It’s now time for a rant and a rave about drum covers. Took me long enough — I’ve tersely complained about them on my site, and yet they are extraordinarily popular.
Why now, all of a sudden? Well, something crazy happened a couple of weeks ago: an interesting drumming discussion actually took place on the internet. They do occur… every once in a while, at least.
There’s a little bit of mama drama here, so I’ll need to speak somewhat vaguely, but what happened specifically was that a well-known metal drummer in the prog/djent scene took umbrage at the way one of his tracks was covered. Amidst the discourse/arguing, I started to wonder about the “ethics” of these covers, how the original artist should react to them, and how I might even react if I somehow found myself in such a situation.
Now, if you really wanted to know, I don’t care for drum covers. I’ve been disparaging in the past, so today I’ll just leave it at this: drum covers are not for me. Lots of people enjoy them, which is fine, and if they get someone motivated to practice or even pick up the instrument, that’s a good thing. But I don’t care about them.
I used to consider drum covers as a way to help me figure out what a drummer is playing, but I don’t bother anymore. I just do it myself — that way, I have no one else to blame for any mistakes but myself.
My central problem with drum covers is that you never know what you’re going to get out of a drum cover, or why it even exists. Will it be a note-for-note cover of the original, will it go in a totally different direction, or something in between?
If you covered “Rossana” without playing Jeff Porcaro’s drum groove, you would probably be skewered. The same would likely apply to songs like “Tom Sawyer.” But for a tune like “Back in Black?” People might fall asleep watching you play it verbatim. Or people might love it, because it grooves man. You never know.
Let’s start with the note-for-note drum covers, which I firmly believe are the worst of the two options. That might be surprising since I transcribe so much music, but I transcribe to understand the music — to thoroughly cognize the drums to get new ideas, not to learn the mechanics of how to parrot someone else’s drum part.
To be clear, there is utility in learning how to play someone else’s groove, fill, or perhaps even their 8‑bar drum solo, so long as you feel like it’s improving your practical vocabulary. But a full five-minute tune? The ability to improvise is one of the most important skills a drummer can have, and I don’t believe learning another drum part verbatim is productive to that end.
You don’t have to blast off in a totally new direction when you cover a tune, but getting hung up on nailing every last fill, every last ghost note, making sure you hit a china cymbal on the downbeat of bar 256 instead of a crash… I guess it’s impressive to the same end as people who try to set the world record for the highest number counted out loud, if that’s your thing. But with some drum parts that are almost sacred, what can you do?
When it comes to going off on your own, I’ve now grown a bit uneasy about it. I guess the rub is in the idea that you’re using someone else’s music as a vessel to show off, as nothing more than a click track that nevertheless has a famous name to boost your numbers. I see how that can be disrespectful, and why a recording artist would feel a particular attachment and reverence for their parts. It’s their music after all. Those parts were written for a reason.
That being said, a note-for-note cover still feels disrespectful when it gets the part wrong, particularly when the cover is close, but ultimately is an interpretation that’s more conventional and less unique than what’s on the record. Many identical covers have this stench of “look at me, I’m so good, I learned this really difficult thing,” and getting it wrong kind of topples that appeal.
After all that philosophizing, I guess I should consider that, in the real world, drum covers are ultimately harmless. Maybe they are, as long as no one takes them too seriously. But maybe people do, and it’s odd to me how much of an “industry” exists around drum covers. Honestly, my biggest fear is a young drummer getting inspired to start a career playing other people’s music, trying to go viral.
It would be kind of surreal if I ever noticed people covering my music. I mean, I’m a long way away from that happening (if it ever does happen), but you can’t deny it’s kind of flattering, in some regards. I doubt I would ever watch them. I think it would just make me uncomfortable.
