Drum solo timing

[The_Setite]

I can get lost during long solos......... I have been given a few pointers, but would value any more that can be offered. I am practising counting over my solos to keep my place. Any other drummers have (or have had ) this problem and overcome it? Your thoughts??

[bouts]

hi,
I think you speak on solo over a song or vamp?
In fact, if you have a "soloing struture" (8, 16 24, or 32 bars or more), you must sing or "feel" the song's chords in your head, and you will be always where you are in the song.
it's my solution, and don't know if it's good for everybody ... :confused:

[MaltBuddow3]

yup... if it's in a song if you just keep the chords in your head it's really easy, especially something like a 12 bar blues. When I started playing when I was twelve Dad would kill me if I didnt constantly stomp my hi-hat on every beat. So even when I take my foot off to do some double pedal stuff, I still hear the "chick chick chick chick." Also, if you're doing strange phrasings, such as triplets grouped in fives or sevens or whatever, it's best to write it out to see where all the accents lie over the number of bars you wanna play it. Once you see it you can really get into the groove of it and then permanently store it in your solo vocab! Good luck!

[Revan]

The best thing you could do to work on this is to practice soloing with a metronome - one with accented beats would work best. On my Rhythm Watch, I can make beat 1 click louder than the other beats, etc. If you don't want a click on every beat, then set the 'nome to a slow tempo with only the first beat clicking.

[scott h]

I think counting just the quarter notes throughout a solo is very helpful. This is especially good if you're playing with musicians who are better than you, that way you don't get found out! If you're into jazz or fusion a cool way to sound more sophisticated than you actually are is divide the number of bars in the solo in weirdways. So if you're counting quarter notes during a 4 bar solo (with a total of 16 beats in 4/4), you could phrase it: 3-4-3-4-2, or something. This is great for losing other musicians and, if they insist you were out, you could show them why they counted it wrong!
I don't know if this helps...i kind of started rambling.