(rock music) – So there's an example
of how a drummer serves himself rather
than serving the music. Today's tip, how to be
a professional drummer. There's a difference between serving the music
and serving yourself. There's a misconception
on my video on YouTube, on how to tell a good
drummer and a bad drummer, that playing less notes
means you're a good drummer or playing more notes
means you're a bad drummer. No, that's not what I mean. What I mean is that you
serve the music to its genre. If you're playing metal music, then you bring out
all those metal chops. If you're playing prog music, you bring out the
progressive chops. If you're playing The Beatles, you play The Beatles chops. If you play country music, you play the country chops. If you're playing pop music, you play the pop chops.
You know guys, seriously,
serve the music to its genre. So I'm gonna play the
music without the drums. Just to let you guys
listen to what's happening. (rock music plays without drums) Okay, so what's happening
there that there is a, (plays drum rhythm) That kind of thing happening. But what I would like to
do is to keep it simple. In songs like that,
just keep it straight.
Give the pulse, give the tempo, and just lock in
with the groove. So what I did was
just keeping it. (plays drum rhythm) Keep it simple. So that's how this
groove fits in. (plays drums along
with rock music) So that's what I would
do in the chorus as well. I would listen out
for the same thing, and apply the same concept
to the chorus, okay? So this is how I
would play the chorus. (plays drums along
with rock music) What I just played on that,
very simple, straightforward. I kept it simple. It served the music
rather than myself. Okay, so if you
find yourself maybe being a bit too over the top, tone it down a bit,
keep it simple first. Approach a song to its core,
the twos and the fours.
Keep it very simple. Then maybe after that if
you want to add something, you can build upon that. Build a foundation,
build upon that, and if you find that
that is just enough, do not try to fix something
that is not broken. Just keep it. So that's the tip for today. Keep it simple, serve
the music, not yourself. Be that experienced drummer. (rock music).