For this project I am going to be the drummer, which means playing and writing drums. As I haven’t got much experience with writing drum music, I thought it would be good to research this.
Don’t always try to add loads of kicks and snare hits to beats that don’t need them. As if you overcomplicate it, it just sounds messy, and not very clean and tight.
Listen to the guitar and piano, and play off that. Don’t overshadow what they’re playing, but listen to the timing and play what would go well with that.
Play with different cymbals, so don’t just stick to playing the hi hat in eighth notes. As that is the most commonly used rhythm, it isn’t wrong to use it. However think of playing in quarter notes, switching to the ride. Or even switching to the crash, and using different parts of the cymbal, such as the bell on the cymbal.
Don’t always play on the beat, so try hitting on different parts of the bar. Such as the e or the a.
Use toms in the beat and not just form phils. This can be very effective and can sound very good compared to just hitting the snare drum. An effective way to play this is to play it on the same hit as the snare drum.
Add percussion to the track, so a cowbell or a tambourine, it also could be many other things. A tambourine sounds good on the eigth note before the hit on beat four, and cowbells on sixteenth accents. However there are many ways to play it, this is just a simple one that sounds nice.
Paradiddles and other rudiments such as ruffs sound very good. Implementing a rudiment such as a paradiddle into a beat and not just as a phil can sound very good.
Four on the floor is very effective. Four on the floor is playing the bass drum on every beat of the bar, it is simple, yet effective.
Try and play different styles of drums, so not just sticking to rock and pop. Try incorporating them styles into rock and pop songs to make them more interesting.
Try playing with different snare drum sounds, as it can completely change the sound of a beat. You can play something similar to what you played in another track on the EP, but with a different snare sound and it will sound completely different. Some sounds you can try are rim shots, putting a tambourine or splash cymbal on the snare drum, turning the snares off and cross sticks. All these can make a lot of difference to the sound.
Layering is also a good way to add texture and nice drum parts. When layering it is easy to make it sound messy, however it can also be very effective. You can play complex yet simple beats at the same time.