This is fantastic, a basic beat can feel so great. Been listening to JR for years and never knew he plays heel down on the bass drum with a heel up intensity.
that's because he's not playing anything. his technique is highly limiting. especially his approach to the snare. i'm surprised it sounds good at all - there is very little flow available with regard to ghost notes as a result of his wrist pronation.
Best sit this one out mate! Every drummer has a different approach. Just look at Steve Gadd! He uses so much arm when he plays you wouldn't think he could get anything done but yet he is one of the most recognizable drummers ever!
@@TTPDrums Yup. There's never been any kind of financial guarantee in music. Plenty of jobber bands that signed over their creative license and masters to a label still had to find day jobs.
@@Guppusmaximus I’m a drummer/telecoms engineer. Gave up the idea of it being a full time job long ago. Good on those who make a decent living, but from the full time professional musicians I know, it’s stressful as like you say, you’re only one gig away from having to find alternative work. I’m a weekend jobbing drummer now, but my original comment probably applies to that situation. I’m not an artist, I’m someone who loves drumming and music, but it’s now part of my income and as such I have to give people what they want. Dreams of being the next Simon Phillips or Vinnie have long passed!! At least I’ll retire from the day job one day and hopefully get back to doing it for the love again. 😁
I finally got the time to watch several of JR's videos recently. This is a musician's musician. You don't have to play drums to learn from this drummer.
I went to see JR Robinson and his friends play at The Baked Potato in LA many years ago. The owner thought they played too loud, so after a few songs he turned off the PA, told the band the show was cancelled, and gave the audience their money back. I was shocked that anyone had the nerve to do this to a legend like JR.
Salute to John! One of the baddest drummers ever. I loved John’s work with Rufus. Listen to John’s incredible drumming on “Heaven Bound” on the “Master Jam” LP/CD by Rufus (which was produced by Quincy. John Robinson always in the pocket, and super bad! 👏🏿🎼👏🏿🎶👏🏿
Just watching this as music lover not a drummer and it’s still and musical education from one of the best. This drum groove defo sounds like the basis used on Terence Trent D’arby’s Wishing Well (great tune) 😉👍
I heard an accent added to the high hat and a more relaxed flow with snare and bass. Adding relaxed feel with accents is a bette way to describe what he's doing.
No wonder I bought tracks 1, 4 and 7 off Steve Winwood’s Back in the High Life Again. Jesus, I bet I’ve got other tracks I bought that I didn’t even know he played on. Guess that’s why I bought tracks 1,4 and 7, his superb control of time, excellent feel and his drum patterns blew me away.
The robotic feel simply has no subdivision swing or bounce to the 8th or 16th notes which is really where the groove sits in the pocket. You can find this when u listen to Sinatra SWING quarter notes when he sings ….. it feels good because he’s slightly behind or a head of the beat & will catch up to or lag to groove within all the subdivisions that nobody can hear but feel in their body. Machines will never replace the human factor.
I have a pearl mastercustom signed by jr Robinson (in the basdrum), he commanded it and used it on a masterclass in La Baguetterie, Toulouse, France, in 1996.
Bouleau ou érable ? J'ai déniché une Masters Legend en érable, j'adore cette batterie. La caisse claire est géniale, de loin ma préférée. On peut l'entendre sur ma vidéo Latinerie en 7/8, mais je ne mixe jamais la batterie très en avant. Là, le reste est une Yam Hybrid, mais je ne suis pas fou du son, je vais la vendre. Très bonne batterie pour la variété, mais pour le jazz, rien ne vaut l'érable pur.
If you get this, you'll always have work as a drummer! It's amazing how few drummers can do this. You can't write it down. You have to feel it and then be able to perfectly hold it. That's one of the reasons that JR, Steve Gadd, Jeff Porcaro etc are so venerated. If the beginner drummer knew how hard it is for the average drummer to do this well they would probably quit right away.
Could someone please rephrase about what he says about how to play snare behind 2 and 4 for few milliseconds? I somehow couldn’t understand what he’s saying about how to control the laidback beat continuously..
I play/record to a click because I'm all about that clock/pocket and tbh I'm probably not good enough not to play/record to a click but if you do it right you can dance around the click and have fun with it and during playback it shouldn't sound too robotic...but maybe a smidge robotic, that also depends on what style of music which is a whole other conversation. Bottom line is I always play for the song, what's gonna make the song and most importantly whats going to make the band as a whole sound the best..I serve the song and the band and also make sure I'm complimenting what the bass player is doing. Lastly I think signature drum parts are an amazing thing to reach towards if you can. I like to write my drum parts almost like a songwriter arranging the order of chords or notes for a particular song...drums should be musical where you write the drum parts...I don't play my drum part different every time, that's not serving the song imo. That's just my approach no disrespect to anyone that sees the drums a different way I'm open minded to different approaches...because that's how I learn and grow musically.
I think everyone would agree, JR could try with all his might to be mechanical, but he could never in a million years not play without feel. Ironically, it is his ability to lock into time that serves to accentuate his feel.
The hi-hat accents allow you to play the snare more "au fond du temps" (I don't know how to say this in english). As a matter of fact, the only other option is removing the hi-hat from the back beat and playing the snare alone. You can play it really laid back with a nice rim-shot. Killing your bassist's ears. I played a lot on Marvin Gaye's hits, good way to get some soul groove, not if you want to play bebop. What if you want to play cuban music ? Dance !
Ed Greene, Bernard "Pretty" Purdie, James Gadson, Vinnie, the late Carlos Vega, Mike Baird, Ralph Humphrey, Gadd, the late Ricky Lawson, Buddy Williams, Steve Jordan, Charley Drayton, Sonny Emory, and so on...
I thought it is normal that the click disapears if you are in time,like when i play suddenly i can not hear it anymore.So i am one of very few who can do that says David Foster and he should knew it.
JR is a legend, but Jeff Porcaro transcends legendary. Jeff's been gone 32 years, and he's probably still in the Top 5 recorded drummers of all time. Jim Gordon was, and Jim Keltner is in the mix as well.
That's why they call it "playing the drums" and NOT "hitting the drums on time". There isn't a worthy piece of music in music history that had perfect timing.
He says, in sample 2, that he is manipulating time. Maybe so. But he is instead, more significantly, manipulating hi-hat dynamics. Sample 1: even hat strikes. Sample 2: Ghosting the off beat strikes. Accentuating two and four. One and three “normal.”
You’re only hearing the hi hat dynamics because that’s the obvious audible thing. Play a riff along with each groove, or set a click to them, and you’ll immediately feel the difference!
I mean this dude sounds great but he's talking about something other than what he's doing and its pretty obvious when he plays them side by side. The kick and snare barely change at all but the hi-hat clearly goes from constant accents to ghosting the off-beats and he makes no mention of this. Its kinda weird I guess lol but still cool.
I agree. His explanation is a bit out there, but it is an accented hi hat pattern. I think he's alternating between hitting the hi hat with the shoulder of the stick and the tip. Shoulder tip shoulder tip, etc. This gives the groove a tiny bit of swing, which sounds and feels great.
Too proud to exemplify bc then is a tutorial that others could learn from ooh no! Ego slam to mj’s drummer is def weird like yup did he not make huge enough munie or does he think ppl don’t get what groove /pocket / swing / accent is; it’s crazy common
@@chinmeyswayI don't think most younger dudes get what a pocket drummer is. Or at least that's clearly what he thinks. I think it's becoming a lost art.
So to put it in simple terms, lol, JR is swinging on the hi-hat, to match the late snare while keeping a steady 2/4 on the kick. So doing what machines don't seem to be able to do ....which ta fine a place between straight time and swing. Falls under don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing
You can do that in a sequencer, retarding slightly the snare. But... you also have to anticipate a little the bass drum ! Anyway, that never sounds as good as a human feel. Sometimes, when I realize an arrangement, I take the whole bass guitar part, and put it a few ms ahead. That's effective. But imitating the real thing ? You want to play brazilian music, no secret, you have to play the pandeiro (horribly difficult) or the tamborim to catch their phrasing.
The closest you will ever get to being wrong, while still being right, is in the first couple of bars of the first track of " Barney Miller Theme (All Versions)"
Story goes, once upon a time in the late 70's, someone didn't pay JR for his session. No transaction was made, but the payment was still on time... I'll leave it at that.
![BLACK BAG - Official Trailer [HD] - Only in Theaters March 14](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Du0Xp8WX_7I/mqdefault.jpg)
Don't stop till you get enough. So good
Robinson is Da KING! Respect ✊ 🇮🇹🇮🇹
One of my favourite drummers😃
This is fantastic, a basic beat can feel so great. Been listening to JR for years and never knew he plays heel down on the bass drum with a heel up intensity.
He's a big guy.
that's because he's not playing anything. his technique is highly limiting. especially his approach to the snare. i'm surprised it sounds good at all - there is very little flow available with regard to ghost notes as a result of his wrist pronation.
@@cmtcfu well you know nothing clearly
@@cmtcfu Words of a fool
Best sit this one out mate! Every drummer has a different approach. Just look at Steve Gadd! He uses so much arm when he plays you wouldn't think he could get anything done but yet he is one of the most recognizable drummers ever!
Changing the hihat like he does is a huge part of the 2nd groove sounding great.
Goes to show that groove/time/feel pays the bills. Chops are good for impressing other drummers!
Ideally a good drummer can do it all.
YESSIR!
It's a problem when it's become a job. Most artists / musicians that make a lasting impact on music didn't do it to "pay the bills".
@@Guppusmaximus and most that can’t pay the bills will have to find another job!
@@TTPDrums Yup. There's never been any kind of financial guarantee in music. Plenty of jobber bands that signed over their creative license and masters to a label still had to find day jobs.
@@Guppusmaximus I’m a drummer/telecoms engineer. Gave up the idea of it being a full time job long ago. Good on those who make a decent living, but from the full time professional musicians I know, it’s stressful as like you say, you’re only one gig away from having to find alternative work.
I’m a weekend jobbing drummer now, but my original comment probably applies to that situation. I’m not an artist, I’m someone who loves drumming and music, but it’s now part of my income and as such I have to give people what they want. Dreams of being the next Simon Phillips or Vinnie have long passed!!
At least I’ll retire from the day job one day and hopefully get back to doing it for the love again. 😁
I finally got the time to watch several of JR's videos recently. This is a musician's musician. You don't have to play drums to learn from this drummer.
My uncle Wah Wah Watson played on a lot of records with J.R.! He was killing on Off The Wall which is my favorite album ever!!!!!!
I'm glad I got to meet him in high school. Nice guy and also a Kansas City Chiefs fan.
Well,nobody's perfect.😄
When he talked about moving the beat back a few milliseconds, I knew this guy was for real.
Jr is a bad man, simply magnificent.
That snare is perfection.
It is pretty darn tasty. Agreed.
Mr John Robinson Jr, respect for all the great things you have done, a wonderful career.❤
Even his robotic groove is groovier than some drummers' best groovy effort.
Actually I liked his robotic groove better.
Sounds like every ZZ top song ever made
@@musik8948 h-how
True that!
Outstanding, John. Just simple Outstanding. 🥰👍🏽
I went to see JR Robinson and his friends play at The Baked Potato in LA many years ago. The owner thought they played too loud, so after a few songs he turned off the PA, told the band the show was cancelled, and gave the audience their money back. I was shocked that anyone had the nerve to do this to a legend like JR.
The owner should be running a coffee shop
Sounds like the band isn't as good as they think they are.
Seriously? That's so lame.
You're funny@@drumbird
Ever walk into to a bar uninvited, start playing, and then have the owner walk up to you, hand you cash, and tell you "come back anytime"?
BEST DRUMMER EVER !!!!!
Salute to John! One of the baddest drummers ever. I loved John’s work with Rufus. Listen to John’s incredible drumming on “Heaven Bound” on the “Master Jam” LP/CD by Rufus (which was produced by Quincy. John Robinson always in the pocket, and super bad!
👏🏿🎼👏🏿🎶👏🏿
For years I was wondering why some RUclips drummers feels odd and why some looks cool. This explains why.
Even JR’s ‘sterile’ sounds better than most people’s best 😂
Sometimes I think John eats, sleeps, and drink drums. He sound is so groovacious he makes every track sparkle! Yup! He’s THAT GOOD!!😌🎶🥁👍🏾
This guy and Jonathan Moffet are like drum machines ...their timing is exquisite
How can I work on this?
Just watching this as music lover not a drummer and it’s still and musical education from one of the best. This drum groove defo sounds like the basis used on Terence Trent D’arby’s Wishing Well (great tune) 😉👍
Perfect as usual 🙏 but It's a pity he didn't mention the accentuation of the hihat which plays a big role in the JR groove version!
Observed that too, but wouldn't know about the role. But it's robot vs.JR and point made.
Good point. The HH dynamic is arguably more important
Fantastic sounding snare drum and bass
I heard an accent added to the high hat and a more relaxed flow with snare and bass. Adding relaxed feel with accents is a bette way to describe what he's doing.
No wonder I bought tracks 1, 4 and 7 off Steve Winwood’s Back in the High Life Again. Jesus, I bet I’ve got other tracks I bought that I didn’t even know he played on. Guess that’s why I bought tracks 1,4 and 7, his superb control of time, excellent feel and his drum patterns blew me away.
I like how he plays heels down and without beating into the bass drum.
I don't bury the beater either, but I play heel up
Always wondered about the next kick note after the behind the beat backbeat. Great explanation from a true master
My Akai mpc 3000 has a JR Poster and a JR Pyjama .. huge fan of yours
Hes one of favorite studio drummers in the industry
My that last jam was amazingly groovy baby . Love to hear the whole jam .
The whole jam is in a recommended video at the end of this video! Its awesome!
Thanks, Master Robinson!!!
Nice concept ❤
That’s some serious nuance there!
This man.is unparalleled
Its one thing to have the feel . Its another thing to be able to explain the feel !
👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
Thanks John 👍👍🙏🏻🙏🏻
The robotic feel simply has no subdivision swing or bounce to the 8th or 16th notes which is really where the groove sits in the pocket. You can find this when u listen to Sinatra SWING quarter notes when he sings ….. it feels good because he’s slightly behind or a head of the beat & will catch up to or lag to groove within all the subdivisions that nobody can hear but feel in their body. Machines will never replace the human factor.
Funny, his version of ‘sterile’ robotic drumming still sounded amazing!!
I'm not a drummer but I'd say it's simply two different styles of music and I actually prefer what he calls robotic, in this case.
JR's fills are sublime rockfalls on John Fogerty's "Change In the Weather".
Great lesson
I have a pearl mastercustom signed by jr Robinson (in the basdrum), he commanded it and used it on a masterclass in La Baguetterie, Toulouse, France, in 1996.
Bouleau ou érable ? J'ai déniché une Masters Legend en érable, j'adore cette batterie. La caisse claire est géniale, de loin ma préférée. On peut l'entendre sur ma vidéo Latinerie en 7/8, mais je ne mixe jamais la batterie très en avant.
Là, le reste est une Yam Hybrid, mais je ne suis pas fou du son, je vais la vendre. Très bonne batterie pour la variété, mais pour le jazz, rien ne vaut l'érable pur.
If you get this, you'll always have work as a drummer! It's amazing how few drummers can do this. You can't write it down. You have to feel it and then be able to perfectly hold it. That's one of the reasons that JR, Steve Gadd, Jeff Porcaro etc are so venerated. If the beginner drummer knew how hard it is for the average drummer to do this well they would probably quit right away.
you have no idea what youre talking about lol
@@nordstrandmusicinternation9518 yes he has it totally right
He’s wrong about the quitting partn
This is the garbage that technically weak drummers tell themselves when feeling inferior to other drummers.
Phil Collins, Manu Katché
Great drummer and very cool man ! Thank you from this video !
Could someone please rephrase about what he says about how to play snare behind 2 and 4 for few milliseconds? I somehow couldn’t understand what he’s saying about how to control the laidback beat continuously..
ridiculously great
We ❤ human feel...
Master!
I play/record to a click because I'm all about that clock/pocket and tbh I'm probably not good enough not to play/record to a click but if you do it right you can dance around the click and have fun with it and during playback it shouldn't sound too robotic...but maybe a smidge robotic, that also depends on what style of music which is a whole other conversation. Bottom line is I always play for the song, what's gonna make the song and most importantly whats going to make the band as a whole sound the best..I serve the song and the band and also make sure I'm complimenting what the bass player is doing. Lastly I think signature drum parts are an amazing thing to reach towards if you can. I like to write my drum parts almost like a songwriter arranging the order of chords or notes for a particular song...drums should be musical where you write the drum parts...I don't play my drum part different every time, that's not serving the song imo. That's just my approach no disrespect to anyone that sees the drums a different way I'm open minded to different approaches...because that's how I learn and grow musically.
Your 'Tailoring' the song or piece, Beautiful!
The most recorded drummer . Tasteful and dynamics 100%
INDUSTRY DOGMA
THERE ARE PLENTY OTHERS THAT OUT GROOVE HIM
ALL DAY
Thx jr ! I like your drumming!
Can I get a list of all the stuff your drumming is on?
Thank you thank you thank you
The robotic groove sounds really good
When they invented the Metronome, JR. Robinson had to play to make sure everything was perfect.
Just imagine the younger version of this genius. Otherworldly back then
I think everyone would agree, JR could try with all his might to be mechanical, but he could never in a million years not play without feel. Ironically, it is his ability to lock into time that serves to accentuate his feel.
Cool explanation
The legend!!!
JR ❤❤❤❤❤
The JR groove is....💯👍
It seems to me that the biggest difference here is in hi hat accents and strike position, not the actual placement in time of the hits.
The hi-hat accents allow you to play the snare more "au fond du temps" (I don't know how to say this in english).
As a matter of fact, the only other option is removing the hi-hat from the back beat and playing the snare alone.
You can play it really laid back with a nice rim-shot. Killing your bassist's ears. I played a lot on Marvin Gaye's hits, good way to get some soul groove, not if you want to play bebop. What if you want to play cuban music ? Dance !
Put a click to each of his groove variations and you’ll immediately hear/feel the difference
i Agree Except for i'd put Jeff Pocaro Right There With Him And Jr Would Agree He Loved Jeff Too
I'd add Russ Kunkel as well
Ed Greene, Bernard "Pretty" Purdie, James Gadson, Vinnie, the late Carlos Vega, Mike Baird, Ralph Humphrey, Gadd, the late Ricky Lawson, Buddy Williams, Steve Jordan, Charley Drayton, Sonny Emory, and so on...
dont expect jr to do fancy solos thats y hes so good
Have to know what that song is they're playing at the end.. anyone please?!
The description of the hi hat phrasing, in coordination with the backbeat, was really helpful. Thanks!
I thought it is normal that the click disapears if you are in time,like when i play suddenly i can not hear it anymore.So i am one of very few who can do that says David Foster and he should knew it.
Heel down - crazy
What is that bass drum beater??
the most recorded drummer on the planet for a reason.
JR is a legend, but Jeff Porcaro transcends legendary. Jeff's been gone 32 years, and he's probably still in the Top 5 recorded drummers of all time. Jim Gordon was, and Jim Keltner is in the mix as well.
I always thought Ain't Nobody was a Linn machine or a tape loop.
Swear I heard the song kick in on that second beat with a soft pad synthesizer
JOHN IS VERY CLEAR IN WHAT HE SAYS
I wanna hear more of that song!!
You can literally feel the difference.
Thats why quantised drums suck.
John Robinson, you are a Legend!
Notice how his left heal is pulsing on the “up” beats.
JR is a badass
Genius.
DAMN!!
Even when he plays it 'stiff' he still sounds great.
Dude that's what Steve Jordan did when he did vultures!! (John Mayer)
That's why they call it "playing the drums" and NOT "hitting the drums on time". There isn't a worthy piece of music in music history that had perfect timing.
Of course...
He says, in sample 2, that he is manipulating time. Maybe so. But he is instead, more significantly, manipulating hi-hat dynamics. Sample 1: even hat strikes. Sample 2: Ghosting the off beat strikes. Accentuating two and four. One and three “normal.”
You’re only hearing the hi hat dynamics because that’s the obvious audible thing. Play a riff along with each groove, or set a click to them, and you’ll immediately feel the difference!
He plays like that AND he has that speaking voice? I’m jealous!
JR. IS TOTALLY AWESOME. !!??
Yep
Merci
I mean this dude sounds great but he's talking about something other than what he's doing and its pretty obvious when he plays them side by side. The kick and snare barely change at all but the hi-hat clearly goes from constant accents to ghosting the off-beats and he makes no mention of this. Its kinda weird I guess lol but still cool.
I agree. His explanation is a bit out there, but it is an accented hi hat pattern. I think he's alternating between hitting the hi hat with the shoulder of the stick and the tip. Shoulder tip shoulder tip, etc. This gives the groove a tiny bit of swing, which sounds and feels great.
Too proud to exemplify bc then is a tutorial that others could learn from ooh no! Ego slam to mj’s drummer is def weird like yup did he not make huge enough munie or does he think ppl don’t get what groove /pocket / swing / accent is; it’s crazy common
@@chinmeyswaythe audacity of some people huh??? 😂
@@IAMBENNYBLANCO. haha yaaoh
@@chinmeyswayI don't think most younger dudes get what a pocket drummer is. Or at least that's clearly what he thinks. I think it's becoming a lost art.
This is insane! I mean in a positive way
So to put it in simple terms, lol, JR is swinging on the hi-hat, to match the late snare while keeping a steady 2/4 on the kick. So doing what machines don't seem to be able to do ....which ta fine a place between straight time and swing. Falls under don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing
You can do that in a sequencer, retarding slightly the snare. But... you also have to anticipate a little the bass drum ! Anyway, that never sounds as good as a human feel. Sometimes, when I realize an arrangement, I take the whole bass guitar part, and put it a few ms ahead. That's effective. But imitating the real thing ? You want to play brazilian music, no secret, you have to play the pandeiro (horribly difficult) or the tamborim to catch their phrasing.
Steely Dan missed out on having this guy play for them.
There’s so much more I wanna do hearing this lol
The closest you will ever get to being wrong, while still being right, is in the first couple of bars of the first track of " Barney Miller Theme (All Versions)"
1:50 try Billy Jean ;-)
Story goes, once upon a time in the late 70's, someone didn't pay JR for his session. No transaction was made, but the payment was still on time... I'll leave it at that.
0:00 Lost Yourself To Dance
Reminds me of the drummer from rush
Jeff Porcaro was the best at this concept
There were many,Roger Hawkins,Hal Blaine,Al Jackson just to name a few!
🌹 🌹 🌹 🌹
A drummer’s drummer.