mr dave

i dig on your philosophy but i don't really play drums (unless rockband counts haha)

as for my personal drummer philosophy the way i describe my friend jef's drumming is as the rhythmic melody to my melodic rhythms. it's a change in perspective much like choosing to see either the forest or the trees. he doesn't play a steady beat but he always plays on time. i'm far more concerned with how the music feels than how it adds up on paper.

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dhayespw

I have been playing since I was 12, so about 16 years now. I have played everything from snare in marching band to full trap kits live show style. My brother is a singer/songwriter and solid guitar player so as for my "style" right now I play surf acoustic style.

My set is a bit different from what I have used in the past. I still use a premier set (been using it since '99) but right now only the bass, a pacific piccalo, 12 inch tom, A-custom 21" ride and 18"crash, and 18" djembe. It works well and I have been playing some of our songs with just my hands, no sticks.

Drummers Unite!!

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Freebase Dali

Exactly.
There's a certain zone you get in when playing music with other people and you begin feeling what the other people are feeling, by virtue of their playing and how their emotions show through what they're doing and how they're doing it.
That feeling is fuel that I feed off of when I'm playing music with others, and as a result, they feed off the emotion I create.

That's a dynamic that can be extremely hard to obtain in a band if all of its members aren't in tune to it.

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mr dave

ABSOLUTELY hehe i used to describe it as my conscious brain shutting off.

it's also been one of the biggest challenges i've faced over the last decade since most people only seem to know how to play their instrument within the confines of the styles they listen to. it almost becomes more of a meditative exercise than a musical one for me.

even those that 'get it' can be hard to get along with at times, i'll freely admit to being hard headed at times. difference being i'll be upfront about my views on playing music while most others will pussyfoot around the issue to avoid bruising egos. it's like if you're only 80% behind my view don't tell me you're 100% because it's what you think i want to hear hehe

i may not be a drummer but i'm ALWAYS up for a good discussion on the philosophy of playing music and expressing oneself through sound.

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lucifer_sam

i swear to god if more musicians were as level-headed as you the world would spin so much more smoothly.

what i dig is someone that can drive a good beat without taking away from the music to push it somewhere else. percussion is one of the hardest elements of music to harness effectively, but when yer with a great drummer it brings that much more energy to the table. i love playing with people that play with distinction and direction, but know that sometimes the snare that isn't hit is the one that resounds the loudest.

what i don't dig is people that use their instrument like a tool that's only purpose is to be polished over and over until it becomes virtually impossible to play with them because of all the little things they've picked up over time. this is true for drummers as well, it is insanely frustrating to play with someone that thinks that animal ferocity is applicable to all situations. if you're going to be a good drummer you have to learn to feed off the energy in the room instead of trying to create a vibe that clashes with everything else that's going on.

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Kamikazi Kat

Why can't musicians that I know and actually live somewhat close to me be like this? One of the most important aspects of playing with other musicians is communication with each other. So many people at my highschool lack that (I can be like that as well), which makes it really difficult to get a band together. Not to mention that most of them have very limited taste in music and only seem to know/want to play that kind of music.

Freebase Dali

That's the problem with a majority of highschoolers. No offense to any highschoolers here, but that's a typical age where people tend to restrict themselves to certain genres because of the pressure that cliques often apply. The result is that it can be hard to find a diverse musician at that age who cares about other people's tastes enough to be a productive member of a band.

Apart from communication, I believe that another very important aspect of musicianship in bands is allowing for members to be musically different enough from eachother that the sum of all parts creates a unique blend of different perspectives and emotions. When it's done right, it all clicks together and the result is usually a band that can offer something more than the same carbon copies most bands become. But in order for that to even happen, there definitely has to be a lot of communication and an ability to make compromises for the greater good of the band.

That's a hard thing to find in any setting, much less in a highschooler demographic.

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Kamikazi Kat

Plus it doesn't help that almost every guitarist in my school smokes week or does some sort of drug. I mean, I honestly don't have a problem with it. I'm definately not into drugs, but if somebody doesn't put the drugs before the band and can still play well, then I'm fine with it, although I prefer they not if they are serious about being a great band. The problem is that they do just the opposite. They would rather sit around, play covers of their favorite metal bands, smoke weed and tell people that they are in a band "with this totally awesome drummer" instead of playing music. It really sucks because the ones that do the drugs tend to be the most creative, not because of the drugs, but because they have creative thoughts and think that taking drugs will turn them into better musicians.

I believe that I am a skilled drummer and I try to play with good taste, but people often get confused when they hear me listen to and play with a noisy style such as Lightnin Bolt or The Locust and assume that I'm just some hyper ADD kid that can't play a steady beat. I listen to a very large variety of music, everything from the more experimental stuff such as John Zorn, Secret chiefs 3, Mr. Bungle, Sleepytime Gorilla Musuem. I listen to hip-hop such as Flying Lotus, Aesop Rock, and even more mainstream stuff such as Modest Mouse and The Shins. But when I'm listening to music, which bands are they going to stick in their head more? The noisy, dissont metal, or the more 'acceptable' stuff.

mr dave

thanks hehe

first things first - high school has always, and will always, suck. there's no way around that. puberty usually doesn't help either. heheheh

real communication can be tough, especially when it's in regards to an abstract concept like music. it actually took me about 5 years before i broke through that wall you describe. it's not that i didn't want to, more that i didn't even recognize that it was there to be taken down. then again i didn't get to play with many other people before i went to college... but within that first month i met this one hooligan bass player who came down to my room one friday night during a dorm party and we jammed on 'the mountain song' by jane's addiction. one of the chicks hanging out in the room called it a musical orgasm and that was that hahaha.

i'm a lightning bolt moment kind of guy hehe

then again my music is mine but i had to find a way to perceive all the music out there in one cohesive element first, all of it, even celine dion and nickelback in order to explain where i'm coming from accurately to my friends. this step took a while haha

thanks as well hehe

restraint is definitely something that applies to ALL musicians not just drummers. music only lives as the sum of its parts, chemistry between the musicians is key.

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