Serving the song: the role of a drummer

What makes a drummer great? Is it blazing speed, dazzling listeners with technical prowess? Perhaps a great drummer has a mastery of complex polyrhythm, a craftsman of twisting, intricate grooves. Or instead, is excellence defined as the independent character and personality of their playing, claiming each song as their own?

What seems to strike a more accurate chord is something far more subtle, a concept that can be boiled down to a statement, both loathed and strived after by drummers around the world: Serving the song.

What is Serving the Song?

From the echelons of bebop jazz drumming to the thrumming depths of death metal, all drummers have a role to play, and the best of us do so with personality and vigour, without sacrificing carefully balanced context and mood. But what exactly does serving the song entail? It can be from following a dynamic shape, or outlining a musical form, to creating conversation and tension in the music with textural, rhythmic, and melodic elements.

Sounds complicated, right?

What does serving the song look like?

With all of these responsibilities, it becomes the drummer's mission beyond technical understanding of their instrument to study its history, contextualizing their playing with influences from cultures, bands, and players. Serving the song might look like setting up the band with a rimshot before the chorus - just like Buddy Rich and his big band - or laying down a heavy double kick groove in a breakdown, a favorite of Metallica's Lars Ulrich.

What difference does it make?

It is easy for the drummer to be eclipsed in the band structure, with attention often clustered towards the lead singer or instrument, but the difference an excellent musician on the drum throne makes is not something you hear: Drummers like John Bonham were among those that were felt, guiding the ebb and flow of energy in Led Zeppelin’s music with dynamic and rhythmic control.

To build a castle, one must first find a solid foundation of bedrock, for a fortress would be useless on mud. This is a metaphor I use often with my students when discussing technique and presents a fantastic allegory for the role of a drummer. To boil this topic down into its essential elements, a drummer's task is to support the band: in layman’s terms, to make everyone else sound and feel good.