(04-15-2017, 08:53 AM)Matsilainen Wrote: If there is one name that epitomizes modern rock drumming, to me it is Neil Peart of Rush.
One of his great influences was Buddy Rich, and Peart himself has of course had plenty of time to influence other, younger drummers. (Sadly, it looks like Peart has retired from touring, and I wonder if he will ever record again, either.)
If I look at modern drummers today, their technique is often on a level that I could not even fathom when I started playing myself, in the mid to late eighties. The real skill then becomes combining that technical prowess with some soul, so that there is music that people actually want to listen to, and not just showcasing, which eventually ends up numbing the ears and the mind.
Love Neil Pearth and of course Ian Paice in addition to those mentioned by
grayhane - John Bonham for sure, Keith Moon not so much. I think he was made bigger in death than his talent actually warranted but thats just my opinion. He definitely entertained.
I agree that the modern percussionist (as opposed to drummer) is generally vastly more skilled than the drummers of the past but I think that the way the music biz has gone there will be little chance for the emergence of the sorts of drummers we're talking about here. Bands no longer form from a group of pals growing up in the same neighbourhoods where they all learned their instruments as they grew up. The joke was that the least talented became either the drummer or the bass player. We've all heard the jokes - How can you tell if the stage is level? The drool runs evenly out of both sides of the drummer's mouth. What do you call a guy that likes to hang around with musicians? A Drummer. While that may have had some basis in the past its not the case anymore. Bands get assembled around a talented one or two creative guys and they hire the best available percussionists (usually more than one) for a specific tour or recording session. While the drummer may get musical credit they're rarely listed as band members.
I agree that not all competent musicians are listenable - an example of the phenomenon from my own experience was a number of years ago when my son was 13 or 14 competing in a music competition. He was playing an advanced level four mallet marimba piece. Another, more advanced student from his studio was playing immediately before him and the same piece. Not good I thought, too easy for the judges to make comparisons. The older boy played the piece well, notes in the right places and no significant errors. My son stepped up next and within the first half dozen notes it was obvious that he was better - more musical, more listenable, it had emotion. He won gold. From what I've seen you've got 3 basic types in music, those with the passion but not the talent (high school band teachers), those with the talent but not the passion and those with both talent and passion. The last ones are the ones people will pay to hear. Unfortunately my son fell into the second category, very talented, perfect pitch but not enough passion to do what is required to forge a career in music. I'm the rare father who is disappointed his son went on to study engineering rather than music but I accept that music is a hard career path and you have to be very passionate and driven to succeed. Often for people like my son, the gift is taken for granted, its just easy, what they do. They don't feel special or gifted, they actually believe that everybody can do what they do, at least initially.
I can recall when the Beatles put their library on iTunes. I went and sampled a lot of it. What struck me in the harsh light of the digital format was that these guys weren't very good musicians, particularly Ringo. He may have been able to hold a beat but he was a hack drummer. At the time I remember thinking that my 13 year old son was a better drummer than Ringo. Ringo was self taught, a "drummer" whereas my son was a classically trained percussionist studying piano, reading music, music theory etc. in addition to drum training. He played drum kit, snare, marimba, xylophone, vibraphone, tympani and virtually anything you could strike to make a sound - basically one of those percussionists you're talking about
Matsilainen except I think he did have the soul/emotion but maybe thats just a father's bias showing through.
If you can find you tubes of your favourite drummers, please post them here so we can all enjoy them. I look forward to some excellent discussion of drummers, percussion, the state of the music business and instruments too.
Chhers,
Marko
