750 words - Day 2

Where was I up to?

Let's talk about creating a drum solo. This is something I'm currently trying to do at the moment. I've seemingly failed at doing this completely off the cuff. I have a good number of gigs under my belt where I've just gone for an improvised solo in the same spot every night. There's perhaps been one or two gigs where I was happy with the result, and right now I couldn't even tell you what I did that I liked. If I'd recorded every night then I'd have something to go off. Perhaps I'd listen back and they wouldn't be as good as I'd imagined. On the other hand, perhaps nights where I'd thought it had gone badly would sound better than I thought. It's difficult to say without actually doing it.

I've had a few days off since the tour ended and I have another one coming up in less than a week. I've decided I should try and write a solo. This doesn't have to be a note for note thing, just an idea of how long it'll be and a series of licks that I know work in the context and increase in excitement so I can build to a climax.

Step 1 is going to be deciding on the temp. This particular song seems to change from night to night so I want to make sure that whatever I come up with will work at all tempos we might play it.

Then I'll decide on the length. I'll sing through the section before the solo, imagine a solo building to a climax, then returning to the song. I'll do this a few times until I find a length that seems good.

Next I'll start thinking about licks that I already know that work at that tempo. This isn't really something I've done before, but there are definitely 'licks' that I know already which could be utilised. For the first time I'm going to have to come up with names or descriptions for them. This should help when it comes to recall time. I'll come up with as long a list as I can - just throwing everything into the pot.

From there I will work towards structuring a solo from what I know already. If I don't feel like I have enough chops I'll take a look around youtube and records I have and see if there are things I could steal from other drum solos. Some things I'll inevitably have to spend some time figuring out - but that's a good use of my practice time anyway.

I want the solo to be enjoyed by as much of the audience as possible. To me, this means playing something that's melodic with good phrasing and things that people can latch on to. Plus, perhaps, a bit of fast double bass drum and arm crossing at the end :) That always works.

Let's think about some of the options.

What would it sound like if I came up with a 1 bar rhythmic phrase and repeated that with different orchestration for a few bars?

How about if I went for a 2 bar rhythmic phrase and used the first bar of that for a second and third repeat while changing the second bar each time.

Can I come up with rhythms interesting enough so I don't feel like I have to fill all the gaps with rolling snare drums. Could these rhythms be 1/8 notes, or even 1/4 notes?

How many ways can I think come up with for playing a 1/4 note rhythmic solo to make it interesting? Orchestration. Dynamics. etc.

Should the solo be based around a groove? Or free form? What about finding a relatively simple groove to play off and building to a climax without losing that groove?

Can I come up with a set of questions which I could ask of any drum solo to help deconstruct it? What would they be? The obvious initial ones would be...

Is this solo over a vamp or just drums?

If it's just drums is it completely free or is it still part of the song (i.e. does the drummer sing a vamp to himself or count bars?)

Those 2 questions would be enough to narrow down all the solos I can find to those that I could analyse to fit my current situation. Even if they're in a different tempo/style/time signature I could still get useful information from them.