much else from the drums. You have to be able to give it to them. It's easy. It's the unnecessary mental hurdle WE impose on ourselves of "needing to do more" that we have to take off the course. Make it feel good. Hold it there until the very last second. That's the formula. It's all mental. Bo knows.
 
Blasphemous. That is all.

Having said that, I wish more of us would come to understand that not every 16th or 32nd had to require hitting something. Letting it breathe is a good thing that in my old age I've come to appreciate.
 
Glad you all liked that. I didn't want to make it sound like I had just discovered this for myself - I've been doing this for a while now and it's pretty much a part of my physical being ;) What surprised me (maybe not so much) is how many songs this fits in to. We did one shuffle (Stevie Wonder's Higher Ground), and a couple of songs like Honky Tonk Woman where the beat is just as recognizable as the song is, but other than that, if I just sat on bass drum on 1 & 3 and snare drum on 2 & 4, that was it. I could've done it to Higher Ground with quarter notes on the hi-hat too - so if anyone is having a hard time with shuffles, do that.

Of course, if this were something other than a rock band doing covers, I'd have to be prepared to do some latin things, jazz things, waltzes, country two-steps, and maybe sight-read a few things, or just have my ears open wide enough so I can hear what's going on. So I don't mean to negate that there aren't more things to learn, but I thought I'd give everybody a heads up ;)

In fact, years ago, I saw this with a band up in San Francisco - I met their drummer (nice guys, all of them) and he told me he didn't play very well - meaning he didn't have Weckl chops and refused to own a kit as big as Portnoy's, but he played the $%it out of that simple groove for all the songs and nobody wanted them to stop. You know how sometimes you go see a band play and you just can't wait for them to stop so you can have a regular conversation? Well, the band I was playing with was louder than usual because of how crowded the place was, and they even have to stop early because of city ordinances for noise - but nobody left, nobody wanted us to turn down, and some of my family who came were sitting right in front of us, and they all loved it.

You do need chops, but I think it's more important that you become a musician listening to the whole picture and realizing what the end result needs to be.
 
eek!

Sounds like the musical equivelant of a food service job.

I'm sorry!
 
Bo sounds like he was serving up a nice warm groove.
 
Had to laugh....those are the EXACT beats I have spent the last three days trying to master. The book even said ...oh, let me go get it so I can quote it....(pause)

"The next four beat patterns are simple but effective. They've been used on a lot of records by some of the best drummers (so please practice with the utmost respect)..."

I haven't ever heard you play, but I can only assume you are "one of the best"! ;)
 
You'd be surprised (or maybe not) at how many compliments I get when I play "Satisfaction" by The Rolling Stones. It's probably the simplest drum beat in history. One time I filled in for a band and the members were surprised that I played it straight all the way through. The only thing I added was the three and four on the snare at the appropriate times. They all said that their regular drummer would add fills and crashes and it never sounded right. They got a great response from the crowd when I play it with them.
 
You do need chops, but I think it's more important that you become a musician listening to the whole picture and realizing what the end result needs to be.

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Sounds like the musical equivelant of a food service job.

Except we get paid less than minimum wage and no one crowds in to see us every day.
 
Sounds like the musical equivelant of a food service job.

This then begs the question: are you playing for the music, or are you playing for you? No disrespect intended, but it's a nontrivial difference, and IMHO it deserves some real contemplation. I'm as much of an egotist as anyone, and even now I love to get out there and show 'em what I've got. And there are times when that is appropriate, to be sure. Those can be fun. But the thing is, those aren't every show, every session, or every time I sit behind the kit.

Earlier in my career, I got to do a lot of original/improvisational music, and create the parts as I went along. Tons of fun, and a very creative time it was... But as Bill Bruford said in his autobiography, with success comes repetition: and soon enough, we found ourselves having reproduce our own stuff in order to get it over to the audiences. Over and OVER, ad infinitum. Our original rock became cover music- but we were just covering _ourselves_. That's when I learned about playing for the music, instead of just for myself.

Simple and immovably solid: get in the pocket with the bassist and make people move and smile. That's what floats my boat these days, mostly. I have a gig coming up in September, premiering a bunch of original compositions by some guys who are flying into town from across the country just for that deal, and I'll get to rehearse with those guys exactly once- the night before we hit the stage. And I'm already working on how much I can leave *out*, as I'm working on the scratch tapes of the tunes they've sent. This one ain't about me: it is about conveying their tunes to an audience that has never heard them.

Make sense? Your mileage may vary...
 
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