For as long as I can remember, I’ve been a showoff. It’s actually one of the main reasons, as a child, I became a drummer. I remember watching Buddy Rich on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and was hooked. The drums seemed an instrument that couldn’t be denied. Of course, as I grew older and a little wiser, I came to find that this was both good and bad.
Unfortunately, the very thing that attracted me to the drums in the first place caused me to struggle when playing with other musicians. What I know now but didn’t know then was that those incredible, chop-laden solos I watched Buddy play sounded right because the rest of the band was supposed to let Buddy take center stage. People went to see The Buddy Rich Big Band because they wanted to see Buddy blow it out on the drum kit, and the rest of the outstanding musicians in the group facilitated it.
This, of course, is almost the polar opposite of what is expected of drummers in most playing situations. Sure, we might get a short solo in between phrases here and there, but we spend 99% of our time acting as the pulse and time-keepers of the music. As such, stretching out can not only step on your fellow musicians’ toes, but can also severely impact the music itself.
Time has passed, and as I’ve matured as a person and a player, I’ve worked hard to tailor my playing to serve the song. It hasn’t been easy—the temptation to throw mega fills in the mix is still powerful, but I’ve developed some strategies that have helped me approach my playing more musically, keeping the needs of the song front and center.
Relax, Don’t Do It
The simplest sounding things are usually the hardest to achieve. This is one of them.
As performers, we are naturally inclined to draw attention to ourselves and what we’re doing on stage. We need to resist this instinct in order to be be better players. This requires a mental awareness about what we’re playing that is unusual for many of us. Honestly, one of the reasons I enjoy playing the drums so much is because the act puts me mentally completely in the moment. Letting your subconscious drive your playing can make it extremely difficult to play consciously, but it’s necessary to be really aware of what’s happening with the music and the musicians around you.
This act of playing consciously requires a lot of practice. Honestly, I’m still working on mastering this myself. For example, I have pretty well nailed this skill when I’m in the studio. In recording Lake 32’s first EP, I found it relatively easy to drive my playing consciously. Recording is a very methodical process and, thus, makes it easy to focus on many things external to yourself. The fact, that the studio offers you multiple chances to get something right doesn’t hurt either. When we play live, however, this becomes an order of magnitude more difficult. The energy created by being on stage combined with the presence of a large crowd cheering you on puts you in the position of fighting both the adrenalin rush and your own subconscious desire to simply play what you feel.
Don’t get me wrong: I’m not saying to disregard what you feel in your music. Indeed, as a art form, it’s our emotions that can make the music compelling for others to listen to. Rather, we need to learn to balance what we feel would be the best thing for us to play and think about what would serve the song the most. This balance can, of course, be result in a fast, complex rhythmic pattern or a simple flam on the snare drum or a single hit on the bell of the ride cymbal. The answer is not eschew anything complex in our playing, but rather to learn to listen to the music and make a conscious decision what fits better. Sometimes the best option will be that crazy Neil Peart double-kit fill, and sometimes it’ll be a bop-badda-bap on the snare right before the chorus.
One of the smartest pieces of advise about playing was given to me by my college instructor, Rich Holly: “It’s what you don’t play that makes all the difference.”
Play Less, Listen More
My day job requires me to do a lot of consulting work. I spend several hours a week sitting in a room with other technology professionals discussing a multitude of different topics. I learned a long time ago that, in these kinds of discussions, it is far more important to listen than it is to speak. This is especially true when you’ve never spoken to a particular group before and, while you know your subject matter very well, you have no context for where everyone else is in the conversation.
My regular strategy in these situations is to start off by talking briefly about my experience and areas of specialty and then ask an open-ended questions like, “Tell me what you all are working on these days.” This provides people with a forum to talk about themselves and what they’re passionate about, and an attentive consultant can learn a great deal from actively listening. In fact, I’ve been in three hours meetings of which I perhaps spent fifteen total minutes talking and the rest was just me listening and asking pointed questions.
And it’s always remarkable to me how I can walk out of a meeting like this and have someone say, “Thank you so much. This was extremely helpful for everybody.” Inevitably, a colleague who attended the meeting with me will follow-up and tell me how smart everybody there thought I was.
In these instances, I’m often reminded of my favorite quote attributed to Samuel Clemens:
It is better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt.
We tend to assume that others want to hear what we think. Most of the time, this simply isn’t true. More often than not, they want you to listen to what they have to say and provide targeted insights where appropriate. This is true in the consulting world, and it’s true in music as well.
When playing the drums in a band situation, there’s little doubt that you’re the one in charge. Regardless of what the guys out front say, the drummer sets the tempo and the feel of the song. If the other guys in the band don’t follow what the drummer is doing, especially if he or she is doing it with authority, they’re the ones that will sound like they don’t know what’s going on. With this power, of course, comes responsibility.
Interestingly, being a “great” drummer more often than not means listening to your fellow musicians and tailoring your playing to work with what they’re playing, not focusing on your own voice in the mix. Some of the true gems of your contribution to the song will come from an interesting little rhythm the lead guitar player consistently puts into his solo on a particular song. If you’re listening, you can find something you throw on top of your groove that will accentuate that rhythm and make it something really great instead of a just a neat rhythmic idea played in passing.
The key is to be an active listener while you’re playing with other people. This will make you a better musician, your playing more musical and earn the gratitude and admiration of your band mates.
Think About Melody Before Rhythm
I’ll grant you, this probably sounds like a strange thing to tell a drummer, but bear with me—I’ll explain.
Building on the idea of being an active listener, you need hone your skills in what you’re listening to, and a great place to start is with your lead singer and guitar player. For the most part, they drive the melodic characteristics of the song, the very thing that people will walk around humming and whistling to themselves after listening to your music. As such, it’s incumbent on the drummer and the rhythm section in general to look for opportunities to support the melody line whenever possible.
An example of this my own playing is in the Lake 32 track About Nothing from our EP. Chris’ vocal line right before the second chorus differs slightly from the melody in any other part of the song. Essentially, he sings over a rhythm based on a quarter note triplet pattern for about one-and-a-half measures. I lay down a pretty consistant groove through the verses, but when I heard that vocal line, I switched up my playing to simply compliment Chris’ rhythm by playing quarter note triplets between my kick and snare while maintaining a steady eighth note pattern on the hi-hat. It was subtle enough that most people might never even notice unless they knew it was coming, but it helps the flow of that part of the song tremendously, in my opinion, and makes the song sound tighter. Have a listen for yourself. Select the song About Nothing from the Lake 32 ReverbNation page and pay attention around 1:19 for the change-up. Again, it doesn’t last long, but it’s an example of playing not only for the song, but for supporting the vocalist with the melody of the tune.
Be Aware
The underlying point to all the above is pay attention. It sounds like common sense, sure, but it’s harder than you think. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been out to see a live performance and the drummer just seems out of sync with the rest of the band. Almost always, these drummers are obviously focused on playing something monstrous and not prioritizing the sound of the band. Right along side keeping solid time, this is the most important job the drummer has in a group.
Actively listening, contributing and complimenting: This is what playing for the song is all about and represents an evolutionary step forward in the way you approach your instrument.