Why Drummers Sound So … Today
Roy Haynes said in an interview about 30 years ago that the reason drummers even then started to all sound the same is because when music swung, the drummer’s own placement of their eighth notes within the swing / shuffle groove had room to be behind, on or ahead. Now that 95 precent of music not swing based and worse , computerized, the sixteenth note subdivisions makes no room for individuality.
This would also explain why latin music is making it’s way into pop more as that gives more room for those swung notes to really set a different feel than all the rest of the homogenous stuff 😀
compare the ride cymbal beats between Art blakey, Kenny Clarke and Philly Joe Jones for an interesting time
Lately I’ve been techniquing the dropping of random notes even in ‘fixed’ cadences
excellent article about DIGITALIA over on the ORGanizational site called “SOUND QUALITY” (which led me here)
rick beato has interesting take on ‘real reason why music is getting worse’ — see also quantization and mastering as culprits — the removal or perhaps initial absence of dynamic range — think of sam kennison (the guy who always screamed every word)….doesn’t that perfectly describe so much “music” and “drumming” ever moreso?
The free jazz drummer, educator and theorist Milford Graves went one step further. He theorized that straight 16th note rhythms were in fact bad for heart health as the swing pattern is much closer to human heart rhythms. Graves analyzed all different types of heart rhythms when doing his research.
dan winter another excellent theorist on patterns, randomness, fibonacci, implosion, fractality
We always knew MIDI would eventually be death of style, self, soul
I just sat a clinic with Dennis Chambers last week. (Australia) And he talked alot about this and said he has pretty much given up doing clinics because he’s tired of drummers being all about the “chops” and “all sounding the same” and young drummers all studying the same material “50 ways to leave your lover” / “rosanna” etc being obsessed by all the same stuff. It’s all ghost notes, rim shots and “gospel chops” – Talked about finding individuality and playing music and not being clones of those who came before you.
I only play rimshots by accident. Makes a variable like a tape warble on an old delay. But I’m old now and don’t care. I just love playing drums.
I haven’t watched the whole thing but my take is and Damion Reid spoke about this and I completely agree: up till the 70s composers would write music on manuscript by hand, but when music became digital and composition became digital, it became extra important for drummers to emulate the midi file. Someone like Marcus and dare I say myself when I try as well It’s about being able to be organic as a jazz musician which is a life unto itself, but what differentiates modern from one aspect is the ability to put things into a grid for the composition terrain. Another differentiation of modern is the interconnection of styles, but I think the technique is important, but it misses the point if it’s not talked about from the compositional aspect — that’s the critical feature
gregg bissonette has a great interview w rick beato on style
I think overly busy drumming is a big problem with young drummers today.. Not hearing taste and restraint like in the past..
Homogeneity is Death. We could always blame DW Drums … or ProTools … and both would be equally deserved no doubt, but not in finality or even preponderance … let’s talk about the convenient availability of ‘target perfection’ — the iPhone / mp3 library in everyon’s shirt or hip pocket. The musical reproduction marvels that (supposedly) get %THD and TIMD down to micro-Pascal levels of acoustic upset. The musical greats change (and changed) up players constantly. It is the variety, the “soul”, that Makes music. If not for that, triggered samples could lead the way (and maybe do, in ways onerous). The venue matters muchly, too, as does the ‘vibe’ in the room. Temperature and humidity change intonation. Other vibrations also matter, striking imperceptibly (and yet Perceptibly!) on the concave or convex waves of drumhead vibration…which lugs in what order to bring about ‘tuned’ (I’m constantly throwing off a lug or three, on purpose). Imperceptible (and yet Perceptible) variances in drum heads, in drum bead edges, even in the raspy / worn / hairy tips of sticks … the form of the grain in the sticks, etc etc I think it’s the mash of the micro facets that give the analog life to music. … any combination might be capturable and replayable, yet by definition of the confluence of infinitudes, never can it be identically reproducible. Try flipping a drumhead upside-down before install (yes, so the bend gets unbent); color one-half the head with magic marker (red sharpie usually sounds best, no joke). The new synthetic FIBRE heads are helping to add back in some variability nicely.
As a non drummer but a huge, lifelong music lover the biggest factor for me was click tracks. A drummer’s individual rhythm & feel used to be the backbone of every track & the relationship between drummer & bassist a real relationship learning each others timing. A drummers feel & imperfections were part of what defined one drummer from the next. Ringo starr being the best example since he was so far from perfect if you judge him by today’s click tracked standards. In my opinion while there are obviously still some amazing drummers still out there most feel soulless compared to drummers of old. Interesting vid 80/20D.
Church music changing from hymns to choruses to rock songs was a bigger reason than that I think you hit on. Mega churches were becoming full of kids all listening to rock, metal jazz, pop, and incorporating these grooves behind the changing face of the Christian music in the 70’s through 90’s. Those who stayed in their churches go on to create an entire genre of Drumming quite different? well, more nuanced, maybe… called Church Drumming. We started emulating the world to augment our worship music. I think that, in turn, is turning out drummers from churches with more skill, because if we can’t play up front, we find places where we can play elsewhere
When I got a little electronic set for practice I thought, “That’s a nice snare sound – but it’s always the SAME sound, wherever you play on the head”. I don’t like consistency, and I do like to be surprised sometimes: the wisdom of randomness. And I’m 73 years old… so none of this applies to me anyway (not doing it for a living any more; not answerable to anyone else) but it IS good to know. Great stuff. Glad I don’t have to…
Man I LOVE this topic hahaha, great video! You got me with the gospel/church drummers. In the last 15-20 years or so, the elephant in the room for drums has always been (for me at least) gospelchops or the popularization of gospel style drums. Some (a lot really) of America’s greatest musicians who play on all these big name artists live bands, tours and records come from the church scene. And it makes sense when you think about it; their style incorporates everything you’d want out of really competent and versatile musicians. When drummers like Tony Royster Jr, Calvin Rodgers and Thomas Pridgen (few of MANY) started posting all of their licks and clips to social media, it very understandably blew up. Gradually, drummers all over the world wanted to play these linear concept fills in their songs, and have a jazz/gospel type pocket in their arsenal.
The 60s and 70s were also a heyday for session drummers, such as Hal Blaine, Earl Palmer and Gene Chrisman, to name a few notables. But, as competent as they were, they were valued for the creative interpretation and solid grooves, rather than chops. They were also head and shoulders above a vast majority of modern drummers in terms of feel and musicality. These players have been among my inspirations, and I play along those lines, not having much technical knowledge or dazzling chops, by today’s standards. And I’m quite intentionally flowing, not at all mechanical sounding, which may sound “uneven” to many modern ears, though my pocket is typically very strong and steady. But just the same, my expressionistic but not overwhelmingly technical playing goes over exceptionally well at gigs.
https://soundquality.org/?s=digitalia
Examples Galore of Beating and Bashing not Playing
