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Drumming songs

Hello all
Just a quick question,
"what do you (or your drummer friends) reckon is the best song to play to show off a drummer?"
I am looking for some songs to suggest to a band that I occasionally dep for, who are wanting to promote their drummer, Lee Arron (no not that one), who is 16, amazing, but is playing in a pub rock band.
It has to be well known and popular so no Dream Theatre or Virgil Donati solo stuff. Think Black Dog or even Jump. Something commercial, but interesting.
It's a wee bit more difficult than you think!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gu7PPgF3bE
Cheers
Nick

Tags: drums

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Permalink Reply by The Mistreated on February 12, 2009 at 1:23pm: You've got a hell of a choice! Of course, Led Zep is a good 'un. Some of their songs may be 'easy' but you try playing the way Bonzo does. So songs like Black Dog or Rock 'n' Roll are actually very difficult to do properly and anyone in the drumming 'know' would be able to spot the difference.

Other tunes that spring to mind would be the instrumental YYZ by Rush (maybe not well known enough) or their biggest hit, Spirit Of Radio - it might be a pop song, but Neal Peart doesn't make it easy.

A lot depends on how you want to show the drummer off - do you want groove or pyrotechnics? If you want groove, try Herbie Hancock's Chameleon (Tony Williams on drums) - well known, a groove from hell and deceptively hard to play with difficult stops and punctuations.

Another would be to head off towards Steve Gadd and probably the most-famous drum line ever: 'Fifty Ways To Leave Your Lover'. Copied by thousands but Steve Gadd's groove is rarely emulated.

Finally: Any drummer who can pull off Toto's Roseanna properly is very good in my book. A simple pop song with two of any drummers' worst enemies: fantastic groove and a fast, single-handed half-time shuffle with ghost notes. Again, copied by thousands, rarely emulated well. This one song catapulted Jeff Porcaro to being one of the greatest groove drummers ever.

I could list even more, but I'm waffling now. My advice? I personally rate drummers for feel rather than pyrotechnics.

Hope that helps.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Catfish Jones on February 26, 2009 at 9:35am: Most modern drummers don`t do `subtle` too well.

For some nice snare feel I like the part for 50 ways to leave your lover. Very simple, but so effective.; ▶ Reply to This