Four Piece Kit & Rock Covers

Not being a drummer, I wonder if a four piece kit is enough for a general rock cover band.

Depending on the rock and the drummer, sure.

Rush? Probably not. Chili Peppers? Sure.

+1^

Depends.

12" or 13" rack tom, plus 16" floor tom = whateveryouneed

P.S. how do you make the little up arrow thingymajig?

shift 6 on your keyboard. ^

what a fukin retard I am... I can no longer call myself an IT guy. Was staring RIGHT at me, but I just couldn't figure it out.

It depends what you play, a 4 piece can do many, many things, you could do Led on a 4, and a lot of really great music. You really are only excluding rush and all that {censored}.

You can play what you want with whatever you want. Don't need to note for note things, play it your way, I can't stand carbon copies.

My band covers Rush's Subdivisions and I do it on a 5 piece kit but don't even use the third tom in it so you can absolutely get away with a 4 piece kit.

But what if we did want to do it note for note, for the most part?

I actually rather enjoy trying to adapt three-tom parts to a two-tom kit.

4'll work in almost any situation , it's all in the hands of the person playing it.

I actually rather enjoy trying to adapt three-tom parts to a two-tom kit.

Me too, I don't think I said anything against it... I only play 4.

The only time a four piece will look out of place is if you are doing prog wankery in the fashion of Dream Theatre or Rush. It works well for everything else. If you are playing prog wankery... You'll want this guy.

But uncle cheese, I am good at drums...

I guess if you want to you can play all the same hits just using different drums right? Stay a little longer on the rack before moving down, sub some guys for a kick or two.

I better stay out of this one.

makes sence:thu:

Nah, join in the fun.

Then obviously you have to have the same choice in tones as the original has--that is, if a particular fill uses seven toms, then you need seven toms to replicate it. I think that this approach--the purist approach--is a little asinine personally--no offense. The same fill that used seven toms could be played on three and probably 1% (if even that much) of the audience would know the difference.

IMO 4 piece makes you become more creative on your fills. It took some getting used to when I made the switch,but now it feels strange playing mine when set up as a 6 piece.

Well I said for the most part, within reason. I get your point thou.

Alright, alright. I've said many times that I believe instrumentation is very strictly a matter of application. Of course, even though every gay band in the universe has a 4-piece on the riser, you can get away with that in many situations. If it's an originals band, play anything you like...bang on pizza boxes, or what ever. If it's a cover band, playing a mix of covers...even if there are a few big-kit prog pieces in there...by all means, you should only set up as much equipment as you want.

BUT, if you want authenticity and all or most of what you're playing is prog cover music, written for the big kit, then you should make some effort to equip yourself accordingly. If it's a tribute band, your instrumentation should be as faithful to the original as possible, IMO.

It does also depend on your audience. Someone commented that a large %age of the audience "won't know the difference." Sadly, this is often true.

Not long ago, I saw a Queen tribute band that is known worldwide, and admittedly, overall they were stupendous. However, the drummer's instrumentation was nothing like Roger Taylor's and for me, as a fan of Roger Taylor, that took away from the musical effect, and did a disservice to the compositions as written.

well then, you'll need to replicate the kit of each drummer whose material you're covering.