How Drummers & Percussionists Can Work Together

The combo can be undeniably awesome: drums and percussion joining forces in one band. In principle any and every style and genre will benefit from even a little bit of percussion, but to achieve it, drummers and percussionists need to work like a well-oiled machine. All going well, you get something deeper and more interesting, whether you’re a jazz band, an indie band, or a party band.

Collaboration

“I sometimes feel like a song is lacking something; that an extra rhythm or detail is missing. It’s those moments that demand some percussion,” explains drummer and producer Juan van Emmerloot. As a case in point, you can hear percussion all over the album he recorded with his outfit Burnin’ The Rules, entitled ‘Trappole’. To get the sound he was after, he enlisted the help of percussionist Raymond Blahowetz who, even at a young age, was busy learning the art of the congas and later widened his knowledge to include the entire percussive range. While his roots lay in Indonesian percussion, he feels right at home playing an enormously wide range of different styles.

“Even though its origins largely lie in Latin music, you can add percussion to any genre,” says Raymond. “It can even work in straight rock. For the album, I tuned my congas pretty low, so that it fitted better with the music, otherwise they would have sounded too jumpy. Generally, it’s the character of a song that dictates whether or not percussion is going to work, rather than the genre.” Juan adds: “Sometimes, a song can lack a bit of playfulness or frills so, if you want to give it more energy, then percussion can really help with that – giving it some life. Even more serious music like rock can have a more joyful edge to it, and percussion can do this not just by adding rhythmic elements but, because it has a broader sonic spectrum than drums – especially in the higher frequencies – it can really help balance out the global sound.” Juan sometimes also records the percussion himself: “I only do it if I want to compose a groove that includes percussion. When I listen back and can clearly hear that a percussionist can do a better job, then I go to a percussionist. But of course, that all depends on the budget and the time we have.”

Colouring In

Raymond quickly illustrates the role of the percussionist: “Say the drummer plays a fill that ends with a crash. Using something like a bell-tree, that crash can be slightly lengthened and coloured in. You can do the same by striking a tambourine with a stick. This is the stuff that isn’t mounted onto most drum kits so, as the percussionist, you seek out the sounds that are going to add colour and interest to the music as a whole. How I do that always depends on the song and what I can add or help support or amplify. Basically, you’re weaving a composition within the composition.”

Juan plays us a couple of numbers where he’s drumming while Raymond plays percussion. What the percussion adds to the beat becomes immediately clear when he mutes the percussion tracks and brings them back in again. It also becomes clearer that there are two ways to play percussion alongside a drummer – you can either ‘weave’ or ‘thicken’.

When weaving, the percussion is placed between the drum strikes. When you’re thickening the beat, you’re playing with the drummer, so the strikes are placed exactly on the drum strikes, strengthening the sound. Weaving gives the music an essentially different character than thickening. “The style of music will usually dictate whether you need to weave or thicken,” Juan continues. “For example, the funk of someone like Prince’s work often demands thickening – the music is just asking for it. But you can also vary things within a number by transitioning between weaving and thickening, so the character of the song changes and evolves as it progresses. Generally, weaving has a more surprising effect, since you’re not just obediently following the drummer. Latin patterns are a really good example, where the percussion almost dances around the drums. This makes the track much more exciting, especially when things are happening at certain points that you just didn’t expect.”

Timing

Weaving your playing between the beats that the drummer is playing can sound like a challenge. “Yes, it is a challenge. It does demand more creativity from the percussionist,” admits Raymond. “But personally, I actually find playing the same beats as the drummer harder because it means you both need to have exactly the same timing. Otherwise, it’ll just sound like a mess and the effect will be lost.”

Raymond also makes the point that it’s essential to be able to see the drummer when playing on stage. “I also make sure that the timbales (so the high and sharp sounding drums) are always set up between me and the drummer. The timbales are where the percussionist tends to go nuts and, during those moments when you’re going nuts, you need to have a really clear view of what the drummer’s doing. That way, you can make sure that everything fits rhythmically within the apparent chaos.”

The ability to perform passages like this also rests on timing, giving you three options: driving, staying on the beat, or keeping it laid back. “Juan is naturally a laid back drummer,” explains Raymond. “So I also play with laid back timing so that the feel is strengthened in the whole rhythm section. This is also possible in a number that features really energetic, driving instrumentation.” So, is matching the timing of the drummer a golden rule? If your drummer plays laid back, then the percussionist has to match that? And if the drummer is pushing and driving the beat, does the percussionist also need to drive? “Most of the time, yes,” Juan answers. “But there are exceptions.” He shows us what he means by playing us a recording of the song ‘Scientific Weirdo’ from his last album, where Raymond is playing percussion. Juan’s drumming is laid back, but here and there, Raymond plays something on the congas, timbales and a shekere which is almost syncopated and driving, clearly pushing against the beat and really stirring things up.

The Drummer Leads

A percussionist has a lot of options when it comes to filling in their parts, but there are also some clear restrictions. “It’s not the case that you can do everything or that you’re ‘allowed’ to do everything,” Raymond says, “A percussionist working with a drummer needs to have an understanding that they’re playing a supporting role. Almost always, it’s the drummer that’s the leader: the drummer drives the band; dictates the tempo and the feel – whether it’s driving, laid back or on the count. So, as the percussionist, you need to follow the drummer consistently, otherwise you’ll just drive everyone crazy – especially the drummer. You also need to be able to play an arrangement and not just mess around, otherwise you just won’t be taken seriously.”

The challenge of playing percussion alongside a drummer is finding where the adventure and surprises lie but doing it in such a way that it fits perfectly with what’s already happening and doesn’t mess up the song. “So if I see that the drummer is about to play a fill, I’m not going to play a fill as well,” expands Raymond. “At most, you might come to the end of a song when the drummer plays a massive fill and creates some drama and chaos, then it can be appropriate to go along with it and help strengthen some of that organised chaos.”

Latin music, which is where modern percussion finds its roots, usually doesn’t even feature a drummer. In Latin percussion, the roles that the different parts of a drum kit play are divided across different percussion instruments. The leading role is taken on by the timbale players, who give the cues for the breaks and the fills and so on. “In a pop band, it’s the drummer that does that,” Juan explains. “Of course, there are some stubborn percussionists out there who just ignore this. And if you’re one of those percussionists, you’re not doing the drummer, or the rest of the band any favours. The same goes for percussionists who just bang out all the songs on the timbales. It really messes with what the drummer is trying to do.”

Volume

While we’re on the subject of timbales, we might as well talk about volume. A drummer can produce a lot of volume, but as loud as the drumming gets, the drums still can’t compete with some percussion instruments. “Besides the choice of instruments and the rhythm that you’re playing, your volume level is also another important and conscious decision you have to make,” Raymond insists. “The percussion needs to sit nicely within the mix. If you’re playing too loudly, maybe on a tambourine, then the sound of the tambourine is going to float above the song, dominating the feel. Try not to play too hard and vary the microphone distance. Otherwise you risk basically destroying the overall band sound, making the percussion an ugly aspect – meaning that you won’t be asked back to play another show. Never forget that, as the percussionist, you’re serving the whole, just like every other musician on the stage.”

Percussionists don’t just work with struck instruments like congas and timbales, but also accent instrument that can make short clicking sounds or longer drawn out percussive sounds, whether it’s bar chimes, triangles, sleigh bells, effect cymbals, cup chimes and so on. Juan plays a specific part of ‘Scientific Weirdo’ for us again. “This is where the song really opens up and starts to fly. Raymond supports the change in energy by playing bar chimes and differently tuned sleigh bells. You can also use percussion to spread the sound, widening things a bit.”

Playing Live

In the recordings that Juan has played us, Raymond has added various layers played on different instruments. In a live situation, playing six instruments at once just isn’t possible. So, what does he do when they play live? “I sort of divide each song into sections. So section A is the verse, so I stick to the congas. Section B is the chorus so maybe I switch to the timbales, and maybe on a middle eight, so section C, I’ll colour things in with smaller percussion.”

As we’ve already mentioned, the drummer is the leader, but is Juan always conscious that he’s playing with a percussionist on stage? “Absolutely. While you’re drumming, you’re creating space for the percussionist. So, if he’s playing a tambourine during a specific passage, then I’ll stop playing the hi-hat. Sometimes the groove moves to the percussion so, as the drummer, I adapt. I also don’t play every fill but step back here and there so the percussionist can take care of them. You can plan everything that happens ahead, but you also need to agree on the cues.” Raymond interjects: “Sometimes that happens automatically, so you can hear it in the playing.” Can there sometimes be a battle between the drummer and percussionist? “Yes,” both of them confirm with a grin. “But it can easily become a negative battle, where one just isn’t willing to submit to the other. It’s just the wrong way of going about it and never serves the music.”