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Hardest RUSH Song To Play Drums To


tailwind
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I have been playing drums for 25 years, and can hold my own playing most RUSH songs, but certainly the most complicated, and difficult for me has always been FREEWILL. To me, this song has NEIL'S most awesome drumming.

 

PURE DRUMMING GENIUS!

 

NeilFinal.gif

Edited by tailwind
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I'm a teenager and I only know a small handful of 2.gif tunes on the drums. I can play most of Tom Sawyer, but the stuff with the double-bass is just too hard to handle for me. Once I get a double-bass pedal, then maybe I could learn more tunes. I'd really like to learn all of 2.gif songs on drums.
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another 24 year drummer here.

I just recently got freewill down

There are obviously several complex songs that Neil's drumming can virtuatly can not be duplicated the way he can and without equiptment such as his caliber cannot possibly sound the same.

 

Because of the tremendous amount of respect due to the master

-a few notables that are very difficult to play that I can improvise :-repeat improvise being the word here are but not master are: mystic rythums

Digital man

Driven

Jacobs Ladder (last 3/4 )-- Check out cyg's JL remake- tremendous

Parts of Hemispheres (cygnus)

 

 

What I can play pretty clean is ( to toot my own horn)

Freewill

Xanadu

Fly by night

Lakeside Park

Parts of hemispheres including the trees

between the sun and moon

new world man

tom saywer

the pass

countdown

marathon

entre nous

ghost of a chance and dreamline

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For me, Its just certain section parts from songs. Such as:

 

One Little Victory intro (I can't double pedal, so thats a no no doh.gif )

The interlude from The Weapon (only for when I want to get it exact, otherwise I just cheat and carry on playing 16ths biggrin.gif )

The chorus from Analog Kid (I just can't seem to keep my left foot opening the hi-hat on every other beats while playing something else with my right doh.gif )

The interludes that are played on the back from songs like Red Sector A, Red Lenses etc. Its possible on a standard kit, but they are just a bit too complex in places for me

Jacobs Ladder (Can never remember the time signatures in places cause Neil throws in extra beats in places, because he can wtf.gif )

 

Apart from that most of it is, dare I say it, fairly straight forward as far as understanding a passage goes.

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Pauliewanna (who I believe lurks here) is one of if not the best drummer on Youtube, he has several instructional videos on how to play parts of Rush songs. You might want to look him up, while Youtube still has those videos up.
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QUOTE (Rendclaw @ Feb 5 2009, 01:41 PM)
Pauliewanna (who I believe lurks here) is one of if not the best drummer on Youtube, he has several instructional videos on how to play parts of Rush songs. You might want to look him up, while Youtube still has those videos up.

Yea, he is great. You ought to see him play Natural Science and The Weapon.

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Oh I have... he's a very cool guy, I've talked to him a few times.
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I'm not drummer, but my son is. He says both Cygnus X-1 Book 1 is one of the toughest as well as The Weapon and Jacob's Ladder. (But of course they all are) He did a drum cover of Cygnus X-1. Check it out under the Topic "Your Rush Covers" under the Making Modern Music part of TRF
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I'm sure I read somewhere that La Villa Strangiato is reckoned to be the hardest in places due to the different patterns on the cymbals and other percussion, but nobody seems to mention it so maybe not.

 

Depends on how well you can play three over two. :LOL:

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I'm sure I read somewhere that La Villa Strangiato is reckoned to be the hardest in places due to the different patterns on the cymbals and other percussion, but nobody seems to mention it so maybe not.

 

LaVilla was pretty hard to master, there ARE a few tough parts...Natural Science has some interesting parts as well. Tom Sawyer is just an excercize in pure and utter CHOPS...the patterns aren't terrible, but you need stamina!

 

YYZ has some fun stuff as well... I used to attempt to play through the whole Moving Pictures album as a chops builder.

 

Haven't really given playing through this stuff a lot of thought, uneil I picked up a set of concert toms, and did a little of this and that last summer....but have since pulled them and went back to my regular kit.

 

Rush stuff IS fun to play, but there are more things out there that is just AS fun!

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I'll vote for the last minute or so of "Freeze" but, more incredibly, is the limb independence that the last minute or so of "Bravado" demands.
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The Weapon is difficult to nail perfectly......can be faked easily, but to get it perfectly.....whew!

 

That doesn't surprise me. I don't know how Neil does it because it seems to me that he is doing at times three entirely different things at different beats. The only thing I can think of is that it takes incredible concentration to do it.

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I'd have to go with La Villa. Overall, the combination of the cymbal patterns, time signature changes, and length, it makes it the grand beast of Neil's drumming to attempt to conquer. The parts near the beginning are difficult, and the guitar solo isn't too bad, but once you get into that jazz stuff near the middle, it's impossible. Also, for a lot of the song, you are playing pretty fast, and you have to hold that up for 10 minutes. And counting is nearly impossible because of the time signature changes. Freewill is another really hard one, but the overall musicianship and variety in La Villa puts it at top for me. I would say the hardest drumming album is probably Hemispheres. The Hemispheres side is one of his hardest, and Circumstances and The Trees are both pretty difficult. Then, of course, La Villa. Jacob's Ladder is also pretty hard because of some weird snare stuff that he does sometimes. Tom Sawyer is the most overrated difficulty wise. It is honestly just an exercise in stamina, because the patterns themselves aren't too difficult, but you have to keep up that straight sixteenth-note beat for almost the whole song. Otherwise, the famously difficult Tom Sawyer isn't that bad.
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I'd have to go with La Villa. Overall, the combination of the cymbal patterns, time signature changes, and length, it makes it the grand beast of Neil's drumming to attempt to conquer. The parts near the beginning are difficult, and the guitar solo isn't too bad, but once you get into that jazz stuff near the middle, it's impossible. Also, for a lot of the song, you are playing pretty fast, and you have to hold that up for 10 minutes. And counting is nearly impossible because of the time signature changes. Freewill is another really hard one, but the overall musicianship and variety in La Villa puts it at top for me. I would say the hardest drumming album is probably Hemispheres. The Hemispheres side is one of his hardest, and Circumstances and The Trees are both pretty difficult. Then, of course, La Villa. Jacob's Ladder is also pretty hard because of some weird snare stuff that he does sometimes. Tom Sawyer is the most overrated difficulty wise. It is honestly just an exercise in stamina, because the patterns themselves aren't too difficult, but you have to keep up that straight sixteenth-note beat for almost the whole song. Otherwise, the famously difficult Tom Sawyer isn't that bad.

 

Agreed

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