“The Drum Also Waltzes” is a song from Max Roach’s 1965 album release “Drums Unlimited.” The album was on the Atlantic record label. The song was not a traditional one. The track consists of a drum solo in the 3/4 time signature ( a waltz) and the underlying structure of the solo is a foot ostinato, where the bass drum plays on beat one and the hi-hat plays on beat two. The feet rest on beat three and that repeats over and over again, while Roach solos on top with his hands.
Roach’s concept has appealed to other thoughtful drummers. Bill Bruford released a version of the piece and Neil Peart found it a challenge that he worked on in his practice sessions, eventually adding it to his drum solos with Rush.
As for John Bonham, I’ve heard him dabble with it at the beginning of his Moby Dick solos. It wasn’t really something he stuck with, but he definitely quotes it for a bit at the beginning of the Moby Dick solo from the 1970 Royal Albert Hall concert.
With giants like Bruford, Peart and Bonham giving “Waltzes” the nod, it’s hard to ignore it. “The Drum Also Waltzes” just happens to be a great idea for a drum solo.I’ve found it a challenge myself, and in the last few years have spent some time working on it.
It’s really fun; both for the challenge of it and because of the musicality of it.
I’m not sure yet how long this series of articles will be, but the point of it will be to dig into the concept so that you, dear reader, have a method to approach it yourself.
I want to give you the tools so that you can start working on this. And then, after that, I want to try and take it up a notch. My intention is to try to develop this idea a bit further than I’ve heard anyone else do.
But to just get us started, with this first entry, I’m going to break down what I believe to be the first building blocks that need to be addressed. Clearly, the most difficult part of this is the independence.
The PDF offered to you here just provides some very simple beginning exercises aimed at giving you some basic independence so you can begin.
You’ll notice that the ostinato I’m choosing to work with here is slightly different from Roach’s original one. It’s more in line with Peart’s version, where the bass drum is on beat one and the hi-hat plays on both beats two and three.
I can’t tell you why I like that ostinato better, maybe it’s my bias towards loving Neil, I don’t know.
By the way, if you want to understand more about my predilection towards all things Neil Peart, you can read about how Neil gave me his “Chromey” drum set (from Rush’s first tours with Neil) HERE
But, since it’s the one I like and it’s how I’ve worked on it, that’s the version I present to you in this PDF and in the forthcoming worksheets.
And now, without further delay, here is the PDF entitled “11 Steps to “The Drum Also Waltzes” Independence. Just click HERE to download it.
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