Are drummers getting lazier?

I think that type of thing is a dying art aside from professionally trained drummers.
 
eg: When I started playing drums (self taught of course... derp) it was also on a double kick pedal setup. My left foot never left that left kick pedal. My old(ish) timer drummer buddy who was one of the best I've ever played with stopped by a rehearsal just to hang out. He said he was impressed with what I was doing and how quickly I'd developed but seemed honestly upset that I hadn't started with my left foot on the hats before glueing it to the left kick pedal.
 
I got his point but I was learning (more or less) from scratch IN an already established band so I had to actually, yanno, play the songs and their ain't much hats pedal work in thrash metal. I said I could always learn that stuff later to which he essentially said "Naw, you already blew it. It's gonna be WAY more awkward/difficult now that that foot is trained to do what it's doing".
 
I was skeptical but darned if any time I tried doing hat pedal work it just was the WORST! I mean... just friggen ridiculous and felt oh so weird and wrong.
 
So I guess maybe you can blame the rise of the left kick pedal and/or schlocko self trained hacks?
 
 

Ya, I do get it though. Hats in double kick Metal = bleh

cheating = synths = double kicks = Melodyne/Autotune = BIAB = Loops etc. et.al.

UbiquitousBubba
I just now got around to reading this fred.
 
Does that answer your question?

Pedro knows ALL about drummers. Oh yes.

Supposedly Keith Moon never used his hi hats (at least not as one would usually use them) until Who's Next when the other lads INSISTED he did.

jamesg1213
I heard an interview with Pete Townshend a while back where he said he often wished Keith would ''just play the ****ing backbeat''. Mr Moon was a frustrated frontman I reckon.

Yeah, him and Moony were best of buds and a great musical team but holy hell was it a contentious friendship.
 
There were stories of Rog having to play daddy and even slapping them around when it got too stupid.

There's funny little exchange on Live at Leeds where Pete is being all serious and listing bands that had covered the song they were about to cover themselves (damned if I can remember which tune it was but it's one of the old R&B classics).
 
As Pete's prattling off the names you hear Keith in the background taking the [verboten P werd] off him by shouting out "...and Felix the Cat".
 
Like I said in the Love Reign thread, Moon really mocked the crap out of Pete all the time... which he needed... because otherwise The Who would not have been the hard hitting Pre Proto Punk mayhem they were but instead ultra cheesy art fart crap that likely nobody would even remember now.
 
Of course Moon's abysmal solo outing (without Pete) was, well... abysmal.
 
Those two were MADE for each other.

Hypothesis: Maybe he thought the skeleton outfit was "slimming"... which would indicate a certain level of narcissism.

jamesg1213
I heard an interview with Pete Townshend a while back where he said he often wished Keith would ''just play the ****ing backbeat''. Mr Moon was a frustrated frontman I reckon.

I'm not sure that Pete meant to say this that strait and that it was probably more designed as a joke and fun comment, that is being mis-quoted and represented.
 
KM was not a backdrop and backend, drummer ... he was not a metronome either ... he was up front just like the other guys, and his introduction to the band, pretty much immediately defined that group for a long time, and Pete has nothing to complaint about, since that's where his money was made ... with KM in there.
 
The fact of the matter is that 90% of all the drummers are not drummers ... they are wannabe metronomes for players that do not have the ability and desire to play without a time keeper, for fear that they will miss a note or a moment ... and in the end, they do not learn more about music, that is being confined to a slim design that is at least 500 years old, and boring.
 
The drummers that I enjoy the most are the ones that go beyond the time keeping ... and the guitars and keyboards have to keep up with them ... and some of the best are dead (KM, JB, PM), but the music they were involved in is incredible and well remembered. 
 
As a study, go listen to Steve Gadd in Kate Bush's album "50 Words for Snow" ... and then realize that this is not about time keeping as it is about making sensitive touches around Kate's voice ... and you can count the number of those drummers in one hand, if you are lucky, because most of the names mentioned here are strict time keepers and not willing or able to add more than something for a time change to the chorus, or back to the melody. 
 
This is a problem with automated drums ... all mechanized ... no personality ... and somehow we think that one little accent (as in rap) every 16 beats makes this sensational! What a joke!
 
And you guys are afraid to say so! That is weird, when you are a musician, and you are basically saying that a drummer can not be a musician ... he has to be a metronome!
 
Very weird!

Moshkito

jamesg1213
I heard an interview with Pete Townshend a while back where he said he often wished Keith would ''just play the ****ing backbeat''. Mr Moon was a frustrated frontman I reckon.

I'm not sure that Pete meant to say this that strait and that it was probably more designed as a joke and fun comment, that is being mis-quoted and represented.
 
 

Different interview, but he's not joking;
 

I am always late or most of the time a no show on these forums now. Just saw this. 
The best drummers are ambidextrous and use hands and BOTH feet when playing. 
Once you learn to do that, you really can't stop the either foot from moving on the pedals. It's all second nature. 
So for drummers that don't know how to do this, I don't think it is being lazy as much as they were not trained up in using all their limbs.
 
Old drum books like "Advanced Techniques For the Modern Drummer" by Jim Chapin and "Progressive Steps To Syncopation" were used for decades when I grew up. They helped with learning independence.