Clicky

View post (Music on drums)

View thread

JeffS65
Registered User
Joined: 10/07/08
Posts: 1,602
JeffS65
Registered User
Joined: 10/07/08
Posts: 1,602
09/04/2020 1:54 pm

To the original question; yes, drums have a pitch. They resonate within a note range. Since a drum head can be tuned within a range of 'tightness', it's not a specific note but a range within which that sized drum head can be tuned. Everything that makes a sound is a pitch. Drum heads too.

With that being said, since it's not a melodic instrument, generally the ear doesn't care about the pitch of drums as compared to the surrounding music.

So, for the other part of this discussion, the best advice I've ever about being a good guitar player is by loving a great drummer. When you've got a great timekeeper that really knows how to play, it's where the magic happens.

In the thread, about John Bonham; Zep's Kasmir is a lesson in time signatures. Jimmy Page has never been one to adhere tightly to a signature. Very loosey-goosey. In Kasjmir, there are guitar parts that, I think, are 6/4 but other instrumentation that is 3/4 then you have Bonham playing a very straight forward 4/4.

It's why that snare drops like and anvil throughout that song. All that off-signature stuff between snare hits makes that metronome-like drum hit just crush it.

God bless Robert Plant for insisting that Bonzo join Jimmy Page's new band back in the laste 60's!