The drum solo is an event that a lot of concert goers dread. After all, how hard is it to bang some drums real fast while trying to look cool? In your standard rock group, the drummer is often considered to be less of a "musician" than his or her counterparts.
As a percussionist myself, these misunderstandings are quite upsetting. The drum solo is a work of art and in many cases is a melodic and highly musical event. There are many types of drum solos and I'd like to talk about some different ones in this blog.
The Melodic Drum Solo
The melodic drum solo makes use of a wide variety of percussion instruments to make a dynamic and musical soundscape. While, being percussion, rhythm is front and center in the piece: melody becomes an important part of the work as a whole.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qF-k4wg70rg
Neil Peart of Rush has been a master of the drum solo since he joined the band in the early 70's. This drum solo, although I would have preferred to use the solo from the Snakes and Arrows tour, makes wide use of electronic drums to create melodies on top of the complex syncopated rhythms.
Neil Peart's technical flair is found in his syncopation. Syncopation is playing rhythms in different time signatures simultaneously, as he does quite often. A common example would be playing a 4/4 rhythm on the bass drum, but a 6/4 rhythm with the hands.
The Speed Solo
The Speed Solo makes use of incredibly fast and precise playing to impress the audience. Rather than attempting to create a melody or a groovy beat, the speed soloist plays as raw and as brutally as possible.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8AzjOfwk4s
For any drummer, Zach Hill from Hella is a joy to watch. His signature is his incredible work with a single bass pedal. His amazing foot speed and technique allows him to play quadruplets that would normally be played with 2 feet on 2 different bass drums, with 1 foot on 1 bass drum.
These solos require a lot of stamina and focus. Without a great deal of technical precision, a solo of this style will just sound sloppy and messy. However, Zach Hill manages to make every hit punch through in perfect timing, very impressive.
The Groove Solo
The groove solo makes use of grooves and beats to impress and entertain the audience. Focus is often on creating a constant and technically complex beat that is interspersed with extremely technical fills.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOWpZ0sKwo8
Thomas Pridgen, of former Mars Volta fame, is one of the grooviest players around. His loose and energetic playing style is always on the edge of the pocket, but is undeniably impressive.
Some of my favorite drum solos:
Moby Dick by Led Zeppelin. This is one of the most famous drum solos of all time and although I find it far less interesting than I used to, it is a good entry way into the drum solo. John Bonham is one of the most important and influential rock drummers in history.
Buddy Rich. Wow.
Drum Shed (something like a drum duel/jam mixture) between Thomas Pridgen and Tony Royster. Absolutely incredibly grooving and chops from both players, a real treat for any drummer to witness.
I hope this blog helps in the appreciation of drum solos by non-drummers and that it also is a good resource of entertaining watcher for any drummers on TL! Happy watching!
Oh god. How long have you been playing drums? Thomas Pridgen, groove? Ouch! I mean, yeah, he's a beast and he's got groove but...ouch! You decide to list him as an archetype over Gadd, Jordan, Chambers or Carlock? Ouch! My drum sense is stinging.
On February 09 2010 09:16 DoctorHelvetica wrote: Syncopation is playing rhythms in different time signatures simultaneously, as he does quite often. A common example would be playing a 4/4 rhythm on the bass drum, but a 6/4 rhythm with the hands.
Small point, but you seem to be talking about polyrhythms, rather than syncopation.
On February 09 2010 09:16 DoctorHelvetica wrote: For any drummer, Zach Hill from Hella is a joy to watch.
No, really no. Really, really no. If I take this around my music college, the amount of drummers who list their reaction to this as 'joy' will be in the low 0's.
On February 09 2010 09:16 DoctorHelvetica wrote: These solos require a lot of stamina and focus. Without a great deal of technical precision, a solo of this style will just sound sloppy and messy. However, Zach Hill manages to make every hit punch through in perfect timing, very impressive.
No, this guy's sloppy as fuck. He has sick ass chops but he also has a major case of the slops.
On February 09 2010 09:16 DoctorHelvetica wrote: The groove solo makes use of grooves and beats to impress and entertain the audience. Focus is often on creating a constant and technically complex beat that is interspersed with extremely technical fills.
No, that's a technical solo if anything. Groove soloing is almost the antithesis of extremely technical fills, impressing the audience and the words 'technically complex'.
On February 09 2010 09:16 DoctorHelvetica wrote: Thomas Pridgen, of former Mars Volta fame, is one of the grooviest players around.
No, he really isn't. And I'm not even talking from the viewpoint of the list of drummers including David Garibaldi, Rick Marotta, James Gadson, Clyde Stubblefield, John Starks, JR Robinson, Steve Gadd, Bernard Purdie; who are widely considered as 'the grooviest players around'; Thomas Pridgen isn't even particular groove-oriented when compared to other gospel/ shed players like Teddy Campbell or Aaron Spears.
On February 09 2010 09:16 DoctorHelvetica wrote: His loose and energetic playing style is always on the edge of the pocket, but is undeniably impressive.
I just want to add in here that I can't believe you didn't put Vinnie Colaiuta at this point. Not only is he my favourite drummer, he's also one of Thomas', and almost every drummer with even a modicum of knowledge would respond with the word Vinnie if you said 'name a drummer who plays on the edge of the pocket and is undeniably impressive'. I mean, christ. Thomas Pridgen is good yeah for sure but how can you put him as an example of groove, above ALL the other drummers out there!
On February 09 2010 09:16 DoctorHelvetica wrote: Moby Dick by Led Zeppelin. This is one of the most famous drum solos of all time and although I find it far less interesting than I used to, it is a good entry way into the drum solo. John Bonham is one of the most important and influential rock drummers in history.
No arguments here
On February 09 2010 09:16 DoctorHelvetica wrote: Buddy Rich. Wow.
No arguments again
On February 09 2010 09:16 DoctorHelvetica wrote: a real treat for any drummer to witness.
Ugh.
I hope other people don't go too hard on me for giving you a going over here. I'll provide you with some proper material for this blog later. For what it's worth, at least you didn't just go 'OMG TEH TRAVIS BARKAR AR TEH BEST EVAR' and show 9 Blink 182 videos.
By the way, no idea why the OP didn't include this, but if anyone is interested in looking around for some great drumming and exploring the greatest players, go to:
This is one of my favorite drum videos. You make good points and I admit I'm not a big authority on drumming or anything so I actually appreciate the criticism.
Drum solos in general are crap, almost as bad as bass solos. There's really only one good solo that I can think of, and that is Ringo's solo in The End.
On February 09 2010 10:01 Holgerius wrote: Drum solos in general are crap, almost as bad as bass solos. There's really only one good solo that I can think of, and that is Ringo's solo in The End.
Ringo's solo in The End is about as boring as I can imagine, but it's short and works in the context of the song.
But you should put the drummerworld link up top, in your op for people to have a mess around with. It's got bags of stuff, and YT is just comically lacking.
EPT
![[image loading]](http://www.pa-legion.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/thank-you.jpg)
There's really only one good solo that I can think of, and that is Ringo's solo in The End. 
