The Police's Stewart Copeland Answers Drumming Questions From Twitter | Tech Support

Sting? I told you, don't call me at work, man.

Later, all right, dude? Jesus Christ.

Hello, my name is Stewart Copeland.

I'm here to answer your questions from the internet.

This is Drummer Support.

[upbeat music]

@downloadmusicz, Does it matter

how you hold your drum sticks?

We all have our preferences.

I favor orthodox technique like this. Voila.

Most drummers today play matched grip. Voila.

The reason I play like that is because I'm old school.

The snare drum derives from marching bands.

And when the soldier is marching with a snare drum

between his legs, it clunks his knee.

So, he turns it on an angle.

So, to try and play like that is a problem.

So, they play like that,

which is a much more natural position.

@sydnie_alligood, What is the hardest song to drum?

I would say Sister Sadie by Buddy Rich.

Some challenging stuff on there.

In my music, Spirits in the Material World.

It is my personal best noir.

And it's because there's no one.

It's all upbeat.

[drumming music]

1, 2, 3, 4.

1, 2, 3, 4.

2, 3, 4. 2.

It's all upbeats.

@ValAmbrose, Hello. I'm a beginner at drumming.

Do you have any tips that could help me out?

That is what we are here for today.

Learn to fill in with the rhythm.

You don't need a drum set.

Just listen to records and tap on your knees.

That's step one. And everything else derives from that.

Posted by you, drummerwayne101.

Why are The Police hard to play? Because of Stewart.

You just answered the question right there.

You smart.

@lilbit_jojo, Musicians: What does 'playing in the pocket'

mean to you?

How do you achieve that?

The pocket is when musicians

are locked to each other's pulse.

It just feels good.

Like in The Rolling Stones are great example of just,

it's all messed up, it's loose,

it's ramshackle, it's kind of, whoa, whoa.

But they've got that pocket.

They're in sync with each other

in an elemental, organic way.

That is the pocket.

And a pocket is the holy grail

of all ensemble playing.

@ModDrummer, what is the best way for a new drummer

to get better at playing drum fills?

A drum fill is when you're playing along.

[drumming music]

Here's a drum fill.

[drumming music]

Practice slow to achieve speed.

If you're just going as fast as you can,

[drumming music]

you know you're not gonna play perfectly.

But if you concentrate by playing slow.

[drumming music]

You're focusing on getting both hands even.

And you're doing it absolutely at a comfortable speed

so that you can execute perfectly.

So when you're practicing, always be perfect.

When you're on stage, you don't have to give a fuck

because you're just making the shit up.

If you're thinking about being perfect,

you're just gonna be lame.

@Joczkus, QOTD: While in The Beatles,

was Ringo Star a good drummer

or merely a competent drummer?

He was a very good drummer. He had an excellent groove.

A groove is when the music hangs together

in such a way that it's not just correct,

but it makes your hips move.

And he was very imaginative in the way he used drums

in a pop song.

You can find, online, three versions

of The Beatles' first song, Love Me Do.

And there is a version

with their original drummer, Pete Best.

It ain't The Beatles. It's just like kind of lame.

It doesn't hang together.

Then there's a version with Ringo Star.

[drumming music]

♪ Love, love me do ♪

Okay, we're now with The Beatles.

But then for some unknown reason,

they hired a session drummer and Ringo's now on tambourine.

[drumsticks tapping]

And as you listen, you realize the charisma

and the rhythm isn't on the drum set anymore.

That's just some session guy.

The charisma is just the tambourine part has got a vibe.

And that's Ringo.

It's vibe, it's X factor, it's undefinable.

In fact, music is the only art form

that will usurp motor control of your body.

On the dance floor, people are in public

thrusting their pudenda at each other

in an overt sexual display.

Try that without music. You get arrested.

@MikeRusinko, Favorite reggae songs?

Reggae song with the most creative drum

and/or most impressive drumming.

Lively Up Yourself by Bob Marley and The Whalers.

But another one, a seminal piece,

was The Israelites by Desmond Decker.

And that's the first time I ever heard

the bass akwards reggae drum fingering.

Cool thing about reggae drumming

is it's a drum solo all the way through.

They never stop. They're just playing stuff.

[drumming music]

They're always playing something

in contravention of the pop rules of respect for the vocals.

Fuck the vocals.

@mark_lanyon, Do drum kits need tuning?

Yes, you can change the sound of your drums.

I tend to go by tuning them up.

And a little word of advice

for bands is when you're doing your sound check

and you're going boom.

[drumming music]

Okay, second rack, tom tom.

[drumming music]

And they sound huge by themselves.

[drumming music]

But as soon as the band kicks in, they disappear.

By tuning them higher,

they may sound a little, they may sound a little rinky dinky

without the rest of the band,

but as soon as the other music fills in,

they cut through.

@BURNTHI5TOWN, no seriously

how do you learn songs on drums.

By ear?

You don't. You just bang shit.

Yes, by ear, by instinct.

And if you are musical, you will know when 16 bars are up,

when eight bars are up, or whatever.

And a musical memory is a very, very strange thing.

It's much better than any other form of memory.

You can forget people's names.

You can forget what you learned in geography class,

but for some reason you learn how to play a tune

and it lasts forever.

When The Police did a reunion tour,

I didn't even listened to those songs for 30 years,

and I get my practice reel, okay.

Let's see if I can remember how to do this.

I knew everything note perfect. 30 years later.

@TonesOfMusic, Who's the best drummer you've seen Live?

Well, Buddy Rich, Mitch Mitchell.

There's a lot of drummers that I really like

that aren't famous names.

They just have a great loaf,

they just have a great feel to them.

Taylor Hawkins just had a great feel to him.

Ringo Star, Charlie Watts.

No chops there,

but just that groove is way, way cool.

Now, on the younger end of it,

I would say Joey Jordison, sadly departed, with Slipknot.

That little bastard had chops.

You know, kids these days, they start out where we left off

and it's like the Olympics

where every year they can jump

a little higher, run a little faster.

How's that possible?

Has the human species evolved in one year?

I don't know.

But Joey Jordison doing things with his feet

that I aspire to with my hands.

IamtheLaw, How is drum music written?

Is it like standard music?

Yes, it is exactly the same music, only without pitch.

Often percussion scores and drum scores will use lines.

There'll be a line just for the snare drum, rat tat tat tat.

And it has the same note values.

16th note, 8th note, and what have you.

From Coach. Serious question for drummers.

Do y'all feel it when y'all be speeding up or no?

Actually no.

It may feel like the world is slowing down,

but of course one's subjective concept

of tempo, mine being particularly shifty,

is that you feel like you're just doing what's perfect.

For instance, with Police songs,

some of them we had a click, you know,

for a handful of The Police songs.

The reason we did that

was because I'd speed up when it goes into the chorus,

but with the click, wow,

the sensation is that the track just slowed down.

You gotta be kidding. That click just slowed down.

What's the matter with you? Click, I'm human.

This is my rhythm. Tempo is very subjective.

MDXV111, Are there any rules to adding swing to drums?

Well, my daddy was a jazz musician.

He used to complain about the music that I listened to,

'cause where's the swing?

If it don't swing, it don't mean a thing.

Dad, there's all kinds of music that doesn't swing.

But really swing is a specific kind of jazzy sort of feel.

[cymbal music]

It just sort of has a feeling of a shuffle to it.

It's not [cymbal music]

It's what you could call a dotted rhythm or a swing rhythm

or a shuffle.

@MetalWalden, Favorite odd time signature and why?

I don't like odd time signatures.

'cause basically it's like a hiccup.

You know the old joke of how do you conduct five/four time?

1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, 4.

I guess Take Five by Joe Morello

is one of those religious experiences

that every drummer needs to have.

It's kind of the most wrongest form of jazz ever.

[drumming music]

It's sublime.

Posted by you/timmyowns,

Any tips for playing fast punk rock/ pop punk?

I guess the fundamental thing to keep in mind

is to play it fast.

A way to achieve speed is to relax.

Really the vibe you want is.

[drumming music]

Metal drummers are even faster.

[drumming music]

Muscle up. Eat your Wheaties and just play it faster.

This is from Bill Hater.

Hey, music nerds.

I'm trying to understand the concept of polyrhythm.

Poly rhythm is when you play two rhythms at once.

[drumming music]

That's one rhythm.

[drumming music]

It just means a lot of rhythms on top of each other

that kind of contrast with each other.

Well, students, this is all I have for you today.

Eat your Wheaties, do your homework, and drum on.