on the brilliance of mike portnoy.
i would like to take a moment, if i may, to sing the praises of mike portnoy, that brilliant, brilliant man. he's dream theater's drummer, in case you don't know. you should know. he's utterly deadly in every way. probably. well, except apparently he thought the movie "saw" was absolutely brilliant. it wasn't. it was stupid and gory and horrific and tasteless and had a very poor storyline (probably). i didn't like it one bit. but anyway. drumming.
mike portnoy has been in dream theater since its conseption in the late 80's, and with john petrucci is the main brains behind everything dream theater. he writes significant amounts of the music (not just the drum parts) and lyrics, and has done in all 8 full-length studio albums. and when i say full-length, i MEAN full-length - dream theater albums tend to clock in at around 75 minutes. recently, he and petrucci have taken to producing the albums as well, something normally left to a professional with a lifetime of experience. that's how damn good they are. they can compete with a lifetime of experience. and do better. they're frickin' geniuses. and legends. etc etc.
anyway. portnoy. basically, in 17 years and 8 studio albums (as well as a 23-minute song that was released on its own with some live medleys of covers or summat) mr portnoy has used a 4/4 drum beat about THREE TIMES. for some sense of relativity, most drummers (especially that bastard lars ulrich) use a 4/4 beat about three times EVERY SONG. when they do something different you sit up and take note, because it's different, anmd the drummer has really excelled himself. PAH.
what is a 4/4 beat? it is hi-hats or ride cymbals played regularly and straight; the bass drum is hit every 1st, 5th, 9th etc beat and the snare drum every 3rd, 7th etc beat. it's easy. the first thing a drummer will learn when he buys a kit is the 4/4 drumbeat. it's boring, unimaginative, dull, monotonous... ARGH!!! and drummers do it all the time, and call it MUSIC!!! it's NOT MUSIC. why? because they lack the techinical ability do anything more complex? because they're lazy? because they lack the imagination to actually WRITE something?! if so, you have no right to be making music!
say you write a guitar line. there is syncopation there, accents, the melody will ebb and flow. the purpose of the drums is to compliment those characteristics. NOT to just do a 4/4 for every damn thing! where's the life? the soul? now i will grant that occasionally the 4/4 beat is what fits. i'd say it fits about... four times every seventeen years? yeah that sounds right. and when it does, it is what should be played, not some overly virtuosic beat. TASTE.
and mr portnoy has buckets of the stuff. buckets.
and, for filling every rhythmic whol, for having taste, for having a 18-piece drumkit with two bloody drumstools and 20 cymbals which he actually uses (i.e. not for novelty purposes it isn't), and for seeming like just a generally awesome bloke, we should all give him money.
or our unending praises. or something i don't care. but he must be acknowledged as the genius he is. all hail!
-james
mike portnoy has been in dream theater since its conseption in the late 80's, and with john petrucci is the main brains behind everything dream theater. he writes significant amounts of the music (not just the drum parts) and lyrics, and has done in all 8 full-length studio albums. and when i say full-length, i MEAN full-length - dream theater albums tend to clock in at around 75 minutes. recently, he and petrucci have taken to producing the albums as well, something normally left to a professional with a lifetime of experience. that's how damn good they are. they can compete with a lifetime of experience. and do better. they're frickin' geniuses. and legends. etc etc.
anyway. portnoy. basically, in 17 years and 8 studio albums (as well as a 23-minute song that was released on its own with some live medleys of covers or summat) mr portnoy has used a 4/4 drum beat about THREE TIMES. for some sense of relativity, most drummers (especially that bastard lars ulrich) use a 4/4 beat about three times EVERY SONG. when they do something different you sit up and take note, because it's different, anmd the drummer has really excelled himself. PAH.
what is a 4/4 beat? it is hi-hats or ride cymbals played regularly and straight; the bass drum is hit every 1st, 5th, 9th etc beat and the snare drum every 3rd, 7th etc beat. it's easy. the first thing a drummer will learn when he buys a kit is the 4/4 drumbeat. it's boring, unimaginative, dull, monotonous... ARGH!!! and drummers do it all the time, and call it MUSIC!!! it's NOT MUSIC. why? because they lack the techinical ability do anything more complex? because they're lazy? because they lack the imagination to actually WRITE something?! if so, you have no right to be making music!
say you write a guitar line. there is syncopation there, accents, the melody will ebb and flow. the purpose of the drums is to compliment those characteristics. NOT to just do a 4/4 for every damn thing! where's the life? the soul? now i will grant that occasionally the 4/4 beat is what fits. i'd say it fits about... four times every seventeen years? yeah that sounds right. and when it does, it is what should be played, not some overly virtuosic beat. TASTE.
and mr portnoy has buckets of the stuff. buckets.
and, for filling every rhythmic whol, for having taste, for having a 18-piece drumkit with two bloody drumstools and 20 cymbals which he actually uses (i.e. not for novelty purposes it isn't), and for seeming like just a generally awesome bloke, we should all give him money.
or our unending praises. or something i don't care. but he must be acknowledged as the genius he is. all hail!
-james