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Comments
Drums give a sense of movement and grounds the music.
Not all tracks need that. 🙃
Deeper than that.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3333420/amp/Hit-rhythm-stick-Bonobos-beat-drum-duets-humans-way-small-children-do.html
One of the things I like about Kraftwerk is that some of their songs have drums, and some of their songs don’t have drums. In fact, some of their songs that don’t have drums aren’t even songs.
I played drums in highschool. Tri-toms during the marching band season, timpani and auxiliary percussion during the symphonic portion. When my church's choir went on a mission trip, I was the drummer. One of the reasons rock and metal are my favorite music genres is because of the drums. Whenever I went to a concert I was disappointed if there wasn't a drum solo. All that being said, I understand your point. During some of the symphonic concerts I played in there were movements and interludes completely free of all percussion. Drums and percussion like any other instruments should add something to the overall composition. I've been guilty of using drum machine presets rather than making something with the composition in mind in the name of expedience. As a hobbyist with limited time it's a short cut I lean on more than I should. Given my preferred music genres, I doubt I'll be making anything with no drums at all, but I will be thinking about some of the points made in this discussion in the future.
Drums or not?
I have no general answer...
Except that I see this as being just one of many choices when writing a song, depending on what I want to express. Is the focus on rhythm? Yeah, drums will help!
Is the focus on the melody and/or harmony? Drums might not be as relevant here.
Basically any melodic instrument that lets you play dynamically (which is always the case with acoustic instruments) will let you play in a very accentuated, rhythmical way or in a more melodic way without even any clear rhythmic separation of notes (bowed instruments, wind instruments etc.)
Which instruments to choose is secondary IMHO to what you want to express, and groove does not necessarily need drums.
See slap bass players for example, producing low thumb hits and bright slaps to form their own one-man rhythm section with lots of accentuation that is commonly found in drum patterns.
Agreed, it is much deeper than my simple explanation but
I didn't really think it warranted a full on anthropological thesis
into communication, species development, migration and
the eventual evolution into what we call music these days.
Glad to see the Daily Fail actually published something of note.
Agreed.
In this example, vocals replace actual drums.
Another reason why piano and guitar are instruments
that composers and songwriters turn to the most often.
Flamenco is an almost perfect example of melody, rhythm and harmony
without using an actual drum as the instrument itself also becomes
a drum whilst playing and I personally see a piano as one great big
percussion instrument.
We press the keys and the hammers hit the strings.
Define “drums”.
I think you can over-theorise past a certain point. I’m inherently cautious about thinking too much as, for me, it can interfere.
Sometimes you need a regular pulse to glue things together (especially if you’ve got a lot of irregular stuff happening, eg using a kick to glue lots of shifting sequences together), and sometimes you need something less mechanical to shake up something that’s regular (eg Harold Grosskopf's drumming on some Klaus Schulze tracks). Sometimes you don’t need a pulse at all (eg some ambient).
My point being that it just depends on the piece, and also how you’re creating it. If you’re actively composing, by which I mean you have something at least partially formed in your head which you’re trying to realise, then it’ll be different to finding/discovering something by jamming/experimenting (which is more my thing).
I don’t think one approach is more valid than the other, it just depends on the person, and what and how they are creating.
My acoustic guitar is a drum.
Even a melody can be a “drum” of sorts, with repeating themes.
Noun or verb?
My guitar is a drum when I’m playing funk. Keys too
I suppose noun, if that is how you used it in the OG question.
The other 2 replies indicate a looser interpretation. It is more about the type of sound and the role it plays in the track.
If you take this view, then I say you will need this type of element in the track in a lot of cases.
If you mean drum tracks that basically substitute for what a drummer traditionally brings to the track, then you definitely do not need to add that. You might need to broaden your definition of “drums” and come up with some creative ways to fill that role, though.
As far as traditional drums go, I think they add power and drive to the track like nothing else can. Also, if you can work with a good, actual drummer/musician, that seems it would always bring a lot to the track. Having any great live performance would usually be a positive thing.
(I am thinking of Zepp without JB right now. Pretty lacking)
I guess my answer is no you don’t need drums specifically. But a rhythmically bouncing octave in your left hand might be filling the role of drums in a satisfying way, so you can get the same type of effect in other ways.
I like my drums big and fake. (Insert your own joke here 😉).
They play a big part in dictating the sound of my tunes, and are usually put down very early on in the process. The drums that is…
They’re an integral part of not only the rhythm but also the overall sound. I often start with a drum machine groove and build from there. I particularly like the sound of ‘analogue’ drums having the likes of Yazoo and Depeche Mode dominate my formative years. It’s the antithesis of LL’s jazziness and is probably making him come out in a cold sweat🤣
If I left out the drums I’d be veering into ambient territory and that would be terrifying.
Although conversely I was a huge fan of Adam and the Ants as a kid and the sight and sound of two drummers on TOTP has left a lasting impression. So good.
In any case, I love programming drums and they play a huge role in my music making process. It’s possibly my favourite part of making music.
Seems a bit pointless without drums (And yeah, OK, it has a bit of piano from Dave)
I think the problem is that it is really hard to do drums well. For this reason, and for reasons of personal taste, I mostly avoid them like the plague 😂. I prefer to use synths percussively. So much great music has been done without drums.
Good question and well worth asking.
Depends on the track - can you imagine "Take Five" without drums...?
The nice thing is these days we have have real sounding drums or we can just program in a pattern and use a liitle "blip" or "pop" or "crunch" synth or sample noise for rhythm.
Plus great guitar work.
One of my fav tracks!
IMHO there is an easy answer. It depends on the style of music. Most classical music is without drums, sometimes there is timpani or snare drum. While dance music without drums seems to be very rare.
Indeed this is a great track and the drums make it so! But i can think of so many examples of people on iOS feeling they need to throw in drums, and the drums completely wreck something that would otherwise be very listenable. Good drums are hella hard to do!