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Thread: What song kicked your butt when you were just learning how to play drums?

  1. #1

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    Default What song kicked your butt when you were just learning how to play drums?

    I saw this posted in another forum and thought it would make for a good thread.

    Was there one particular song, when you were starting out, that really kicked your butt? How were you able to work through it? Did you figure it out on your own or did you you get a teacher to help you through it?

    For me it was the song "Master Blaster" by Stevie Wonder. I wasn't playing it in a band but I loved the tune and wanted so badly to know how to play those quarter note triplet fills (particularly at 2:58). It took me awhile to figure out the phrasing but finally managed to "hear it / count it" on my own. It was a major break-through!


  2. #2

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    Freeway Jam from BLOW BY BLOW....................great exercise in sync-accents.
    Got it on my own but not quickly.
    We had just acquired a new guitar player that was causing our young band to "step up", so to speak.
    He loved that Beck album and we had to work hard to get past the simple 4-beat rock measures.
    Last edited by Ricardo; 08-24-2017 at 04:13 PM.
    Gretsch USA & Zildjian
    (What Else Would I Ever Need ?)


  3. #3

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    Cissy strut - the meters. It's fun to play today but then it was very hard. Especially the little patterns in the hihats.
    Quote Originally Posted by rickthedrummer View Post
    There is intelligent life out there. The problem is that there isn't any here.

    -Mike

  4. #4

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    None that I can think of.

  5. #5

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    Great thread BTW. For me, at the age of 11, it was LZ's Good Times Bad Times. Made me realiaze the importance of footwork. To this day I strive for footwork excellence. Really irritates me watching cover bands doing this song and the drummer half a**ing their way through it. Can't fake this song IMHO.

  6. #6

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    As far as I can remember...pretty much every song. Especially the fast "boogie beats".
    -Brian

    "Too many crappy used drum stuff to list"

    Play the SONG......not the DRUMS!!!

    "I think that feeling is a lot more important than technique. It's all very well doing a triple paradiddle - but who's going to know you've done it? If you play technically you sound like everybody else. It's being original that counts." ~ John Bonham

  7. #7

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    InaGadaDavita.
    Six Piece Mapex Saturn V, Five Piece DW Performance Series, NOS Slingerland Snares, Centent Ardor and Emperor Cymbals


  8. #8

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    Don't stop believing by journey. Played exactly how Steve smith played it.

  9. #9

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    Quote Originally Posted by inthpktplayer View Post
    Really irritates me watching cover bands doing this song and the drummer half a**ing their way through it. Can't fake this song IMHO.
    Yea, I'm with you. Play it right or don't play it.

  10. #10

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    Pretty smooth sailing until last June. My band wants to play The Girl From Ipanema. I'm having the hardest time learning the Bossa Nova. Really kicking my butt!

  11. #11

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    Lead Boots from Jeff Beck's "Wired"

    Still can't play it!!!

    all the best...

  12. #12

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    Quote Originally Posted by rickthedrummer View Post
    None that I can think of.
    LOL....................try harder.

    Quote Originally Posted by kay-gee View Post
    Lead Boots from Jeff Beck's "Wired"
    Still can't play it!!!
    Uh huh..........................Michael Walden.
    Gretsch USA & Zildjian
    (What Else Would I Ever Need ?)


  13. #13

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    2112, at first.
    Signature here

  14. #14

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    Quote Originally Posted by Ricardo View Post
    LOL....................try harder.

    Uh huh..........................Michael Walden.
    You have to realize that I started playing in 1956, and my 1st band was 1961. I could play Morello's "Far More Drums" when I was about 16, but I assume we are talking about R&R, so go back to that era and find a song that would or should have given me (or any decent drummer) trouble.

    Flams, ruffs, paradiddles, triplets, and single and double stroke roles, were the basic fills, and the basic "beats" were so simple that any drummer playing for more than a couple of years could play them.

    If I had started playing in the mid to late '60's, my answer would have probably been different but by the time the music was getting more complex, I had already been playing for 15 years and going to jazz jams in Harlem, so it's a moot point, and I resent the implication.

  15. #15

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    Only been playing about 6 or so weeks so every song i attempt lol....finding it difficult doing fills and rolls and then getting back into the groove but I dare say that will come...hopefully

  16. #16

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    Quote Originally Posted by rickthedrummer View Post
    You have to realize that I started playing in 1956, and my 1st band was 1961. I could play Morello's "Far More Drums" when I was about 16, but I assume we are talking about R&R, so go back to that era and find a song that would or should have given me (or any decent drummer) trouble.

    Flams, ruffs, paradiddles, triplets, and single and double stroke roles, were the basic fills, and the basic "beats" were so simple that any drummer playing for more than a couple of years could play them.

    If I had started playing in the mid to late '60's, my answer would have probably been different but by the time the music was getting more complex, I had already been playing for 15 years and going to jazz jams in Harlem, so it's a moot point, and I resent the implication.
    Wow....you joined your first band in 61 that was the year i was born i have just started playing the Drums at the grand old age of 56....way to old i know but I was originally a Vocalist but a throat infection put my singing days to rest....i have also played Bass in bands and play Acoustic guitar aswell but wish i had taken up the Drums years ago as i feel i have left it way to late

  17. #17

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    Wicked Sensation messed me up pretty good. Micks grooves are great. Never overplays but throws in little things that sound so cool.
    RDM/Damage Poets
    UFiP TAMAHA Zildjian
    REGAL TiP
    AQUARIAN

  18. #18

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    Quote Originally Posted by rickthedrummer View Post
    I resent the implication.
    Sorry you feel that way.
    The original post said nothing about R&R or any time period except "when you were starting out".
    In that context, we have all been challenged, resent it or not.
    Gretsch USA & Zildjian
    (What Else Would I Ever Need ?)


  19. #19

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    Quote Originally Posted by Ricardo View Post
    Sorry you feel that way.
    The original post said nothing about R&R or any time period except "when you were starting out".
    In that context, we have all been challenged, resent it or not.
    If I was challenged by anything, it was the drums, not any particular song. With no drum teacher in my hometown (Thank G-O-D) I had to guess at everything that I heard because you almost never saw a drummer on TV outside of a couple of quick shots of Bobby Rosengarden with Skitch Henderson's band, so it was me and the drums in my grandfather's workshop. There was no way for me to play along with any music, so I just kept working on playing the drums, and by the time I had a way to play with music, there was nothing that was a challenge for me to play.

    I guess you could call the several hours I spent learning to play in 5/4 so I could play along with Take 5 "a challenge", but, to me, a challenge at anything is something that would take more than a afternoon in the "woodshed", and being ambidextrous certainly didn't hurt.

    I resent it when someone assumes that because they had trouble with a certain song or pattern, and comes across someone who didn't have that problem, it pi$$es them off that they might have run into someone that is just plain better than they are. (This is not aimed at you, I know you can play, but at hundreds of drummers I've come across in all my years of playing).

    I made it simple and played by 2 rules:

    1) To paraphrase Yogi Berra, hear song, play song.

    2) Keep the customer satisfied.

    Do that and you will always be working. Playing, that is. I haven't held a day job since the winter of '72-'73, so I must have done something right.
    Last edited by rickthedrummer; 08-28-2017 at 06:36 PM.

  20. #20

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    1996 this kicked my arse for 4 months but it helped with skills for years to come, trick was to play the whole cd from start to finish every day twice with other cds i could master between ..rage against the machine , pearl jam , smashing pumpkins etc, was all fair game but this was hard

    tool - Undertow (complete album)
    Last edited by itchie; 08-27-2017 at 11:17 AM.

  21. #21

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    "Low Down" by Boz Scaggs. For me, the drum parts were easy but to get that "pocket feel" took me years...


  22. #22

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    man I'd be a train wreck on that Boz Scaggs song I just don't have that type of foot feel
    RDM/Damage Poets
    UFiP TAMAHA Zildjian
    REGAL TiP
    AQUARIAN

  23. #23

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    this whole record is so bad a** around 1:25 Mick does a little snare add on that just sounds so cool

    RDM/Damage Poets
    UFiP TAMAHA Zildjian
    REGAL TiP
    AQUARIAN

  24. #24

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    Quote Originally Posted by Goro View Post
    Pretty smooth sailing until last June. My band wants to play The Girl From Ipanema. I'm having the hardest time learning the Bossa Nova. Really kicking my butt!
    Yeah that Bossa beat a *****. Been working on it some everyday since June. Fairly comfy now but still working on it.
    Enjoy the little things in life because one day you`ll look back and realize they were the big things.

    -Karrie

  25. #25

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    50 ways by Steve Gadd. Been working on it since i began playing. Doing pretty good but still not as fast as he does it on the record.
    Enjoy the little things in life because one day you`ll look back and realize they were the big things.

    -Karrie

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