How do you create parts for new songs?

[michael saulnier]

When your bandmates show up with new material... and want you to add drums...

 

How do you go about it...

 

Would you prefer to do it "live" with them there playing their guitar or keys or bass and you "come up with something"?

 

Do you prefer recordings you can take and privately work on something?

 

Do your band mates ever TELL YOU what they want to hear... or suggest fills, vibe, volume or other info?

 

Do you feel like YOUR ideas are viewed as equal or important as the lyrics, riffs, progression, or solo's the others bring?

 

guitplayer

[bassdrummer]

I like work on new material live. First I like to let whoever came up with the material play/sing their part first and me just listen and get into the groove of it. Then I start nailing down where the pulse of the song is -- straight 8ths, quarters, sixteenths; or shuffle, or swing; half-time, double time, hi hat or ride cymbal, etc. Then I construct the groove -- snare on 2 and 4, or syncopated, or what -- and where is the bare minimum bass drum part that locks in with the groove. Then I work on dynamics and changes in feel. I try to fit this with the lyrics and the "chapters" or sections of the song. The very last thing, and least important, is the "showy" stuff -- fills and what not -- which I experiment with after laying down the pocket. I listen to others' suggestions and come up with my own ideas and questions. And overall, I try to respect the ideas of the song's creator -- to serve the song and support the lyrics with my drumming. It's a team effort and I like to approach new material that way.

[Tedly Nightshade]

My limbs start twitching and mind starts racing as soon as I hear the beginning of the tune. I'm lucky enough to work with some writers who seem to just come up with things that couldn't make me more comfortable or inspired.

 

I'm grateful- I tell you djarret's attitude is just contagious. What a great guy.

[freelance]

I prefer to work on new material live to gain a good understanding of the feel. I normall break it down to the most basic Snare/Kick/HiHat groove.

Then I like to have a recording to woodshed on at home.

 

Once I have the basic groove I then listen to the vocals to determine where certain dynamics of the songs would be. I try to develop fills that support those dynamics.

 

Naturally, it also depends on what parts the bass player, guitarist, etc. are coming up with - and this is where I start to add accents and syncopations to flow with the other players.

[totemspock]

I just play:)

[coyote]

We listen to the groove for long enough to get a feel for it, then we try adding things. Sometimes they work right away. Sometimes not.

 

Everything's on tape though, so we can go work on it later on our own if we want. The original idea has always found its way to tape minus the other instruments, so you don't have to compete with ideas which may not have worked.

[Jazzman]

Having my own studio, and playing all of the instruments myself, I use basicly the same pattern of producing my own music.

 

If a client comes in the pattern may be a little different.

 

Being a drummer at heart, I first develop a drum pattern on a specific drum machine. I make it as real as possible. If I feel like playing real drums with the drum machine I'll set aside a couple of tracks for that to happen. I may turn off the drum machine tracks if I feel that the groove that I was playing will suffice.

 

I generally start off this way:

 

1. Drum patterns first to get a cool groove going.

 

2. The nex thing I do is keys. Sometimes I play along with the drum loops to get the cord changes going.....setting the mood of the music.

 

3. The next thing I do is add the bass parts.

 

4. Next I start to add the embelishments(sp?) to the song to give it character.

 

5. I may add some guitar parts if required here.

 

6. After that I generally start adding other supporting parts, real drums, percussion instruments, other things that I feel help the mood.

 

All of my work ends up this way. If I'm on a roll and the music flys in my head I don't stop until it is generally finished. I'll wait a day and then listen to it again to see if it makes sense. Sometimes it may turn out that I need to do something over. Usually in this mode of development I've been able to pump out a song in 3 hrs. In a bad mode maybe a week, or I'll drop it and move on.

 

This just happened to me last week. In one week I developed, produced, tracked my music. Did 9 songs in 5 days. All different. There are times that I have not come up with anything good too for a week or so. So when the feeling is there I take advantage of it.

 

This is a little different than what you are asking, but I've been doing this for the last 12 years. That is of my own music.

 

Sometimes I will ge a client that has a general idea and wants me to add the rest of the music. The pattern would start off again with the drums, keys, bass, guitar, and then embelishments.

 

Just my few cents worth to through into the mix.

 

Jazzman

[Super 8]

I've always been very good at improvising. I can pretty much come up with something right away, and make little modifications as we go. If the writer doesn't like it, or doesn't like something about it, we change. Often at that point I ask what kind of 'feel' they're going for because the maybe I misinterpreted the original 'feel' I heard when they were playing to me.

 

It helps a lot when the writer is open to makeing new changes, because my drum parts often suggest things that they hadn't thought of. If they don't want to go there, that's fine. But the results are usually something greater than any of us would have come up with on our own. That's synergy...