Drum. Equipment

Hi,

Welcome to the board.

I'm not a drummer, and not a "musician", though I am a writer, and have been for 50 years. My only comment about a "drummer" is when you turn on the radio, as an example, you will find the same beat ... even when the parts in the music changes. And to me, that's a drummer that has no idea what music is about ... he only knows the beat and making sure he/she keeps it up so folks don't feel disoriented. I've often wondered why not use a mechanical devise, or VST, since it would be better and the timing more accurate.

I tend to find, and listen to, the least known and creative drummers in their field, and for them, the sound and the music is the driving force, not (as a bad example) a drummer that forcefully hit his snare drum really hard each and every time the band was threatening to go improv and he would be left behind not knowing what to do! That's not a drummer, for me, at all ... just a sad example, how much "drummers" are learning these days, in "commercial" music.

Drumming, for me, like any instrument, is not about what is known, and studied. It's about what you can do to make the piece of music better, without showing that you can only do the basic thing. Guess what? Most drummers, regardless of how many pieces around them ... only do the basic thing, maybe with a different tom on this hit instead of the snare ... wow ... drum 201 I guess! I doubt many of these "graduate" ...

The best for me ... is a drummer, that knows what to do when the music quiets down, nearly silent ... and many of them are still doing the beat thing ... and that is a perfect example of how listening is not a priority.

But, I'm not sure that "listening" to each other, and adjusting to make them better, is something that everyone wants. I lived with a rock band for nearly 2 years, and the drummer had his hero (Carl Palmer) and a massive set with 9 toms (and he used them after I joked about them not being used, and that he should wear one on his head instead!) ... and he wasn't bad ... but he quit drumming when the equipment was stolen at a night club in Portland, who refused to back it up (so you know who did it!!!) ... and sang and wrote music from them on.

Favorite moments?

The last album by Kate Bush has at least one piece of music that had no rhyme, reason, or beat, and only lives by the words and its emotion ... and the drumming? Outstanding ... you won't find a beat on it, and it's all touches. It makes the music beautiful.

AD2 - The Marylin Monroe Memorial Church ... the whole time, it works on NEVER taking on parts of a song, and each person seems to go on their own way, and never "work with each other" to the point, that it is hard to believe that we can think these don't fit together ... they do and then some, and the best part is not the drumming, it's the bass guitar, meandering everywhere, and creating more feel and moments that just make the whole thing better. It is listed as an "improvisation" and it sounds like it, however, I don't think that advanced music students can let go of their mechanics and concentrate on something else that the majority of musicians are afraid to tackle ... being different, out of time, and independent, and still ... be right there with everyone else. In theater/film terms, this is a perfect "improvisation". Sadly, no musicians have the courage to try some of theater/film's improvisational work ... they might learn something about themselves and eventually their music, instead of becoming RW saying that all the stuff they did, including tape loops from the loo are not music ... and was crap ... as a youngster, that is how you learn to use your tools ... by doing something else with it, instead of what you were told in school (so to speak) what to do with it!

CAN - In the album "Soon Over Babaluma" the transition between the two long cuts on side 2 of the LP is a lesson that no drummer has ever been taught ... Jaki had stopped drumming, and you can tell he was listening to the music ... his touches are incredible and timed so beautifully ... and this generated what I mean when I say what does the drummer do when it goes almost silent ... let's see how creative you can be kind of thing.

Hopefully, you do not feel threatened or abused by my comments, and the hope is, that the "mechanics" themselves are not exactly what all the music is about, although you and I can easily find examples of moments when something clever (and later mechanical) was featured, and the song became well known.

In general, for me, it's about the music ... I like to joke that if you want to learn about drumming, it doesn't matter your setup ... put on THE RITE OF SPRING and start drumming ... and by all means, if you don't have fun doing it, DON'T ... but a touch of a psychedelic might help you try to fit bits and pieces in ... and have a rave about it when it changes and you ... what? what do I do? ... that's when your heart and mind can come together ... stop thinking and just do it, right or wrong, the staying and listening will teach you a lot more than just any mechanics. Heck ... I want to see a drummer without a stupid snare drum ... let's see how that one does ... not very well I bet!

The best to you ... I did think that you were trying to find a moment that seems right, but it is only right when used at the right time and place and nowhere else.

I was thinking that I like to watch Christian Vander "conduct" his orchestra, and he does it with the hits on the snare drum .... to switch the beat to something else. When you get to see it all live, the band never misses a beat ... and they been at it some 50 plus years ... an incredible achievement.

Hi,

What doesn't make sense for me, is his selecting a very mechanical/mathematical drummer to join him on stage with 2 other drummers. My guess was that Mr. Fripp probably felt that too many moments in the music itself in 50 years were too loose, to be "right" and played properly, as if it were classical music. I'm OK with that kind of discipline, but there is one example that you gotta hear ... there is a piece by KC that Rachel Flowers also does, and in it, she makes sure that the little disguised and hidden details that Bill Bruford had, ARE HEARD, and to me, they made the music better, despite them even sounding, at times, slightly out of place ... and yet, just right in this moment. The albums and the KC redone stuff, continue hiding the small details that Bill Bruford had, which were a part of his independent and experimental personna ... which really helped KC develop at a time when they had gone stale.