The Drummer: A Musician’s Friend?

Warning! To guitar players: this post is not about guitars, it is about drums! To drummers: the title is a joke, relax

Well, these days I’ve started to work with my band two songs from Metallica, Nothing else matters and Whiskey in the jar. OK, I must be in the mood for Metallica these days, I guess, but working on these songs made me think of how important the drummer really is.

I mean, if you listen Nothing else matters, with a musician’s ear, you’ll hear Lars Ulrich’s drums all over. His style of playing drums is almost trademarked.

You probably already know it, you know Metallica and you recognize Lars out of 1000 drummers, isn’t it? The fact is that Lars had such a big influence on Metallica’s sound that without him, Metallica would have never been the same, no matter what other drummer would have taken his place.

I mean, from my experience, changing the drummer in a band is a big and I mean REALLY BIG thing! Working a song with a drummer will give a particular balance to that song, that another drummer may not be able to get it. I’ve played with quite a few drummers so far and I can tell you that I’ve felt every one of them as being different.

Our previous drummer was a Limp Bizkit fan, his way of playing drums was modern, energetic, very interesting. When we started to play alternative, his presence was exactly what we needed at that moment.

Our current drummer is an old school rock fan: Whitesnake, Metallica, Maiden, UDO, Accept, etc. Totally different way of playing drums…

Lars has his own style, as it happens with all great musicians and his presence in the band is, I guess, along with Hetfield’s voice, the very definition of Metallica’s sound.

If you want to test this for yourself, ask your drummer to play Nothing else matters, the same way Lars Ulrich plays, and then start a chat with him about it! You may find it interesting…

You know, there is that joke that says the drummer is not a musician, but he is that guy hanging around musicians…Funny joke, but not true at all in this case. Actually, if you think about it, how many drummers can you think of that can be named out of 100 drummers the same way Ulrich can? I know there are thousands great drummers, but how many have their style so unique that you will immediately know who’s playing there?

Well? Who would you name?

Bookmark It