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you like. When recording drums in stereo, try putting a fast echo on one side to thicken the sound.
Drum Pauses
The near-constant presence of a drum kit (real or electronic) in popular music can make us forget that a song could
approach rhythm in a different manner. From time to time consider not having a continuous beat. In an orchestral
setting tympani rolls, snare rolls and cymbal crashes occur only to mark special moments in the music, such as a
crescendo or climax. Marking the beat percussively all the time would be considered vulgar in classical music –
that's what the conductor is doing by waving his arms. If you compare the 1947 revision of Igor Stravinsky's ballet
Petrouchka with the 1911 version, you will notice that he took out much of the percussion – presumably on the
mature judgement that he had been over-emphatic in the original score. The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds album offers a
fine example of percussion used in a less obvious way.
Even in a rock song, dramatic effects can be generated by taking out the beat for a few bars. Good examples are
'Summertime Blues', 'Something Else', 'Lucille', 'My Generation', Ash's 'Goldfinger', Dodgy's 'In A Room',
Metallica's 'Enter Sandman', Led Zeppelin's 'What Is And What Should Never Be' and The Bluetones' 'Slight
Return'. There's a wonderful pull-out and re-entry of the drums in 'Tumbling Dice'. The obvious place to delay the
entry of the drums is on the intro, as in 'There She Goes', 'Bittersweet Symphony' and 'Over The Hills And Far
Away'. 'In The Air Tonight' has a long-delayed entry which was the probable inspiration for Preston Hayman's
spectacular snare-drum entry on Kate Bush's 'Leave It Open'. You can even bring in the drums on what sounds like a
''wrong" beat, as on 'Start Me Up' and 'Marquee Moon'.
When considering alternatives, think of the tambourine that enters with a smack at the start of the verse on 'Dancing
In The Street'. Listen to the interruption of a drum loop in Tori Amos's 'Caught A Lite Sneeze', where at 2:46 the
drums are suddenly silenced. She sings "Right on time you get closer" and on the last word the drum loop is back in.
Other arresting moments of silence occur in 'Novocaine For The Soul' (at 1:23), 'Single Girl' and 'Just' (at 2:22).
You can also use a drum machine to carry the early part of a song and bring in live drums later.