Behind the Drums – Who’s Gonna See Me?

So you’re the drummer eh? And you’re thinking you get a ‘pass’ when it comes to visuals. Tom and I work you hard on the arrangement side of things – keeping the rest of the band on point, counted in and track-triggered. Now you can just hide and do your thing right? Not so fast beat-boys & babes!

There ARE some things you can do to stand out visually and grab the crowd’s attention. Let’s start with subtle (even though many drummers are anything BUT).
First, make eye contact with the audience when you can. Not always easy but take the mindless places to look up and out at people… AND your bandmates! Think about your facial expression too – does it show the audience the joy you have when you play? More importantly, the mood of the song itself. Let those feelings come out of your face!

The rest of your body needs to get in on this too. You may want to try setting your cymbals higher so it causes you to reach for them. The extended arm movements will make you instantly more visual and fun to watch.
Work on stick tricks or a playing style that draws our eye. Use this at the appropriate times of course so as not to detract from what the audience should pay attention to.

Something I like to do when working with a band, is to get the drummer out from behind the drums somewhere in the show. It’s a nice surprise for the audience and will instantly get you more engaged with the crowd. One option is to take advantage of an acapella section or a breakdown where the bass player (for example) could keep things going, or maybe your guitar player could play a rhythmic scratch to keep the tempo. At this point you could come out front with your sticks and get the audience clapping. If you sing, you could jump on a mic with someone up front.

Another option would be to get you at least off the drum throne by standing up to play for a bit. This works really well if your song has a busy tom section going on. You’ll have to figure out how to position your stool, kick pedal, etc., to smoothly get up and down, but the extra time spent working on this, and ALL of these seemingly ‘little’ things, adds up to some great moments, so take the time to work them up!

Lastly, your look can grab our attention. People expect drummers to be a little crazy, so get creative with what you’re wearing! Funky hats, cool glasses, out-of-the-norm shirts, no shirts, whatever…just be sure the look fits the genre and vibe of your bandmates to a degree.

So push the envelope and take some risks…the reward is worth it!