What the Greats Play: Discovering the Gear of World Class Funk Drummers
Photo Credits: Tore Sætre licensed under Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 4.0, Brennan Schnell licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license, Lia Chang licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license, Andrzej.baq licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 and bigdrumthump.com licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
I wanted to write this article to show what equipment top musicians use. When it comes to brands I always tell people to choose with their ears, not with their eyes. By this I mean don't be swayed by a giant company's clever marketing campaigns. Go to a drum store, play some cymbals and drumkit, and see what sounds good to you. I also want to explain the difference between different cymbal series.
I also want to note that even though this is the funk edition, the musicians I chose to focus on can play all styles well. I just wanted to focus on the funk grooves.
Dennis Chambers
Dennis has played with steely Dan Carlos Santana and the legendary funk group Parliment Funkadelic. If you see him play in the clip you will notice he has 13-inch hi-hats. On a standard drumkit, the usual hi-hats are 14 inches.
Dennis has chosen the 13s for a higher crisper sound for accenting different beats. You will also notice he has mid-size crashes. This is because in funk music the first beat of the bar, commonly known as the 1 needs to be heavily emphasized. Dennis does this by using 15 and 16-inch crashes.
All his cymbals are Zildjian K custums which are super bright and punchy.
Zildjian K Custom Hybrid Cymbal Set see price
Using a 20-inch bass drum gives a punchy sound to the beat without being so 1 dimensional. A deep snare also gives the beat a high-pitched crack which adds to the funkiness. Dennis has used Pearl drums for decades, usually a master's or another top-of-the-range series.
Pearl Masters Maple 22' 4-pc S. #858 see price
Nate Smith
Nate Smith is a groove machine! He has worked with so on and so on.
In this clip, you can see he uses Zildjian series cymbals. He usually changes the series he plays, but they are usually the K series. These are amazingly versatile cymbals that sound great for jazz and funk. They are super bright and give the music a cool sonic range.
The most interesting thing about this clip to me was his bass drum pedal. It is an old pedal similar to a Zildjian speed king. The felt beater gives a warmer tone.
He also uses a smaller bass drum. The advantage of using a small bass drum is you can place your Toms very low and close to you. This makes it easier to do fills around the drumkit.
Zildjian K-Custom Darkbox Set see price
Ludwig L203 Speed King Pedal see price
Ludwig Accent Fuse 5pc Silver see price
Ahmir Thompson
Younger people will know Ahmir Questlove Thompson as the drummer for the Jimmy Kimmel show. I urge you to go back to listen to his work with the Roots, D’Angelo, and Erykah Badu.
He was responsible for helping create the neo-soul movement with his groundbreaking beats.
Questlove popularised a really simple drumkit setup consisting of hi-hat snare, kick floor tom, and no mounted tom.
This clip shows him playing a top-of-the-range Yamaha drumkit. (Although he now endorses Ludwig drums).
You can see he uses a ‘subkick’ in front of his bass drum. This gives the bass drum extra low end which is usually heard on recordings. His snare drum is tuned extra high to give the backbeat a lot of attack. The Zildjian cymbals he uses are larger in size and have lots of sustain.
If you listen to how much he focuses on the groove as opposed to playing flashy fills around the drums.
Also a producer, Ahmir pays close attention to detail with the sound of the drums.
Yamaha Absolute Hybrid Studio -SOB see price
Zildjian Thomann Anniversary Cymbal Set see price
Will Calhoun
One of my favorite drummers of all time. An incredibly versatile musician who has worked with Mick Jagger, Lauren Hill, and Mos Def while fronting his own Grammy Award-winning band Living Colour. Will effortlessly changes styles from hard rock to soul to jazz to hip hop.
His Gretsch drums sound incredible. He uses a mixture of small and larger drums to be able to switch styles easily. The snare drum is 6 inches deep which gives great depth for a funky backbeat.
If you notice he uses a second bass drum on his left-hand side which is smaller than his main bass drum. This is a genius idea as he is able to get 2 separate bass drum tones.
Will uses his own signature series of Sabian cymbals.
Gretsch USA Custom Standard Maple see price
Sabian 10' HH Will Calhoun Alien Disc see price
I use this cymbal and find it incredibly funky and versatile.
Omar Hakim
Omar has worked with Sting, Madonna, Weather Report, and Daft Punk. His incredibly funky can be heard on the hits songs ‘Let's Dance’ by David Bowie and ‘Get Lucky’ by Daft Punk.
Omar also uses Zildjian K series cymbals like many other funk drummers. You can see he has an effects cymbal on his left side which he uses for accents. The cymbals with holes in them usually sound like a cross between a crash cymbal and a china cymbal.
I find it interesting how close his toms are to his snare drum. I guess this makes it easier to get around the drums. I should point out this can only be done with a smaller bass drum.
Zildjian K Custom Hybrid Cymbal Pack see price
Zildjian 18' A-Custom EFX see price
Pearl Masters Maple 22' 4-pc S. #858 see price
John Blackwell
John played with Prince for over a decade and also performed with Justin Timberlake and D’Angelo.
He was known for his incredibly funky beat and outrageous stick twirling.
In this clip, John is using the Zildjian A series. These cymbals are not as bright as the K series but have more sustain.
I like his unique style of essentially playing left-handed on a right-handed kit. This clip is a great example of how ghost notes on the snare drum really make the beat funky.
Zildjian A-Custom Professional Prom Set see price
Tama STAR Drum Walnut Stand. AIJB see price
John usually played Tama drums, a star classic, or other high-end models.
About Magesh Magesh
Magesh is a musician and producer who has worked with Rihanna, Lionel Richie, Ricky Martin, Chris Brown, The Pussy Cat Dolls, Nelly Furtado, and Vernon Reid of Living Colour.
He released an instructional drumming DVD called "Unique Beats" where he mixed the drum kit with electronics and Indian hand percussion. He recently moved from Australia to the UK to explore new musical opportunities.
Website: mageshdrumteacher.co.uk
Contact Magesh Magesh at magesh.magesh7@gmail.com
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