Playing With a Band
Learning to fit your part with other instruments is very important for a drummer. While a guitarist or piano player can play solo, the drums are really made for playing with a band. When you are playing with other musicians, the most important thing is to listen to each other and try to respond to what the other players are doing.
In an ideal band, everyone is equally responsible for keeping good time but in reality, many musicians (especially guitarists who play by ear only) neglect the study of rhythm and beat subdivisions and rely on the drummer to keep good time and indicate what is happening rhythmically. While a singer or horn player has time to breathe between phrases and a guitarist or keyboard player leaves space between lines or chords, the drummer and bass player have to play consistently to keep the groove going and feeling good.
When practicing drum parts for songs, play the basic groove over and over until you can do it easily in a relaxed manner and you feel good playing it. Then try adding a few fills and variations. If you are not comfortable doing a particular part, leave it out (when in doubt, leave it out) until you have practiced it some more by yourself with a drum machine or metronome. The bottom line is that the time should always be strong and solid and the groove should feel good.
Working With the Bass
When you play a song for the first time, start with a simple beat and listen to what the other musicians are doing. Then try modifying your part to fit in with and compliment their parts. Of all the other instruments in the band, the bass is the one you will need to work closest with. The following example demonstrates a basic Rock beat with a constant eighth note bass line.
If you wanted to change the drum part to make it sound more interesting and fit better with the bass line, there are a couple of things you could look for in the bass line itself. Notice that the bass plays a lower note at the end of the first bar, before returning to the original note. This variation would be a good place to add another bass drum note. Also notice the higher variation in the end of bar 2. Here you could also add a higher sound such as an open hi hat. Listen to the recording to hear the effect this creates.
A great way to practice these things is to sing the bass line while you play your drum part. If you are playing in a band, it is a good idea to get together with the bass player for separate rehearsals until you have a good understanding of the way each other plays. A tight, dynamic rhythm section can make any band sound good and make a good band sound great. For more information on working together with a bass player, see Progressive Rhythm Section Method for Bass and Drums and Progressive Rhythm Section Grooves for Bass and Drums.
Working With a Guitar
When you are jamming with a band, any member of the band could come up with the first part that the others then fit in with. Just say the guitarist comes up with a rhythm part like the one in the following example:
Once again, there are several things you could do to create a drum part that fits well with the guitar part. The snare backbeat already works well because it falls in the spaces between the guitar notes and creates interplay between the parts. Another thing you could add is a bass drum part which coincides with the guitar part on the "and" section of the second beat. You could also play an extra snare drum hit to coincide with the guitar part. As with the previous bass example you could add a bass drum note to fit in with the low guitar note at the end of bar 1.
All the parts lock in to create a solid groove which would be great for someone to sing with or play a lead solo with.
Another thing that works well in a band situation is for the drummer to play a fill along with a lead guitar. This kind of thing usually needs to be rehearsed well at first, but once you get to know how each other plays, you can improvise fills together. Once again listen to the recording to hear how effective this sounds.
Try getting together with a guitarist and practicing this sort of thing. You don’t always have to play exactly the same rhythm, just something that fits well with the other part. The best way to do this is to work out what subdivision of the beat the fill is based on (e.g., eighth notes, triplets or sixteenth notes) and then find where the main accents or important rhythm patterns occur in the other player's fill and duplicate them. If you have trouble doing this, try writing rhythms down when you hear them. Sing the rhythm first so that you have it clearly in your memory and then write it down. If you do this for a few minutes each day, fairly soon you will easily recognise most rhythms as soon as you hear them.
Although the example given here shows a fill played by the guitar, it could be any member of the band that plays the fill. Get in the habit of listening to the way various instrumentalists play and you will find that they all have their favorite rhythms, either consciously or unconsciously. Listening to other instrumentalists in this manner will make you more able to anticipate what the other players are likely to do in a band situation. This means you will be able to both respond quickly to their playing and feed them rhythmic ideas which can inspire them to play better. The more you do this, the easier it gets. This kind of musical communication feels great in a live band situation and can seem like magic to an audience.
Fills add variety and excitement but can also ruin a song if over used or played in the wrong place. The fill shown here sounds great at the end of the section and leads back to the main groove. However, if you played this fill all the way through, it would destroy any vocal line sung over it and would sound too busy and cluttered. Once again, listening and thinking about how best to serve the song is the most important thing when deciding when to add fills. This applies equally to all instruments.
Know Your Drums…
Tambourine
Tambourines come in two main forms: with or without a skin over a frame in which there are set of metal "jingles". The tambourine is used in many different types of music and most cultures have their own version such as the Brazilian pandeiro. One of the most notable tambourine players of all time is percussionist Jack Ashford whose playing can be heard on Motown’s most famous tracks by artists such as Marvin Gaye and The Supremes.
