madbad
New Dark Ages
.....I could see she had for me, a burger with my fries on.......!!!
Posts: 20
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Hi all
Aug 30, 2006 18:06:13 GMT
Post by madbad on Aug 30, 2006 18:06:13 GMT
Hi Roberta! I'll try and answer as many as I can, so ask away!! He has a few 'trade-marks', shall we say, so here they are: (If you're a musician, especially a drummer, you would probably know these) When he plays a simple beat (or any beat for that manner), he opens his Hi-Hat cymbals (the 2 cymbals that open & close to his left) with every snare drum stroke - giving a much more powerful back-up sound to the snare stroke, with a sound of 'PSSSST'. An example of this is on quite a lot of Queen songs (probably 95% of them), e.g. More of that Jazz Sail away sweet Sister Play the Game.............and the list goes on! Its been documented that he loves cymbals, the bigger & heavier, the better. So a lot of the time, what he does with those, is that he 'chokes' them, that means he'll hit them & then hold them very quickly to kill the sound immediately - a very powerful & effective element to his or anyones drumming. What he also does when playing his cymbals, is that he'll hit the Bass Drum with every hit of the cymbals, to give them a very powerful & explosive quality. There you are, if you have any other questions, I'll only be to happy to answer!
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Hi all
Aug 31, 2006 6:05:25 GMT
Post by roberta on Aug 31, 2006 6:05:25 GMT
Hi again Stu, and thank you so far . I think I got what you meant, and actually remembered the cymbals "choking" after you mentioned it - it didn't make particular sense to me before, meaning that I didn't know it was a particular feature in someone's drumming, but actually found out I had this image on my mind reading your post. OK, I thought of a few questions...you'll find them stupid of course, being a drummer ;D. 1) is the "reversed stick" common among drummers or not? 2) what Queen song feature a drum machine? I guess "My baby does me" hasn't got any "real" drumming on it - am I wrong? and part of "Rain must fall" at least is "synthetic", isn't it? (Gosh, I'm a muppet ). 3) what are the most complex Queen/Roger songs in terms of drumming? I seem to remember Roger had a hard time with a particular live number, but I'm not sure about the song ("Tie your mother down"? "Keep yourself alive"? "Now I'm here"?)...anyway, I was referring to both studio and live versions in my question... 4)I read something on an italian site about drumming...someone said Roger's drums were placed in a different position than the standard one...is it possible? I looked and listened very intently to Rog explaining his kit on the ANATO DVD (both with english and italian subtitles), but it's not like I can really get the technicalities (he actually wasn't too technical, but it's just that I'm a profane...). I was also surprised reading that he finds Genesis' song "Turn it on again" difficult to play, because it changes "13 time from 3 time to 4 time". I had to go and listen to the song again, because I'd never thought it could be that complex...never sounded like that to me...and yes, I was able to spot changes in that, but still can't really get what Roger was at . Thanks for your time...and patience .
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james
The Also Rans
The Great One
Posts: 79
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Hi all
Aug 31, 2006 15:27:43 GMT
Post by james on Aug 31, 2006 15:27:43 GMT
I think I can answer a couple of those for you Roberta - although my drums skills are not in Stuarts league, so if I'm wrong Stuart, please feel free to say so!
The "reversed stick" is fairly common in rock music, but you probably won't find it in other genres. Some drummers I've seen play with the sticks reversed when playing live, but not in a studio. I'm guessing it gives a more powerful hit live?
A lot of Queen's 80's material has drum machines on it, or sampled drums, because that was the sound of the times. I know Hot Space and A Kind Of Magic spring to mind, along with The Works.
JG
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madbad
New Dark Ages
.....I could see she had for me, a burger with my fries on.......!!!
Posts: 20
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Hi all
Aug 31, 2006 18:34:54 GMT
Post by madbad on Aug 31, 2006 18:34:54 GMT
Hi Roberta. Yeah, James is absolutely right with his answers & I'll try and answer your questions in the most simplistic way I can: 1) The left stick reversal - The 'handle' end has a thicker shank, so its going to be heavier, and hence a heavier beat on the snare - but see if you can note when he plays 'Radio Ga Ga' live, he plays double beats on the Hi-Hat, which makes his Snare stick, his right-hand stick - but he doesn't turn that stick around - why? To me, there is no difference in the drum sound whatsoever, I suppose its just his preference and what he's used to. 2) Many Queen songs in the late 70's & early 80's feature some kind of 'synth' drum of some sort. I think from 'The News of the World' right the way through to 'The Game', he used whats called a 'SynDrum' www.keyboardmuseum.org/pic/s/synd/scm.jpg A good example of these, is on the track 'Fun It' from the Jazz album. Then from 1982 to 1985 he used 'Simmons' synth pads www.simmons.synth.net/sdx/pics/sdx_02.jpg & then on the 'Magic' tour, he used a Roland Octopad( www.keyboardmuseum.org/pic/r/rol/octa.jpg )I think you can always tell if an electronic drum has been used, not by the sound, but how inch perfect the rhythm is! (and I mean, inch perfect). Also, these synth drums weren't full kits in thier entirity, there was simply a few 'pads' sprinkled around the main kit. 'Rain must fall' could very possibly have synth drums on it, it certainly has a lot of acoustic percussive over dubs. 3) I think Roger had a "problem" with 'Sweet Lady' as being quite technical. 'Now I'm Here' was just exhausting I think (I can vouch for that!! ). The beauty of his drumming wasn't his technical ability, but his very, very solid way of playing, I mean he could make the smallest of kits sound absolutely huge! 4) The basic kit set up was standard. However, he did use other types of drums in his set up. For instance, in the late 1970's he used whats called 'Timbals'( www.boxoftrix.de/img/timbals.jpg). Then he used whats called 'Roto-toms'( www.palmerinomusic.com/pictures/rototoms.jpg) which are atunable by rotating the whole drum to tighten or slacken the drum head (skin), which in turn, shifts the pitch either higher or lower. I was absolutley delighted to see he used them again on the 'Queen+PR Tour'. Its also not a question of the drums were set up different, these drums were probably situated in a position that suited him thats all . The time signature changes in that Genesis song quite a lot, there's a lot of what I call 'trip-ups' in the song. One minute you'll be doing one sort of time signature, then it'll change & change again & its only because thats the way it was wrote. Just to add, I'm a self-taught drummer - no lessons - so I'll try and answer your questions to the best of my ability, OK?
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Hi all
Sept 1, 2006 8:46:52 GMT
Post by roberta on Sept 1, 2006 8:46:52 GMT
Thank you guys! I'll have to "ruminate" your info a little (just because I am completely illiterate about instruments as I said before), but I think I'm beginning to see the light ;D. It's refreshing to have the chance of actually talking about music (and learning something about that) instead of just drooling on Roger's pics ;D ! Wish Roger had done a "Star licks" tape like Brian did - would be interesting to watch. So, do you think I'm right about "My baby does me"? I can't spot any "real" drumming in it...and it sounds so "inch perfect" to me, as you say...(...quite boring too . It's not one of my favourite songs...maybe because of that very "aseptic" perfection). P.S.: @ Molly (when you come back from your holidays): sorry, I sooooo bend this conversation off topic!
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james
The Also Rans
The Great One
Posts: 79
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Hi all
Sept 1, 2006 10:18:22 GMT
Post by james on Sept 1, 2006 10:18:22 GMT
Well my rather limited drumming knowledge stems from having a father, Uncle and Grandfather who were all drummers. I got a few free lessons from them, but always prefered singing - whether that was a good or bad thing depends on what you think of my voice! When I've written my own songs the drums usually come out pretty good, but I tend to pragramme them on my Mac as I haven't sat at a kit for fifteen years and would probably suck now! I'm too used to the computer! I do remember watching Roger with open mouthed awe at the Sheffield gig though. When I saw him on the Electric Fire tour, he did a little bit of drumming, but mostly he sang. To see him drum most of a gig was quite something, and he was VERY powerful in the fast section of 'I Want It All'! And I would agree Roberta - 'My Baby Does Me' screams drum machine loops to me. So does 'Rain Must Fall', but to be honest, all the drums on 'The Miracle' sound very much of the time. Even the bass on 'Invisible Man' - that's very synth sounding, because that's how things sounded in the 80's. Everybody went technology crazy. JG
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