Where do you get your ideas from?

[five eight]

I was putting some clothes in the dryer when I heard the neighbor's dryer upstairs wheezing through a load. I swear to God it sounded like the same rhythm as Marilyn Manson's The Beautiful People! That led to the thought about what Miles Davis said: "There's rhythm all around us. You absorb the sounds you like and discard the ones you don't. Tony might stumble; he might wanna play that!"

I know I'm not the only one who's ever been in a band that made a mistake that sounded so cool (when playing the tape back) that the band learned how to play the mistake.

So where do you get ideas from, aside from the obvious answers like listening to lots of drummers and staying on top of technique and what's hip and hot?

[Lee Collins]

I personally think that after you've listened to and absorbed so many different styles of music and so many different drummers, and of course practised a whole bunch of things, then, fresh ideas tend to come on the spur of the moment. You know, when the band is firing on all 4 cylinders and you feel totally inspired, you play something without even thinking about it and you go' wow, that was cool'. I really do think that a lot of ideas come when you're totally one with the music, and really having a good time.

Also, I've found on some gigs that I've played something and then said to myself 'hmm, where did that come from', and realised that a lick I'd been practising a few weeks back had now seeped into my playing, but with my own twist on it.

Other ways to create new ideas would be to transcribe a bar of groove, something interesting that's maybe already got displaced beats, take a section of it and move it around to the front, in the same way garibaldi did his permutation exercises. I did that once with a cobham groove from 'total eclipse', and came up with a whole new beat.

[ashio nz]

A drummer I knew used to toss teaspoons into the kitchen sink, listen to the sounds and use that for groove/solo ideas.

Mind you, he was in an Irish band....!

[matricks]

Music-wise, stuff i have been using for interesting ideas is electronic music. It is because non-musicians compose this and therefore i get to see something from a totally uneducated standpoint... their standpoint. Also, hehe, this is a funny one. I have been LOVING video game music. The game company Capcom has some AMAZING composers who write for them and the music they put out is flat out great. The stuff that has been coming out for the last 5 years, but 2 years especially, is worth downloading. Progressive, yet totally musical. It has to be progressive to deal with the progression through visual cues in the game, but it has to do so in a totally inconspicuous way.

[peter c]

I like that Miles quote. It's really,
really true and so you will believe
how far this goes, let me show you
what it is that I do, besides play
the drums:

Chart

Believe it or not, all of the cycles
in time that are represented on this
chart are based on 4.

[img]graemlins/hmmm.gif[/img] [img]cool.gif[/img]

[dsleethkeppler]

Chart

Believe it or not, all of the cycles
in time that are represented on this
chart are based on 4.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Peter C, so does your work inspiration of Nasdaq 100 charts reflect itself in a purely 'random walk' soloing strategy in 4/4 on the drums? Maybe like (pr(snare) = pr(bass drum) = 1/2)?

[img]wink.gif[/img]
DrummerDav

[SeattleDrumKing]

Once you have absorbed plenty of music, your ideas can come from anywhere. It's important to leave your influences on the drum kit and sound like YOU.

[peter c]

I must say that it is a better idea
to keep your ears wide open to many
areas in music and even in life. You
never know where it will come from.

It's true that rhythmic cycles are
everywhere in life. I mean everywhere!
I have studied huge treatises on this
and the truth is plain.

I think the challenge really lies in
opening our eyes and ears to it and
life, for that matter.

[img]smile.gif[/img] [img]cool.gif[/img]

[peter c]

LOL, Dave!

[img]cool.gif[/img]

[five eight]

I did another load of laundry last night and either Ginger Fish lives upstairs or that dryer is possessed by demons. It was lurching to the beat of The Beautiful People again.

And I was so in the mood to hear Wackerman playing three against four. [img]rolleyes.gif[/img]