Quotes About Drumming

At Brown, I trained in West African dance and drumming.

John Bonham, probably the greatest drummer ever - all of us wanted to play drums like him.

I'd just play 'til my hands fell off. My parents would yell at me to stop because they couldn't stand the noise any more! I was terrible! It must have been hard for them to listen to me as a beginning drummer.

According to my parents, I just started drumming when I was two. I traveled with them from five to seven on the road, playing percussion. Between 8 and 12, my dad sort of prepared me by teaching me every aspect of road life.

You say 'African music' and you think 'tribal drumming.' But there's a lot of African music that's like James Brown, and a lot, too, that sounds very Hispanic.

In 2007, I studied with Peter Erskine because I was doing a Buddy Rich tribute concert, and I wanted to take my big-band drumming up a level. I went over to Peter's house with my sticks, feeling like a 13-year-old again.

Rudimental snare work is something I've always loved.

I've always liked a very dry snare and, like everyone else, a very dry bass drum.

Playing well with others is important - not being too flashy, just keeping good time and of course coming up with cool beats. A good snare drum, kick drum, high hat. Just getting good at the hand feet coordination.

I was at a party in Alexandra Palace tobogganing on the ski slope, got whiplashed at 40mph, put my hands out to balance myself, and three fingers got caught in the artificial snow. I broke four knuckles. I have not drummed since.

Drumming is a real part of my live show, and I like to do it because so many people aren't expecting me to go and do it.

You can put me in front of any kit, and it is a fun thing to have to adapt. It inspires me to try different things. I like that.

Ringo's hair is an occupational hazard.

I learned drumming as a second instrument because I didn't want to sing. Sometimes I would quite like to be left in the back, in the darkness by myself.

Autumn rains drumming overhead, they had squatted in a half-circle, facing north, and watched as seven robed and hooded figures approached.

I don't even like doing drum solos live; to me, it's like, 'Ehhh.' It doesn't really interest me.

There's the drums, the music, the melodies, the lyrics, the production, the artwork: there are so many elements to making an album, and the drumming is just a very small fraction of what I focus on.

That's where I learned, basically, all my skills from the drumming that I do - most of my style comes straight from death metal.

a bass drum thumped like the pulse of some living collective creature down there.

Sorry, no, I'm never satisfied with my drumming.

When the rain came it came first as the scent of rain, the grey air stained darker behind the hills. Then when it came down to us it was like thread and needles, piercing the jellyish water with a trillion tiny pricks, the silver threads attaching water to sky. And there too was the sound of rain, drumming gently upon the canvas cover where it was stretched taut at the back of the boat. It was so warm.

I grew up listening to my parents' albums. Many of them were either classical - Bach, Beethoven and Brahms - or easy listening, like Mantovani. I loved the spectrum of emotions in classical music, from fortissimo to pianissimo. My early passion for classical made my drumming more musical later on.

Drummers are like sharks. They have to move all the time or they die.

Stamina is the force that drives the drumming; it's not really a sprint.