"You're a drummer? Oh can you play..."

rogue_drummer

Gold Member
...(insert song title here).

Just something funny on a Sunday evening.

When random people find out you play drums, do they ever ask if you can play a certain song, or fill from a song?

Right around when "Wipeout" came out, I was a beginner drummer, 11ish. Whenever someone found out I played drums, I always got asked the question if I can play Wipeout. Drove me nuts. Lol
 
Dude, people still get asked about Wipeout.

In 7th grade (2000) I had been drumming less than a year and my peers would ask me if I can play wipeout.

Which is funny, I wasn't good at it for years, not because of lack of chops, but more of a fatigue/speed issue then anything. Freaking single strokes at high speed on a floor tom.....
 
Yeah, it was always Wipeout for me too.

Funny thing, a few weeks ago there was a guy about 25 years old playing drums at the jam and he had no idea what Wipeout was.
At first it drove me crazy, but then later on I realized, of course at his age he would not know what that song was.

Now people usually ask me if I can play any Led Zeppelin songs.
How do you sit down by yourself on the drums and play a Led Zeppelin song?
Usually all I do is play the levee groove.


.
 
Definitely been there.. In several instances the person asking has no concept of how music works let alone drums. They don't understand for the most part popular music is in 4/4 so essentially if you can play a 4/4 beat you can play anything. How you play it, the fills, the groove, the embellishments that makes the difference between a drummer and a great drummer and creates the sound of certain songs.

As far a 'Whipeout' goes I haven't been asked to play that or if I can in about 15 years.

Kevin
 
Not too long ago, someone asked me if I could play "Bleed" by Meshuggah.

I told them not without 6 months of working up the double bass hairta.
 
"Immigrant Song" is a good one to play if people ask If I can play a Zep song. Like "Levee" it a signature rhythm. LOL.
 
No. Everybody knows I don't actually know any songs!
 
In a Gadda Davida for me along with wipeout.
 
Somewhere else.

People ask me if I can play somewhere else.

Dedicated to all the bands I got fired from.
 
I haven't been asked to play 'Wipeout' since I was about 17. I'm 26 now and miss the request because it always gave me a chance to laugh at people...

Why would you laugh at people? "Wipeout" is a signature drum lick that, regardless of what drummers might think about it, is cemented into the public's mind as a "cool" piece of drum work. When anybody asks me to play "wipeout," I simply play it. I can't count the number of smiles that I've seen once that familiar pattern breaks out.

When we're asked to play something, we should play it - if we're able. It's a great way to break the ice and to introduce other potential players to the world of drumming.

Besides, how often does the drummer get asked to play something? Most of the time we're asked to stay quiet!

GeeDeeEmm
 
Just played it Saturday night. Wipeout gets requested all the time in my band, of course we are and oldies act so that is one reason.

It's a workout at my age :) I like to mix it it up and keep it interesting.
 
from Wiki:

Ron Wilson's drum riff on "Wipe Out" was so striking that "the yardstick for every aspiring young drummer in the early 60s was to be able to play a drum solo called 'Wipe Out'.The members were inspired by the guitarist Dick Dale[3] but it was the drummer who inspired their biggest hit.

YAY DRUMMERS!!
 
From people that listen to music.....friggin' Wipeout as well.....

From people that listen to musicians.......Fool in the Rain....or Good Times Bad Times......or the fills from Dy'er Maker
 
Got asked to play Ringo's drum solo from Abbey Road once, it wasn't so much an issue on my four pc. kit. Then came the request for "In the air tonight" big fill. Wasn't pretty..
 
A few years ago when a co-worker found out I play drums, particularly in a jazz context, he asked if I played "Girl From Ipanema".

I thought that was so random. Then again, it's probably 1 of maybe 3 jazz tunes the average person knows...
 
When I was in junior high school (circa 1986) the tune that I got asked about many times was Tone Loc's "Wild Thing" (which was a big hit at the time). Apparently for a brief period, the beat from that song was the yardstick by which drummers were measured (at least by junior high school age kids, that is).
 
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