Drumming in different musical styles

What’s the key to becoming a versatile musician and being proficient in one or more musical styles?

Simply – listening!

That implies: Listening to the music, researching and studying the history of the genre and understanding what makes those performers sound the way they do.

That’s the starting point.

Afterwards comes the challenging part of assimilating the skills required to develop that style and eventually putting all that knowledge into practice by playing to records or preferably with musicians who are proficient in that particular genre.

In this article Marco Quarantotto discusses the benefits of listening to other drummers (and researching the drummers who influenced those drummers) in order to build an in-depth knowledge of drumming in different musical styles.

The “influence quest”

Studying the background of your favourite Jazz, Rock, Drum & Bass or Pop drummers is an inspiring and fascinating quest.  You will inevitably end up finding the same bunch of names that inspired them all and propelled the evolution of generations of drummers up until today.

What this approach gives you is the ability to identify the core style of a drummer and being able to exactly pinpoint where it came from and how his/her own style evolved from that foundation.

Let’s take the example of three great modern masters of the instrument who were all largely influenced by Tony Williams:
Vinnie Colaiuta, Gary Husband and Terry Bozzio.

Tony’s musical and technical influences are evident at the core of their drumming style, but they all went beyond developing their own vocabulary and respective techniques on top of it, each with a completely different approach to the drums, groove, interpretation and sound!

But to understand their approach to the drums today and why they sound that certain way you have to go back and meet Mr. Williams (along with a bunch of other influences of course…).  And THEN you’ll be able to understand and eventually dissect their styles right to the “core”.  Well… if you study a lot!

Why research other drummers?

The fascinating aspect of this “research” is that you learn about musicians and drummers that you may have never heard of, and then you suddenly realise the magnitude of those artists and find your playing being influenced by them right after the first listening or viewing.

From my point of view, that’s a great way to become a proficient musician as well as a versatile and musical one.  Being aware of how a certain style developed, in which part of the world it emerged, who were the musicians involved in the inception of the genre and then getting behind the drums and studying their playing…
… the more you dig – the more you grow!

The foundation of your playing will get ever more solid because you will become increasingly conscious about the mechanisms that make that music tick!

What makes a groove “authentic”?

Every style of drumming has its own specific rules that are paramount for achieving that “genuine”, “authentic” sound.

There are different approaches and techniques to be learned and assimilated to master each specific genre.

Here are a few tips:

• What kind of sticks is the drummer using to produce a certain sound?
• What kind of cymbals are being used (especially for jazz drummers!) and at what angle is the drummer striking the ride cymbal or hi-hat?  Is he/she playing the ride cymbal more towards the edge or right in the centre?
• Is the drummer using a palms-down (German) or thumbs-up (French) grip? Each of those grips produces a specific sound.
• What kind of drumheads are being used? Single ply? Double Ply? Tuned low, mid or high? Muffled or open?
• Where is the drummer hitting the snare drum? Centre? With or without the rim? More to the edge of the drum?
• When playing the bass drum is the drummer “burying” the beater in the head? Heel-up? Heel-down?
• Is he/she using the rebound of the sticks? Or playing each note with the wrists and into the drumhead to get that sound?

…and so on…

Theses are some of the things you have to be aware of while you study the style of a certain drummer.

And most important of all is to LISTEN to the music, the song, and all the other musicians involved. Because if you miss out on that, you’ll miss out on understanding what was the impulse that led that drummer to play that groove, fill or drum solo the way they did.

It’s the MUSIC that always dictates what should, and even more importantly, what should not be played.

So… Listen, Observe, Study, Emulate until the moment you feel it becoming part of you. Then… build on it and enjoy