Thanks for answering. How does a drummer pick out the drum and cymbal sounds he likes? How does he know they will fit with a given band. For instance I like the sound of deep non-bright snares. Can any snare be made to sound that way or do you have to shop endlessly? Drums can be tuned to the song but how do you get the right cymbals (which can really add a lot if they fit in)? Also how do you tune drums? Is there an electronic drum tuner?
Do you have any children?
I ask because my better half is a drummer, too. We recently had a daughter and we are hopeful that she will follow in his footsteps. We plan on encouraging her (regardless of what she likes) and getting her a small Kit (dw can make it!) when she is 4ish.
If you have (or want) children, how will you raise them, being a musician?
Do you plan on getting them a set and teaching them or do you plan on waiting until they get older…?
Are all drummers CRAZY??
I goofed around with a bunch of bands for a LONG time and I don’t think I ever met a drummer that was sane! Is it all the hard work it takes to learn to play the instruments properly or what??
Seriously all the bands I have ever been associated with, the drummer was ALWAYS the goofy one of the bunch!
Not saying that is a bad thing by the way!!
Btw I did vocals and rhythm guitar and loved every minute of it!
Every drummer I’ve ever worked with has been pretty out there, but so have most of the bassists, pianists and singers
It’s us guitarists that are normal.
Example? You want an example that drummers are crazy?? OK I’ll give ya one.
We were playing a small club. It was kinda a private party gone pulic. We get to a guitar solo and the guy is wailing pretty strong on the solo. Drummer puts down his sticks, steps around his drums to a microphone and starts belting out “Rocky Raccoon”. We never saw him and caught everyone by surprise. Brought down the house!
Of course then we had improv. the song because the audience wanted it then and it wasn’t in the play list.
Goofy I tell ya… Them drummers is GOOFY!
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Why the hell can you guys not be quiet between songs at practice. I get really tired of screaming over the drummer trying to perfect his latest drop or spill while we’re deciding something about a song. This is ALL DRUMMERS I HAVE EVER PLAYED WITH! 
Q: What do you call a guy that hangs out with musicians?
A: A drummer.
Heads you kind of experiment with, cymbals. well you basically have to try every stinkin one in the store because all cymbals (even of the same size/brand/type) sound different.
I tune my trums by ear and make sure that the head sounds the same at every lug. There are tuners luke the Tama drumwatch that actually measure tension on the head very accurately, but they don’t account for taste. No electronic drum tuners that I’m aware of.
I have no kids, but if I did, I’d start them off on piano and then drums if they liked 'em. What kid doesn’t like to bang on things though?
As for the DW kid’s kit, unless you have money to burn, I’d just get the kid an electronic drum pad to start out with. They won’t outgrow it, and there’s much more instant gratification, plus they’ll be able to do a single stroke roll better than anyone by the time they’re 10. There are a few companies that make semi-decent kid’s kits which would be more easily parted with should the child not like it. I’ll expose my kids to music from the womb on, but I’ll gauge their interest carefully. My Mom pushed me into piano and I hated it, she said I’d thank her one day and I do, I just wish she’d done it a bit differently.
Yes. Yes they are. At least a major number of us are. It seems to manifest itself as a sort of lovable craziness though. I think it has to do with the primal nature of drumming. Maybe things would be different if the saxophone were built first. 
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We have no volume knobs.
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Listening to you guys tune and argue over theory ain’t exactly fascinating.
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We have to keep our energy level up. My buudy in my metal band griped at me one day and I said “Have you noticed how freakin fast I’m playing? You think I might need to keep limber during your 15 minute discussion with the bassist?”
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We’re bored, and want to play. I’m sure that none of the guitarist you’ve played with ever just noodled around with their volume down have they?
When our drummer starts playing loudly between songs I just beat on my bass strings as hard as I can, makes a god awful racket.
My posts reads snarkier than I intended, sorry about that.
Not at all.
Just some playfull joking between musicians. My bass played loved slapping and plucking, one time I told him that his racket sounded like a rubber band factory exploding, he curbed it after laughing for a few.
BTW, it is not possible to offend me, so don’t sweat it.
Ooh! can I tell my drummer story?
I was playing onstage one night with a band, and our drummer was using the house kit. Now the house kit wasn’t great, but it was a great kit at one stage but it really had seen better days.
Anyway, towards the end of the set I notice the drummer really trying hard to keep it together in the middle of the song. Luckily enough it was a fairly slow song so I asked him what was going wrong. He said the Kit was starting to come apart, and that it was moving forward (the carpet wasn’t taped down strong enough).
Knowing the set was going to get really fast for the finale, I decided to laugh it off and tell the singer to start right into the final two songs with no real break to allow our drummer to fix it
Anyway, the song starts off, and the drummer is really walloping the skins (as was necessary for the song, it was really heavy) with the kit shaking every possible way y7ou could imagine. The T-bar holding the hi and lo toms is bouncing up and down, the crash and ride shaking because the mat was moving, and the drummer is starting to panic in case the whole kit goes flying forward.
Now, the singer didn;t notice anything, because his back was to the drummer, and the guitarist is blind. So, Seeing what was going to happen, I put my foot against the bass drum to stop it sliding forward, and to dampen the vibrations so that the toms wouldn’t be popping up and down so much.
As the song came to it’s loud, noisy and fast conclusion, and the drummer going for a huge crash to finish off (thinking the drumkit was secure with me holding it) I took my foot off the bass drum, and with his last hurrah, the “legs” at one side of the kit gave way, causing the bass drum to jump forward and roll sidewards, taking the toms with it and one of the cymbals and away form the kick pedal.
It looked like we had done it on purpose, but it was an honest accident.
I’ll never forget the look on the drummers face as sat there, sticks in hand, with half a drumkit in front of him and a kick pedal hitting thin air.
Do drummers ever lose their stamina or their edge as they get older? I know it takes a lot of agility to play some of the faster pieces and I would imagine that age would eventually slow down even a good drummer. What’s it like to no longer be able to play something that you (hypothetical “you”) could play ten or twenty years ago? Do these drummers alter their parts to suit their diminished playing abilities as they get older? I don’t know of any really old drummers out there, but then, we haven’t had the types of music that call for really fast drumming long enough for such players to have aged beyond, say, their fifties.
What is this “backbeat” that the kids sing of?
The ‘backbeat’ is what puts the shimmy in your step, the groove in your shoes and the hustle in your muscles…
Actually, it’s the 2 & the 4 of a 4/4 bar of music. Traditional western classical and folk music has a pulse on the 1 and the 3, like so:
1 2 3 4 | 1 2 3 4 | 1 2 3 4 | 1 2 3 4
It’s a subtle accent on those beats, and provides a sense of propulsion and motion to the music.
As western popular music began to develop, IIRC, some musicians in ‘black’ genres of music, like early jazz, blues and proto-R&B started to accent the 2 & the 4, creating a much more ‘hip’ feel. It may be notated as such:
1 2 3 4 | 1 2 3 4 | 1 2 3 4 | 1 2 3 4 |
In a simple rock drum pattern, it would be played on the snare. The kick would play on the 1 & 3, as so: K S K S. The sharper, more cutting tone of the snare serves to accentuate the backbeat.
In a non-drum heavy music, such as bluegrass, the bass pulses on the 1 & 3, while the mandolin ‘chicks’ on the 2 & 4, creating a similar pattern.
For more info, see this relatively currrent thread: link and this definition
Louie Bellson is in his seventies I think, and when I saw him on Conan O’Brien a few years ago he was absolutely wailing on the double bass. If you keep well practiced you can keep your chops well into old age. Although you don’t tend to see many fogeys playing black-metal though.
There are some parts I played in high school that I struggle with now, but that’s only because I’m not as fit now as I was then. :rolleyes:
As a kid, I fell in love with marching band music. I still remember the summer day, standing in front of my block, becoming instantly and totally thrilled out of my mind at the marching band’s music coming from Emily Bill playground, one street away.
Instantly, I became crazy nuts for the snare drum, and with my drumsticks (and since this was during the depression, almost never with a drum of my own) I’d rap away at whatever was available.
But I learned incorrectly - holding the right hand stick palm up and the left, palm down. I cannot imagine how a right hander could hold the sticks otherwise and still play. But, of course, they do.
If I had pursued a career as a drummer - say in a marching band - would I have had to learn to hold the sticks “correctly”?
Have you ever seen a drummer who holds the sticks wrong and still plays from sheet music?
When a rock star hits the big time, he does two things right off the bat: Hooks up with a supermodel and fires his drummer.
Are drummers not actual members of the band? Are they just hired guns perceived as basically interchangeable? I remember Rolling Stone’s first big article about Pearl Jam, all of them were acting like they’re above worldly Rock Star concerns except for Dave Abbruzzese, the drummer. When he asked a legitimate question–like, “What song are we looking at as a possible single?”–he was hooted down by the others, who just wanted to drink Budweiser and play hoops. A few months later, he was unemployed.
What’s the deal with the essential disposability of drummers?
“Traditional” grip is the right hand grabbing the stick like you’re picking up a peice of wood, and the left is palm up, with the stick going between the thumb and middle finger. This came from civil-war era (I think) drums that hung to the side. A decent amount of college marching bands employ (and require) this style of playing.
I hate it. It’s antiquated. But, surprisingly, if you see a drummer hold his sticks traditionally, be prepared to be shocked. Some of the best drummers still play that way. AFAIK there’s absolutely no modern advantage to that style though.
The other, more common grip is “matched grip”. Simply put, if there were two stick on a table and you went to pick up both of them with separate hands, you’d be using matched grip.
The main reason I didn’t try out for OSU marching band was their requirement of traditional grip.
BTW, when I was in high school I was the percussion section leader for our marching band. Sometimes other section leaders from other schools would ask me where my snare was. I’d say “I don’t play snare” and they’d look at me all confused. I played quads, four separately tuned drums. You needed to have the chops of a snare drummer, and the agility to cross-stick and reach for your drums. You also had to have a more musical sensibility since there were four “notes” that you played.