DRUMMER CAFE

I've been working on Jimi Hendrix material for about 6 months.  Mitch Mitchell is so busy and jazzy.  Fills everywhere.   I'm going for the basic groove and getting some memorable fills down to the tee.  I have bought Hal Leonard Transcripts, listened with headphones and transcribed what I hear and really put some time in on this.  

I had a drummer friend come down to critique my "interpretations"  and he gave me some great advice.  "Mitch Mitchell can get away with this;  you and I can't."   I just want it to sound true to the music.

Any advice?  

The bar drunks and dancers are NOT nearly as critical as you might be. They will NEVER notice your change-up. But do what ya gotta do

I think its more of a personal thing.  like it was said before, a bunch of drunks are NOT going to be very critical, so its more of how close YOU want to be to the song.

When playing covers, I'm usually trying to get as close as the original song. But my drumming skills are so bad that, generally, I can't play everything the original drummer plays.
I then play the closest I can, trying to respect the general feel and rythm of the song, and, obviously the structure.

To sum up: I do my best !  

I think that you can never get it exactly the same if not just for the fact that we as drummers have to choose how are drums will sound in general. It's darn near impossible to get all the timbres of Mitch Mitchell, John Bonham, Bev Bavan (ELO), Stewart Copeland, etc out of one configuration of drums.
Even if you went Electronic you can't completely duplicate it.

Therefore if you're drums are perfect for a smooth Steve Gadd '50 ways to Leave Your Lover' then they are completely wrong for an explosive Keith Moon asylum busting 'I Can See for Miles.'

As others have said or implied, try to get characteristic fills and beats for the tunes and emulate style as opposed to perfect transcription. You can be darn sure that Mitch Mitchell didn't repeat himself true to the note every night.  

I was involved in a group of players that played for a  well done 60's/70's costume ball dance last year. I copied a lot of things from the drummers of that era - even - get ready - rushing and dragging some songs like crazy, playing stupid-style boogaloo beats and very dated fills. Along with that was some attempts to recreate some very cool drumming parts like some Motown tunes and, yes, Hendrix tunes. There were some people in the band that even changed costumes per set (I was too lazy!).

Bottom line is we got comments like, "The band sounded just like they did back then...I know because I was there!"  

So  - mission accomplished - but I would be lying if I said I got all the fills, beats and drum sounds completely true to each song.

Go for style and character and try to setup your drums to be the most adaptable over all.

BTW: This of course goes out the window if you are in a dedicated tribute band (Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Hendrix, Rush,etc). At that point you have to try to go for exact notes and sounds and maybe even purchasing look-a-like gear.

IMHO, YMMV

Jim

Thanks for the advice.  That helps.  I think I'm on the right track.  One thing that gave me some confidence was listening to some live Hendrix recordings.  It was . . . do I dare say . . . no I won't say it . . . well maybe the term should be "improvised and going with the moment"  but the drumming sure wasn't the same as the original recordings.  Great, but different, as were the guitars and vocals.

Yep.  Master (?) the basic beat for each tune, try to reproduce the original drummer's feel, and if a phrase (or phrases) is a signature part of the song (think Aerosmith's Walk This Way), try to reproduce it faithfully.

I know we often obsess on what we do but nobody will notice except another drummer (unless you really crash and burn).

I try to add different fills while keeping to the original style of the song...One of the songs my band does, a very popular Lit song, gets boring to play as it was recorded, so I always do more complicated fills in it, so I don't die of boredom...As long as it doesn't throw everyone else off, I think it is fine.

This is an interesting topic, as I've just landed a new gig in a band that plays predominatly 60's 70's and 80's tunes.

My problem is that I need to have about 30 tunes (That I know, but have never "performed") ready to go for a gig on the 24th November.

For me, the main thing at this time is to get *at least* the feel and all the "starts and stops" right. All the other stuff can come later. I dont think anyone will notice too much if I don't do a fill exactly like the record, but they will notice if I miss the end of a song and it ends messy.

Imagine kicking off "Black Night" without the classic into fill!