Solo Question............................

O.K. so I'm curious. Do any of you play solos at gigs? I sorta feel that they're out dated. I play them at some shows, when I'm asked, but I prefer to have it "planned". I'm not a spur of the moment as I used to be with patterns and fills as I was when I was younger. But, again, that was back when it was damn near expected that you play a solo at almost every show.

So, I've been sick as hell with a severe head and chest cold since Wednesday of last week. Our singer has had the same {censored} for two weeks. Anyway, we played this gig last Saturday night. We had a great crowd, especially after 12:00, and all in all it went well. So our singer is struggling bad the whole night. He was holding on for the most part pretty well considering. I sing a ton of back-up, 2/3's of our songs, all the high harmonies, ( three times during the night, when I hit the ridiculous notes, I had a head rush, got dizzy and saw white lights in the corner of my eyes- NICE!, Actually very tough and scary.)

At 1:35 am, the singer turns around after we finish a song, looks straight at me and say's, "drum solo dude, 30 minutes if ya want. I'm f*ckin' done and need a break."

WTF??????????????

So, I played maybe a 8 or 9 minute solo. The crowd thought it was great, from what I heard. I KNOW it sucked IMO. I could not think I was so fried. I'm still a bit flustered and pissed at myself about it.

So, am I just old???? Is this something all you guys can do at the drop of a hat at anytime?????? Do I need to always be prepared for anything at anytime?

I realize I sound like a friggin' baby and I should be on my game. But I wasn't.

Other then planning a solo, preferably in the second set, do I need to always be prepared to pull out my full arsenal, well it's not that big anyway. But do I.

Suggestions.

Hammering.

Smack talk- what ever. Let it rip.

Thanks,

marko

I don't know about planning solos, but it's always nice to have an arsenal of licks just in case someone calls you on it. A decent vocab of rudiments should usually do the trick. Throw them out like they're on fire and they'll usually shut up.

I detest playing a solo. I will do it if cornered,but I won't like it.And the guilty band member that throws it off on me will need to hide for the rest of the night.

But, once again, I am NOT a flashy player.I will hold your tempo all night long and provide a solid base, but solos and big fills are not my style.

I agree. I just prefer the "planned" solo. I play a much better solo if I know it's coming. But getting thrown under the bus when conditions suck, (sick, HOT, late in the show, worn the {censored} out) is a bitch.

I kinda feel the same way. I just feel that people came to hear a band, not a drummer who's NOT Jo Jo or whoever and it's expected. I know we play different styles BD, but there's enough going on in what I play, especially a 4 hour gig, to wear my ass out. This isn't the Blues Band I started out with by any means. I just think a spontaneous solo that smokes is a MF'er. At least for me it seems to be anymore.......................................................

I really hate solos , to many Rush concerts I think.Always feel like I don't have enough chops for anything worth listening to.

I did one virtually every night during the floor shows. Just try and be creative 6 nights a week for a while...

I like to do drum solos. Whenever I get in a new band I start figuring out where would be a good place in the song. In my band in Texas I did a solo on "One Way Out". Worked well. I also did a solo and rap at a company talent contest and won 3rd prize of $200. At one gig I played at a pool party, the power went out and I played a solo until they got it going again!

In the blues band I'm in now I don't do any everyone stops and leaves the stage style solos. However on one tune they play 1 on each bar of a chorus and I fill. On our version of Cat's Squirrel (youtube below), in the middle the bass player goes to straight 8ths on one note and I solo over that. I think it's fun. I don't have world's greatest chops, but so what. But, I'm better that 99% of the crowd so they're easy to impress!

[YOUTUBE]hbbpLGVeV80[/YOUTUBE]

All that being said, in your situation I wouldn't have appreciated it very much.

in my jazz duo I'm pretty much expected to solo each song, at least trade 4's. I wouldn't feel comfortable doing more than two chorus's though.

Marko,

You should of stabbed your singer in the eye then solo'd to his screaming for pulling something like that on you.

If you solo at a gig then I hope one of two things is true. You are playing wipeout or your band has traveled to 1982!! No one wants to hear more than a couple of bars of solo drums, Jazz I understand.

I can't solo. I can however just go off and play like I do at home by myself practicing beats and fills, and throw in a tom groove to make it fun sounding.

But for the most part aint worth a damn unless playing a song. It would be nice to have that bag of tricks planned out just in case it happens.

I think some fast rudiment chops on the snare, some triplet patterns on the toms, a funky beat (linear sounds impressive) and something flashy to end it with. Just to have it in your bag planned out for a special occasion..

Dang now I gotta go plan out a drum solo...

I just play fast as hell; it impresses the plebians.

the way I get through long solos is to play off the original melody in my mind. It's easier to keep the feel if you're playing melodically, in all honesty you don't need wicked chops to tell a story.

The way I see it, a drummer who can solo (naturally, not awkwardly when he's put on the spot) has transcended his traditional role as a support musician, being that he can create something that constitutes actual music without the need of any outside help. That's a pretty giant step if you ask me, and one that's surely worth taking if you're serious. Just like everyone has been saying, a big part of soloing is using whatever "bag of tricks" you have available. Same thing applies to everyone -- Mike Portnoy, Akira Jimbo, Jojo Meyer, Buddy Rich, you name 'em. Only difference is that some people have bigger and more impressive bags than others. Learn some rudiments and move them around the kit, some linear funk beats, some Latin, some polyrhthms, and there you go, everything you need for an awesome solo, you just need to figure out how to make it all cohesive. Keep in mind that interesting (especially to other drummers) solos have a natural ebb and flow about them, and don't just consist of you hitting as many things as fast as you can. Sounds easier said than done, I know, but it's a journey, one that you need to take for yourself.

For my take, you have to treat it like a complete musical composition...I start off with a theme...could be one bar, could be 2, could be a phrase. I restate that theme just to make sure it's firmly planted,,,then I do small themes and variations to build some musical tension. Ocassionally I threw in a power chop or a bit but always ended the sequence with the last part of the original theme...it's brings the solo back to home base. It's all about tension and release, peaks and valleys, theme...transition...build...climax...and final release. That's basically how traditional composition is supposed to work, so I treated it like composition.

The final release is where all hell breaks loose and you chop blast. Could be your favorite lick (I used to do power rolls and cymbal smashes as accents to the rolls) but it'd gotta be your favorite stuff, because this is the time where you'll try and bring the audience out of there shell and you want to dazzle them.

Well that's what I tried to do night after night. Some worked, some didn't. In the day, I did the Bonham hand bit, I played the room (started playing on the stands...the walls...the amps...got up and walked out front and played the congas...anything to entertain...did the "how I joined the band" solo...ya gotta be a showman, cause live solos in a club situation are hard to bring off. That's cause the audience came to play and not just to listen, so you gotta grab their attention right off the bat, or you'll be sitting there playing to the backs of their heads... Luckily for me, the floorshow was the right venue:thu:

For what it's worth (although it's not very good), here's my ecample...no real big chop busting ending, but I think pretty musical in nuances...

[YOUTUBE]Aadxy3oWE1I[/YOUTUBE]

I'm obviously not at that level of the drummers you named Jeff. But, I still honestly believe that most solos, I say most now, are planned and practiced solo's for the most part. Especially say, Portnoy and Peart. There's no way Peart doesn't have all his flashiness and choreographed brass and electronics planned. He's played that solo a hundred times before the public here's it in person. I also think that where in the show it's played, requested or not, plays a huge role in how well it's played. I really don't think that someone who has never sat behind a kit under hot stage lights and played drums and sang for basically 3 hours realizes the energy expended. Or, I'm just a big 50 year old crybaby. Which may very well be the case here.

Also, I completely agree with there must be some rhyme and reason to it if you play one. Playing as fast to hit each piece aimlessly is a complete waste of time. Play "Wipe Out" then.

I was not a good drum soloist early on. So I tried to avoid solos, or kept 'em short. IMO trading 4s in jazz is different than soloing though, and I was always quite comfortable with it.

Recently I've gotten comfortable with soloing. The key, as in all other aspects, is phrasing (as carmine stated above). You do have to have chops though to really make it work, and it's only in the past couple years that I've developed what I consider the requisite speed to pull it off.

But I did have guitar chops as a youngster, and played many solos back then. It was quite odd sometimes; solos that I thought were pretty good sometimes generated no audience reaction, while many that I thought sucked brought the house down.

For whatever instrument I'm playing, if I have to solo I don't like to have a fully composed piece. I like to have a general conceptual outline and then improvise on it. It keeps you moving, and if you get into trouble in one spot you can just move on to the next part of the outline.

The singer put you in a tough situation and in a way he's being disrespectful. So in this situation, I might make a joke out of it and play one note, a cymbal crash or gong would be great. Stand up, take a bow.

Back to playing a solo. For me, it's more fun and I enjoy it more if the other bands members play a basic line for me to play over. I figure I've laid the foundation down for them all night, that's the least they can do for my 30 minute self indulgent puke fest!

O.K. so I'm curious. Do any of you play solos at gigs? I sorta feel that they're out dated. I play them at some shows, when I'm asked, but I prefer to have it "planned". I'm not a spur of the moment as I used to be with patterns and fills as I was when I was younger. But, again, that was back when it was damn near expected that you play a solo at almost every show. So, I've been sick as hell with a severe head and chest cold since Wednesday of last week. Our singer has had the same {censored} for two weeks. Anyway, we played this gig last Saturday night. We had a great crowd, especially after 12:00, and all in all it went well. So our singer is struggling bad the whole night. He was holding on for the most part pretty well considering. I sing a ton of back-up, 2/3's of our songs, all the high harmonies, ( three times during the night, when I hit the ridiculous notes, I had a head rush, got dizzy and saw white lights in the corner of my eyes- NICE!, Actually very tough and scary.) At 1:35 am, the singer turns around after we finish a song, looks straight at me and say's, "drum solo dude, 30 minutes if ya want. I'm f*ckin' done and need a break." WTF?????????????? So, I played maybe a 8 or 9 minute solo. The crowd thought it was great, from what I heard. I KNOW it sucked IMO. I could not think I was so fried. I'm still a bit flustered and pissed at myself about it. So, am I just old???? Is this something all you guys can do at the drop of a hat at anytime?????? Do I need to always be prepared for anything at anytime? I realize I sound like a friggin' baby and I should be on my game. But I wasn't. Other then planning a solo, preferably in the second set, do I need to always be prepared to pull out my full arsenal, well it's not that big anyway. But do I. Suggestions. Hammering. Smack talk- what ever. Let it rip. Thanks, marko

Retire.

That should cover all three.

So me. I remember your battle at Lexington drum solo and if you had the time to indulge your creativity I think you'd be quite good at it. I think most drummers shy away from solos out of pride. I do. Something along the lines of 'the odds of it coming out hot enough to do yourself justice are too slim'. That revealed, I do work on the chops and musicianship to improvise fluently and credibly. Just ain't there yet. (duh)

For me drum solo's can be fun"If planned accordingly to some degree" and being the foundation that drives a band is undoubtedly the one musical instrument that always seems to elevate the crowd to boogie or some just listen with the impression of awe:thu:

Retire. That should cover all three. So me. I remember your battle at Lexington drum solo and if you had the time to indulge your creativity I think you'd be quite good at it. I think most drummers shy away from solos out of pride. I do. Something along the lines of 'the odds of it coming out hot enough to do yourself justice are too slim'. That revealed, I do work on the chops and musicianship to improvise fluently and credibly. Just ain't there yet. (duh)

Retirements not in the picture right now thankfully

1001, take your meds, or stop taking so many. I never played at any Lexington drum solo. I am glad you've confused me with someone talented though.

The point of this whole thread I guess is the planning/preparing for a solo if you're going to play one. I feel, with all conditions perfect including one's health, where it's placed in a show and so on, a "practiced" solo is a better solo then one that's "spontaneous". That's not to say there are those out there, and on here that are very good at it, I realize that.

I can hold my own I feel very comfortably- rehearsed.

Carm, even in that little shot you gave, and I liked it's groove, you thought about it. At least long enough to set-up the camera and play. Playing six nights a week, it's almost as though you're constantly reheasing in a sense. Yes, you want to change it up, but you've played it enough times to have a base to work from, which is more then I had the other night. I sound as though I'm making excuses now, so I'll just shut the hell up.

I do still believe a true say 10-15 minute drum solo at a bar gig, other then the Jazz deal, which I totally get, is "ancient school" not to mention very tired with regards to what we're playing.

I much rather let the music do the talking. THAT's what I believe the people come for. Not to here another drum solo.

JMO

marko

Nah it was that snare drum thing you posted. Reminded me of musket fire.

I don't think most solos are completely planned, but Peart's are down to every note, maybe Portnoy's too. Their still using a bag of tricks, they just have the order of those tricks laid down in advance.

I think that all musicians, no matter what instrument, need to be reminded of this. Young musicians especially seem to have the idea that more notes in less time equals a better solo.

Personally, I like simple playing; I don't worry about doing anything particularly fancy until I am comfortable with a song and can keep a steady beat. After that, I'll make my fills more complicated (though only to a point; a fill shouldn't really distract from the music as a whole).

And I'm not really comfortable with extended solos. For me, they usually turn into me playing time, but with more complicated patterns and more/more complex fills