Chords for Web Exclusive: Neil Peart On Drumming
Tempo:
91.85 bpm
Chords used:
D
E
Db
Eb
B
Tuning:Standard Tuning (EADGBE)Capo:+0fret
Start Jamming...
[B] I wonder about your relationship [D] with drumming and how it's changed over [Am] the years, because
you've done it so long [Bm] and drumming for Rush is not, it's not like you just do, I mean
there's some stuff going on there, [E] right?
So has your relationship with the instrument changed over the years?
Enormously so, in all those inner ways that might be boring to anyone else, but I feel them strongly.
[Db] And it occurred to me lately that the band, even after all these years, 36 years, we're
going through changes right now, as individual musicians and thus, you know, as a unit of musicians.
And I found that part of it's been deliberate, that I've studied with teachers from time to time.
Two years ago I studied with the great jazz drummer Peter Erskine, and it was mainly to
learn more about big band drumming that I admire.
But in the process, of course, I couldn't help learning more about drumming, and carried
it with [D] me into what I do.
[Eb] And the teachers that I've had in the [D] past, I had a great old-time teacher in the mid-90s
that kind of [Db] helped me reinvent the way I approach the instrument, that still nourishes me now.
And the inspiration of other players, too, [Dm] when you hear somebody play something great,
old or new, you know, it inspires you.
And I found since I was a little kid, not that I wanted to imitate it, but it just made
me want to play, you know?
And not in, I've heard some musicians say, there was a famous one of Eric Clapton saying
he wanted to burn his guitar after hearing Jimi Hendrix.
And you know, the horn player wanting to smash his horn after kicking Miles Davis, that kind of thing.
And I never understood that.
If I hear somebody great, it makes me want to go home and play.
Like, not out of frustration, but out of joy.
I imagine there are a lot of people who heard a Neil Peart drum and went, I want to smash my drums.
Well, I hear that.
People say, oh, you inspired me to take up drumming.
I'm [Ab] sorry to your parents.
What else can I say?
So when you go [D] on one of these journeys and you've met new teachers and you come back
to Getty and Alex start to panic, like Neil's back with a new sound.
We got to, we have to, oh God, here we go.
Of course, they're subtle and incremental.
But the one big change I made in 95 where I [Bb] changed the whole setup of my drums and
temporarily the way I held the sticks and just dedicated myself to doing everything different.
And when I first came back with the band and we were [E] working with producer Peter Collins
at the time, and he was listening to my playing on the demos and so on [N] and say, well, it doesn't
sound that much different to me.
And to me, that was a compliment because I changed everything and it still sounded like me.
And then when I started playing with the other guys, they did notice the clock was a subtle
different that they had to mesh with me.
And I mean, these are things are indefinably subtle, but they were things that I've wanted
to work on for 20 years.
And I guess a good advantage, a good example of it is technique.
I worked so much with [C] sequencers and click tracks that I became remarkably metronomic,
but that had a rigidity that went with it.
So my mission then became to conquer that and become looser.
So if you think of a technique instrument and a feel player, those are the two differences
that I tried to bridge and I'm still trying to bridge.
I want to become more improvisational because I'm compositional.
And my last drum instructional video was on drum soloing.
[F] And I said, I compose a solo and [N] then perform the variations within it as a piece of music
for the audience.
And right at that moment, I said, okay, I'm a composer, but I want to be an improviser.
So I started working really hard on that.
And now at this point, the first half of my solo is completely improvised from the first
beat through changes that I become familiar with and come to like in the process of a
night's discovery, or even in the night's warmup, I'll come across something, oh, that's good.
And it goes in the solo that night.
So for a guy that has, to adding the improvisation to your routine, when you get out on stage
and you have to play and you know that the first part is completely improvised, do you get scared?
Uh, it was nervous making it first, but then you learn to protect yourself in that the
second half is composed again for the audience's benefit to be.
It's just like, just get there, just get to that second half?
Well, it's never, no, I get lost in it.
And I've made comparisons to exploring on the motorcycle, getting lost on roads that
close and I wander down rhythmic areas that because I do challenge myself because there
are no consequences.
There's no mistake.
If I do something weird, play it twice.
And it's a new part, you know, a jazz instrument.
That's what it told me.
Have you ever had the drumming solo equivalent of a motorcycle hitting a deer?
Have you ever been on?
Good comparison because I've certainly had that experience.
But again, it's soloing you can't.
And that's why I'm more careful in the band's music because the proverbial train wreck where
the whole band gets lost is a nightmare.
And we've over the years, of course, evolved ways out of that.
It happens to everybody.
You miss hear a rhythm or an echo off the [Eb] back wall of the venue sometimes can be a
half beat out.
And if you lose concentration for a second, you're suddenly half a beat out with the other
guy and we just look [E] at each other and you decide, OK, go with him.
you've done it so long [Bm] and drumming for Rush is not, it's not like you just do, I mean
there's some stuff going on there, [E] right?
So has your relationship with the instrument changed over the years?
Enormously so, in all those inner ways that might be boring to anyone else, but I feel them strongly.
[Db] And it occurred to me lately that the band, even after all these years, 36 years, we're
going through changes right now, as individual musicians and thus, you know, as a unit of musicians.
And I found that part of it's been deliberate, that I've studied with teachers from time to time.
Two years ago I studied with the great jazz drummer Peter Erskine, and it was mainly to
learn more about big band drumming that I admire.
But in the process, of course, I couldn't help learning more about drumming, and carried
it with [D] me into what I do.
[Eb] And the teachers that I've had in the [D] past, I had a great old-time teacher in the mid-90s
that kind of [Db] helped me reinvent the way I approach the instrument, that still nourishes me now.
And the inspiration of other players, too, [Dm] when you hear somebody play something great,
old or new, you know, it inspires you.
And I found since I was a little kid, not that I wanted to imitate it, but it just made
me want to play, you know?
And not in, I've heard some musicians say, there was a famous one of Eric Clapton saying
he wanted to burn his guitar after hearing Jimi Hendrix.
And you know, the horn player wanting to smash his horn after kicking Miles Davis, that kind of thing.
And I never understood that.
If I hear somebody great, it makes me want to go home and play.
Like, not out of frustration, but out of joy.
I imagine there are a lot of people who heard a Neil Peart drum and went, I want to smash my drums.
Well, I hear that.
People say, oh, you inspired me to take up drumming.
I'm [Ab] sorry to your parents.
What else can I say?
So when you go [D] on one of these journeys and you've met new teachers and you come back
to Getty and Alex start to panic, like Neil's back with a new sound.
We got to, we have to, oh God, here we go.
Of course, they're subtle and incremental.
But the one big change I made in 95 where I [Bb] changed the whole setup of my drums and
temporarily the way I held the sticks and just dedicated myself to doing everything different.
And when I first came back with the band and we were [E] working with producer Peter Collins
at the time, and he was listening to my playing on the demos and so on [N] and say, well, it doesn't
sound that much different to me.
And to me, that was a compliment because I changed everything and it still sounded like me.
And then when I started playing with the other guys, they did notice the clock was a subtle
different that they had to mesh with me.
And I mean, these are things are indefinably subtle, but they were things that I've wanted
to work on for 20 years.
And I guess a good advantage, a good example of it is technique.
I worked so much with [C] sequencers and click tracks that I became remarkably metronomic,
but that had a rigidity that went with it.
So my mission then became to conquer that and become looser.
So if you think of a technique instrument and a feel player, those are the two differences
that I tried to bridge and I'm still trying to bridge.
I want to become more improvisational because I'm compositional.
And my last drum instructional video was on drum soloing.
[F] And I said, I compose a solo and [N] then perform the variations within it as a piece of music
for the audience.
And right at that moment, I said, okay, I'm a composer, but I want to be an improviser.
So I started working really hard on that.
And now at this point, the first half of my solo is completely improvised from the first
beat through changes that I become familiar with and come to like in the process of a
night's discovery, or even in the night's warmup, I'll come across something, oh, that's good.
And it goes in the solo that night.
So for a guy that has, to adding the improvisation to your routine, when you get out on stage
and you have to play and you know that the first part is completely improvised, do you get scared?
Uh, it was nervous making it first, but then you learn to protect yourself in that the
second half is composed again for the audience's benefit to be.
It's just like, just get there, just get to that second half?
Well, it's never, no, I get lost in it.
And I've made comparisons to exploring on the motorcycle, getting lost on roads that
close and I wander down rhythmic areas that because I do challenge myself because there
are no consequences.
There's no mistake.
If I do something weird, play it twice.
And it's a new part, you know, a jazz instrument.
That's what it told me.
Have you ever had the drumming solo equivalent of a motorcycle hitting a deer?
Have you ever been on?
Good comparison because I've certainly had that experience.
But again, it's soloing you can't.
And that's why I'm more careful in the band's music because the proverbial train wreck where
the whole band gets lost is a nightmare.
And we've over the years, of course, evolved ways out of that.
It happens to everybody.
You miss hear a rhythm or an echo off the [Eb] back wall of the venue sometimes can be a
half beat out.
And if you lose concentration for a second, you're suddenly half a beat out with the other
guy and we just look [E] at each other and you decide, OK, go with him.
Key:
D
E
Db
Eb
B
D
E
Db
_ _ _ [B] I wonder about your relationship [D] with drumming and how it's changed over [Am] the years, because
you've done it so long [Bm] and drumming for Rush is not, it's not like you just do, I mean
there's some stuff going on there, [E] right?
So has your relationship with the instrument changed over the years?
Enormously so, in all those inner ways that might be boring to anyone else, but I feel them strongly.
[Db] And it occurred to me lately that the band, even after all these years, 36 years, we're
going through changes right now, as individual musicians and thus, you know, as a unit of musicians.
And I found that part of it's been deliberate, that I've studied with teachers from time to time.
Two years ago I studied with the great jazz drummer Peter Erskine, and it was mainly to
learn more about big band drumming that I admire.
But in the process, of course, I couldn't help learning more about drumming, and carried
it with [D] me into what I do.
[Eb] And the teachers that I've had in the [D] past, I had a great old-time teacher in the mid-90s
that kind of [Db] helped me reinvent the way I approach the instrument, that still nourishes me now.
And the inspiration of other players, too, [Dm] when you hear somebody play something great,
old or new, you know, it inspires you.
And I found since I was a little kid, not that I wanted to imitate it, but it just made
me want to play, you know?
And not in, I've heard some musicians say, there was a famous one of Eric Clapton saying
he wanted to burn his guitar after hearing Jimi Hendrix.
_ And you know, the horn player wanting to smash his horn after kicking Miles Davis, that kind of thing.
And I never understood that.
If I hear somebody great, it makes me want to go home and play.
Like, not out of frustration, but out of joy.
I imagine there are a lot of people who heard a Neil Peart drum and went, I want to smash my drums.
Well, I hear that.
People say, oh, you inspired me to take up drumming.
I'm [Ab] sorry to your parents.
What else can I say?
So when you go [D] on one of these journeys and you've met new teachers and you come back
to Getty and Alex start to panic, like Neil's back with a new sound.
We got to, we have to, oh God, here we go.
Of course, they're subtle and incremental.
But the one big change I made in 95 where I [Bb] changed the whole setup of my drums and
temporarily the way I held the sticks and just dedicated myself to doing everything different.
And when I first came back with the band and we were [E] working with producer Peter Collins
at the time, and he was listening to my playing on the demos and so on [N] and say, well, it doesn't
sound that much different to me.
And to me, that was a compliment because I changed everything and it still sounded like me.
And then when I started playing with the other guys, they did notice the clock was a subtle
different that they had to mesh with me.
And I mean, these are things are indefinably subtle, but they were things that I've wanted
to work on for 20 years.
And I guess a good advantage, a good example of it is technique.
I worked so much with [C] sequencers and click tracks that I became remarkably metronomic,
but that had a rigidity that went with it.
So my mission then became to conquer that and become looser.
So if you think of a technique instrument and a feel player, those are the two differences
that I tried to bridge and I'm still trying to bridge.
I want to become more improvisational because I'm compositional.
And my last drum instructional video was on drum soloing.
[F] And I said, I compose a solo and [N] then perform the variations within it as a piece of music
for the audience.
And right at that moment, I said, okay, I'm a composer, but I want to be an improviser.
So I started working really hard on that.
And now at this point, the first half of my solo is completely improvised from the first
beat through changes that I become familiar with and come to like in the process of a
night's discovery, or even in the night's warmup, I'll come across something, oh, that's good.
And it goes in the solo that night.
So for a guy that has, to adding the improvisation to your routine, when you get out on stage
and you have to play and you know that the first part is completely improvised, do you get scared?
Uh, it was nervous making it first, but then you learn to protect yourself in that the
second half is composed again for the audience's benefit to be.
It's just like, just get there, just get to that second half?
Well, it's never, no, I get lost in it.
And I've made comparisons to exploring on the motorcycle, getting lost on roads that
close and I wander down rhythmic areas that because I do challenge myself because there
are no consequences.
There's no mistake.
If I do something weird, play it twice.
And it's a new part, you know, a jazz instrument.
That's what it told me.
Have you ever had the drumming solo equivalent of a motorcycle hitting a deer?
Have you ever been on?
Good comparison because I've certainly had that experience.
But again, it's soloing you can't.
And that's why I'm more careful in the band's music because the proverbial train wreck where
the whole band gets lost is a nightmare.
And we've over the years, of course, evolved ways out of that.
It happens to everybody.
You miss hear a rhythm or an echo off the [Eb] back wall of the venue sometimes can be a
half beat out.
And if you lose concentration for a second, you're suddenly half a beat out with the other
guy and we just look [E] at each other and you decide, OK, go with him. _
you've done it so long [Bm] and drumming for Rush is not, it's not like you just do, I mean
there's some stuff going on there, [E] right?
So has your relationship with the instrument changed over the years?
Enormously so, in all those inner ways that might be boring to anyone else, but I feel them strongly.
[Db] And it occurred to me lately that the band, even after all these years, 36 years, we're
going through changes right now, as individual musicians and thus, you know, as a unit of musicians.
And I found that part of it's been deliberate, that I've studied with teachers from time to time.
Two years ago I studied with the great jazz drummer Peter Erskine, and it was mainly to
learn more about big band drumming that I admire.
But in the process, of course, I couldn't help learning more about drumming, and carried
it with [D] me into what I do.
[Eb] And the teachers that I've had in the [D] past, I had a great old-time teacher in the mid-90s
that kind of [Db] helped me reinvent the way I approach the instrument, that still nourishes me now.
And the inspiration of other players, too, [Dm] when you hear somebody play something great,
old or new, you know, it inspires you.
And I found since I was a little kid, not that I wanted to imitate it, but it just made
me want to play, you know?
And not in, I've heard some musicians say, there was a famous one of Eric Clapton saying
he wanted to burn his guitar after hearing Jimi Hendrix.
_ And you know, the horn player wanting to smash his horn after kicking Miles Davis, that kind of thing.
And I never understood that.
If I hear somebody great, it makes me want to go home and play.
Like, not out of frustration, but out of joy.
I imagine there are a lot of people who heard a Neil Peart drum and went, I want to smash my drums.
Well, I hear that.
People say, oh, you inspired me to take up drumming.
I'm [Ab] sorry to your parents.
What else can I say?
So when you go [D] on one of these journeys and you've met new teachers and you come back
to Getty and Alex start to panic, like Neil's back with a new sound.
We got to, we have to, oh God, here we go.
Of course, they're subtle and incremental.
But the one big change I made in 95 where I [Bb] changed the whole setup of my drums and
temporarily the way I held the sticks and just dedicated myself to doing everything different.
And when I first came back with the band and we were [E] working with producer Peter Collins
at the time, and he was listening to my playing on the demos and so on [N] and say, well, it doesn't
sound that much different to me.
And to me, that was a compliment because I changed everything and it still sounded like me.
And then when I started playing with the other guys, they did notice the clock was a subtle
different that they had to mesh with me.
And I mean, these are things are indefinably subtle, but they were things that I've wanted
to work on for 20 years.
And I guess a good advantage, a good example of it is technique.
I worked so much with [C] sequencers and click tracks that I became remarkably metronomic,
but that had a rigidity that went with it.
So my mission then became to conquer that and become looser.
So if you think of a technique instrument and a feel player, those are the two differences
that I tried to bridge and I'm still trying to bridge.
I want to become more improvisational because I'm compositional.
And my last drum instructional video was on drum soloing.
[F] And I said, I compose a solo and [N] then perform the variations within it as a piece of music
for the audience.
And right at that moment, I said, okay, I'm a composer, but I want to be an improviser.
So I started working really hard on that.
And now at this point, the first half of my solo is completely improvised from the first
beat through changes that I become familiar with and come to like in the process of a
night's discovery, or even in the night's warmup, I'll come across something, oh, that's good.
And it goes in the solo that night.
So for a guy that has, to adding the improvisation to your routine, when you get out on stage
and you have to play and you know that the first part is completely improvised, do you get scared?
Uh, it was nervous making it first, but then you learn to protect yourself in that the
second half is composed again for the audience's benefit to be.
It's just like, just get there, just get to that second half?
Well, it's never, no, I get lost in it.
And I've made comparisons to exploring on the motorcycle, getting lost on roads that
close and I wander down rhythmic areas that because I do challenge myself because there
are no consequences.
There's no mistake.
If I do something weird, play it twice.
And it's a new part, you know, a jazz instrument.
That's what it told me.
Have you ever had the drumming solo equivalent of a motorcycle hitting a deer?
Have you ever been on?
Good comparison because I've certainly had that experience.
But again, it's soloing you can't.
And that's why I'm more careful in the band's music because the proverbial train wreck where
the whole band gets lost is a nightmare.
And we've over the years, of course, evolved ways out of that.
It happens to everybody.
You miss hear a rhythm or an echo off the [Eb] back wall of the venue sometimes can be a
half beat out.
And if you lose concentration for a second, you're suddenly half a beat out with the other
guy and we just look [E] at each other and you decide, OK, go with him. _