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Summary: Get an overview of the drums for the Rush song "La Villa Strangiato," plus learn about Neil Peart drumming techniques, in this free cover songs and drum lesson video.
Joel began his official study of music in middle school, and went on to immerse himself in every music making opportunity. After high school, his focus narrowed to the drum kit and he...read more
The drum is the oldest known musical instrument in the history of man and its basic design has not changed in thousands of years. Far from today’s uses as a percussive foundation for pop music or for fueling marching band excitement, drumming has a more profound history as a method of communication, and the drum as an implement of religious symbolism.
The drum was perhaps first created from the primal idea of mimicking the human heartbeat, yet today its music has developed into a technical, complex arrangement of beats and grooves. Different sized drums and cymbals are arranged into kits, where a drummer can pick from a variety of sounds to lead or accompany a particular song. Kit sizes vary from the simple to the outrageous. Modern drummers, including the likes of Buddy Rich, Billy Cobham, Neal Peart, Dave Weckl, and Jimmy Chamberlain, have helped drummers develop their playing skills by inspiring new beat and rhythm patterns, new combinations of sound upon sound. The modern approach to drumming, then, is to try and master the fundamentals of beat and time signature, and then to create fresh, innovative patterns and fills for each song.
In this free instructional video series, learn how to play the Neil Pert technique on the drums.
"JOEL SIEGEL: All right, so we're going to talk about a beat, one of the beats from a Rush tune called "La Villa Strangiato." The drummer from Rush is Neil Peart. He is a pretty famous drummer. He is quite the technician. He is known for his fills and stuff. This may be kind of comical, but I'm talking about it without having like 3 million toms and cymbals, but the beat that we're going to be talking about is the one that I was just playing. And this is kind of a cool beat because it kind of brings into play some of the hi-hat lifts, getting some hi-hat lifts and kind of some maybe trickier spots on basically sixteenth note upbeats. So you have that going and you also have the element those corresponding with a kick, you have that sound a lot, okay? You also--it's sixteenth heavy on the hi-hats, and it's also a beat where you're not playing the traditional tune for that beat every single bar. Instead, you're just playing on beat four, so it kind of has a little more-it just has a different feel, it's a little more open and this beat in particular has that riff syncopated [SOUNDS LIKE] pam, pam, pam, pam-pam; pam, pam, pam, pam-pam. The next clip, we'll take a closer look at the beat, slow it down, and you'll see what I mean."
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