Bag of Tricks: Carter Beauford on DMB's "Satellite"

Earlier in the week we talked about flams.

This is one of my favorite tracks that utilizes a ton of simple, single flam fills and back beats, as well as flams on the toms as part of fills.

Check out the video for "Satellite."

Starting at the 2:16 mark, Carter Beauford starts using just a single flam as part of a fill. It's not a complex idea or figure (for the purposes of this post, it's not even worth notating!), yet it fits the song and feel perfectly.

Honestly, Carter has as much in the chops department as any other drummer in the rock-pop arena, yet he chooses his notes and fills based on what the music demands. This tune is also a very good example of a concept known as duality, where Carter mixes the very simple (single flam, quarter note fills) with the complex, such as the switching between time feels and using broken patterns and accents in fills to obscure the pulse.

I know a lot of drummers who don't like the way Carter plays, and I can honor that. But you've got to at least respect the man for what he does with the music. Whatever else he is, he's not a plain, "anyone with two sticks and a pulse could have played this track" type of musician. You can hear that it's him whenever you hear a track.

So, again, play around with flams (pun intended). Hopefully they'll become a tool that you're comfortable with and that will expand your vocabulary and ability to express yourself on your instrument and through the music.

As always, happy drumming!

Weekly Recap: 2/27 - 3/2

It was an epic week on the blog. Catch up on anything you missed.

Gear Up: Drumheads - Snare

Ryan Tilby dishes on drummers

Beyond the Kit: Visualization

Bag of Tricks: KT Tunstall - "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree"

Friday Feature: Carter Beauford

Thanks for stopping by. Have a great weekend!

Friday Feature: Carter Beauford

It's time for this post. It's been time for a long time.

Carter Beauford of the Dave Matthews Band is one of the reasons I play drums.

(Start here, then go listen to some tunes. It may be helpful to start with the band's first major release, 1994's "Under the Table and Dreaming." )

I started playing drums in the sixth grade in the middle school band. By the seventh grade, I had a drum set in the basement and was jamming with a friend (a once-in-a-lifetime guitar talent, it turns out). By the ninth grade, everything I heard on the radio just made me mad. I'd constantly think to myself - or complain aloud to anyone who would listen - "I can do anything any of these guys do! Why am I not famous and making loads of cash as a drummer?" (Reason number one is probably that I was fifteen years old, but I wasn't really thinking of that.) Anyway, long story short is that I wasn't hearing anything that I thought was creative or sophisticated, and I was pretty frustrated with what I thought was the height of modern pop-rock drumming.

The summer after my junior year I had to borrow a car from my boss (cool boss, no?) to run an errand. Her car was a late model Acura with a killer sound system, and the disc that was playing was the aforementioned "Under the Table" album. I had heard of DMB but never actually listened to them, so I didn't even know who I was listening to. When I got back I was actually a little disappointed when I found out (skeptical kid!), but it was too late. I was hooked. I had never heard a drummer do things like Carter did/does with the backbeat, fills, set-ups and pulse*. It was like going from black and white to color.

Fast forward about six years and I owned everything then available from DMB and played in a band that had a fiddle player. And since then I've done more studying and listening and loved every minute of it. Carter B is the man, and his playing has only gotten better and more musical.

After you've had a chance to just get immersed in the music, it's worth checking out Carter's instructional video, "Under the Table and Drumming." There's not a ton of nuts and bolts instruction, but a lot of, "This is what I was doing on this part," and a few great conceptual things.

There are a million videos I could choose from to give you a sample of Carter's playing, but I've always believed that's all about the music - the song as a whole - and that the drummer has to contribute to that. So this track is my all-time favorite DMB tune, and one of Carter's grooviest and most musical performances.

One caveat: this video conforms to the radio edit of this track. Do yourself the favor of tracking down the album version and giving it a thorough listen. It's almost double in length to this version. No offense to Dave, but the best music happens after the singing stops. See if you can count the number of instruments being used during this track.

Alright, enough talk (er...type). Let's get to the tune.

As always, happy drumming!


*It doesn't hurt that Carter plays an unusually large and complex drum kit. You can check out his current configuration of gear here. 

Bag of Tricks: Keith Sorensen

I know it seems pretty pretentious to give you Carter Beauford one week and me the next, but this is a lick I just keep using, and I need to pass it along for my own mental health.

It works great in the 100-120 BPM range. Let me know what you think.

Happy drumming!

Bag of Tricks: (Another) Carter Beauford of DMB

Carter, to me, is infinitely creative. His style is very distinctive, and is a critical component of the Dave Matthews Band sound.

This lick, from the Busted Stuff version of "Grey Street," is not too hard, and very fun to play. It brings instant intensity to your playing.

It happens right at the beginning of the track.

Happy drumming!

Bag of Tricks: Carter Beauford Lick

What red-blooded drummer doesn't respect Carter Beauford of the Dave Matthews Band? Okay, I know that there are some of you out there, but you're crazy! Even if you don't like his style or DMB, you've got to respect the trails he's blazed in pop drumming.

Anyway, here's a very simple lick that I steal all the time. It's from the tune, "What Would You Say," on the album, "Under the Table and Dreaming."

This lick occurs at about the 3:07 mark.

Okay, after you listen to it, here is one major thing to notice: the bass drum note just before count 4 should be played as a part of the snare drum pattern. If you connect the three notes on the snare (starting on 3), the kick note, then the snare/splash on 4, it's a five note pattern and should be played as such. 

Practice getting it smooth and easy. This fill leaves a nice bit of space between count 4 and the next count 1, a tactic that Carter occasionally uses to signify the beginning of a new phrase. 

And as I always say, space is just as important as sound if you want to be a good communicator.

Happy drumming!