How to play drums with a bass player | Legendary Drum and Bass Grooves | Lesson

What's up everybody, Simon here. And surprise, Julia from Thomann Guitars and Basses is here too. Hi everyone, thank you for having me. Thanks for coming. We are going to have a very interesting topic. Yes. It's about less is more. Less is more? More is less? More is more! So the topic of this video is actually less is more. And me and Julia are talking about the fact if it's really true or not and why it is important that less is more and what it does to the music. And we are going to show you this with a couple of song examples. We prepared a little bit of stuff for you to show you that. And we are going to play the same song again that we just started at the beginning with. And it's the song called Vultures by John Mayer. And this is how it sounds if you don't overplay it. So the drum beat to that song is super simple but it's actually really hard to play together with the bass groove because there's so much space in it and you have to stick together and keep the groove alive. And this is like the most important thing. Yeah, exactly. When I first saw the sheet of Vultures, I was like, oh come on, it's so easy. And then I played it and it wasn't easy at all. Especially when you want to play it like Pino Palladino with all the variations. It's like super hard but I love the groove and the feeling of the song and also the tempo. Yeah. It feels great. It feels really good. And it makes much more sense if you don't play a lot of notes. Oh yeah. At least to that song or genre. Exactly. Because the song or the words should be in front. Yeah, right. The singing of John Mayer. This is super important. And also when I played it, I imagined John Mayer standing in front of us playing the guitar part. The guitar part was always in my head. I was actually singing your bass line. Oh, really? Yeah, to get a better feel of playing together. And then... And? Did I play it right? I think so. Well, I don't know because I'm not 100% sure. But it feels very nice. Let's go to the next one, I would say. Okay. We also have got from... Oh, we are not going to tell you guys. Because it's like when you hear the drum groove, you will already know. It's super obvious. This bass line is so cool that I want to play to it all day long. But drum beat is very simple. Fits very well to the bass line. But what happens if I change the drum beat? What if I do it a little bit more complex? Let's check this out. As you might have realized, the more complex groove totally takes off the focus of the bass line. But the bass line in Billie Jean is the most important thing of the whole song. She agrees. That's great. So, every time you want to play to music, you should think about what is the most important thing in that song. Is it the bass line? Is it your drum groove? Is it something the guitar plays or whatever? And you should always support it. Am I right? Even from a bass player kind of view? Yeah. So, think about that before you start playing your groove. And I think Julia has a very good example for Less Is More right now for you. My favorite Less Is More groove is Papa Was A Rolling Stone. So, it is incredible because there is a lot of space. And there's just a hi-hat in between. And there is so much energy. It's incredible. And then the bass comes in just with this one line. And then break or pause. Crazy. And it's a four-minute song. Oh, yeah. Exactly. So, it's actually really long. And hi-hat eighth notes. And, I don't know, in the middle of the song, drummer adds two and four in the bass drum. And that's it. But the tension is so high in that song throughout the four minutes. It's pretty impressive. So, let's go. I think that actually Papa Was A Rolling Stone is like one of the hardest songs you can play on a drum set. Because only playing hi-hat for four minutes and a little bit of bass drum and keep the tension high is super difficult, I think. What do you think is the most important thing that we want to let the people of YouTube know with this video? In my opinion, I think it's that it is all about the music itself. And we, as musicians, we want to transport feelings. And sometimes you just have to play less that the song in whole is great. And I think that you really have to listen to everything, not just to your line, but how is my bass line in addition to the drums, for example, or to the guitar. So, I think it's music itself. Just listen a lot to all the different variations. Listen to a lot of how is the bass and the drum in combination and things like that. Yeah. And also listen or give it a try and listen to your favorite bands. What do they do? What does the bass do? What does the drums do? Because bass and drums is like best buds forever. What is the guitar doing? Have a listen to it and think about, did they think about what they are going to do? Or is it just playing along to each other? And I think you might get really excited. I've got a list with all songs I love. And then I just have a listen. And I have to figure out why. Why is this song so great? Yeah, it's true. I really love it. Or why do you get goosebumps while listening to the music? But most of the time you don't have really an explanation. It's just the phrasing and everything and the feeling. The feeling, yeah. So, there are a lot of things why you get goosebumps. And this is why music is so important. At least to me and I think for you too. Yes, exactly. So, I would say less is more. Yeah, I would totally agree. That's my conclusion. But there's also a time where music asks for playing more. And with this one, we'd like to say thank you so much for your time. Thank you for watching. Thank you so much, Julia, for being a guest at the Tomas Drummer Studio. It was a really great time. Thank you for having me. I want to be here more often. Yes, please. You're always welcome. To play with a real drummer and not with a backing track. So awesome. Yeah, so awesome. It is so great. So, if you... I want to know, actually, if you guys want to see more videos like with bass and drums. Oh, yeah. And if you have any suggestions, like any topics you want to know about or just say hi. So, be sure to go to the comment section. Yeah, and then hit subscribe, click like, ring the bell. And should we start playing? Oh, yeah. Okay, here we go.