Although male drummers dominate the drumming world, this doesn’t diminish the fact women can play drums equally well as men. All the women from our list are renowned world-class drummers who can play almost any type of music. So who are the best female drummers in the world right now?

Some of them are Instagram or YouTube sensations, but some are session musicians who played with artists such as Lenny Kravitz, Prince, Beyonce, and many more.

Here’s a list of the best female drummers of today.

Best female drummers list

Anika Niles

Anikka, considered the world’s best female drummer today by many drummers. She has a personal life that is as interesting and creative as her drumming style.

She started playing drums when she was just nine years old; since then, it’s been nothing but success for this German native.

From rankings in the top 10 to viral fame with over 8 million views on YouTube alone – Anikka deserves our admiration and respect! She made a breakthrough after her first video went viral.

The track is named “Wild Boy” and although the crowd remarkably accepted it, her second video, “Alter Ego” brought endorsements and the well-deserved place among drummers.

Sarah Thawer

Sarah’s father, a well-known musician himself, introduced her to the drums, and she never looked back.

At just 16 years old, Sarah Thawer has already played in big festivals like Calcutta Jazz Festival, where she performed among names such as Benny Greb.

She is one of few female drummers that have this much talent but also an equally creative personality.

In 2021 Sarah was nominated for Juno Awards! She worked with artists such as George Watsky, Jon Batiste, Sheila E., AR Rahman, Steve Weingart, Mark Lettieri, to name a few.

Thanks to her incredible drumming style, Sarah got endorsements from Yamaha, Remo, Istanbul, Gruv Gear, and 64 Audio.

Cindy Blackman

Some of you may know Cindy Blackman as a drummer for Lenny Kravitz, some as the wife of legendary guitarist Carlos Santana. Still, in the drumming community, she is widely popular as one of the best female drummers worldwide.

Cindy Blackman made a name playing with artists such as Buckethead and Joss Stone before branching out to work with artists like Pharoah Sanders, Sonny Simmons, Ron Carter (who’s also her husband), Sam Rivers, and Cassandra Wilson, among others.

Even though Art Blakey was an idol when it came to jazz drums, he didn’t make much impact on how she plays rock music

Sheila E

Sheila E. is an icon in the music industry and one of the most famous female drummers.

She started playing drums at 17, working with Prince, who was impressed by her drumming skills, so he gave Sheila a chance to perform on his award show for their Eighties category back when this was still relatively new territory.

Since then, we have seen many different phases in Sheila’s career, including singing which has given us plenty of opportunities to hear some gems that never made it onto The Glamorous Life but are worth checking out if you’re into R&B/Jazz vibes from the ’80s era!

Cora Coleman Dunham

Cora Coleman is an accomplished female drummer and entrepreneur. As a child, she played with her drum line from the time she was five years old until North Texas State University when it became clear to everyone around her just how talented this woman is!

She has performed with many well-known artists like Prince, Roger Nelson, Beyoncé Knowles, and Zucchero during their career peaks.

In 2013 Cora founded The VIVO Club, which provides “educational opportunities for girls 8 – 18.” Cora’s first introduction to music came at age five as part of the school rock band in San Antonio, where he grew up before playing on stage professionally by age 16.

Senri Kawaguchi

Senri Kawaguchi was born in Tokyo, Japan. She began playing the drums at age 13 after encouragement from her father, and by 15, she had been accepted to the High School of Music & Art in New York City, where she was a member of the school’s top drumline for four years.

In Japan, she is known as a pioneer in the all-girl band movement.

Senri Kawaguchi has performed at various venues throughout New York City and was also invited to play with The Brand New Heavies. In addition, Senry’s talents have been featured in numerous magazines, including Modern Drummer.

Madden Klass

Maden Klass is a drumming sensation whose popularity was catapulted when she released her first video on Instagram. She is very popular,  with a following of over 100k and has drummed for bands like The Flaming Lips.

When she isn’t practicing drums or attending classes at Berklee College of Music in Boston. Maden’s main influences include John Bonham of Led Zeppelin, Steve Ferrone, Joey Waronker.

Maden is currently working as a touring drummer for Mike Doughty (of Soul Coughing).

Nikkie Glaspie

After her appearance on Zildjian Live, people were amazed by her incredible skill. For some musicians she was unknown, but for musicians in the RnB world, she is a widely known drummer.

She has been touring with Janelle Monae since 2010 and had the pleasure of playing with Prince, Erykah Badu, M83.

In 2014 she was featured in a video by DigiTech, which captured her drumming skills from multiple angles so everyone could see what fantastic talent this woman possesses!

Her influences are Tony Williams (who also plays drums), Clyde Stubblefield (famous James Brown’s band member who played on “Funky Drummer”), Al Jackson Jr., Arto Lindsay

Hanah Welton

Prince loved girl drummers; that’s why they’re a couple of drummers on our list who played with him. Hannah is one of them.

She played for Bellevue Suite when she got a call to join Prince’s band 3rdeyegirl.

That’s where she met her husband Joshua, who co-produced 3 of Prince’s albums and played live with him.

First professional experience as a drummer was at the age of 12 with her father’s band. She studied at the Chicago College of Performing Arts.

Terry Lyne Carrington

Terry was always interested in music as a child. She first discovered jazz when she and her family attended the Monterey Jazz Festival, which inspired Terry to start studying piano at age 8.

Though it took several years of hard work for Terry to become proficient on the instrument, by high school, she had begun playing professionally with Dizzy Gillespie’s band; this experience led to an invitation from Wayne Shorter that helped launch her career into international fame.

Terry is best known for working with legendary pianist Herbie Hancock during the 1997-2007 time period.

Camellia Akhami Kies

Camelia is one of the top female drummers on Instagram and an entrepreneur. She is known for her drum covers on Instagram that feature various musical styles, from acoustic to electronic sounds with percussion incorporated into each song.

Camelia’s most recent project has been Akhamie Music, where she offers classes for children and adults who are interested in learning how to play drums or other instruments such as guitar or piano!

She uses Roland samplers – which allows you “to manipulate digital audio files beyond standard editing functions.

Emanuelle Caplete

Emanuelle is a percussionist, drummer, sound artist, and composer born in 1981. She holds an honors degree from the “Conservatorio di Musica” of Pesaro (Italy), where she studied with Massimo Minini.

In 2013 Andy Summers’s band Circa Zero hired Emanuelle as their musical director and drummer after hearing her play live at The Blue Note Jazz Club in New York City. After that, they toured America together for three weeks before heading to Europe on November 8 that same year.

Since then, Emanuelle has played drums alongside Stephane Rousseau (2013-2015), Giorgio Gaslini (2014), Fernanda Abbate (2012).

Taylor Gordon, aka Pocket queen

Taylor Gordon is a young and successful drummer from Virginia. At age 10, she picked up her first drum set for the very first time after practicing drums on pots in her kitchen with rubber gloves for months before that.

She took some years off to finish school but never lost sight of music as an essential part of life!

At only 16, Taylor went on tour with several artists, including Andrea Bocelli, and opened his Boston show.

This experience led to many more incredible opportunities like sharing stages alongside Beyonce, Musiq Soulchild, or Robert Glasper, to name a few.

Kimberly Thompson

Most of you might not know, but hardly any girl in the history of music made as much a mark on drums as Kimberly Thompson.

In her early days, Thompson used to play with Mike Stern (jazz guitarist) and became widely known for playing alongside Beyonce, Jay Z, and Kanye West.

She is currently president of KTMUSICPRODUCTIONS (music label company) based in New York City. She graduated from Manhattan School for Music’s prestigious Jazz Composition & Education program with a Bachelor’s degree in Music Arts.

Bianca Richardson

If you are not familiar with Bianca Richardson, you are missing out. The drumming community first heard about Bianca after she won Stanley Clarke’s contest.

After that, she won 2nd place in the “Hit like a girl” contest which opened many doors. She was on a cover of Drum Mag, Top Tom Mag, featured on a Drum Channel by DW.

She performed with artists such as Selena Gomez, James David (Davie), Art Menezes, Prime Writez, Genevieve Artadi, Nick Walker, Marcus Miller, and many more!

Wiktoria Bialic

Wiktoria is a polish female drummer who started with classical music before she got into jazz and rock. She was the champion in the “Rock for people” contest, finalist in many other contests such as the “Erica Dallmann trophy” “New drums generation Poland.”

Bialic won the “Hit like a girl” contest in 2021. A year before, she was a finalist of the same contest. She had the opportunity to record single Dark Dark Days alongside Ash Soan.

The Polish drummer also recorded for Grammy-winning musicians such as Ondre J. Pavic.

Conclusion

Ranging from jazz to rock, the best female drummers in music are as diverse as their musical influences.

Here’s a list of some of our favorite musicians who have made significant contributions to the world of drums and percussion through not only their talent but also by being trailblazers for other women looking for careers in this male-dominated industry.

Who is your favorite female drummer?

Let us know in the comments!

By Nicolas Grizzle

The Pioneering History of E-Drum and MIDI Percussion Pioneers KAT, Inc.

Though it may not be a household name like some other brands, the electronic percussion world owes a debt of gratitude to the scrappy, independent minds at KAT for pushing the boundaries of MIDI percussion instruments, starting in the mid 1980’s and continuing through today.

KAT’s bread and butter is creating new instruments and innovating existing designs to have more capability and playability than what’s currently available. Starting with its very first products, the innovations coming from this young, upstart company from Massachusetts were forcing the bigger companies to push their own R&D further, much to the benefit of drummers everywhere.

KAT entered the electronic percussion world with a major splash when it released the malletKAT, a MIDI-based mallet percussion controller, in 1986. “Out of nowhere we were up there with Yamaha and Roland,” says Mario DeCiutiis, who was the company’s sales director at the time. “Our product was better than theirs. We caught them by surprise.”

DeCiutiis met KAT founder Bill Katoski in 1984 after reading a magazine article about his work on building an electronic mallet percussion instrument. DeCiutiis was (and still is) a professional orchestral percussionist, and he was intrigued by the potential of this idea. He quickly came on board as the company’s salesman and convinced Katoski to redesign the instrument to take advantage of the recently standardized MIDI technology.

The malletKAT was such a solid design that it was the only widely available instrument of its kind on the market for 30 years and remains a popular choice for professional percussionists. Today, many scores even have parts specifically written for the malletKAT (it often appears notated for “KAT” in the score), including for Radio City Music Hall, where DeCiutiis has played for the past 40 years.

KAT products are known for their durability and upgradability, and for being designed with players in mind above all else. “My goal is to make the best instrument, not caring if I sell a million of them, but establishing it as the most musical controller out there,” says DeCiutiis.

KAT is still going strong, designing new instruments and adding upgrades to tried-and-true designs. You may recognize some of their incredibly sensitive and responsive instruments like the malletKAT, drumKAT, jamKAT, and trapKAT (sensing a naming pattern yet?). They’re also well known amongst electronic and hybrid drumming enthusiasts for their hybrid drumheads the In-Head and On-Head and electronic drum modules and adaptors like the DITI (Drum Intelligent Trigger Interface) and FTB (FSR Trigger Box).

In 2013 KAT entered into a licensing deal with KMC Music (a subsidiary of Fender Music) to create a line of beginner and intermediate products under the KAT Percussion name and compete in the electronic drum market. In 2015 the license was transferred to DW Drums and then to Hal Leonard in 2017, where it remains today. While Alternate Mode continues to innovate and introduce new products, the KAT brand is focused on broadening the appeal and availability to more drummers with traditional drum set configurations for drummers at different stages of their musical career.

After his initial success as a sales director, DeCiutiis later became a vice-president of the company and today, nearly 40 years later, is the owner. What made it such a good fit from the outset, says DeCiutiis, is that he was a pro player who knew what was important to working professionals and Katoski was a brilliant engineer who could design and build just about any instrument DeCiutiis dreamed up. Together, they developed some game-changing and long-lasting electronic percussion instruments.

Here’s a timeline of KAT’s major moments, including releases of key innovative products and their impact on the musical world.

1984: KAT, Inc. is Founded

Bill Katoski had designed an electronic mallet percussion instrument called the Synare MP in 1981 for a company called Star Instruments and bought the rights to it when that company went out of business shortly thereafter. He began working on an updated version with his wife Maria and soon brought on professional orchestral percussionist Mario Deciutiis to form KAT, Inc. Their first instrument was a professional level mallet instrument with eight-note polyphonic synthesis and 16 sequencer banks, as well as on-board sounds that were as good if not better than similar instruments on the market at the time.

1986: malletKAT

With more and more products taking advantage of the new MIDI standardization, KAT saw the writing on the wall early and took to the drawing board to redesign the Synare MP. While Katoski knew that MIDI was the way to go, his early attempts at making this new instrument had failed. Undeterred, he brought a nonfunctional shell of the instrument to NAMM in January 1986 and was surprised at the high amount of interest. It turns out that at that same show was another company demonstrating a component that would unlock the potential of KAToski’s design—the force-sensing resistor (FSR).

The problems that existed in the original KAT MIDI Percussion Controller could be traced back to the piezo sensors used in the original design to trigger the player’s hits to the computer, which would generate the desired sounds. The new FSR sensors were much more sensitive and responsive to dynamics, and soon after NAMM the first working KAT MIDI Percussion Controller was in production. (The name was soon changed to malletKAT.)

Simmons, a giant in electronic percussion at the time, soon released a competing product called the Silicon Mallet and used its large advertising budget to open the world’s eyes to the idea of MIDI percussion controllers. The Silicon Mallet fizzled out, but the public now had an appetite for this type of product and KAT was happy to fill the need.

The FSR sensor that really set this instrument apart is still part of KAT’s DNA today, and it is used in all their top-tier instruments. Most other electronic percussion instruments on the market today continue to be designed with the less expensive but less-sensitive piezo pickups, but the FSR sensor remains a hallmark of KAT instruments.

1988: drumKAT

The drumKAT was the company’s first foray beyond the mallet percussion world. This was KAT’s upgraded answer to the Octapad, which had been released a couple years prior and was being touted as an add-on to a drum or percussion setup. The drumKAT took the idea and, in true KAT fashion, made a few choice upgrades. When it was released, the drumKAT was the only product of its kind using the more advanced FSR sensors and had 10 programmable zones with inputs for 9 more trigger units on top of that, making it the most powerful and versatile MIDI multipad the time. The rectangular unit is immediately recognizable by its playing surface reminiscent of “mouse ears.” An updated version, the drumKAT Turbo, was released in 1998. It has since been updated again and is now sold as the drumKAT Hybrikit.

1996: Reboot as Alternate Mode

In 1995, KAT, Inc. went out of business and Bill Katoski left the company. Mario DeCiutiis bought the company and rebranded it as Alternate Mode. Originally, DeCiutiis says he planned to be a repair shop to service KAT products already in the field. But the itch for innovation was too strong and demand for new products from the company was still out there, and it wasn’t long before Alternate Mode began releasing updated versions of existing KAT products and introducing new instruments.

2010: Drum Intelligent Trigger Interface (DITI)

The introduction of the DITI is another example of how KAT (under the Alternate Mode name) was ahead of its time. The DITI is a trigger-to-MIDI interface that allows users to combine the FSR-based KAT products with any other type of trigger into one drum module. This was a revolutionary step because FSR triggers require external power, and prior to this it was not possible to combine FSR triggers and other triggers into one setup with one streamlined unit. The DITI acted as a hub, sorting out all the different types of electronic data with preset kit types.

Updated versions included a library of 50 preset kit configurations from many different manufacturers. It also has the option to connect via MIDI or USB to a computer’s sound library, or connect to another drum module to use its sounds and configurations.

Older electronic drum kits can get a new lease on life when the DITI is used in place of their own brain, and the creative power of a low-cost, entry-level electronic drum kit is vastly expanded when paired with the DITI. Plus, it can be used as the brain of a system with other triggers, allowing users to design and build their own e-kit, or mix and match their favorite e-drum components, including acoustic drums with any type of trigger.

2013: New Licensing Deal and Expansion of Available Instruments

Recognizing the need for expansion, Alternate Mode licensed the KAT name to expand distribution and start adding in entry- and mid-level instruments from overseas to the product line. This resulted in the KT series of electronic drum sets whith has enabled KAT instruments to be available in a wider range of homes for professionals, hobbyists and students alike. Alternate Mode continues to innovate and produce products under its own brand name, as well the KAT Percussion name, for professional players.

2018: Hybrid Drumhead Technology

KAT, innovating as Alternate Mode, saw the trend toward hybrid drum sets early on and developed one drumhead to handle both acoustic and electronic needs. The Hybrihead was developed with Aquarian (and co-released by Aquarian as the In-Head) to be quality sounding acoustic head that went above and beyond the current standard sensitivity of electronic triggers thanks to the implementation of FSR sensors. A quiet pad version to be placed atop a standard drumhead was also released (known as the Hybripad and On-Head).

Played acoustically, it’s impossible to tell it is a hybrid drumhead. Plugging it in via a nondescript 1/4″ jack enables the head to trigger the any sound in your sample library. This makes it easy to blend miked acoustic drums with electronic samples, or switch between the two with the push of a button.

2021: New E-Drum Sets

For the first time in five years, KAT released updated electronic drum sets including the KT-100, the KT-200 and the KT-300. The updates include a new color scheme (everyone’s favorite: black), as well as larger, mesh heads on the KT-300.

Find out more at KATPercussion.com

Drummers learn to play by watching and listening to fellow drummers. But to learn improvisation, drummers should also train their ears on the other musicians onstage.

By David A. Brensilver | Photographs: Courtesy Of Erskine’s Biography, No Beethoven

For nearly 40 years, Peter Erskine has been one of the world’s most admired and sought-after drummers. Since working with the Stan Kenton Orchestra, Maynard Ferguson, and the iconic jazz-fusion group Weather Report, Erskine has recorded with and performed alongside a veritable who’s who of artists across musical genres — from Steely Dan and Joni Mitchell to the Brecker Brothers, John Scofield, and Pat Metheny — mining the depths of countless styles and adding generously to the drumming vocabulary. Erskine recently shared lessons he’s learned throughout his remarkable career, from equally legendary artists — most of them nondrummers — about improvisation. What follows are his reflections on those inspiring and thought-provoking moments, as well as the influential colleagues whose advice he’s enthusiastically heeded.

Joe Zawinul: Compose When You Play
In 1970, composer and keyboardist Joe Zawinul founded the seminal jazz-fusion group Weather Report with saxophonist Wayne Shorter. Erskine worked with the group from 1978 to 1982, and again in 1985. Around ’78, Zawinul gave Erskine what the latter describes as the “biggest improvisational direction in terms of being a complete, creative musician.”

“Probably the most important thing that Joe said to me while I was working with him in Weather Report was to always compose when I play. And what is improvisation but instant composition? And so the ethos of the band, I think, and what he felt was the most important thing for us to do as contributing members, would be to be in the moment, to be spontaneous, to not play anything that was hackneyed or clichéd. So when I think of improvisation, I’m treating the entire playing process as improvisation, even though I’m adhering to the form of a song or guidelines of a chart and trying to handle whatever ensemble needs are brought about because of the arrangement or the tune. The beautiful thing about playing the drums is that I think more than any other instrument, we’re faced with constant opportunities to make choices, or the constant obligation to make choices.”

George Gaber: Embrace a Less-Can-Be-More Approach
A percussionist who worked with numerous orchestras, Gaber joined the faculty of Indiana University in 1960, and developed the school’s now-celebrated percussion department. While not a drum set player, per se, Gaber challenged Erskine, who studied at Indiana University during the early- and mid-1970s, to embrace a less-can-be-more approach to his setup.

“Gaber was a wonderful percussionist and a brilliant teacher. He played a little bit of drum set, but not much, and I don’t know kit. But talking to me during a lesson, he said, “What are you doing this weekend? Do you have a gig? Why don’t you try just taking your snare drum and your hi-hat?” And of course [in] this band we were doing kind of fusion stuff, and so I said, “No, I can’t do that” — but also, I can’t do that because I have to impress people when I play. And I realized later, what he was trying to get me to do was, in fact, what some of our favorite drummers did on some of our favorite recordings. The fewer instruments you have, generally, the more creative you need to be. Now, that doesn’t mean you need to be busier or more mischievous, but you do have to be more creative.”

Dan Haerle: Be Active, Not Just Reactive
The pianist and composer taught for many years at the University Of North Texas and remains a highly regarded educator and clinician who, in 2013, was elected to the International Association For Jazz Education Hall Of Fame. At a Stan Kenton Jazz Camp in Sacramento, California, in the early ’70s, Haerle encouraged Erskine to be a more active part of musical conversations.

“Dan Haerle and I played part of a concert in duo. We played two or three free pieces, and I thought I’d done a very good job listening and responding — and Dan was quite charitable and generous afterwards. But he was fairly quick to point out, “You were only reacting to what I did.” He said, “You never gave me any input.” So, I was treating improvisation purely as a response, and I was never issuing the call for the call and response. Improvisation needs to be a two-way street or more when you’re working with other musicians. We try to be polite and we try to be good citizens and what we’re really doing is, oftentimes, really handcuffing the creativity of the other musician, especially if we start echoing back what they played, because then they have no freedom to say anything because it’s going to get spit right back in their face.”

Wayne Shorter: Provide Counterpoint, Avoid Imitation
Shorter, the legendary saxophonist and composer who in 1970 cofounded Weather Report with Joe Zawinul, urged Erskine (as had Zawinul) around 1979 to provide counterpoint during improvisations, not simply to imitate what a soloist does.

“I was playing every night in duet with Wayne as part of the song ‘Black Market.’ And the particular performance that was chosen for this live album that Weather Report released called 8:30, I’m in the studio with Joe Zawinul and the engineer and they’re playing back this duet in

‘Black Market.’ And I stand next to Joe by the big playback speakers and Joe goes, ‘Sounds good.’ That made me feel pretty good. And then at that point of the dotted eighth-note figure or dotted quarter-note, depending on how you’re counting. So he was doing this sequential kind of hemiola over the groove. And I catch the last three or four of those. And at that point of the playback, Zawinul turns to me with a really sour face, almost disgusted looking, and he says, ‘Too bad you had

to do that.’ And then later the band was in rehearsal and Wayne started playing something across the rhythmic grain, and I caught it. And he stopped playing. He turned around and he said, ‘Don’t do that.’ So I realized, eventually, if the rhythm section is creating a brilliant blue back-ground, and the soloist all of a sudden carves a searing white diagonal across it, that’s not our cue to change to white.”

Jaco Pastorius: Trust Your Instincts
The eternally influential electric bass player was Erskine’s rhythm-section partner during his tenure in Weather Report. As Erskine developed as an improviser, learning from those with whom he was working at the time, Pastorius advised him to follow his musical instincts.

“In the midst of all this, now, I’m trying to incorporate all this advice, and I’m beginning to get self-conscious, I’m not responding as freely because I’ve got these improvisational rules. And then Jaco was all fed up, because he’d gotten me in the band and he’s sensing and hearing this difference. So he says,

‘Stop thinking so much. Just concentrate.’ And what that meant was listen. Stop over-thinking the thing, just listen, then you’ll know what to play. So, he was trying to get me back to my initial, very fresh state when I joined the band, when I was completely fearless, even though I had a lot to learn. And so when you improvise, you have to give yourself permission to trust your instincts.”

John Abercrombie: Make Good Tonal Choices
Working with the acclaimed jazz guitarist during the mid-to-late ’80s in a trio with bassist Marc Johnson presented Erskine with a new challenge and an opportunity to think about orchestration.

“It wasn’t so much anything that John said to me, but I realized when I was playing with him in this three-way improvisation of the trio that I couldn’t rely on playing devices I had come to rely upon — or playing on certain parts of the kit, because the rack tom, for example, would often be in the same tonal, midrange area as John’s guitar. And then I realized I’m just kind of his notes are wiping out whatever I’m play-ing. So, if I’m improvising with him, I have to be much more aware of my tonal choices — the orchestration.”

Marc Johnson: Know When to Stay The Course
Erskine and bassist Marc Johnson, with whom he worked alongside guitarist John Abercrombie and on other projects during the late 1980s, spent a lot of time experimenting with contrapuntal ideas and with timekeeping itself.

“Marc and I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what worked and what didn’t in terms of bass and drums. And again, it was: Are we being empathetic or are we getting in each other’s way? And so if Marc wanted to break away from the time, then that would be the time for me to keep playing the time. So, in a rhythm section, a lot of times the best way to improvise is to stay the course; to know when to intentionally play something that’s different from what you’ve been playing or keep playing what you were playing. And oftentimes we would do this not just in the sort of obvious [way], just start bending the time, he would just start pushing the edge of the beat and start playing a little bit faster. And so sure, I could go with him, but it was always way more interesting when I didn’t.

Eliane Elias: Eschew Interruption
Erskine worked with the Brazilian pianist and vocalist in Steps Ahead, a jazz-fusion group led by vibraphonist Mike Mainieri that released an eponymous album in 1983. When Erskine produced his first instruction book, Drum Concepts And Techniques in 1987, he asked Elias to write a blurb (as it’s known in the trade) to help promote it.

“Eliane said, ‘Don’t play a fill every two bars.’ She may have also said, ‘Don’t play a downbeat every two bars,’ but she definitely didn’t want a fill. So, in terms of improvising, again, it’s knowing kind of when to show your cards or when to keep them a little closer to your chest. So that’s a big part of improvisation. ‘Don’t play a fill every two bars.’ Part of playing a beat is playing a beat.”

Shelly Berg: Give The Soloist Room To Play
In addition to having worked as a pianist with an impressive list of renowned artists and serving as dean of the University Of Miami’s Frost School Of Music, Berg is the music director of The Jazz Cruise, an annual weeklong festival at sea that features a stellar lineup of artists. Erskine participated in February 2015, and, during the cruise, did a presentation with Berg that reminded him of previous lessons learned.

“I was part of a presentation, ‘The Art Of The Trio.’ But the bass player got the wrong message about the presentation, so he wasn’t there. So it became ‘The Art Of The Duo.’ So I just started playing. And then [Berg] started playing a tune and we took it from there, and we tried a couple different grooves to show how drums and piano can function with or without a bass. One thing he said was: ‘As a rhythm section, you don’t want to paint the soloist into a corner, as an improvising accompanist.’”

John Wyre: Let An Improvisation Be What It Is
An orchestral percussionist, composer, and champion of contemporary music, Wyre was a founding member of the trailblazing Toronto-based percussion ensemble Nexus. At one point, he shared with Erskine the oft-repeated Chinese proverb “The bird does not sing because it has an answer; it sings because it has a song.” That stuck with and inspired Erskine who, in 2012, wrote and released a percussion piece called “A Bird Sings” in memory of Wyre, who’d passed away six years earlier. Shortly before Wyre died in 2006, Erskine paid him a visit during which Wyre pointed out that an improvisation doesn’t have to spin heads.

“John — rest in peace — was a founding member of Nexus, and improvisation was a big thing with them. And I noticed when he would improvise, he had a tremendous amount of patience. He was never in a hurry for the improvisation to go any specific place. And I visited him in his home in St. John’s, Newfoundland, not too long before he passed away. And he said, ‘Come on, I want to show you my improvising machine.’ It was a large, marimba-like instrument. You could play it standing on either side of the instrument. And John started playing and I started playing and I was being a little clever and John just smiled. He kept playing this very simple thing. I was being kind of fast and busy. And John wasn’t in any hurry to go anywhere. And so oftentimes the beauty in improvisation is you don’t need to hit a home run. To John’s way of thinking and seeing life and hearing, it exists as it is, and it is what it is.”

This article originally appeared in the May 2015 issue of DRUM! magazine. This is the first time it has been published online.

Video and text by Nicolas Grizzle

Chicago Drum Company began in 2011, when Jim Moritz and a friend wondered if they could put their collective experience from working at the Slingerland factory to good use and make a snare drum. Moritz had already been working on drums, doing restoration on vintage tubs, when the thought occurred to make his own. “It sounded amazing,” he says. In fact, it reminded them of that “old school” sound they love about vintage drums like Slingerland, something they felt was lacking in modern drums.

They kept at it, and eventually expanded to making full drum sets. Now, Chicago Drum Co. has built a reputation for making high-quality drums in the vintage style. Moritz stuck with the maple/poplar or mahogany/poplar combo because of its versatility, he says. Plus, it has been a tried and true wood choice for drums for so long, he knew it would work.

Drum Workshop bought the trademark for Slingerland in 2019, but we have yet to see products released from the line. DW has said it’s reboot will focus on quality, and begin with the release of a new Radio King snare drum.

Doc Sweeny Drums released a Radio King-style snare drum in 2018, and continues to make vintage-sounding steam-bent snare drums and drum sets. Chicago Drum Co. is also on that list of drums being made right now that can be compared to the vintage “Slingerland style” or sound. The similarities are not only in the build and wood selection, but the old Slingerland factory was located in Chicago, just like Moritz’s Chicago Drum Co., and he’s got experience actually working at the factory.

Check out the video above to hear more about Moritz’s family history with Slingerland, how he makes his drums, what he feels the most important part of a drum is, and how he came to be the owner of a massive 1980’s Slingerland drum set, which he houses in an awesome drum room complete with tons of Slingerland memorabilia.

By Drum! Staff

If you’re like most drummers, it’s likely that you keep a stable of drumming styles tucked in your back pocket, ready to whip out at a moment’s notice. However, if you’re really and truly like most drummers (and can be brutally honest with yourself) chances are you still have trouble with a number of styles, and might never completely nail some of them. Don’t worry. You’re definitely not alone.

Master drummers who can sound authentic in any given drumming style are members of an ultra-elite club. Not only have they learned the stickings and rhythms inherent in every style on the planet, they also know how to make them feel right, which is perhaps the trickiest part. That’s why we call them chameleons. Some, like Vinnie Colaiuta, are so versatile that they almost don’t have a signature style. They simply fade into whatever arrangement they have to play, be it metal, jazz, fusion, or pop. Others, though, simply possess a distinct style that is so malleable that they can sound at home without compromising their identity.

So here’s our list of the top ten chameleons from the past and present that set bars far too high for most of us to ever reach—although that’s no excuse to stop trying!

Tony Williams

When Tony Williams first strode on stage with jazz icon Miles Davis in 1962, at the tender age of 17, he’d in fact already clocked professional experience with saxophonists Jackie McLean and Sam Rivers. While he displayed a mastery of metric modulation and polyrhythmic play early on, which left a lasting influence on drummers of all stripes who followed, it would have been impossible at that gig to predict the wide range of styles he would tackle throughout his career. From bebop sessions with Miles and avant-garde explorations with Eric Dolphy, to his invention of jazz fusion with Life Time, reggae sides with Jimmy Cliff, and rock cuts with Yoko Ono and Public Image Ltd., Williams could seemingly fit into any stylistic situation without ever forsaking his sound. Who knows what else he would have taken on if he hadn’t died prematurely of a heart attack at age 51.

Steve Smith

It’s no coincidence that Steve Smith and Vinnie Colaiuta share the same uncanny ability to fade into any new style they encounter, since Smith and Colaiuta became fast friends while studying with Alan Dawson at Berklee College Of Music in the ’70s. Under Dawson’s tutelage, Smith developed such a wide drumming vocabulary that, upon leaving the school, he quickly established his remarkable flexibility by taking gigs with jazz violinist Jean Luc-Ponty, followed by short stints with early prog rockers Focus and guitar shredder Ronnie Montrose, before replacing Aynsley Dunbar in Journey just as the arena rock hit makers were about to reach their peak popularity. While jazz and fusion sessions with artists like Vital Information and Buddy’s Buddies make up much of Smith’s most celebrated output since he left Journey in 1985, he’s continued to work with such rock and pop acts as Mariah Carey, Y&T, and Savage Garden.

Dennis Chambers

A child prodigy, Dennis Chambers began playing professional gigs at the age of six in his hometown of Baltimore. By the time he graduated from high school in 1978, he had ample chops and experience under his belt to get drafted into George Clinton’s Parliament/Funkadelic collective, which kept him busy for the next nine years. But something interesting happened when he left Clinton’s outfit in 1985. Rather than rushing right into another funk gig, Chambers—a self-taught drummer—decided to see how far he could take his chops. Like a caterpillar metamorphosing into a butterfly, he emerged from his intensive woodshedding as one of the most formidable jazz fusion drummers around, and has since been in high demand by such esteemed fusion artists as John Scofield, Stanley Clarke, John McLaughlin, and Mike Stern. Stretching his stylistic wings even further, he took the gig as the full-time drummer in Santana in 2002.

Omar Hakim

With the help of houseguests such as John Coltrane, Elvin Jones, and Art Blakey, and a professional gig with his father Hasan Hakim (trombonist with Duke Ellington and Count Basie), ten-year-old Omar Hakim experienced quite a musical kick-start. At 21 he was introduced—by friend and bassist extraordinaire Marcus Miller—to vibraphonist Mike Manieri, which led to a coveted touring gig with Carly Simon in 1980. One of the most versatile drummers in history, Hakim has played with artists from Miles Davis, Madonna, and Weather Report to David Bowie, Sting, and recently, Daft Punk. Hakim is celebrated for both his free-flowing, stream of consciousness approach and his infectious, straight-ahead dance grooves. His jazz drummer’s sensibility allows him to create many sounds on a small kit, but he also taps into his inner geek squad by using cutting edge technology (including electronic kits) live and in the studio.

Peter Erskine

It seems that Peter Erskine may have sprung from the womb as a drumming multi-stylist. As a precocious seven-year-old, Erskine won an audition into Stan Kenton’s 1961 jazz camp, and while receiving priceless instruction there, he began a lifelong habit of listening to diverse music from classical to African to Caribbean. Soon after he landed gigs with The Stan Kenton Orchestra and Maynard Ferguson. Erskine has since performed with Weather Report, Steps Ahead, Bob Mintzer’s Big Band, Steely Dan, Diana Krall, and Kate Bush; played on film scores such as the Austin Powers movies; and premiered the opera Anna Nicole at the Royal Opera House in London. As his prodigious career has unfolded, an unmistakable style has developed: a marriage of unremitting musicality and raw emotion. Now at the age of 59, Erskine continues to fit his trademark sound into endless musical environments—while keeping that boyish grin on his face.

Stanton Moore

If you have any doubt that Stanton Moore is a drummer-contortionist, you need to go on a jambalaya diet. After all, New Orleans is the melting pot of musical styles—just walk down Bourbon Street and take a listen—and native beat-ologist Moore is the epitome of this gumbo. His most well-known groups, Galactic and Garage À Trois, are vehicles for his exuberant, slamming funk but also reveal tinges of blues, jazz, and hip-hop. He has worked with Corrosion Of Conformity (heavy metal), Street Sweeper Social Club (hard hip-hop), Irma Thomas (the “Soul Queen Of New Orleans”), New Orleans Klezmer Allstars, and is about to release a straight-ahead jazz album. Moore is able to fit into all of these different-sized musical boxes by studying the drumming greats before him. His flexibility and creativity allow him to play what’s right for the music while still making it his own.

Dave Weckl

What happens when a “little” talent is combined with inextinguishable passion and the courage to do it your own way? Introducing Dave Weckl. Exploding onto the scene in New York City in the early ’80s, Weckl’s friends helped him pave a diverse career path: Peter Erskine recommended him for French Toast (a precursor to the Michel Camilo Band); Anthony Jackson (bassist) brought him into the Simon & Garfunkel touring band; and Michael Brecker (saxophonist) suggested him for Chick Corea’s Elektric Band. (Weckl played in this project along with the Akoustic Band for many years.) He has also been called in to do sessions with Diana Ross, Madonna, Natalie Cole, Eliane Elias, and the GRP Allstar Big Band. Weckl has produced a number of educational products, has become a professional mixing engineer, and composes music for his own band. Enjoy the fact that this shapeshifter will never rest.

Steve Gadd

If you ask people about their favorite Steve Gadd moment, four out of five times they cite the 17-second passage off “Aja” from the Steely Dan album of the same name. And while there’s no doubt that his “Aja” solo was nothing short of masterful, it was but one of countless defining moments in Gadd’s storied career. From popularizing the Mozambique to the marching- band–esque beat that propelled Paul Simon’s “50 Ways To Leave Your Lover” to collaborations with artists as unlikely as pop-folkie Edie Brickell and jazz maestro Chick Corea to blues legend B.B. King, chances are most music lovers are fans of Steve Gadd’s drumming whether they know it or not. Credit Gadd’s invisibility to selfless yet singular playing—a fine line to walk indeed. As session bassist Lee Sklar said in the pages of this magazine some years ago “He’s got a unique ability to take the mundane and make it special.”

Cindy Blackman-Santana

When Cindy Blackman was seen slamming down fat grooves behind Lenny Kravitz in the early ’90s, fans figured she was just a hard-hitter with great feel. One of the most dedicated jazz drummers of her generation and an ardent champion of Tony Williams, she has gone in wildly different directions under the fusion umbrella. Note that 2010 release Another Lifetime—a Williams tribute—saw Blackman-Santana essay an eclectic range of styles and moods, not merely inspired covers. A later project, Spectrum Road, a jazz-rock group she formed with Vernon Reid and Jack Bruce, saw her take the Williams worship into a funkily weird-cool direction. Collaborations with husband Carlos Santana brought out a Latin-tinged facet of her playing, which just as quickly morphs into the experimental forays of her current solo band.

Keith Carlock

If the intimidating length and genre-spanning variety of Keith Carlock’s résumé doesn’t qualify the Mississippi native and North Texas State music school graduate as a chameleon drummer, we don’t know what does. From the new-music frontiers of Leni Stern and Oz Noy to the lowest common denominator possible (Clay Aiken) and every crowd-pleaser in between (John Mayer, Rascal Flatts, and recently, Toto) it seems the 42-year-old can play with just about anyone. Does all this mean that while on the kit he erases his artistic identity? Yes, but that’s kind of the point. (If you want to see a personal side to his playing, there’s always that four-hour Hudson DVD). Maybe it’s his Southern roots but Carlock’s clinics betray the occasional weakness for second line grooves and complex linear funk, but those displays of flawless technique and head-bobbing musicality are the twin drivers behind getting those high-profile session calls in the first place.

Kenny Aronoff : It’s Okay To Be A Stylist, Too

Interview by Andrew Lentz
When only a deep, earth-shaking groove will suffice, you need Kenny Aronoff, the shaved-dome slammer who first rocked the world in the mid-’80s with the humongous drum sound of John Cougar. From the Grammys to the annual Kennedy Center Honors, Aronoff regularly gets the high-pressure all-eyes-on-him gigs. Not that the first-call drummer can’t blend into different musical situations, but with a signature sound so in demand, well, the Aronizer obliges.

Was finding your voice a sudden thing or painstakingly gradual?
John Mellencamp [formerly Cougar] knew more about what was right about his music than I did. I was so bored playing his music at first, I recorded “Hurt So Good” left-handed. I remember sitting down to do a playback and going, “Stewart Copeland gets to play all the cool grooves and I’m stuck playing this stuff.” And then, bam, it hit me. I felt the energy of my personality coming through those speakers and all the music around it just driving that song with feel and simplicity and power. That was it. I was on my way.

How did you control the impulse to overplay?
When I got in the Mellencamp band I didn’t know how to play “less is more.” I was trying to be like Billy Cobham and I remember thinking at one point, “If I don’t learn to love this I shouldn’t do this because there’s somebody out there who’s going to do it better than me.” It took me about two years but I finally got it. I was listening to Charlie Watts and Phil Rudd and some John Bonham, anything that had simple grooves. I learned to simplify my playing and feel it with joy.

How did you make that your signature style after Mellencamp?
Producers heard [singles “Jack And Diane” and “Hurts So Good”] and they wanted a piece of that. They were like, “Let’s get that guy,” and what happened is that I started getting hired to do sessions in L.A. and Nashville and New York. I just took the things I’d learned with the Mellencamp band and was able to use it with all these other bands and sessions. I’ve got a certain energy that, no matter what, I’m going to sound like me. That’s what people tell me all the time.

Any fears that you’ll be pigeonholed?
There’s no question everybody gets pigeonholed, but I think I broke the mold better than most people. When you get so pigeonholed that nobody will hire you except for one thing, that’s the nightmare. You get pigeonholed no matter what, but I’m less pigeonholed. Otherwise I wouldn’t have played on so many records.

This article was originally published in the May 2014 issue of Drum! magazine. This is the first time it has been appeared online.

By John Payne

It’s not as if Vinnie Colaiuta just decided at one point to learn to play different styles, and indeed it wasn’t always easy for him to adapt to them. The Republic, Pennsylvania lad instead found that it was much easier to learn a new style of music if you actually liked it.

“Let’s just say what I didn’t do was try to seek out many different playing styles, because I was thinking, ‘Well, I’d better be able to do this to be a big session kingpin,’ or anything like that,” he says. “I just like a lot of different kinds of music, and I like quality music regardless of genre. I’ve never looked at it like, ‘Well, this is really hard and, damn it, I have to learn this style!’ I just like it first.”

10 Ways to Master Multiple Drumming Styles by Vinnie Colaiuta

1. It’s About Getting In Character

He likens his multifaceted job as a drummer to that of an actor playing a role that he perhaps hates; a lot of times he’s got to say, ‘No, I don’t want to do that role.’ And if he doesn’t happen to like the music he’s playing, well, he doesn’t feel it should be a requirement for any drummer to feel like they have to be able to play ten different styles with absolute authenticity.

“As a kid,” he says, “you can identify with and you want to play certain kinds of punk music or something, and then later on in your adult life you still have the physical capacity to play ‘punk’ music, but on an authenticity level, you don’t have teen angst anymore; now you have adult angst, [laughs] like, ‘I have to pay my mortgage angst’ vs. ‘I’m trying to establish my autonomy angst’ or whatever it is.”

A drummer’s developmental periods are manifested in various ways, one being the desire to play a certain thing and the willingness and the amount of time they put into it. And, like an actor, a drummer doesn’t need to have an identity crisis when playing a musical role that he doesn’t strongly identify with.

“Interestingly, when you see some actors in various roles, it seems like they’re always kind of being themselves, while other actors usually seem a little more transparent,” he says. “Even certain actors who have done a good variety of roles know that they’re just never going to be Batman.”

For Colaiuta, there’s nothing wrong at all with being a specialist drummer adept in a limited number of roles. “I’ve come to believe that greatness is really not genre-specific; it’s not about how many genres you’re ‘good’ at,” he says. “There’re photographers who just do portraits or just do landscapes. Musicians shy away from being specialists now because everybody wants to work and make money. They start thinking, ‘Oh shoot, I’ve got to do this,’ and the next thing you know they’re forcing themselves to play.”

2. It’s About Concept + Context

By the time he’d gotten into sixth grade, Colaiuta had been exposed to a veritable plethora of musical things, from Motown, soul music, R&B, and the British invasion bands to big-band drumming including Buddy Rich, Maynard Ferguson, Stan Kenton, and Thad Jones and Mel Lewis.

“Seeing advanced concepts with big bands like Don Ellis’ at a high school concert was a big turning point for me. And then the high-school jazz band I was in went to one of those tri-state gatherings, and I met with a young drummer in one of the other bands and struck up a conversation with him. He asked me who my favorite drummer was. I said ‘Buddy Rich.’

“And I said, ‘How about you? Who’s your favorite drummer?’ He said, ‘Tony Williams.’ And I didn’t know who Tony Williams was, so the next day I went to a record store, and on the wall was this Tony Williams record called Ego. So I bought it and took it home and put it on my turntable.”

The music of Tony Williams was a huge departure from anything that Colaiuta had previously been exposed to. “I listened to this, and it was like someone has just started speaking Greek. I was confused, because viscerally I knew there was something there that was huge, but I just couldn’t get it. And so the next day I put the record on again, and it was one of those anvil-hitting-you-on-the-head moments, like a flash of light, and the skies opened and the whole bit. I got it.”

On his second listen to Ego, Colaiuta was transfixed, literally. “I could not believe what I was hearing,” he says. The most important thing for him was the conceptual expansion. He explains, “Because it’s all concept: concept plus context. The concept rules, but everything is contextual. And the concept and the context work together.

“Chops are a means to an end. Anybody who doesn’t have a physical or mental handicap who sits behind a kit long enough and goes through repetitive motions and devotes their time to that in the right way can have chops. But it’s like if my grandmother gets in a dragster and turns the ignition and just floors it, and you’ve got 1,000-1,500 horsepower. Someone who has conceptually arrived can contextually take just one of those horsepowers and change your life.”

3. It’s About Loving It

Colaiuta was by his own description a geeky, book-study kind of guy as a kid, and he wanted to absorb as much musical knowledge as he could, though he didn’t think much about putting radical teachers like Tony Williams and Don Ellis in perspective. For him it was all about growing and learning, and having a ball doing it. Which is, he says, a timeless thing.

“You’ve got to have joy in the process, because it’s all process. Whether it’s ups or downs, we just have joy in learning from that process.”

4. It’s About Having Big Ears

Figuring things out thus became somewhat of a passion for Colaiuta, and, mind you, he had to sort out the proper techniques and disciplines long before there was YouTube, a research tool he both likes and dislikes.

“It does have its benefits,” he says, “but it’s a rabbit hole, too. The plus side is that you can see something that you might want to see, and that something could be beneficial, historically or technique-wise. The minus is that you can see bad representations of things and become a little myopic.”

He calls YouTube’s ability to lay everything out in front of you an aid in the modeling process, but emphasizes that the modeling needs to be a transitory process; i.e., if it isn’t, then everybody risks getting stuck playing the same stuff.

“Back in the day we just had to figure things out and use our ears,” he says. “The eyes were used for looking at written music; we listened to recordings and transcribed things as best as we could, and deconstructed things. We absorbed whatever we could through witnessing live events and let that sink into our minds and our bodies through fricking osmosis. It seemed to work for a lot of people.”

He references the old New York jazz days, before he was born, when musicians would study, and play, and gain experience interacting with other players, and hang out, and the learning process was very hands-on.

“When it comes to technique, that horse has to be trained and tamed,” he says. “The horse can’t lead you where it wants to go, you have to tell it where to go. But unfortunately, it’s telling us where to go a lot of times, and it can breed passivity. We spend more time getting talked into constant software upgrades and spending much of our time learning it instead of having an easily learnable tool that just enables us to create.”

5. It’s About Learning The Language

Now picture that light bulb flickering on above young Colaiuta’s head as he starts to grasp Tony Williams. For this young drummer, thinking about and feeling Williams’ musicality involved a willingness to unplug his ears and embrace the unknown and unfamiliar. It was an experience that in later years would serve him well in adapting to a wide range of styles — and playing them with authenticity.

“You need to play the music to master different styles,” says Colaiuta, “because they’re all different cultural expressions and emotive musical expressions. And the technique of doing them will follow when you seek to understand what is being said.”

“You need to play the music to master different styles.”

Yet he suggests that it’s best for a drummer to think like a specialist before roaming far afield genre-wise. “There are so many different dialects among Latin communities, for example, that I’m sure they even argue over; in Brazilian music or African music, there’s so much dialectical stuff that’s reflective of their culture and their language, and to master all of those dialects is a daunting task. You can’t possibly hope to become a chameleon until you start delving into being a specialist.”

He feels that musicians need to seek a broad understanding of musicality, which includes sensitivity toward cultural aspects of the music, and that without being a specialist you have to cut your way down the middle and seek to understand it on a broad level. “And then once you get into it deeper you can choose to go down any of the various alleyways in that big city.”

6. It’s About Letting Go

Any young drummer will eventually come face-to-face with the big-picture question of what it takes to play the drums truly musically. Colaiuta’s answer to that is a bit radical. “At the end of the line,” he says, “you’ve got to stop thinking drums and just think music — and actually, don’t even think music, just flow, because thought is the enemy of flow. It’s like this: You’re flying a plane through the jungle and you see all these trees, and your thinking about how to negotiate over the trees is an automatic process because you’ve already learned how to fly the plane — and now you have to react.”

Similarly, he says, when you’re playing drums, your thinking is like a computer running programs in the background; when the band is playing at blistering tempos, you can’t stop to think about fills. He notes the great advantage in learning how to read music in gaining an understanding of this process.

“Just play the whole piece from top to bottom, no matter how much you fail, in the tempo that’s written, then go back and try to work out difficult passages — but don’t stop, because you’re not going to stop in real life; there’s no cutting and pasting in live performance.”

It’s a tricky thing, this thinking/not thinking aspect of playing the drums with trueness and feeling. Colaiuta takes pains to point out that he doesn’t want to discourage anyone in the midst of their learning process from dissecting the music and learning pattern recognition, for example. The risk, he says, is that things get shortsighted when one puts the thinking/technique cart before the musical horse.

“Everything has its place, and you have to understand what it’s for and prioritize it,” he says. “For the student who wants to do that, there’s got to be something about the music that they want to learn to play that is inspiring them to want to play, so they’re going to figure out how to do it, all the while keeping that music they like in mind. If it’s speed metal drumming, they’ll practice and practice until their feet get really fast, but it’s because they want to play these songs, and it’s a genre that they like. They’re figuring it out, but they have the musical picture in their head already. Same goes for jazz and any other genre.”

7. It’s About Building A Solid Foundation

Colaiuta puts most any discussion of learning the rudiments in a cultural context. What we in Western society think of as “rudimentary” drum techniques certainly have their place, he says, but don’t quite reign supreme when playing the rhythmic traditions in other parts of the world.

“Rudiments are just building blocks that have been cataloged and developed,” he says. “But drums are about sound, too, whether you play something hand-to-hand, whether you play doubles, and how that might apply on the instrument you’re playing. Yes, there are guys taking Western standard snare drum rudiments and playing them on conga drums; by the same token, I don’t think people playing djembes in Africa are thinking about ‘rudiments.’ They might have hand-to-hand patterns that they use in various combinations in order to play the sounds that they are playing, which are also determined by their particular sound sources.”

8. It’s About Touch

Drummers who wish to play styles not culturally their own will develop a touch based on the instrument itself and on the kind of music they play. To this end, learning to play ergonomically, Colaiuta says, means finding the path of least resistance.

“An orchestral player will be quite different from a rudimental player, but there are a lot of common grounds, like rebound vs. non-rebound and broad things such as ergonomics. People say, ‘You’ve got to have more strength to play heavy rock than you do to play jazz,’ but there are people who play loud jazz and people who play very relaxed rock and roll, and the more that you can play ergonomically, the more that your technique can be a well-rounded technique that you can adapt into various situations.”

One might assume that most drummers learn easy drumming styles first, and harder ones later. But “easy” and “hard” just sort of scrape the surface; learning to play simple things well, for example, can be difficult.

“I found playing the soul music I was listening to as a kid to be very ‘easy,’” he says. “But would you say that playing a groove like the Staple Singers’ ‘I’ll Take You There’ is easier than Mahavishnu’s The Inner Mounting Flame? It takes more time and technique to play Mahavishnu, but that might not translate to being able to really play ‘I’ll Take You There’ well. That’s not easy. I’ve come to realize that some of the simplest things are the hardest things to play.”

9. It’s About Emotion

Mastering the real-feel of a new drumming style will always be a get-it or not-get-it proposition. How does one get the feel beyond just practice, practice, practice? It’s a matter of getting beyond technique, says Colaiuta, and viewing the kind of music you’re playing in context. Like a mantra, he emphasizes the importance of internalizing what you know how to play without being overly conscious of it.

“Technique just means ‘by way of’ — how you do something,” he says. “Ultimately it has to service a concept, and you’ve got to have a concept and context. And you can bend from that technique in order to facilitate a concept, and to get it musically you have to open yourself up, willingly listen to it, shut your mind down and just feel it.”

Overall, serving the concept musically might extend to the way Colaiuta feels the beats within the beats — a rhythm is a rough guideline within which matters of phrasing and feel can be doled out in a flexible way. “I see a beat as an emotive event in time, and even if it’s a repeating pattern, it’s got momentum, this propulsive thing that’s happening for a specified amount of time.”

10. It’s About Making It Work

Vinnie Colaiuta finds peace just sitting down and playing his drums. His practice routine, by the way, is just that, a routine, and there isn’t one drumming style he works on more often than others. His practice routine’s basic tools or rudiments are the same ones available to anyone, yours to use in a personal way; it’s what you make of it, he says, what you say with it, that’s going to get you the mileage.

“It’s like, Shakespeare dealt with the same alphabet as some guy who writes in the comments bar on YouTube and who spells like someone in kindergarten. You can be Shakespeare or you can be ‘Why Can’t Johnny Read?’”

He finds that when working on a new drumming style, his “comfort level” will usually lock in fairly quickly, which he attributes to the sheer amount of experience he has playing — and dissecting — various related styles, and from his natural inclination when faced with an unfamiliar style to immerse himself in it, dive in feet-first, and start swimming.

“If you were to put me in a situation where it was very dialectic, like African music where you had to adhere to a rhythmic pattern that reflected a linguistic statement, I would say, ‘Okay, I see, all the improvisatory and interactive aspects will be based off of this mothership, and I’m not that familiar with it, so I have to go and practice it.”

The same is true when Colaiuta needs to learn a piece of music that isn’t a genre that he’s comfortable with, or, as is often the case, he’s asked to interpret an electronically sequenced drum track. Often it’s an awkward pattern, where some guy has programmed a rhythm and he’s not a drummer and doesn’t understand what plays well on a drum set. Ever the pro, Vinnie gladly takes the challenge.

“I like to try and find things that flow well — again, the path of least resistance — and sometimes I’ll have to go and practice that, and it can take a while or not take a while. But I have enough technical facility that, aside from any weird physical requirements to do that oddball thing, I can find a way to make it work.” 

https://drummagazine.com/hot-licks-two-sides-of-vinnie-colaiuta/

By José Pasillas, as told to Andy Doerschuk

A completely self-taught drummer, José Pasillas learned to groove the old-fashioned way – by playing along to his favorite CDs. “That’s how I practice,” he explains. “I just play to all these different songs by all these different bands. I try to vary the music from jazz to rock and roll to funk to … pretty much anything.” Judging by his hard-hitting, multi-layered style with Incubus, the Pasillas strategy worked wonders, which made us imagine that he just might have some strong opinions about grooves that every drummer should check out. We weren’t disappointed.

‘Walking On The Moon’ from Regatta De Blanc by The Police

Stewart Copeland is one of my favorite drummers, and the thing that I like about his style the most is that he always has this free-flowing groove on the hi-hat. His groove on “Walking On The Moon” kind of swings on the hi-hat while he does quarter-notes on the kick, which keeps the music straight. He does really cool nuances on the hi-hat, which flow around the kick drum. It’s a really sweet groove to try to separate what your arms are doing from what your kick is doing.

‘P-Funk’ from Mothership Connection by Parliament

That’s just the epitome of a tasty simple groove that’s completely stripped down. You’re playing four-on-the-floor and the snare’s on the 2 and 4, and that’s it the whole time. If you can do that for more than seven minutes, as Gary Cooper does on this 1975 track, it’s really effective, and an awesome discipline, because everybody wants to throw in rolls and do a bunch of stuff. But if you can just hold that down it’s just all sweetness. I like playing that song.

‘Matter Of Fact’ from New Forms by Roni Size

He’s a British cat who programs drum ’n’ bass music. This particular song is programmed, but when he plays live, he has a live drummer playing all the beats. It’s really quick and very erratic, sort of like jazz music that’s been sped up. And on this song it’s not really a set beat – the snare drum is the focus for part of the song, but then he stops the snare and focuses on kick drum patterns. If you want something really cool, intricate, quick, and energetic, that’s a really cool groove to play to.

‘Vital Transformation’ from Inner Mounting Flame by Mahavishnu Orchestra

This just blows my mind. The time signatures are just totally off the wall. I think it’s in nine and changes, but I don’t know what the hell it changes to. Everyone is playing just crazy lines, and Billy Cobham completely follows them wherever they go. When I play along to this track I’m not trying to play what he’s doing note-for-note, because I don’t have that sort of ability. I just play to the rhythm of the music, and follow the bass and guitar – to me that’s a good time. It’s challenging, it keeps you focused, and you have to pay attention.

‘Tom Sawyer’ from Moving Pictures by Rush

As far as progressive rock, the complexity of the arrangement is challenging in itself. From the arrangement to the transitions to the drum break in the very middle, this is just a great song. The parts themselves are very complicated, and it’s this five-minute song of very calculated, complex music. I love playing to that song in particular, because Neil Peart plays really complex parts, then plays really open, and then he’ll start playing complicated again.

‘Live Wire’ from The Meters by The Meters

I like the snare stuff Zigaboo Modeliste does – it’s just full of ghost notes. It’s got a sweet groove that’s in between a swing and a shuffle, kind of like that New Orleans sort of feel. I haven’t seen him play this song, but I imagine when he’s doing those ghost notes, he’s probably moving his right hand between the hi-hat and the snare drum. That’s what I have to do when I try to play that groove. The way he places the beat with the rhythm totally makes sense, but I would have never thought of how he places stuff. It’s so unorthodox without being gratuitous.

This article was originally published in the August-September 2004 issue of Drum! magazine. Please note the above article includes affiliate links, meaning Drum! will earn a small commission (at no cost to you) when you click through and make a purchase. Thanks for your support!

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