Drummers that listen to Opeth

[Darfus]

Hey guys.

I was wondering what Lopez you fellow drummers can play, and how long you've been playing. I just want to compare it to myself, I've been thinking about others and how they play, and also if you guys rehearse some Opeth songs with your friends, guitars and/or vocals.

I am 18, and I have been playing for 10 months. Hand wise, I can pretty much copy him, but not quite yet. From ghost notes and accents to speed, I try my best, and do well. Feet wise, his double bass speed is a tad to fast for me, I can't keep up the speed like the end of Blackwater Park. I can do the Deliverance outro though.

So post your age, how long you've been playing, and a description of the stuff, It can be really great when musicians share their likes/dislikes, I mean, the more you like a song the more you'd want to play it. Therefore, you'd learn it. So the songs you can play are usually the ones you like (to play).

Enjoy.

 

[flawrence1]

Some stuff like the Leper Affinity groove and the beginning of Deliverance with the fast double bass, I can only nail feet-wise when I'm hopped up on caffeine, and not beer. The slaved left foot gets retarded sometimes. More easy to play are The Moor, Advent, and Drapery (middle section)...as far as fun-to-drum songs.

30 years old, using an iron cobra and a roland v-pro with the kd-120 kick. I guess I've played off and on for about 5-10 years for fun. Any guitarists in the DC area who want to jam, email me

 

[Staffan]

Except for the doublebass I can nail most of it. I'm 15 and has been playing about four years

/victor... second user on this account.

 

[Minion520]

I've been playing for around 7 years and I can pretty much play all Opeth material, bass drums and everything. Sometimes I get a little caught up in a fill that he does, but other then that I can play all of still life and blackwater park, those are the ones i play the most.

 

[Darfus]

Some stuff like the Leper Affinity groove and the beginning of Deliverance with the fast double bass, I can only nail feet-wise when I'm hopped up on caffeine, and not beer. The slaved left foot gets retarded sometimes. More easy to play are The Moor, Advent, and Drapery (middle section)...as far as fun-to-drum songs.

30 years old, using an iron cobra and a roland v-pro with the kd-120 kick. I guess I've played off and on for about 5-10 years for fun. Any guitarists in the DC area who want to jam, email me

Yea Leper Affinity is fun. I love playing that whole album. The ending of the album is so great. It's weird how you can nail the feet on Deliverance but not the hands... the hands are easy. About the left foot, I have the same problem. It falls behind, not as quick as my right, my right foot just snaps, I still have to work on my left. I haven't tried playing with Red Bulls or Artificial Energy, That's a REALLY GOOD idea, and I will try it, today. The Moor is on Still Life, and I haven't really tried to play that album much. My favorites to PLAY are Deliverance, Blackwater Park, My Arms, Your Hearse, and definitely Damnation. I think I play Damnation the best, with a close competitor Bwp.

I've been playing for around 7 years and I can pretty much play all Opeth material, bass drums and everything. Sometimes I get a little caught up in a fill that he does, but other then that I can play all of still life and blackwater park, those are the ones i play the most.

That's cool, you must have so much fun having the skills to play whatever you want from Opeth. Blackwater Park is so fun. The title track is GREAT. Double bass at the end is fun.

I use Yamaha FP7210 Foot pedals, it came with my set. I'm sure they aren't good. I checked them out, they are a cheap price. So I should probably buy single pedals, first right foot, then when I get enough money, left foot.
Do you guys play with a lot of tension on your pedals? Also, how high is your seat? I ask becuase I am 6'0" and really skinny, and I think it's a flaw for me, so I am interested to know how you guys do it, and your heights. Stocky legs would just seem to have an easier time flying.

Ps-Do you guys stretch before you play?

 

[Sanzen]

but can everyone play the 6/8 Lopez beat?

 

[Darfus]

but can everyone play the 6/8 Lopez beat?

What's that? What song.

 

[Windowpane]

What's that? What song.

In fact, a lot of their songs are in the 6/8 format though mike sometimes adds a 4/4 or 5/8 or some other time signatures in between. Songs like When, Godhead's Lament, Harvest and a lot others are in the 6/8 format.

 

[Sanzen]

What's that? What song.

Oh man...he uses it all the time. A lot of times he'll play it over 4/4, too. to steal from an earlier thread:

Some more occurance of that beat..for fun:

Still Life
The Moor : 2:08 (a variant)
Serenity Painted Death : 0:48

Deliverance
Master's Apprentice : 8:37

My Arms, Your Hearse
April Ethereal : 1:55 (a variant)
Demon of the Fall : 1:48

Blackwater Park
The Leper Affinity : 3:10, 3:23
The Funeral Protrait: 3:04, 4:41

I probably missed a few...

The old drummer from Soilwork (henry) stole it and uses it quite a bit on "A Predator's Portrait", like on Shadowchild. Once you know what it is, the lopez beat is real easy to pick out.

 

[Staffan]

haha we use that beat in one of our songs

 

[flawrence1]

It's weird how you can nail the feet on Deliverance but not the hands... the hands are easy.

yeah, the hands are easy. the only hard hand part is how quick he hits the ride in unison with the basses in that part in Drapery Falls just after the really weird middle part with the guitars repeating 5 quick notes and Lopez doing the 10 note repitition on the toms and snare

 

[Darfus]

yeah, the hands are easy. the only hard hand part is how quick he hits the ride in unison with the basses in that part in Drapery Falls just after the really weird middle part with the guitars repeating 5 quick notes and Lopez doing the 10 note repitition on the toms and snare

Ok, listening to that right now... Cut to 5:21 in the song. Ok, Me and my brother nicknamed this part 'crazy hell' for the name of the song, since we rehearse it, we give the sections names. It's like 5:57-6:07, this part happens after lopez hits the HH with bass 16 times, I believe it's a whole measure of 4/4 but I didn't check, anyway; he is not hitting the ride that fast, and the tom snare combo is easy, that's not all toms, it's bass drums to. he's playing a 16th note double bass pattern and flamming 1 tom, then a lower one, then snare, then repeats it.

[edit] on crazy hell he flams (either 1 or 2 toms) like the procedure listed above, and on every other measure, he flams an extra 16th note, so there's an extra flam before the rest. So:
Measure 1:Flam tom X, Flam tom x+1(larger), Snare. All in succession.
Measure 2:Flam tom X twice, 16th notes. The second note on the first tom is at the same time as measure 1. The rest is the same, Flam tom X+1(larger), the snare, in 8th notes.

This is weird though, on a few measure he won't hit any toms or whatever, I think, I don't know I didn't check but it sounded like on the last one he doesn't. This is MY interpretation of it, not exactly what he does! (well, maybe)

*Tom1 does not mean his smallest, neccessarily.

 

[flawrence1]

oh yeah, you're exactly right about that. I was talking about the very next part, with the quick ride along with the double bass. I can do the ride/snare, or bass/snare, but not all at once. when he changes it over to the hi hat it's a lot easier though

that entire section is so fun to drum...too bad the rest of the song is pretty bland, drumming-wise

 

[Darfus]

oh yeah, you're exactly right about that. I was talking about the very next part, with the quick ride along with the double bass. I can do the ride/snare, or bass/snare, but not all at once. when he changes it over to the hi hat it's a lot easier though

that entire section is so fun to drum...too bad the rest of the song is pretty bland, drumming-wise

Man, are you sure? The sectoin at 6:10? That... is quite easy.. It's just fast right hand, Off beat snare a beat, and slow double bass, 16th notes, actually. Practice man, I KNOW you can do it! Just let your body flow, while learning the part, the advice I can give is that, it's going to feel wrong, but that's how you want it to feel. If it feels right, you're either a robot, or already at a professional level. 4 limbs moving at once, not in succession, just takes practice.

(PS-Not to sound like an ass, but that's not even a polyrhythm, I mean some stuff gets hard, what's harder still, but not THAT hard compared to the most polyrhythmic stuff, is the Windowpane beat, Triplets on the hithat, left foot is opening every half beat, then closing again. Bass drum is doing 3 hits in between each Snare shot, left hand, ghost notes on half beat and snare hit every beat. I learned it the 3rd month I started playing, but it took me 3 months, 3 months for one beat? Yea that means it's hard. Try it out, it will feel so wrong, but so cool when you get it. The hard thing to do is combine the Bass drum (right foot) with the right hand, on the hihat, try it out let me know how it goes. Good luck.

 

[estimate]

Sure, I can play it all! Nah. . I suck. I wanna play doublepedal as quick as the beginning of Mayhem - Dark Night of the Soul. Goddamn.

I'm 19, been playing for .. 2 years?

 

[Anarkissed]

I wish i knew half of what the fuck you guys are talking about.

I just started playing drums (hehe, bought a kit off a mate for 100 bucks (AUD)). The best I can do is main riff of the Deliverance outro, albeit without the double kick, since I dont have one.

 

[Minion520]

That's cool, you must have so much fun having the skills to play whatever you want from Opeth. Blackwater Park is so fun. The title track is GREAT. Double bass at the end is fun.

I use Yamaha FP7210 Foot pedals, it came with my set. I'm sure they aren't good. I checked them out, they are a cheap price. So I should probably buy single pedals, first right foot, then when I get enough money, left foot.
Do you guys play with a lot of tension on your pedals? Also, how high is your seat? I ask becuase I am 6'0" and really skinny, and I think it's a flaw for me, so I am interested to know how you guys do it, and your heights. Stocky legs would just seem to have an easier time flying.

Ps-Do you guys stretch before you play?[/QUOTE]

I use Iron Cobras, I love them, they are so smooth. I dont no how high my seat it, i have never measured it.

 

[SentencedToBurn]

Ive been playing for about 3 or 4 years. i can pretty much play any opeth material (although it beens awhile since ive listened to opeth). I dont really play like him since i have a smaller set (one rack tom, one floor tom) but thats how i like it. I play a pearl export series. i have the pearl eliminator double bass pedal. i mostly have DW hardware. I also use a roland trigger on my bass drum with a roland td-8 drum brain.

 

[Hulk Hogan]

Ps-Do you guys stretch before you play?

What kind of question is that?

 

[Sanzen]

What kind of question is that?

if you stretch before playing any double bass or really fast stuff, you'll play better and reduce any chances of hurting yourself.