I found some old drum set transcriptions on a backup disc that I thought you might like. First is Welcome to the Jungle by Guns N Roses.

Guns N Roses - Welcome to the Jungle

PDF: Welcome to the Jungle – Drum Set Transcription

Some of my worst gigging experiences were the result of me not bringing a rug to place under my drums. Sometimes I forgot to bring it, but sometimes I was told that either the stage was carpeted or there was already was a drum rug I could use.

Drum kits that are not secured to the floor tend to slide ALL over the place while you play. I’ve finished songs with my bass drum more than a foot away from me. That’s a difficult reach for even the most flexible drummer! Sliding can happen with hi hat stands and even floor toms too. Some of you young players may not know this, but most manufacturers put metal spikes at the bottom of the bass drum legs and on the bottom of the hi hat stands. If you are playing on a soft enough surface you can expose these spikes by turning or removing the rubber feet on the bass drum or turning the metal screws on the hi hats allowing the spikes dig into the floor (or carpet).

Old Faithful - This rug has been on the gig for 19 years and running!

Sometimes spikes into the bare floor  is enough, and in fact, there are a few drummers who prefer to play this way, I know Steve Smith does. I assume he likes the livelier sound of the drums bouncing off the bare floor. However, many times the spikes will not grab the surface the drums are sitting on (like linoleum or concrete) or you might be playing on a nice floor that you’d prefer to not gouge. Sometimes even a carpeted surface (especially at clubs that book a lot of shows) will be loose and the drums will shift around. An interesting cat to check out is the jazz (and funk) drummer Bill Stewart. For some strange reason he seems to prefer to let his hi hat stand slide all over the place and he has become quite skilled at corralling it with his left foot as he plays. It can be entertaining, though a little distracting from his fantastic playing. Click here to watch Bill Stewart wrangle his hi hats.

What can help keep your bass drum in place is to make sure the bass drum legs raise the front of the bass drum enough that the weight of the drum is resting on the legs and not the hoops. Be careful to not raise the legs too much because you’ll change the angle that the bass drum beater hits the bass drum head. Besides giving your spikes a surface to dig into, another way to secure your kit is to use a manufacturer that places velcro underneath their bass and hi hat pedals to grab onto the carpet. I especially like this. My DW 8000 pedals do not budge as long as there is carpet to grab onto.

Another reason to ALWAYS bring your drum rug, besides keeping your drums in place, is that you can use your drum rug is to mark your territory. Often stages are just big enough to fit all the players and if you’re trying to set up your kit only to find out that your bass player’s giant 8×10 cabinet is in your way and she’s nowhere to be found, you’ve got a problem since many players don’t want you touching their stuff! The first thing I do once the band has figured out the stage set up is to throw my drum rug down to mark my territory. This way the other players know where I’ll be and not take my space while I’m getting the drums out of their cases. So it’s helpful to find a rug that is roughly the size of your setup.  A 4′X5′ rug purchased at K-Mart works for me. I’ve used the same one for 19 years.

If you’ve forgotten your rug and the surface you need to play in is slippery like tile, or maybe you’re playing an outdoor gig, try using using the floor mats from your car. I’ve never tried this, but I remember getting this piece of advice many years ago and thankfully I’ve never had to try it out.

So even if you hear, “They have a rug”, I advise to always bring yours. I like mine because it feels like a little piece of home is with me no matter where I play!

Below is my email response to a bandmate when we were discussing whether or not to use songwriting forms (or formulas). He was advocating a more abstract approach and the email was my response.

I think the most important aspect of drumming is understanding song forms. Song forms are the foundation on which most popular (regardless of style) songs rely. I won’t delve completely in the subject, but there are many websites and books which explain songwriting forms much better than I can here, but essentially I think a drummer needs to be aware of the Verse-Chorus (Bridge), Verse-Bridge, Blues, AABA (usually in jazz) forms.

Being aware of the song form lets the drummer know when to fill, change parts, and create contrast and interest by building and juxtaposing rhythms and tones.

I also discuss in the email the time it takes to get to these particular elements in a song. For instance, you are usually going to lose a listener’s interest if an Introduction of a song lasts longer than a minute or so (there are, of course, exceptions) and popular songs tend to get to the Chorus or Verse Hook by a minute into the tune. My advise is to take notice of the song form similarities in the music you enjoy. Try to notice the common elements. Does the first Verse sound different than the second Verse? Etc, etc.

Here’s the email:

All of music follows a formula. Major and minor scales have an exact formula and from these scales, familiar sounding chords and chord progressions are derived. From these familiar progressions, familiar arrangements also arise. Of course rules are made to be broken, but if too many rules are broken you lose the listener. Think of really abstract, avant guard music. It can be interesting, but it rarely makes a deep rooted connection in the listener because the music is so far out there it is only getting appreciated on an intellectual level. When a listener is immersed in familiar territory, then surprised, that’s what really tickles the brains.

The formulas of music construction are universal throughout all cultures of music. There are obvious variations, but the human ear/psyche has certain innate expectations. I agree that what makes a particular piece of music interesting are the unexpected parts, but these parts need to fit within familiar formulas for the unexpected parts to stick out and be noticed. For example, the Beatles loved to change keys in the bridges of their songs or shape the arrangement in odd groups to emphasize a vocal part like the part in Back in the USSR where they sing, “Back in the US, Back in the US, Back in the USSR”. The rest of the song sits firmly in a familiar formula.

So, just like a G chord progressing to a C chord sounds “right” to the ear (you could call it a formula) there are song arrangements that the human ear expects too. I think these expectations can be used to our advantage so when something unexpected is composed, the impact is much stronger.

I’m not arguing that an intro always needs to be 8 measures and the following sections need to fit in a cookie-cutter formula, every interesting song has its tweaks, but there are very basic things that a majority of popular songs (and I use that term to include popular indie music) use to keep the listeners’ attention. These include: repetition, tension/release, continuity, and contrasting sections. Songs generally move from less complex to more complex and also tend to emphasize and repeat verse elements in the beginning of the song and chorus elements at the end of the song, all of which keeps listeners’ attention.

As an example, I think Spoon takes advantage of these techniques, that is, using songwriting “formulas”  without sounding formulaic.

Here are the arrangement elements of “Finer Feelings” from Ga Ga Ga:

Intro: 4 measures (verse starts 10 seconds into the song)

Verse 1: 8 measures, 6 measures (chorus starts 37 seconds)

Verse 2 (add percussion): 8 measures

Chorus: 8 measures, 8 measures

Bridge: 8 measures, 8 measures, 4 measure breakdown

Verse 3: 8 measures, 6 measures

Chorus: 8 measures, 8 measures

8 measures of sound effects (the unexpected part)

4 measure vamp/re-introduction

Instrumental Chorus: 8 measures, 8 measures, 8 measures, 8 measures, 8 measures

Virtually ever song on their album is as formulaic as this, but they use these arrangement formulas to create unexpected and very enjoyable moments. Also, the sounds that they choose to plug in to these song writing formulas are unique too. So I think the lesson to be learned is that you need to keep one foot in familiar territory and the other foot in unfamiliar territory, but always recognizing that repetition, tension/release, continuity, and contrasting sections are essential for making interesting music. So if we compare Spoon’s composition to [our song] I notice that the introduction starts with a repeating theme, however when it moves from the vocals singing “doo do do doo doo doo” to the next section where the band comes in playing the same theme it pushes the verse out 45 seconds into the song and I think the riff has lost its impact but getting repeated. I’m not suggesting that we need pull out a stopwatch and slideruler to compose music, but in music timeframe 45 seconds is a long time to keep a listener’s interest before moving the music forward by getting to the verse. The chorus (the main theme of the song) doesn’t start until 1:15 into the song. By this time in Spoon’s song they’ve arrived at the chorus twice.

I think as musicians we can experience the subtle changes in the music with more emphasis because we experience the music viscerally and kinetically so changing from the vocals singing a theme to a guitar playing the theme will feel like a much greater change compared to someone who’s only listening to the music. I believe that it’s our challenge to put ourselves in the shoes of the listener and continually push the music forward while emphasizing repeating themes within a framework, then within this framework we introduce the element of surprise.

Sorry to practically write a whole book on this subject and this is last time I’ll bug you with it if you disagree with what I’m saying, but in my past I’ve played with many “good but not great” bands and have wondered where the differences lay so I really delved into what made one band or song more interesting than another song and happened upon these songwriting techniques and noticed that all bands regardless of style used these arrangement techniques 99% of the time and local bands I see or played with did not.

I know videos that contain only audio are lame but I had to include this often unheard of Bonham groove.