When people ask you to 'play something', what do you play?

WaitForItDrummer

Senior Member
When people ask you to 'play something', what do you play?

Do you have a few signature grooves up your sleeve?
Do you just improvise something on the spot?
How does it depend in the context?
 
Its not like playing the guitar or the piano, all you can really do in a drumming situation is show off. I ask them to name a tune they would like me to play, it puts them on the spot as well as me.
 
When people ask "play something", I ask what music they like, look it up on deezer and play along with it, with variable degree of authenticity.
I think it's hard to play something with drums only, at best people will recognize songs with a signature beat (Walk this way, Rosanna..). Drum solos are not my kind of thing (neither active or passive - except for a few truly terrific drummers).
 
Backgammon.

"""."........................
 
I make up something and tell them that it comes from a song (Just a name that isn't actually a song) and then watch them frantically google it for the remainder of the evening...

Signature song, however, is 'Pinball Wizard ~ The Who'.
 
I've never had anybody ask me to play. I do wish they would, though.
 
I suck them into my world with rudiments on the snare then I blow their minds with rudiments around the kit. It never fails and I get to enjoy a great warm up.
 
I quote the opening of "Rock And Roll" and then tell them it's $5.99 for the next 5 minutes.
 
Usually some kind of funk beat. Think a funkified version of Walk this Way. And some linear fills with it. Twenty seconds is enough.
 
Usually it's my student or their parents asking me to play. I will start off with a funky beat that transitions into a drum solo on the set. Something loud and exhilierating that makes the point that drums are more than "Boom Snare Boom Snare".
 
I just lay down a groove. Nothing specific. Just whatever comes to mind at the time.
That's how I go about it, too. At my last band practice, I went outside to take an air break and goof around with some new metronome app I'd just downloaded. It was pretty cool - I picked an 8th note denominator and randomly picked 15 for the numerator and left the accent turned on for the 1.

My mind immediately broke it into an alternating 8 and 7 and sort of went to a straightish rock beat. Nothing fancy really. I brought this new beat idea and ran it by the other guys, who jumped right on it. Who knows if will germinate into a new song (though it might), but it was a lot of fun.
 
I'll play a money beat fot three measures and then to a simple single-stroke roll down the toms and then end with a crash.
 
Usually it's my student or their parents asking me to play. I will start off with a funky beat that transitions into a drum solo on the set. Something loud and exhilierating that makes the point that drums are more than "Boom Snare Boom Snare".

Ahh, that's because you're doing it wrong. It's Boom Snare, Boom BOOM Snare! :p
 
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