Buddy Rich joint motions

Playing Technique
#1

Next to guitar, drumming definitely has some of the coolest and most complicated stuff going on joint-wise, just in terms of the sheer variety of motions players make and the way they transition between them.

In the “rim tapping” segment of Buddy Rich’s live solos, check out the left hand joint motion. That really looks like dart thrower (i.e. non-reverse) wrist motion. But when he gets back on the drum head, he transitions seamlessly to forearm rotation:

Meanwhile his right hand is doing dart thrower wrist the whole time, just from a more pronated position, i.e. “American” grip. So for his famously smooth and fast single strokes, Buddy’s left hand is forearm rotation, and right hand is dart thrower wrist, basically. It’s pretty simple and gets amazing results.

Drummer Dick Cully not only does an awesome version of Buddy Rich-style singles:

…but he does a great plain-English explanation of the two different joint motions involved. Points to him for explaining the difference between wrist and forearm:

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#2

i would say from what i notice is that since i free float my right hand, using the left hand motion he shows, is easier when you have that rest stroke to anchor on as i read here about this concept of tracking alot which i think this rest solves. of course that deepening the stroke all the way to the string could possibly give it a rebound effect, i don’t really know i never analyze my own playing. but with most electric guitars having that scoop on the top left of the body on say a fender or an rg ibanez it will lessen that free float with more of the hand now touching the body so it could be why this turns to more dart thrower (especially depending on if the person has a more dominant motion of using the wrist as dart thrower).

#3

Agreed Troy. Drumming is such a physical activity as it really involves the entire body in a way guitar often doesn’t. A little off topic but one of my favorite drumming stories comes from the recording of melodic death metal band At the Gate’s classic album Slaughter of the Soul

About 8 minutes into this retrospective they talk about the conundrum At the Gates ran into trying to get a harder hitting sound on the snare. Drummer Adrian Erlandsson did about 80 takes on “Blinded by Fear” because they had the inability to punch in with the recording equipment. The final result speaks for itself, one of the crispest ,tightest metal drumming performances in a time long before the grid and DAWs sucked the human life out of drums in modern production.

Here’s the drum cam from a later live performance.

#4

A former band mate and buddy of mine, who is also my favorite drummer of all time, has a lot of interesting philosophies when it comes to drums. One is how developing the perfect golf shot is similar to a perfect drum hit, which is kind of self-explanatory.

But the philosophy on transferring and expending energy is quite something. He bases some of his approach on the “flow like water” idea from Bruce Lee and you can tell in that the band he’s most known for had a way of crafting songs where you couldn’t always tell where one was, but the grooves were thiiiiiiick!! He told me that he kind of “dances” while he plays and never gets tired. I’m sure there’s videos out there somewhere of his going into detail, or there is at least a Modern Drummer or Sick Drummer article.

I’ve played over 100 shows with this dude and I’ve never seen a drummer hit harder or more accurately than him. This clip, as crappy as it sounds due to various reasons, shows a great deal of it.

I don’t know how this could translate to guitar playing but I’d love to know how, if it did.

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#5

On the drumming side of things I’ve always been wary of hitting “too hard” and being accused of being a neanderthal, until quite recently deciding that this was just leading to my drumming sounding a bit indecisive and “floaty”.

It’s about 15-20 years since I last listened to Candiria, I’m so glad you brought this back to my attention, his control and precision is ridiculous

#6

Awesome. I don’t know Candiria but I’m not cool enough to know any of this underground NYC stuff. I know Blondie because they got on the radio, but that’s it!

Drumming looks great. Those are some giant motions.

You’re saying that’s a real snare sound on the track? That’s awesome. Given what goes on during recordings now, I don’t know why anyone bothers miking a kit any more. Just play a Roland kit and call it done, maybe with some real cymbals. It’s not like it makes the drumming any easier. If anything when it’s all super clean it’ll be even more obvious if the drummer is off. So those players will always have the hardest job on the stage.

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#7

Don’t get me started on post 90s metal production this thread will quickly be derailed😂. It kinda cracks me up that there remains such an anti drum machine ethos in metal when at this point the modern production choices have all but neutered the human element.

Another favorite drum sound of mine is the one from Empeor’s “In the Nightside Eclipse” but that has more to do with the production and reverb which creates an atmosphere like it was recorded in a valley between two Norwegian Fjords.
Pytten’s genius production of tracking drums on the stage of Greig Hall and using the natural hall reverb to make them sound absolutely massive a technique he used with several other Norwegian black metal bands.
When that first tom fill hits on this it’s mimics the thunder earlier in the track awesome stuff.

Used to listen to this album a lot while working third shift and it hits different at about 3am.

#8

Drummers use all the cool motions! One of the first online picking lessons I ever did was comparing traditional grip to rotational picking. My dad is a career drummer and a Buddy Rich aficionado, and, for some reason, I always picked up the sticks using trad grip with the right hand instead, like a left-handed drummer.

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#9

Awesome! Is there any video of Brooks Sr. on the skins?