A experienced musician told me what.There's only one star in a band and that's the singer. And he said don't noodle around on the drums.Just be ready to come in on that first song.And nail it.This is a great video!
Or in an instrumental context it’s either the horn player, guitarist, or pianist in that order, bass and drums usually are never the center of attention but are the most integral aspects of the song
100%. It’s the reason why people think of drums and bass as the “foundation”. I talked about being in the “service business” in one of my other “Hey Man!” videos. To be a working pro musician means being of service to someone other than ourselves, and on a lot of different levels, being of service to *everyone else other than* ourselves.
Mr. Stephens - Thank you so much for this video. As an older drummer still looking and working to advance and gig more, these ideas are great for me to work on and consider.
You’re very welcome, Jay! Check out my channel for TONS more stuff like this. (I’ll keep you busy in practice room) Thanks for watching and for leaving a note. 🤜🏻🤛🏻
The topic about the “inner flame”, I know what you’re getting at, and it can be hard to tell people exactly what it does to the sound, but I think of it like good storytelling, your playing just makes a lot more sense because of a lot of tiny choices you make to make things feel good and tell a story.
Thank you so much for this! I've only been playing a couple of years - but I am playing in a couple of bands and my big takeaways here : pocket is a big deal - you don't have to be all fancy, especially if the song doesn't call for it; whatever you're playing, find the emotion of the song and play it. Tempo of course, that's a given - that's our main job. But those other two things - I don't think drummers get enough credit for these - other musicians don't always know what's "good," and they get all impressed by fancy chops, but they do know if they like playing with you, even if they can't put their finger on why. I have literally heard guitar players say that their drummer isn't "great" (they mean, fancy) but they wouldn't trade him because they play better when the drummer isn't "great" (I think they mean they can't play to, for e.g., Stepario-on-RUclips fancy). I get what they're trying to say now. You broke it down beautifully. I think pro guitar players DO develop an understanding of "good" being subtleties of tempo, dynamics, pocket, "feel," versatility. I'm just not playing with those guitar players (yet!) :D
You get it!! Awesome! Playing consistent time with a great feel is EVERYTHING if you want to get more opportunities to play real music with real people out in the real world. Thanks for watching and thank you for leaving such a thoughtful comment!! 🤜🏻🤛🏻
I appreciate your content, Brian! If I could add a comment.... when the drummer won't stop noodling around between songs, particularly at a show (no matter how small) I find that very unprofessional. Any musician in the band can do the same thing and come off of very unprofessional, particularly the guitar players who "give the song away" at a show prior to the count-off by noodling on the intro riff of the song.
I spend a percentage of my time back at Front of House, mixing bands in theaters, churches, and outdoor venues, and drummers who are constantly noodling between songs (both at soundcheck and during the show) are a real frustration. I’d never be ‘that guy’ and scold them openly for it, but you’re completely right. Not a professional thing to be doing at all. 👎🏼👎🏼
I agree with the volume/playing too loud aspect. Especially in the online community, some drummers seem to think, that louder is better. They should attempt playing with strings or a dinner setting...
I just played a 1500 seat theater on Friday night and at soundcheck, started playing at what I thought was an appropriate volume. Four bars into our first soundcheck song, the lady singing lead on that particular song spun around, stopped the band, and immediately asked, “Guys can we bring the stage volume down to about a third of that?” Well, the answer has to obviously be “Yes”. I played that entire 2-hour show at about 20% of what I’m capable of volume-wise. At no time did I feel stifled or uncomfortable. The only time I got loud was when I got a short drum solo near the end of the show and even then, I was probably only at 60% volume. Afterwards, she and many of the other singers in the group (8 people total) all offered up incredibly generous praise and thanks for making that change and holding to it for the whole evening. The musical director remarked at dinner later how he appreciated that I could play “at a controlled volume but with bawls”. Needless to say, I’ve got more shows with them before the end of the year and will certainly have many more next year. I’ll make sure to post some audio & video from the show in the next few weeks. I see it all the time. I’ve replaced more drummers than I care to admit over the last 30 years because “well, [XXX] is a great drummer but he’s just way too loud all the time”.
I personally do agree that dynamic control is a priority on drums. And the reasons for it is that (1) sometimes it's needed for the setting, and (2) the soft sets up your loud (crescendos do be hittin' different). That said, as long as a drummer isn't necessarily arrogant or dogmatic in playing loud..........I do empathize with them (I make an effort to play quiet when I should, but I do struggle with not playing loud, admittedly). Not saying that's an excuse per se, but I do understand that it's tough. Imo, playing quiet is harder than playing loud, because you gotta consciously stress about it until you get good enough not to. Lol.
You’re very right. It takes a lot of work to learn to play in that lower volume range. Not only getting comfortable & consistent with the smaller strokes but always learning how to get a good sound. It’s a real skill to be able to get a great sound at a lower volume.
@@BrianStephensOfficial Much appreciated for the props. And I agree. It's totally worth learning how to play soft. Never know when you need it. And I can't wait until I get proficient at it. 😆
the opposite of a professional (drummer) is an amateur (drummer) :) former is a job, business (drumming, i.e. performing in studio/on stage for money), latter is a passion, non-business (drumming for love of drumming, making music; amator (latin)= the lover) - both are not mutually exclusive, often go hand in hand, and every pro started out as an amateur, it's just a matter of context. the other factor is expertise (in theory and practice combined), ranging from non-drummer/bloody beginner to upper echelon beast that teaches and inspires through example or/and academically and has a lot to pass on to those passionate about wanting to learn to drum. not every expert is a professional, not every professional is an expert. at least that'S my POV on musicianship or any other craft/trade/artisan skill, like carpentry or acting :)
I've had those sticks from Promark and they were also out of pitch like that, and I sent them back. It is nice to make music with them though, but those are practice sticks, so I wanted the consistency.
In this case, it’s entirely my fault. I usually mark the butt ends with Sharpie to make sure I grab a matched pair (at least to start). But this time I didn’t have time. I just grabbed 5 new pair off the shelf in my practice room, yanked off the matchboxes after throwing them in my stickbag (so I could entered the Players Points numbers later), and dashed off for the airport. Next time, I’ll start marking the butt ends as soon as a new shipment comes in. All of the drumstick companies make it common practice to load their bricks with an equal amount of “light”, “medium”, and “heavy” pairs of any particular size/model so that, once they hit shelves on a store, consumers can pick a weight that feels best to them in the size / model they like. (Statistically, most consumers don’t buy more than 2-3 pairs of sticks at a time, especially at today’s prices) Back when I used to have my signature printed on the sticks I ordered, ProMark would select all of my stick pairs within a certain weight tolerance and then do the printing. But I don’t use one size/model primarily these days and just order a few of 6-pair bricks in each size I use. (You generally have to order at least 144 pairs of a stick when you get the custom printing done) In future videos, I’ll make it a point to always preselect a pitch matched pair.
Thought I was gonna bounce around, get the big takeaways, and get out in under 5 minutes. Here I am 35 minutes later on my second watch. Great discussion and WAY too much knowledge to get it all the first time.
Aw Wowsers! Thank you so much for spending time to hang out & watch TWICE and then leave this note. Totally made my day. Thank you so much. There are 7 more episodes here on the channel with other useful info and plenty more on the way!! 🤜🏻🤛🏻
As a bass player, there's nothing more two dimensional than a drummer who "plays the riff" of a song or a percussion representation of the entire song on the drums rather than just playing under it to support the groove. If I choose to deliberately play a little behind the beat to make a pocket deeper, drummers who join me where I am negates that feel, or worse still, end up slowing the tempo. An example I like to cite is the song "We Are Family" by Sister Sledge where the only instrument playing on beat one is the kick drum. Try placing that kick on the "and of four" push along with the bass riff and see how quickly it sounds annoying!
Ehhhh....... I'm with ya on the first point. But I do have to say that for the lagging behind the beat point (forgive me for the challenge), I get it but I'm iffy on it. Let me explain. I play both drums and bass, so I can cover what you're going for from both angles. You are _completely_ right that a drummer following what you do in that context negates the feel you're going for. But my question is, is the lagging behind the beat something the drummer knows is coming, or is it an in-the-moment deal? If it's the latter, it's tough for me to fault the drummer tbh, because the drummer might've been trying to correct his timing on the presumption that what he was doing wasn't matching the rest of the group. Ya see what I mean? If the drummer knew and he didn't follow suit, he's wrong. But if he didn't know and was just trying to correct himself because he could've been counting wrong for all he knew, then it looks like an honest mistake. Granted, I've played drums for church, so I'm not a full fledged professional, so there is an argument that a drummer in that echelon _should_ know. But that's just what things look like to me.
It’s all about the communication. Ask if you don’t know. Ask another musician what they need from you. Ask a vocalist what they need. I recently had a vocalist motioning to me midsong (in multiple songs) that she wanted to speed up the tempo after we’d already decided what the exact BPM for each song was supposed to be. Her motion was even in time with that preselected tempo. So, in a moment after soundcheck, I asked “what is it that you need and are not getting from me?” After we talked about for a bit, I learned that she wasn’t asking for those songs to be faster. She wanted them to *feel* faster - i.e. more in front of the beat. She wanted that frenetic, edgy energy of the drums playing on the front side of the beat (but without rushing). Sometimes you can get that info from others. Other times, you just have to listen, adjust, and see if the results yield what others want from the music you’re playing.
@@BrianStephensOfficial Understood. I see what you mean. Communication works both ways, and the mark of a true professional is the ability to adapt to whatever's needed. So sometimes it's wise to take the first step and ask just in case. I'm with this 100% and imma keep this in my head going forward. (I do work to do this at church, but I could improve in this area a bit. Lol)
@@Six3rdy As drummers , we're in the service industry. It takes a lot of both confidence AND humility to ask another person about what they need from you to be their best work. Doing that immediately shows everyone that you're a team player and that simple, humble act is always going to set a great one for any gig you're playing on.
I play trad grip because I started in marching band - if anything, I think it forces you to pay attention to dynamics right from the start because you have to think about getting the left and right hand to make the same volume and sound consistent, so there is a lot of adjustment. I started learning matched grip about a year ago, and boy, does having learned trad ever help with playing at lower heights, but also getting that whip when you want it to be louder. I think the video applies to either grip, though, equally well.
Oh gotcha!! Right on! You’re on to something very important. Regardless of the grip you use, throwing the stick down is only about 10% of what you have to pay attention to. And yes, with trad grip, you have to work extra hard to get each hand to match sonically. 👍🏻👍🏻
Too much volume nice way of saying too damn loud. Applies to other players as well especially electric guitars and sound men filling venues and people's ears to the brim. Sorry it's a pet peeve. I even think we are culturally skewed toward too much volume in live performances...
A experienced musician told me what.There's only one star in a band and that's the singer. And he said don't noodle around on the drums.Just be ready to come in on that first song.And nail it.This is a great video!
Wise words!! Only one 🌟!! Thanks for watching and for dropping into the Comments Section!!
🤜🏻🤛🏻
Or in an instrumental context it’s either the horn player, guitarist, or pianist in that order, bass and drums usually are never the center of attention but are the most integral aspects of the song
100%. It’s the reason why people think of drums and bass as the “foundation”. I talked about being in the “service business” in one of my other “Hey Man!” videos. To be a working pro musician means being of service to someone other than ourselves, and on a lot of different levels, being of service to *everyone else other than* ourselves.
Amen!
'If you learn to wait on the beat, the beat gets so big eventually'. That's DEEP. And spot-on!
Thanks so much for watching and for taking time to comment. 🤜🏻🤛🏻
Mr. Stephens - Thank you so much for this video. As an older drummer still looking and working to advance and gig more, these ideas are great for me to work on and consider.
You’re very welcome, Jay! Check out my channel for TONS more stuff like this. (I’ll keep you busy in practice room) Thanks for watching and for leaving a note. 🤜🏻🤛🏻
Good stuff. Thanks. I'm a 40+ yrs pro player and still learning...
Thanks for watching and for leaving a comment. There’s tons more here on my channel to keep you busy!! 🤜🏻🤛🏻
The topic about the “inner flame”, I know what you’re getting at, and it can be hard to tell people exactly what it does to the sound, but I think of it like good storytelling, your playing just makes a lot more sense because of a lot of tiny choices you make to make things feel good and tell a story.
Yes!! You get it! 🤜🏻🤛🏻
10:48 "Let the beat come to you" nice
Thanks!! 🤜🏻🤛🏻
Thank you so much for this! I've only been playing a couple of years - but I am playing in a couple of bands and my big takeaways here : pocket is a big deal - you don't have to be all fancy, especially if the song doesn't call for it; whatever you're playing, find the emotion of the song and play it. Tempo of course, that's a given - that's our main job. But those other two things - I don't think drummers get enough credit for these - other musicians don't always know what's "good," and they get all impressed by fancy chops, but they do know if they like playing with you, even if they can't put their finger on why. I have literally heard guitar players say that their drummer isn't "great" (they mean, fancy) but they wouldn't trade him because they play better when the drummer isn't "great" (I think they mean they can't play to, for e.g., Stepario-on-RUclips fancy). I get what they're trying to say now. You broke it down beautifully. I think pro guitar players DO develop an understanding of "good" being subtleties of tempo, dynamics, pocket, "feel," versatility. I'm just not playing with those guitar players (yet!) :D
You get it!! Awesome! Playing consistent time with a great feel is EVERYTHING if you want to get more opportunities to play real music with real people out in the real world. Thanks for watching and thank you for leaving such a thoughtful comment!! 🤜🏻🤛🏻
I appreciate your content, Brian! If I could add a comment.... when the drummer won't stop noodling around between songs, particularly at a show (no matter how small) I find that very unprofessional. Any musician in the band can do the same thing and come off of very unprofessional, particularly the guitar players who "give the song away" at a show prior to the count-off by noodling on the intro riff of the song.
I spend a percentage of my time back at Front of House, mixing bands in theaters, churches, and outdoor venues, and drummers who are constantly noodling between songs (both at soundcheck and during the show) are a real frustration. I’d never be ‘that guy’ and scold them openly for it, but you’re completely right. Not a professional thing to be doing at all.
👎🏼👎🏼
Beautiful video, for all instruments
Thanks so much!! (Both for watching and for leaving such a nice comment) 🤜🏻🤛🏻
I'm a singer and this is really great stuff, especially the dance talk stuff......thanks
Thanks for watching and leaving a comment, Andy!! (Singers are safe here! 🤣😂) 🤜🏻🤛🏻
I agree with the volume/playing too loud aspect. Especially in the online community, some drummers seem to think, that louder is better. They should attempt playing with strings or a dinner setting...
I just played a 1500 seat theater on Friday night and at soundcheck, started playing at what I thought was an appropriate volume. Four bars into our first soundcheck song, the lady singing lead on that particular song spun around, stopped the band, and immediately asked, “Guys can we bring the stage volume down to about a third of that?” Well, the answer has to obviously be “Yes”. I played that entire 2-hour show at about 20% of what I’m capable of volume-wise. At no time did I feel stifled or uncomfortable. The only time I got loud was when I got a short drum solo near the end of the show and even then, I was probably only at 60% volume. Afterwards, she and many of the other singers in the group (8 people total) all offered up incredibly generous praise and thanks for making that change and holding to it for the whole evening. The musical director remarked at dinner later how he appreciated that I could play “at a controlled volume but with bawls”. Needless to say, I’ve got more shows with them before the end of the year and will certainly have many more next year. I’ll make sure to post some audio & video from the show in the next few weeks.
I see it all the time. I’ve replaced more drummers than I care to admit over the last 30 years because “well, [XXX] is a great drummer but he’s just way too loud all the time”.
I personally do agree that dynamic control is a priority on drums. And the reasons for it is that (1) sometimes it's needed for the setting, and (2) the soft sets up your loud (crescendos do be hittin' different).
That said, as long as a drummer isn't necessarily arrogant or dogmatic in playing loud..........I do empathize with them (I make an effort to play quiet when I should, but I do struggle with not playing loud, admittedly). Not saying that's an excuse per se, but I do understand that it's tough. Imo, playing quiet is harder than playing loud, because you gotta consciously stress about it until you get good enough not to. Lol.
You’re very right. It takes a lot of work to learn to play in that lower volume range. Not only getting comfortable & consistent with the smaller strokes but always learning how to get a good sound. It’s a real skill to be able to get a great sound at a lower volume.
@@BrianStephensOfficial Much appreciated for the props.
And I agree. It's totally worth learning how to play soft. Never know when you need it.
And I can't wait until I get proficient at it. 😆
@@Six3rdy One day at a time!!
I love these thoughts. It just feels right.
Thanks, Ben!
the opposite of a professional (drummer) is an amateur (drummer) :) former is a job, business (drumming, i.e. performing in studio/on stage for money), latter is a passion, non-business (drumming for love of drumming, making music; amator (latin)= the lover) - both are not mutually exclusive, often go hand in hand, and every pro started out as an amateur, it's just a matter of context. the other factor is expertise (in theory and practice combined), ranging from non-drummer/bloody beginner to upper echelon beast that teaches and inspires through example or/and academically and has a lot to pass on to those passionate about wanting to learn to drum. not every expert is a professional, not every professional is an expert. at least that'S my POV on musicianship or any other craft/trade/artisan skill, like carpentry or acting :)
I've had those sticks from Promark and they were also out of pitch like that, and I sent them back. It is nice to make music with them though, but those are practice sticks, so I wanted the consistency.
In this case, it’s entirely my fault. I usually mark the butt ends with Sharpie to make sure I grab a matched pair (at least to start). But this time I didn’t have time. I just grabbed 5 new pair off the shelf in my practice room, yanked off the matchboxes after throwing them in my stickbag (so I could entered the Players Points numbers later), and dashed off for the airport. Next time, I’ll start marking the butt ends as soon as a new shipment comes in.
All of the drumstick companies make it common practice to load their bricks with an equal amount of “light”, “medium”, and “heavy” pairs of any particular size/model so that, once they hit shelves on a store, consumers can pick a weight that feels best to them in the size / model they like. (Statistically, most consumers don’t buy more than 2-3 pairs of sticks at a time, especially at today’s prices)
Back when I used to have my signature printed on the sticks I ordered, ProMark would select all of my stick pairs within a certain weight tolerance and then do the printing. But I don’t use one size/model primarily these days and just order a few of 6-pair bricks in each size I use. (You generally have to order at least 144 pairs of a stick when you get the custom printing done)
In future videos, I’ll make it a point to always preselect a pitch matched pair.
Thought I was gonna bounce around, get the big takeaways, and get out in under 5 minutes. Here I am 35 minutes later on my second watch. Great discussion and WAY too much knowledge to get it all the first time.
Aw Wowsers! Thank you so much for spending time to hang out & watch TWICE and then leave this note. Totally made my day. Thank you so much. There are 7 more episodes here on the channel with other useful info and plenty more on the way!! 🤜🏻🤛🏻
definitely
As a bass player, there's nothing more two dimensional than a drummer who "plays the riff" of a song or a percussion representation of the entire song on the drums rather than just playing under it to support the groove. If I choose to deliberately play a little behind the beat to make a pocket deeper, drummers who join me where I am negates that feel, or worse still, end up slowing the tempo. An example I like to cite is the song "We Are Family" by Sister Sledge where the only instrument playing on beat one is the kick drum. Try placing that kick on the "and of four" push along with the bass riff and see how quickly it sounds annoying!
What you’re describing is the textbook definition of “in the pocket”!! I LOVE it when a bass player knows how to drop back like that! 👍🏻👍🏻
Ehhhh....... I'm with ya on the first point. But I do have to say that for the lagging behind the beat point (forgive me for the challenge), I get it but I'm iffy on it.
Let me explain. I play both drums and bass, so I can cover what you're going for from both angles. You are _completely_ right that a drummer following what you do in that context negates the feel you're going for. But my question is, is the lagging behind the beat something the drummer knows is coming, or is it an in-the-moment deal? If it's the latter, it's tough for me to fault the drummer tbh, because the drummer might've been trying to correct his timing on the presumption that what he was doing wasn't matching the rest of the group. Ya see what I mean?
If the drummer knew and he didn't follow suit, he's wrong. But if he didn't know and was just trying to correct himself because he could've been counting wrong for all he knew, then it looks like an honest mistake. Granted, I've played drums for church, so I'm not a full fledged professional, so there is an argument that a drummer in that echelon _should_ know. But that's just what things look like to me.
It’s all about the communication. Ask if you don’t know. Ask another musician what they need from you. Ask a vocalist what they need. I recently had a vocalist motioning to me midsong (in multiple songs) that she wanted to speed up the tempo after we’d already decided what the exact BPM for each song was supposed to be. Her motion was even in time with that preselected tempo. So, in a moment after soundcheck, I asked “what is it that you need and are not getting from me?” After we talked about for a bit, I learned that she wasn’t asking for those songs to be faster. She wanted them to *feel* faster - i.e. more in front of the beat. She wanted that frenetic, edgy energy of the drums playing on the front side of the beat (but without rushing).
Sometimes you can get that info from others. Other times, you just have to listen, adjust, and see if the results yield what others want from the music you’re playing.
@@BrianStephensOfficial Understood. I see what you mean. Communication works both ways, and the mark of a true professional is the ability to adapt to whatever's needed.
So sometimes it's wise to take the first step and ask just in case.
I'm with this 100% and imma keep this in my head going forward. (I do work to do this at church, but I could improve in this area a bit. Lol)
@@Six3rdy As drummers , we're in the service industry. It takes a lot of both confidence AND humility to ask another person about what they need from you to be their best work. Doing that immediately shows everyone that you're a team player and that simple, humble act is always going to set a great one for any gig you're playing on.
The one who plays traditional grip?
??? Not sure I understand the comment.
I play trad grip because I started in marching band - if anything, I think it forces you to pay attention to dynamics right from the start because you have to think about getting the left and right hand to make the same volume and sound consistent, so there is a lot of adjustment. I started learning matched grip about a year ago, and boy, does having learned trad ever help with playing at lower heights, but also getting that whip when you want it to be louder. I think the video applies to either grip, though, equally well.
Oh gotcha!! Right on! You’re on to something very important. Regardless of the grip you use, throwing the stick down is only about 10% of what you have to pay attention to. And yes, with trad grip, you have to work extra hard to get each hand to match sonically. 👍🏻👍🏻
Hay man…..
Hey Man!! 🤜🏻🤛🏻
You should title the video how to spot a broke professional Drummer 😂
😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣
Everyone is scratching now?
Too much volume nice way of saying too damn loud. Applies to other players as well especially electric guitars and sound men filling venues and people's ears to the brim. Sorry it's a pet peeve. I even think we are culturally skewed toward too much volume in live performances...
I am nothing if not diplomatic. 😉 There’s definitely such a thing as “too much of a good thing” when it comes to any instrument. 😂🤣
Stupidity is rampant in America drum are not a two and four it’s bands not singers especially arrogant singers