The Genius Of Ringo Starr

I only ever wanted to be a drummer John Paul George and Ringo played like a unit give me Ringo what would Ringo do lead with my left four drums that's all Ringo Starr needed and the look on our faces was all like [Applause] Ringo Starr a drummer a rock and roll Pioneer a singer writer and band leader and the man responsible for more people picking up the sticks than ever before ladies and Gentlemen The Beatles [Music] foreign Parts one-of-a-kind sound and approach to playing the drum kit and understanding of how the drums can contribute to each song or all part of what makes Ringo so great the phenomenon of you guys will never happen again join us as we dive into the genius of Ringo Starr no one plays the drums quite like Ringo and he truly has one of the most unique voices on the drum kit but there's a couple of reasons why and probably the most significant is this when I was born I was left-handed but my grandmother thought I was overpowered by witches and made me right with my right so I have a right-handed kit that I lead with my left trust me that's not as easy as it sounds if you're a right-handed player you can see Ringo do this when he simply keeps time on the hi-hats or when he plays accents and even when he plays drum fills Simplicity is another key part of Ringo's style he's far from the most technical drummer out there but that's not what the Beatles music needed the most timeless drummers are the ones that are the most simple listen to what Ringo plays on the song in my life [Music] most drummers would play just a simple eighth note hi-hat Groove throughout the song but Ringo chooses only to play one note on the hi-hats through each bar the Simplicity and less is more approach is what makes this drum part so brilliant this is [Music] or take a song Like Love Me Do where Ringo only uses the kick snare and hi-hat foot throughout the entire song [Music] when it comes to the way that Ringo plays the kit he's known for his signature windshield wiper hi-hat plane [Music] Greg bissonnette who's been playing double drums with Ringo since 2003 in Ringo and the round heads and Ringo's all-star band confirms this in one of his drummio lessons when I see him play when we play side by side his swing and his the way he kind of dances while he plays he'll throw his his uh shoulder into it sometimes we get into this rocking motion when we're playing [Music] this approach and the way that he moves behind the drums ultimately has an effect on the swing that he has and adds into his grooves but not only that Ringo was also a big fan of jazz drummers like cozy Cole apparently ringa wasn't really into listening to drum Focus records but cozy Cole's 1958 cover of the song Topsy part 2 was one that he really got into [Music] we're going to dive much deeper into Ringo's signature grooves and fills later on in this video but when it comes to Ringo's style of playing we can't Overlook his phrasing on the drums specifically the way he chose to end his drum fills most drummers would typically end their drum fills with a loud crash on the next downbeat but Ringo would often leave it out right now let me Demo some examples for you and a great one is from the song let it be when the guitar solo transitions into the third chorus Let It Be like also in the song Hey Jude where verse 2 transitions into the first chorus [Music] and in the song don't let me down where Ringo ends each phrase with another open hi-hat where most drummers would choose to play a crash symbol [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh foreign ultimately Ringo knows how to serve the song from the drums even though a lot of his Parts sound quirky his parts are Musical and make sense for each song it's been said a million times but Ringo was the perfect drummer for The Beatles Ringo was the king of feel he's you know he's a song Drummer he actually used his kit in a very different way a very creative way oh he's got the pocket he's got the swing he's got the feel and that's what it's all about is really making songs come alive foreign I think we can all agree that Ringo's creativity and Imagination help him create some Pretty Outside the Box drum Parts drum parts that you wouldn't typically hear on pop and rock songs from the 60s and 70s the first one that comes to mind is Ticket to Ride from the album help [Music] I love that clip where you can literally just see Ringo standing in the background playing that part and to put everything on the table about Ticket to Ride This Groove is not played metronomically perfect but that's part of the beauty of it [Music] some may argue that beats three and four are played as quarter note triplets and others will argue that only the last Tom hit is played on a triplet partial for the sake of this video we've chosen to write only beat four with a triplet figure [Music] now regardless of how you want to write it out listen to Rango try to match where he places those flams and that's the best way to learn how to play it now speaking of quarter note triplets this is a subdivision that Ringo actually uses quite often like in the song daytripper [Music] and she loves you so while I Was preparing for this video I was scanning through all of the Beatles transcriptions we have inside of drumeo and of course one of the best ones is the song Come Together and I was actually able to load this up on dramio slow down the parts Loop different sections and it was just a great way to really internalize these Classic Parts that Ringo played so we have nearly 200 Beatles transcriptions transcribed no for note inside of dramio and if you want to check them out you can click the link right below this video it'll take you over to drumeo.com and you can get started with a seven day free trial and with that let's move on and let's check out the legendary drum Parts on come together [Music] foreign [Music] that hasn't been said about this groove it's absolutely legendary and anyone can recognize it instantly if you look at pictures of the beautiful spoon I'd have them tuned low and I'd have tablecloths on them to take out any ring let's listen to the isolated drum track once more and then I'll play it on the kit [Music] I know Ringo once explained in an interview that he played this part counterclockwise around the kit starting on the floor tom why we got to this is because you say I'm left-handed see I can't go I have to get this hand down so that's why everyone thought wow he's a genius but all he's doing is trying to play Backwards you know that's how he goes uh so it comes around this way but if you listen to the isolated track you can hear the pitch descending so I'll let you all debate this in the comments and you can decide for yourself in the verse of the song Ringo just plays eighth notes on the floor tom with quarter notes on the kick which is a pretty interesting choice [Music] most drummers probably would have just played an eighth note hi-hat Groove throughout this section with a BackBeat on the snare drum but Ringo approached this part differently big contribution of of Ringo was that he used his tomtoms as part of the composition if you're a drummer and you can do this [Music] and have people dancing you're badass another great example of Ringo using his Toms in a creative way is in the bridge of the song something off of Abbey Road foreign Parts is this eight bar drum solo on the end from Abbey Road it's far from your typical rock drum solo but it's classic Ringo eighth notes on the bass drum broken 16th note fills on the toms and a build in the last bar [Music] and of course we can't forget about the way Ringo navigated some of the more Progressive and complicated Beatles music like The Bridge of Happiness is a Warm Gun which jumps between 9 8 and 10 8. and the bridge and here comes the sun which goes between five four and four four or you could think of this as a phrase of eleven eight four four and seven eight [Music] foreign [Music] we don't often do somebody tells the thing we just left them seen and there he is all Anarchy and nervous singing Act Naturally Ringo we've already covered some of Ringo's most famous drum Parts but here let's dive into some more of Ringo's signature drum grooves that he played with the Beatles because chances are that's probably why you're here so let's start off by looking at the song Tomorrow Never Knows from the revolver album on this track Ringo plays the same Groove through the entire song and there's also some tambourine reverse symbol effects and tape Loops that you're hearing as well this is the groove that Ringo plays on the kit just remember to play the ride symbol with the shoulder of the drumstick next up is Ringo's groove on the song I Feel Fine let's go [Music] Paul McCartney has defined this style of drumming as what did I say drumming he once said in an interview there was a style of drumming on what did I say which is a sort of Latin r b that Ray Charles drummer Milt Turner played on the original record and we used to love it one of the big clinching factors about Ringo as the drummer in the band was that he could really play that so well [Music] next is one that Ringo plays near the end of When I'm 64 where he switches to using drumsticks from using brushes earlier he also adds some triplets on the ride symbol that sound pretty cool now I know I said we were just going to be diving into some Beatles grooves here but I figured we should probably include one from outside the Beatles catalog because Ringo has recorded so many other amazing drum Parts this next one is from the song back off Boogaloo which Ringo released as a single in 1972. [Music] this song starts off with a snare drum pattern and here's a clip of Ringo describing how it came to be why we have that drum pattern is because he uh he said you know give it that soda base I'm like and I can't do that and this you know I can't do them both together so I just sort of cheated so okay two three four [Music] and so that's how it came to be done on the snare drum because I couldn't just play that bass drum pen [Music] foreign [Music] some of you may not have known but Ringo was actually influenced by country artists like Hank Williams and Hank Snow which is probably why he had such a great sounding Shuffle and swing feel early on [Music] in the words of Ringo I'm no good on the technical things I'm your basic offbeat drummer with funny fills because I'm really left-handed playing a right-handed kit I can't roll around the drums because of that I can come the other way okay so my fills are never very rolly it's all juicy it's like don't don't know well this may be true it didn't stop him from coming up with drum fills that were original Musical and ultimately memorable if you look around online there's countless forums of people discussing Ringo's drumming and his drum fills while doing research for this video I came across an article that said this he had a go-to formula that he would turn to again and again two 16th notes on the One Beat followed by a 16th note rest and then a group of four or five sixteenth notes yes this might be generalizing things but I think there's a lot of truth to this and it shows that Ringo played to his strengths inside of drumia we have nearly 200 no for no Beatles transcriptions and while I Was preparing for this video looking through all of them these fills appeared over and over again [Music] foreign [Music] also used a lot of triplets when it came to the drum Fields he played with the Beatles just listen to songs like oh darling and a day in the life [Music] they had to count them all here's two great examples of Ringo's triplet fills the first is from the second chorus of your Blues [Music] and the second is from the intro of tell me why [Music] one song we haven't talked about yet which is one of the staple Ringo Starr drum recordings is the song Rain [Applause] [Music] the only thing I've always said is that rain I've never played like that since I don't think because it was busy [Music] they're first meeting with the American Press brings forth an interview laced with quips and humor with a gross of 17 million dollars last year [Music] I don't think there's a drummer out there who's had the reach and impact that Ringo's had because of Ringo many of you watching this video are playing drums today and that's Legacy right there but I think a lot of the time you get so focused on who's the fastest or who's the most technical and we forget about the most important thing and that's the music Ringo truly understands the role of a drummer and what it means to support and contribute to the music one thing I love about Ringo is that he never stayed in one place musically it's so great the diversity of those songs right and that's what was great with the Beatles yep uh we weren't just stuck in like the rock mode the heavy metal mode this mode that mode we were you know we could play anything really he progressed as the band progressed and you can really hear that in his drum Parts especially when you listen to earlier tracks like Twist and Shout and please please me and compare them to what Ringo was playing on later tracks like Helter Skelter and I want Yoshi so heavy which many considered to be some of the earliest heavy metal tracks [Music] Ringo also continues to keep the double drumming tradition alive with his all-star band where he currently plays with Greg Bissonnet but Ringo has also performed double drums with other drummers over the years as well but when it comes to Ringo's Legacy I think these musicians will explain it best no one had ever really done that on record before Ringo was the king of field I mean when he's playing behind you you see a lot of these bands when they're playing they're looking around at the drama like you know is he gonna is he gonna speed up is he gonna slow down you don't have to look we're doing oh he just he's there he's you know he's a song Drummer the music is just so organic he listens to the vocals he says I never wanted to fill and get in the way of vocals I always I'll play a fill only when necessary and it works for the song he really had a knack for coming up with really interesting musical parts he bought drums out from the back and and made people listen to them he listened the song once and he knows exactly what to play I don't believe when I'm involved it's ever too much work and then I just shook windows down it's not like you need to do this I mean it is what I need I need to play peace and love peace and love all right that's a wrap on the genius of Ringo Starr I know Ringo's career has been covered extensively through documentaries interviews books and even the more recent get back series but I hope this video gave you some New Perspectives on Ringo's drumming and I hope it inspires you to go check out some more of Ringo's playing now down in the comments I'd love to know one thing that you've learned from listening to Ringo Starr also don't forget we have the entire Beatles discography transcribed for you inside of drumeo so you can learn all of Ringo's drum Parts no for note and lastly Ringo if you're watching this you're always welcome here at drumeo and I would love to have you out to the studio so you can really show us how these parts are played and with that thank you so much for watching and I'll see you all in the next video cheers [Music]

Channel: Drumeo

Views: 1,001,279

Keywords: drummer, beatles, ringo starr, '60s music, paul mccartney, john lennon, george harrison

Id: ZDY-YeNTcE4

Length: 20min 39sec (1239 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 09 2023

Reddit Comments

[u/one-punch-knockout]

Good video