You ask about technique (grip, stroke, etc...) so I'll answer on technique only - Joe Morello.

There are many drummers in the area of concepts and ideas.

All of them.
Let me explain, I don't really listen to one drummer or drumming style and say "Hey I can use that fill here, or this one there".  I tend to listen with "big ears" to everything and it just seems to creep in anyways. I hear lots of different drummers in my playing from Bonham to Peart to Collins. I think allot depends on the style of music I am playing at the moment as well.
Similar to mediablammer, they are more a jumping off point.
-RHS

dude, it's spelled Pasillas (puh-see-us)

Gee, I don't think there's a drummer I have ever seen / heard that I hav'ent taken something from!
I don't think it's a bad thing either.

This is essentially in response to RANDOM.  

I like to think of myself as the Milton Berle of percussion.  If anybody has a good fill, a good groove, a good style, a good technique, a good lick, then I'm happy to borrow it.  

Fact is, as infinite as the possibilities might appear, there are only a finite number of combinations of strokes that you can make with four limbs and a kit with a finite number of pieces within a fixed number of beats.

And, frankly, at my age and having begun as late as did in drumming, the LAST thing that I am likely to pick nits over is whether or not every stroke of mine is something that I personally created.  I'm just happy as hell to be able to play and to have a guitarist and bassist who value ME enough as a drummer to be willing to drive 40 miles to my home to practice.  We've only just begun working on original material.  Mostly, we've worked on covers.  That's okay with me too.  

Am I an original?  You tell me.  I was already in my 50's when I first picked up drumsticks.  Within two years, I had my first opportunity to play out.   That night, we covered songs by Motorhead, The Misfits, The Ramones and Black Sabbath.  If THAT alone doesn't make me an original, then screw it.  I'll have to settle for being just a mediocre, inbred imitation.  I can live with that just as long as I get to play my bloody drums.    

It's  been a steep learning curve getting to that point.  Whatever "research" I had to do along the way, whatever shortcuts I had to take, and whatever I had to borrow from others who had been there before me -- I just DID it.  I didn't have time to waste, and certainly not enough time to worry about whether or not I was incorporating the style or technique of others.  

There was never any risk of my becoming a clone of any other drummer.  For one thing, I've incorporated elements from too many of them -- and then applied them in MY OWN WAY.   And for another, I'm quite frankly not GOOD enough to become a clone of any of them.  

I've discovered and developed plenty on my own, but it's still BASED upon the foundations that we all study ... the rudiments and such.   I didn't invent the drums or drumming.  Why worry about a few borrowed licks?  



 

The main reason I said that the drum parts for Weird Al's parodies usually follow the originals, is that it's still a true statement if they always follow the originals. That way, nobody can jump on and point to measure x in this song or that song. I'm glad I did because it worked. Of course, I'm convinced that there are a handful of incredibly subtle differences, so now I'm going to have to drive myself crazy listening for them. I completely forgot that Bermuda occasionally posts on here when I posted that.


Well, technically, that might be true, but even then, the number is so ridiculously large that it might as well be infinite. Consider playing a 4 beat fill on a drum kit with 2 toms, bass drum, snare, hi-hats, crash cymbal, and ride cymbal at about 120 bpm or so. Suppose you also restrict yourself to rhythms that are no faster than 16th notes. Likewise, assume that you can only hit one component of the drum kit at the time. Under these limitations, for any given note of the meaure, you have 10 choices: Snare, bass, hi tom, low tom, closed hi-hat, open hi-hat, crash cymbal, ride cymbal, ride bell, and nothing. Under all of these limitations, you can play (10^16)=10,000,000,000,000,000 different fills. This is a fixed number of beats on a fixed kit with strict limitations on the combonations of strokes. This is also a finite number. However, imagine how quickly this number becomes larger when we add sloshy hi-hats, crashing the ride cymbal, ornamental strokes like flams, accents, ghost notes, dynamic changes, multiple notes at one time, and all sorts of other ideas. For example, simply adding sloshy hi-hats increases this to (11^16)=45,949,729,863,572,161. So, if there is a finite number of combonations, it is ridiculously large, and we have not even begun to consider all of the variables.

Of those 10 quadrillion or so licks, how are we going to know which ones are good if we don't steal them? I just couldn't resist the opportunity to attempt to apply mathematics to music.

I should note, that depending on how we mathematically interpret some of the other factors, we could claim that there are in fact in infinite number of possibilites. For example, technically there are an infinite number of dynamics between mf and f. However, as a musician, I would argue that for all practical purposes, these differences would be to subtle too count. There are plenty of other factors that would have similar effects, but for all musical purposes, they have no reason to be included in any mathematical model.

Actually, after thinking more carefully about it, even the seemingly infinite factors should actually be finite.

The factors that could divert the amount of possiblities to infinity are all of the continous relationships. Hi-hats can be tightly closed, completely open, and everything in between. Notes can fall at any instant between the beats and subdivisions, and not just on the conventional subdivisions. This is more to account for factors such as playing ahead of the beat or behind it than it is to accomodate the theoretical existence of some really crazy rhythms. In the original model, this value becomes the exponent. Though we only have labels for a handful of dynamics, there are volumes between them.

Models for all of these factors would incorporate calculus in order to handle the infinitely small changes. I'm not going to take the time to try to develop a model for any of these factors, but it would involve representing them all as continous functions. As continous functions, we could then integrate, and near as I can, all of the ones I've mentioned should be finite. For example, a drum can be neither quieter than silent nor louder than its maximum volume, so despite the infinite number of values in between, this factor should be finite. The other situations are similar, as there are still distinct endpoints, despite the infinite number of possibilities in between.

So, since all of these are finite, and we're multiplying a bunch of finite numbers, we will still have a finite number. I'll still have to think more thoroughly about this, though, because if any one factor in the model is infinity, then the whole thing is infinity. I don't see any of the potential complications that would cause something to divert to infinity, but with this many variables to consider, infinity could slip in unnoticed pretty easily. It'll give me something to think about as I sleep tonight.

I love Vinnie Colaiuta's left hand technique, and I try to incorporate it to my playing. For my right I try to play like Jeff Porcaro. My legs are inspired by Tony Williams and Steve Smith.

I also love Tony's right hand ride-cymbal technique!!!!!!!!!!111

I remember a verse part I played with a band a little while ago and loved how it fit tight with the rhythm so I kept with it. It took me some time to notice that it sounded almost exactly like what Danny Carey plays on Stinkfist. So, I guess I'd say he's had some influence on me Vinnie Paul has had a pair of feet I have never grown tired of and spent most of my teenage years studying some of his amazing double kick technique and I owe a lot of my ability in that respect to him, especially with his maddeningly quick triplet blasts he liked to throw amidst an already speedy single stroke roll on some older Pantera songs. I know it will be a while before I can master that kind of speed and finesse with both feet. It's amazing to see that a lot of modern drummers are continuing to push the envelope and explore new ways of doing old things.