Secret Drummer

[anaxcrosswords]

In my early teens I think I wanted to be a drummer. Whenever a song was playing I’d be tapping my fingers on the arm of the sofa, trying to get the imaginary hi-hats/snare/toms right (can’t remember if I tried to get my feet in time with the kick) – I still do the same while driving although, thankfully, not quite to Alan Partridge extremes.
Actually taking up drums was never going to happen, but when it came to making a musical choice the bass was a given because the rhythmic interest was already there. I wonder which of these applies to bassists:

1) No interest in drums
2) Wanted/used to be a drummer but abandoned that for bass
3) Actively play – either as ‘bedroom’ drummer or within a band

Just as an aside, there’s a rhythm technique on drums which always defeated me, and I’m afraid Muse’s [i][b]Hysteria [/b][/i]rears its head yet again! Dom Howard’s use of disco-style open hats on the verses is coupled with a more complicated kick pattern, and I’ve never been able to make my feet work independently like that. Other way round isn’t so bad; I can mime straight kick and get the hi-hat foot to do more offbeat stuff.

[Dad3353]

[quote name='anaxcrosswords' timestamp='1432646539' post='2783530']...I wonder which of these applies to bassists:...
[/quote]

Definitely a '3' for me; in fact, I'm rather a drummer that plays bass (and guitar...) sometimes..! It's true that, especially in pop/rock and swing jazz, there's a lot to be said for having a tight complicity at least with one's alter ego (the drummer with the bassist and [i]vice versa[/i]...).
As for 'Hysteria', any of that stuff can be mastered reasonably easily if one has the patience to slow it all right down, get it right, then very, very slowly build back up to 'normal' tempo. This over several weeks, not minutes..! We've now taken that particular one off our repertoire, but it's not rocket surgery; there are worse..! There's a question of 'genre', too; much modern stuff has a heavy accent on the bass drum, but other styles, such as swing, get their 'lift' from a more constant 'chip chip chip' from the hi-hat, using the bass drum only sparingly as an accent. Not all drumming is disco-style 'One-one-one-one', thank goodness.

Edited May 26, 2015 by Dad3353

[discreet]

As a bass player who imagines his timing and feel to be exemplary and having played with more than one drummer whose timing and feel definitely was not, I feel qualified to if not [i]play [/i]the drums, then at least be able to [i]learn [/i]the drums adequately, given the time and facilities. And possibly to even enjoy it. But I haven't take the plunge yet... which is not to say that I won't.

My style is one of locking in with the drummer and forming a cohesive rhythm section so I listen to what the drummer is doing very closely, and I listen very closely to the drums on recordings... thus after all these years I like to think I can tell if a drummer is any good or not...

Edited May 26, 2015 by discreet

[KevB]

Yes I've quite fancied having a go on drums a few times but then having seen fellow band mates (and helped them) hump all the kit in from a van and set it up then break it all down at the end of the night I've decided just the few bits I do of my own gear is quite enough.

[EliasMooseblaster]

I'm somewhere between 2 and 3 on that list. The bass has always been, and probably always will be, my main instrument, but when I was about 16/17, my younger sister took an interest in the drums. We bought a kit from one of my friends, who had long since given up to focus on his guitar playing...at which point I had to sit down at the thing and work out how to play it, in order that I could teach her what to do. So definitely more of a bedroom drummer, but I've managed to get up at a couple of jam nights and bash the kit without embarrassing myself too much. No two ways about it, once you can relax behind the kit then the drums are great fun.

[cheddatom]

I started playing guitar when I was 7, and picked up bass when I was 15. I bought it because someone needed a bassist for a punk band, and I'd always been fascinated by the bass because my mum was well into motown, disco, and funk

When I was 22 our drummer left so I took up drumming to try and continue in the same sort of musical direction with my singer/guitarist mate. Drumming always just came naturally. Obviously there's a things you have to teach yourself - disconnecting your feet from your hands (mentally) was the first big hurdle

Anyway, I realise now that I've always been a drummer. I walk in time, I hear rhythms in all background noise, I drum with my teeth, feet, fingers, and hands, almost constantly, all my life. I remember playing with chop sticks on pots and pans when I was about 5.