Chad is the only one out of those challenges that went for it in one go. No active listening, no structure written, no multiple passes on the track. He just went in pure instinct. Goes to show how many thousands of hours he has spent jamming. Will Ferrell nailed it.
It’s crazy how more then half the vloggers reacting to this don’t get the premise of how they did this. Like they can’t read the subtitles. “He listened to the song with out drums, then he figured out the drums on the fly while listening to the song real time.”
@@phillong01 Well, most of them don't even know the typical format of Drumeo, either. Like most drummers they pull in to do these have a full listen through of the song (without the drum track, of course), maybe two listens, marking down what they want to do and where, when. Not Chad, nope. He just reads the current and dives right into the flow.
The fact that Chad heard seconds of this song with no drum track and was able to for the most part recreate the original drum parts tells you all you need to know about the talent of this man
7:10 - Most of the drummers on Drumeo who do this kind of program will listen all the way through once with a notepad, mark down the structure, etc. Chad Smith is just built different, he listened through one verse, caught the pulse of bass and guitar, and went from there. When the bridge and chorus came in, he was on it.
When you're one of the best pocket drummers ever and focus on feel and pocket and not overblown crap that's what happens. Also playing along with one of the greatest bassists ever really develops that.
The Spanish pop chick doing slipknot was special, and larnell doing sandman was bonkers! But Chad is fucking amazing! I want them to get Stuart copeland to do it, and el estepario🤯
@@crook8468 the thing with larnell really isnt as impressive as it could be. He got to listen to the whole song With the drum track and then he tackled it. Not saying I could ever do that, but its different from not hearing the drum track at all.
The purpose of this show is basically the drummer's equivalent of freestyling to a beat. What makes Chad Smith's performance here Insane is the fact that he played an entire improv on the first take, didn't even bother to give the song a full listen and just straight went for it.
Drummers are some of the coolest and most underappreciated musicians out there. When he says it's in 3, that's the time signature of 3/4. It's all music theory, which is part of how he and even Harry Mack are so good at predicting changes in a beat/song. 3/4 just means that there are 3 quarter notes per measure (also known as a bar). Those quarters notes can be split into 8th, 16th, etc. notes to add diversity. The "standard" time signature is 4/4, where which means 4 quarter notes (obviously one whole note) per measure. Different time signatures create an entirely different sound to a track, and it's pretty common for different genres to gravitate towards different time signatures. It's a bit more flashy when someone has perfect pitch and can just play something after hearing it once, but perfect pitch does nothing for you on the drums, whereas solid understanding of theory and song structure can turn into something like this. This video truly is remarkably impressive. Chad Smith is the man.
The song wasn't really in 3 (aka 3/4 time) it was technically in 6/8 time. 1 2 3 *FOUR* 5 6, 1 2 3 *FOUR* 5 6. (With FOUR being accented or a snare drum hit in this song). As opposed to a waltz in 3/4 time like TWO THREE, 1 TWO THREE. (TWO THREE accented).
@@BuckMcAntlerson Ah, good call. Luckily, for a drummer, those are a lot more similar than for other instruments. That's probably why he hesitated for a second after saying it was in 3.
And now I'm back in Theory Class nightmares. Well explained. I could never come close to explaining theory properly to even those who know. Certainly can't teach what Chad did
Can you imagine how demoralizing this would be to watch for the drummer of 30 Seconds to Mars? Like, he was a part of the process of making the song… and this dude just played it better while having never even heard it all the way through.
His confidence. Nothing to prove, 0 ego, just sending it. What a master. Also, sticks break but its not like, that common of an occurrence. Like breaking a guitar string maybe. Chad just hits really damn hard. Seriously hes one of the loudest drummers ive ever heard.
Chad Smith is one of the greatest in the pocket, smooth, listening drummers of all time. The man could LITERALLY play with ANY band and make them better
I don’t think a lot of people that see this will realize how bad ass what he did was. The first little quick guitar section in the middle of the song 8:56 caught him off guard and he instantly recovered and nailed it the other times after that. Legendary drummer
“In 3” means 3/4 time. It’s classically a waltz time signature, but I love how it’s used in this song. This is evidence of a musician who is an EXCELLENT ACTIVE LISTENER and one who has excellent SENSE OF PHRASING as well as DYNAMICS. Rock/Pop artists miss out badly if they play songs flat and don’t give the phrases room to ebb and build. He’s played enough songs that he knows where a song is going, he knows what sort of fills, riffs, build-ups, and beat rhythms are needed for each type of phrase, so he has a repertoire from which to draw to suit the song. As a session/live drummer, he also seems to have the humility and presence to understand that the drummer’s role isn’t just to keep time, but to accent the vocals, and push the music into the next phrase, etc.
I'm really happy this went viral. I think pretty much anyone who is familiar with drummers is aware of Chad Smith but it's so awesome seeing people who aren't be completely blown away. He's a phenomenal drummer and deserves every bit of respect he's getting. Great reaction, man. Subscribed.
@4:20 I think his stick breaking gave the song a nice breath❤with the bass drum coming through more. It really prepped and reinforced the lead singer’s climax; pounding home the point. 🥁🤘🏽🤘🏽🤘🏽🎸🎧
As a bass player, finding a drummer that can 'predict' where you're going is an amazing experience. Our drummer, back in the day, and I just clicked immediately. One of the funnest experiences I've ever had was the first time we met and jammed.
Glad i could put you on game my man. Been a drummer for 12 years in my youth and this is insane. Also how much chad looks like will farell always throws me off….. 😂. But ya this is essentially freestyle drumming…. So it falls perfectly with the 40 boyz channel. Cheers yall
Chad has not only drummed for 40+ years, and for one of the biggest rock bands ever, but he does session work on top of everything else. He's done drums for tons of people, like Dua Lupa. This is all he does in his career and it's literally magic. The skill required to nail something like this in one take is just another level.
Experience. He's been playing professionally for 40 years. He knows how a song is structured, what sounds good, when it's likely to go high or go low, and how to read the changes that are coming. He's a "real musician," and by that I mean he isnt just a good drummer, he knows *music*. Doesn't matter what style or genre; what's good is good. What fits the mood, fits the mood. Hes running on pure instinct, reacting in real time to what he hears. Things people dont notice: 1. He's listening to the guitars for cues about what's coming next, when to build up and when to break down 2. He's listening to the vocals to decide where to put accents and fills 3. He's listening to the overall time and mood to figure out what kind of feeling he's trying to convey 4. He's still being authentically him. He still sounds like Chad Smith, you can hear some of his signature sounds in there, and he keeps a solid rock/funk feel throughout That was, effectively, high-level jazz improv, it just happened to be on top of a 30 Seconds to Mars track.
Well said. People who are quick to critisize him for supposedly knowing the song have no appreciation for the huge amount of work a great musician like Chad has obviously put into listening and improvising throughout his life, which allows him to predict the general pattern of a song he has never heard. That is precisely what makes it so impressive.
Not only are the drummers great to watch and play along to these tracks, but props to the sound engineers who put these vids together!! The drums sound beautiful in every piece!
When you’re playing in trips, there is plenty of fills you can throw in there. Chad is so skilled that the fills he picked were a perfect rhythmic match.
6:56 - Yeah, the version he is hearing is just the stems from everything BUT the drums. So he is listening for cues like the rhythm of the bass, the pattern of the guitars during the verses, key transition points. Chad Smith did session drumming with a whole range of artists, so he's familiar with picking something up quickly.
Yeah. I think he absolutely murdered that. Others on drumeo will listen to the song ATLEAST ONCE before giving it a go and still don’t play it with conviction and intention and not even sound good. He MURDERED IT.
This is 40 years of improv, jam sessions and live shows worth of experience. Coupled with insane ability and music talent. He truly understands composition even if it's not his genre. This is truly amazing. He is listening to the pitch of the singers voice and guitar to get hints as to the next part even when he misreads he corrects and blends so fast it's mind blowing.
@11:17 yeah bro... not only does he NOT have sheet music.... but he's also NEVER heard the actual drum part. He has NO IDEA what the drums to this song is SUPPOSED TO sound like lol. This is 100% improv as far as he is concerned. And he did it better than the original. Honestly.
He’s been drumming over 40 years man, he’s a drum nerd, once he knows the timing of the song it’s set in, he’s good, he’s a master at knowing song structure and predicting when the mood of the song changes on the fly. He’s practiced improvised drumming for years
Drummers are the "leaders of the band" "time keepers"...to nail this in one take listen and kill it is amazing 1 2 3 ... 1 2 3 ... 1 2 3.... the timing(count) is in 3
I love the fact that you said that his face looks like a computer, trying to figure out where the song is going.....that's exactly what's going through his brain....pure instincts
I'd be curious to know who difficult it is to do this. He's in his 60s, he's been playing music for decades, which means he knows how a song is built, from starting with a beat, or a melody, or a chord, etc., and building the song up from there. So does that make it easy to pick apart the structure on the fly, and then just play, because he knows the most likely spots for pitch and tempo changes? It's interesting. I've seen drummers do this, where they write out the structure, so they have an idea of what to do, but that also means they listened to the whole song first. They've heard the changes. Chad just gave it the first line of the stanza, called out the timing, started tapping his hi-hat for another line, and then just started playing. That's incredible to me.
You know the level of talent this guys has. He didn't listen to the drumless track for a first listen. He jump straight in and played it. That is incredibly hard to do and he pulled it off like it was nothing.
You can notice him building time into his hits so he can follow the song. If you play you can see it clear as day. It's still amazing but this is a musician that has played professionally for 30 years and has jammed like this before. It's impressive as hell and so much fun to watch..
It's like when you freestyle over a beat for the first time, with your experience you can feel where it's going. Song structure, lyrics, genre, and a damn good bassist combine with his just immense talent lets him go wild on this.
Going off a feeling without sheet music is called being a musician. You don't get this type of performance with a drum machine...this is musicianship at the highest level.
This was insanely impressive and tells you 20 drummers could play a song slightly differently but there is enough in common to make it somewhat easy for them.
Not only is it without sheet music (most rock drummers probably get by without those) he hadn't even heard a single drum beat of the recorded track, all he got was the other instruments and the vocals. It was 100% improvised. Mind blowing. You're correct that when he says "in three" he means a 3 count. 🙂 There's a few more of these on the same channel, among them a video of Jonathan Sugarfoot Moffet, who played with michael jackson for 30 years, playing Linkin park just like this. :D
Chad is the drummer for the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Rolling Stone Magazine named him in the top 100 best drummers of all time. He is amazing! Also in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He also plays in a hard rock super group "Chickenfoot".
With enough years of drumming, you can feel the song coming. I've been drumming for many years and I can't get anywhere near this. Chad is a boss on the kit. But yes, "it's in 3" means it's a three count. Better known as 3/4 time. Every broken stick happens during a big moment. That's why we set up replacements to grab. My favorite experience was in high school pep band. We had a wildly hard song for the snare drum. The guy who taught me did a massive rimshot at the end and let his stick fly straight up 15 feet and caught it. Naturally, after I was good at the song and he graduated, I played that part. Just in case a quadruple forte snare needed to be louder in a high school gymnasium, I stood directly behind the director for that song. I looked ridiculous with a spare stick in each pocket, but they were usually necessary. There was one glorious night when the stick broke on that rimshot. The final note of the song. I caught the back half exactly as I was holding it and the front half landed at center court. Another time broke a light. A perfect rimshot at full strength goes about 30 feet up. I didn't catch that one in the falling glass.
When he refers to it being in "3" it means its 3 bars in a 4 bar measure, i.e 3/4 time. So the beat restarts when you hit 3 in the count (1, 2, 3 - 1, 2, 3) instead of (1, 2, 3, 4 - 1, 2, 3, 4). So when you get that the whole song is in 3/4 time you can pretty much improv and add all the flourishes you want around it. The fact that he can understand the measure and then do all the crazy technical stuff around it is what makes him an expert. First reaction i've seen from you, great stuff my man!
My grandson is 13 and has been a drummer since he was 4. He can hear a song once and play the basic beat. Then he'll do his own fills. It's really incredible to watch! Heck yes drum sticks break or get dropped. That's why they have so many in their "stick holder". No different than a guitarist dropping or breaking a pick. That's why they have so many extra picks in the neck of the guitar.
40 years of drumming at his level, and on the stage he has played at will tell you what to play, where the changes are, and when to fill. Rock music can be complicated and layered but there's still patterns that a veteran drummer will naturally understand.
If you pay close attention. During transitions he pauses for a very very very light second and adjusts as needed RHCP does a lot of improv plus he’s a studio drummer so this is in his DNA
As far as him following the transitions flawlessly, he was taking Q's off the Bass and Guitar. With that, he is in a league of his own. There are very few drummers that can listen to only a few seconds of a new track and nail it like he did, especially without sheet music and the drum track removed from the mix.
That’s what I said when everyone is like “ThErEs nO wAy He HasNt HeArD iT”… like you can clearly see him occasionally pull back slightly at the beginning of each section, reads the bass/guitar, then goes in 1000% for “the kill” (had to do it, 😂sorry!).
Absolutely taking cues from the bass. Bass and drums are always listening to each other. I loved watching him listening and reacting to the “3-and” cues that lined him up almost perfectly for the change in phrase. You could tell that he was calculating which way a phrase was gonna go and then as soon as he heard the “1-and” cue that matched his guess, he switched. Or sometimes he showed Uber confidence about which way a phrase would go.
Bro. If you’ve watched a few of these, you’ll see the drummer typically do a full listen through of the song without drums just to get a feel for the song structure. Chad just goes right in, first listen. It’s crazy. Dude is one of the best drummers on the planet, for real. He’s been drumming for like 40 years. Full time gig with the Red Hot Chilli Peppers. When he say a “3”, he’s talking about the timing of the song. A LOT of songs are typically 4/4. This is a 3/4 beat on this song. Killer reaction bro.
We (the viewer) heard the track with drums at the start but he's not playing the drums by ear, he heard the track with NO DRUMS at all (6:32) and had to improvise a drum track to it. No memorization, pure feel. Absolutely nailed it!
I love seeing you take this stuff on board because with musicians, there's constant need to listen and to learn more, and i've noticed since you started checking out Ren that you've really gone out there and exposed yourself to all sorts of different stuff, and all of that makes you a better musician. The fact that you're even doing it speaks to your level of intellectual curiosity. And intellectual curiosity is what helps people who are good at a thing become masters. Stay on this path, brother! Keep listening and keep learning. Let your only limitation be your imagination!
Chad is one of the most respected drummers in music. You should check out his many collaborations not to mention his 30 years with Red Hot Chili Peppers. He came up with this based on what he would have done at 3. I love when he gets that smile like yeah I got this. Three is a drum triad where he plays 3 consecutive notes. He figured that out and took off.
Also add…. Chad Smith is currently in that top tier of well known drummers and has been a session/recording drummer for other artists as well as the core band member of Red Hot Chili Peppers.
I’m n expert ether, I have play guitar and had the fortune of hooking up with a incredible rhythm section in the first band I was in. The drummer and bass player had been playing together since they were in junior high school and the drummer not only came correct with god only knows how many songs he had already learned and played before. On one occasion the 311 song down had just hit and was on the radio. I had got the CD the previous guitar player for this band I was in taught the song to me. I learned the guitar part and practiced it. The next day I picked up the drummer on the way to band practice and told him about learning the song. I played the 311 cd for him in the car on the way to practice he listed to it 2 times. When we started practicing he nailed it stops, cymbals, fills all of it. I really miss both of those guys. R.I.P. E.P. Hicks (drummer)aka Garage Mechanic Paul and C.B.Long (bassist) Love you my brothers always!
Drummers are so underestimated by every musical person. You guys have no clue how much we have to know. But yeah, the guitarrists are the main characters. 😂😂😂
There are a couple of thins running here. 1. Familiarity of Song/ Music Structure 2. Music beat/count Identification 3. Experience He's able to predict whats coming from an unknown songs because of the usual or standard arrangement/ structure of a song (ie, intro > stanza > bridge or refrain etc...). Chad also easily identified the beat from the other instruments and with the help of experience from years of drumming, he's able to lay his own drum beat.
13:36 3 is essentially the rhythm of the song (what people do uncionsciously when they tap their foot to a beat). I believe someone said it was 3-4 time. Which means the song counts 123,123,123,123, then repeats. A lot of popular songs are in 4-4 time, where the beat counts 1234,1234,1234,1234 and repeats.
13:40 When Chad says the song is “in 3,” what he’s talking about is a time signature. Most songs are in a couple of basic signatures, usually 4/4 or 3/4. The first number is how many beats are in a measure, the second is what kind of note counts as a beat. So 4/4 is four beats, 1, 2, 3, 4, and each beat is a quarter note. It’s why you can hear some bands count off like that, like The Beatles song “When I Saw Her Standing There” starts with a count off to set the speed. Most drum patterns put a kick drum on Beats 1 and 3 and a snare hit in 2 and 4 to keep everyone on time. 3/4 means there are only three beats in each measure, but you still use quarter notes to count them off. And he’s right, it’s a fast 3/4. It’s more common in classical pieces, waltzes are written in 3/4 for instance, but it shows up in rock music now and then too. That’s why he had to get that locked in before starting, a standard 1,3 kick, 2,4 snare wouldn’t work on this song. There are tons of different time signatures, varying from 2/4 to 6/8, to weird stuff like 7/4 or 11/8. Prog rock and metal bands tends to use odd time signatures, songs like “Money” by Pink Floyd or “Diary of a Madman” by Ozzy Osborne are examples of songs written in 7. The latter uses it to make you feel slightly unsettled since we’re so used to even numbered time signatures, 7 just feels… off. It adds to the song’s slightly sinister quality of someone struggling with the voices in his head.
There's a whole bunch of these from Drumeo. Fun to watch these really crazy jazz drummers trying to play along with Tool or Slipknot. Good reaction content on that channel for sure.
Chad Smith was PHENOMINAL!!! He's a beast. But, also check out El Estepario Siberiano! Next level... He does many songs (Slipknot, Megadeth, etc) 1 handed!
Chad is the only one out of those challenges that went for it in one go. No active listening, no structure written, no multiple passes on the track. He just went in pure instinct. Goes to show how many thousands of hours he has spent jamming. Will Ferrell nailed it.
Sugarfoot did it in one shot.
@@Kanehg The 2 performances are not comparable imo.
He also got an easy song to play. No way in fucking hell he would have done that with Schism from tool. Let's be honest.
dirk verburens was pretty impressive too… compared to most that try this
@@Macsimus007 Agreed.
Its not just that he doesnt have sheetmusic, he heard the song with NO DRUMS, so he’s doing it off of pure feel, he’s not replicating anything
It's not even just that he heard the song with no drums, it's that he only listened for 30 seconds and then just jumped right in
30 secs to mars lmao @whatthat607
It’s crazy how more then half the vloggers reacting to this don’t get the premise of how they did this. Like they can’t read the subtitles. “He listened to the song with out drums, then he figured out the drums on the fly while listening to the song real time.”
Yeah I don’t think half the people get that
@@phillong01 Well, most of them don't even know the typical format of Drumeo, either. Like most drummers they pull in to do these have a full listen through of the song (without the drum track, of course), maybe two listens, marking down what they want to do and where, when. Not Chad, nope. He just reads the current and dives right into the flow.
With respect to the original drummer, Chad made this song his own. His level of talent and skill is unreal.
he is such a fucking legend, that shit was incredible, and most people will never understand how good this shit was
The fact that Chad heard seconds of this song with no drum track and was able to for the most part recreate the original drum parts tells you all you need to know about the talent of this man
I think he’s heard it before lol I mean that song was EVERYWHERE
I'd never heard it before this video. I don't like emo music.
To be honest this isn't too difficult for a drummer of Chad's stature.
@@mjeh1keep in mind though RHCP was on MTV and shit the same time as 30 Seconds to Mars
@@StevelandCleamer The rhcp formed in 1982 and had their last big record in 2006. They are hardly contemporaries.
7:10 - Most of the drummers on Drumeo who do this kind of program will listen all the way through once with a notepad, mark down the structure, etc. Chad Smith is just built different, he listened through one verse, caught the pulse of bass and guitar, and went from there. When the bridge and chorus came in, he was on it.
When you're one of the best pocket drummers ever and focus on feel and pocket and not overblown crap that's what happens. Also playing along with one of the greatest bassists ever really develops that.
@@kdailey4315 Without a doubt. This one and Larnell Lewis are my two favorite Drumeos for totally different reasons.
The Spanish pop chick doing slipknot was special, and larnell doing sandman was bonkers! But Chad is fucking amazing! I want them to get Stuart copeland to do it, and el estepario🤯
@@thetalantonx The Dennis Chambers one where he does Tool is probably my favorite.
@@crook8468 the thing with larnell really isnt as impressive as it could be. He got to listen to the whole song With the drum track and then he tackled it. Not saying I could ever do that, but its different from not hearing the drum track at all.
He's listening to a drumless track which makes this even crazier. He's not just replaying what he heard, he doesnt hear any drums lol.
The purpose of this show is basically the drummer's equivalent of freestyling to a beat.
What makes Chad Smith's performance here Insane is the fact that he played an entire improv on the first take, didn't even bother to give the song a full listen and just straight went for it.
Drummers are some of the coolest and most underappreciated musicians out there. When he says it's in 3, that's the time signature of 3/4. It's all music theory, which is part of how he and even Harry Mack are so good at predicting changes in a beat/song. 3/4 just means that there are 3 quarter notes per measure (also known as a bar). Those quarters notes can be split into 8th, 16th, etc. notes to add diversity. The "standard" time signature is 4/4, where which means 4 quarter notes (obviously one whole note) per measure. Different time signatures create an entirely different sound to a track, and it's pretty common for different genres to gravitate towards different time signatures. It's a bit more flashy when someone has perfect pitch and can just play something after hearing it once, but perfect pitch does nothing for you on the drums, whereas solid understanding of theory and song structure can turn into something like this. This video truly is remarkably impressive. Chad Smith is the man.
i was looking to see if someone commented this, if not i wouldve! haha
The song wasn't really in 3 (aka 3/4 time) it was technically in 6/8 time. 1 2 3 *FOUR* 5 6, 1 2 3 *FOUR* 5 6. (With FOUR being accented or a snare drum hit in this song).
As opposed to a waltz in 3/4 time like TWO THREE, 1 TWO THREE. (TWO THREE accented).
@@BuckMcAntlerson Ah, good call. Luckily, for a drummer, those are a lot more similar than for other instruments. That's probably why he hesitated for a second after saying it was in 3.
And now I'm back in Theory Class nightmares. Well explained. I could never come close to explaining theory properly to even those who know. Certainly can't teach what Chad did
Thanks, @papasmurph131!
What Chad does in this video is on par with superhuman abilities, I am such a huge fan of Chad Smith after seeing this.
Can you imagine how demoralizing this would be to watch for the drummer of 30 Seconds to Mars? Like, he was a part of the process of making the song… and this dude just played it better while having never even heard it all the way through.
You can watch him watch it now
"AND HE JUST KNOWS WHERE IT'S GOING?!"
Best reaction...
Chad listened to 30 seconds to Mars for 30 seconds and went for the stars! This phenomenal musical skills/Talent, true awesomeness!
His confidence. Nothing to prove, 0 ego, just sending it. What a master. Also, sticks break but its not like, that common of an occurrence. Like breaking a guitar string maybe. Chad just hits really damn hard. Seriously hes one of the loudest drummers ive ever heard.
Him and Taylor Hawkins, as well as Dave Grohl. The episode with the drummer from Megadeth is really good also
Chad Smith is one of the greatest in the pocket, smooth, listening drummers of all time. The man could LITERALLY play with ANY band and make them better
I don’t think a lot of people that see this will realize how bad ass what he did was. The first little quick guitar section in the middle of the song 8:56 caught him off guard and he instantly recovered and nailed it the other times after that. Legendary drummer
“In 3” means 3/4 time. It’s classically a waltz time signature, but I love how it’s used in this song. This is evidence of a musician who is an EXCELLENT ACTIVE LISTENER and one who has excellent SENSE OF PHRASING as well as DYNAMICS. Rock/Pop artists miss out badly if they play songs flat and don’t give the phrases room to ebb and build.
He’s played enough songs that he knows where a song is going, he knows what sort of fills, riffs, build-ups, and beat rhythms are needed for each type of phrase, so he has a repertoire from which to draw to suit the song. As a session/live drummer, he also seems to have the humility and presence to understand that the drummer’s role isn’t just to keep time, but to accent the vocals, and push the music into the next phrase, etc.
This one was really 6/8 time though. Same structure just different feel with accent hit on beat 4 each time.
This is such a well written explanation.
Well said brother
@@BuckMcAntlerson Correct! My favorite songs are in 6/8. This one, "Dance With The Devil" by Breaking Benjamin, and a BUNCH of others.
Someone needs to explain to Chad it is not in a 3. He just doesn't understand lol
thats why chad is chad and actually one of the best drummers out there
I'm really happy this went viral. I think pretty much anyone who is familiar with drummers is aware of Chad Smith but it's so awesome seeing people who aren't be completely blown away. He's a phenomenal drummer and deserves every bit of respect he's getting. Great reaction, man. Subscribed.
@4:20 I think his stick breaking gave the song a nice breath❤with the bass drum coming through more. It really prepped and reinforced the lead singer’s climax; pounding home the point. 🥁🤘🏽🤘🏽🤘🏽🎸🎧
Percussionist know the patterns in music. This guy's a master drummer so not surprised he killed it.
It's not just patterns, it's active listening. Chad is a "session" drummer and drums for lots of artists, this is his bag.
As a bass player, finding a drummer that can 'predict' where you're going is an amazing experience. Our drummer, back in the day, and I just clicked immediately. One of the funnest experiences I've ever had was the first time we met and jammed.
Chad Smith is a seasoned veteran, and an absolute savage on the drums. He has to be, to keep up with the energy he's been a part of for 40 years. \m/
Glad i could put you on game my man. Been a drummer for 12 years in my youth and this is insane. Also how much chad looks like will farell always throws me off….. 😂. But ya this is essentially freestyle drumming…. So it falls perfectly with the 40 boyz channel. Cheers yall
There’s so many of these that are amazing! I’m glad you sent him this!! Straight fire
Chad has not only drummed for 40+ years, and for one of the biggest rock bands ever, but he does session work on top of everything else. He's done drums for tons of people, like Dua Lupa. This is all he does in his career and it's literally magic. The skill required to nail something like this in one take is just another level.
Experience. He's been playing professionally for 40 years. He knows how a song is structured, what sounds good, when it's likely to go high or go low, and how to read the changes that are coming. He's a "real musician," and by that I mean he isnt just a good drummer, he knows *music*. Doesn't matter what style or genre; what's good is good. What fits the mood, fits the mood. Hes running on pure instinct, reacting in real time to what he hears.
Things people dont notice:
1. He's listening to the guitars for cues about what's coming next, when to build up and when to break down
2. He's listening to the vocals to decide where to put accents and fills
3. He's listening to the overall time and mood to figure out what kind of feeling he's trying to convey
4. He's still being authentically him. He still sounds like Chad Smith, you can hear some of his signature sounds in there, and he keeps a solid rock/funk feel throughout
That was, effectively, high-level jazz improv, it just happened to be on top of a 30 Seconds to Mars track.
Well said. People who are quick to critisize him for supposedly knowing the song have no appreciation for the huge amount of work a great musician like Chad has obviously put into listening and improvising throughout his life, which allows him to predict the general pattern of a song he has never heard. That is precisely what makes it so impressive.
Chad is one of the greatest drummers of all time. This is wild.
Not only are the drummers great to watch and play along to these tracks, but props to the sound engineers who put these vids together!! The drums sound beautiful in every piece!
When you’re playing in trips, there is plenty of fills you can throw in there. Chad is so skilled that the fills he picked were a perfect rhythmic match.
6:56 - Yeah, the version he is hearing is just the stems from everything BUT the drums. So he is listening for cues like the rhythm of the bass, the pattern of the guitars during the verses, key transition points. Chad Smith did session drumming with a whole range of artists, so he's familiar with picking something up quickly.
Yeah. I think he absolutely murdered that.
Others on drumeo will listen to the song ATLEAST ONCE before giving it a go and still don’t play it with conviction and intention and not even sound good.
He MURDERED IT.
This is 40 years of improv, jam sessions and live shows worth of experience. Coupled with insane ability and music talent. He truly understands composition even if it's not his genre. This is truly amazing. He is listening to the pitch of the singers voice and guitar to get hints as to the next part even when he misreads he corrects and blends so fast it's mind blowing.
@11:17 yeah bro... not only does he NOT have sheet music.... but he's also NEVER heard the actual drum part. He has NO IDEA what the drums to this song is SUPPOSED TO sound like lol. This is 100% improv as far as he is concerned. And he did it better than the original. Honestly.
He’s been drumming over 40 years man, he’s a drum nerd, once he knows the timing of the song it’s set in, he’s good, he’s a master at knowing song structure and predicting when the mood of the song changes on the fly. He’s practiced improvised drumming for years
Chad Smith is a God Tier drummer. He's never heard this song, and he's listening to a drumless track. This is TOTALLY a blind challenge.
You didn’t see at 9:37 he broke a drum stick and immediately grabbed another one and kept on playing without missing a beat! Now that’s amazing! 🙌🏽
This is why drummers earn their money. They play harder than anyone in the band , period 😊
Chad Smith is considered one of the best rock drummers of our time. I’ve watched this challenge before and it’s pretty great!
Drummers are the "leaders of the band" "time keepers"...to nail this in one take listen and kill it is amazing
1 2 3 ... 1 2 3 ... 1 2 3.... the timing(count) is in 3
The "3" is the 3/4 time signature. He recognized the pattern as "1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3...."
Chad is world renowned as top 3 drummers in all of Rock n Roll.
I love the fact that you said that his face looks like a computer, trying to figure out where the song is going.....that's exactly what's going through his brain....pure instincts
He hears it without the drum track then plays his interpretation. The '3' is the time signature (3/4)
no one familiar with this channel picks up on the drumless part, haha. Even if they say it.
I'd be curious to know who difficult it is to do this. He's in his 60s, he's been playing music for decades, which means he knows how a song is built, from starting with a beat, or a melody, or a chord, etc., and building the song up from there. So does that make it easy to pick apart the structure on the fly, and then just play, because he knows the most likely spots for pitch and tempo changes? It's interesting. I've seen drummers do this, where they write out the structure, so they have an idea of what to do, but that also means they listened to the whole song first. They've heard the changes. Chad just gave it the first line of the stanza, called out the timing, started tapping his hi-hat for another line, and then just started playing. That's incredible to me.
Lol my man Black Pegasus is a walking thumbnail. Love your reaction faces! 😳🤯😧😮💨
The extra energy Chad gave the original is amazing. He made the song his own ❤ Amazing musican 😊
The thing about this is the track Chad was hearing was without the drums he made that all up what he thought it would be and he got it almost perfect
🤣🤣🤣 black belt drumming!...🤣🤣🤣🤣 I like that....that made me laugh🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Just shows you how important it is to listen to the rest of the band.
You know the level of talent this guys has. He didn't listen to the drumless track for a first listen. He jump straight in and played it. That is incredibly hard to do and he pulled it off like it was nothing.
You can notice him building time into his hits so he can follow the song. If you play you can see it clear as day. It's still amazing but this is a musician that has played professionally for 30 years and has jammed like this before. It's impressive as hell and so much fun to watch..
It's like when you freestyle over a beat for the first time, with your experience you can feel where it's going. Song structure, lyrics, genre, and a damn good bassist combine with his just immense talent lets him go wild on this.
You can hear a couple of times he misses where it's going but he is so quick that he needs halv a second to fix it. So good
Going off a feeling without sheet music is called being a musician. You don't get this type of performance with a drum machine...this is musicianship at the highest level.
They play the track without drums for the drummer. He never heard the patterns of the original song. That's what makes it mind blowing
I was a fan of Chad Smith before I saw him do this Drumeo appearance. Now I'm in awe of the guy. Great performance.
This was insanely impressive and tells you 20 drummers could play a song slightly differently but there is enough in common to make it somewhat easy for them.
Not only is it without sheet music (most rock drummers probably get by without those) he hadn't even heard a single drum beat of the recorded track, all he got was the other instruments and the vocals. It was 100% improvised. Mind blowing. You're correct that when he says "in three" he means a 3 count. 🙂 There's a few more of these on the same channel, among them a video of Jonathan Sugarfoot Moffet, who played with michael jackson for 30 years, playing Linkin park just like this. :D
This is nuts! He is such a genius. He been the drummer for the Red Hot Chili peppers for 35 years
Your reaction was exactly mine the first time I saw this video. I’ve seen it at least 25 times since. Chills every time. Great reaction video! 🙌🏻🥁🤘🏻
Chad is the drummer for the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Rolling Stone Magazine named him in the top 100 best drummers of all time. He is amazing! Also in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He also plays in a hard rock super group "Chickenfoot".
With enough years of drumming, you can feel the song coming. I've been drumming for many years and I can't get anywhere near this. Chad is a boss on the kit. But yes, "it's in 3" means it's a three count. Better known as 3/4 time.
Every broken stick happens during a big moment. That's why we set up replacements to grab. My favorite experience was in high school pep band. We had a wildly hard song for the snare drum. The guy who taught me did a massive rimshot at the end and let his stick fly straight up 15 feet and caught it. Naturally, after I was good at the song and he graduated, I played that part. Just in case a quadruple forte snare needed to be louder in a high school gymnasium, I stood directly behind the director for that song. I looked ridiculous with a spare stick in each pocket, but they were usually necessary. There was one glorious night when the stick broke on that rimshot. The final note of the song. I caught the back half exactly as I was holding it and the front half landed at center court. Another time broke a light. A perfect rimshot at full strength goes about 30 feet up. I didn't catch that one in the falling glass.
Chad goes straight into GOD MODE here... he does miss a few steps and changes along the way and lets the standards lead the way but man... just insane
I've watched over a dozen reactions to this and non drummers have the best reactions hands down........nice work
When he refers to it being in "3" it means its 3 bars in a 4 bar measure, i.e 3/4 time. So the beat restarts when you hit 3 in the count (1, 2, 3 - 1, 2, 3) instead of (1, 2, 3, 4 - 1, 2, 3, 4). So when you get that the whole song is in 3/4 time you can pretty much improv and add all the flourishes you want around it. The fact that he can understand the measure and then do all the crazy technical stuff around it is what makes him an expert. First reaction i've seen from you, great stuff my man!
My grandson is 13 and has been a drummer since he was 4. He can hear a song once and play the basic beat. Then he'll do his own fills. It's really incredible to watch!
Heck yes drum sticks break or get dropped. That's why they have so many in their "stick holder". No different than a guitarist dropping or breaking a pick. That's why they have so many extra picks in the neck of the guitar.
It was crazy. He didn't even listen through the song one time. Unreal talent.
40 years of drumming at his level, and on the stage he has played at will tell you what to play, where the changes are, and when to fill. Rock music can be complicated and layered but there's still patterns that a veteran drummer will naturally understand.
Thats years of solid songwriting, playing, straight up music knowledge and how song structure works with different genres.
Chad has a lot of experience. He's over sixty years old and he's been playing drums since he was a kid. He's an expert !!!
The Red Hot Chili Peppers are my favorite band and Mr. “Not Will Ferrell” is one of my top 3 favorite drummers…great reaction as usual
Hes been playing since the 80s, that plus basic music theory. Hes a legend
If you pay close attention. During transitions he pauses for a very very very light second and adjusts as needed
RHCP does a lot of improv plus he’s a studio drummer so this is in his DNA
As far as him following the transitions flawlessly, he was taking Q's off the Bass and Guitar. With that, he is in a league of his own. There are very few drummers that can listen to only a few seconds of a new track and nail it like he did, especially without sheet music and the drum track removed from the mix.
He spent decades with a. Top 10 bassist and a top 50 guirast of all time. But he's fantastic and talented AF.... And a good guy by the sounds of it
That’s what I said when everyone is like “ThErEs nO wAy He HasNt HeArD iT”… like you can clearly see him occasionally pull back slightly at the beginning of each section, reads the bass/guitar, then goes in 1000% for “the kill” (had to do it, 😂sorry!).
@@marquisdelafayette1929😂 I love your comment. Your last sentence is chef’s kiss.
CUES
Absolutely taking cues from the bass. Bass and drums are always listening to each other. I loved watching him listening and reacting to the “3-and” cues that lined him up almost perfectly for the change in phrase.
You could tell that he was calculating which way a phrase was gonna go and then as soon as he heard the “1-and” cue that matched his guess, he switched. Or sometimes he showed Uber confidence about which way a phrase would go.
When he said, "Oh it's in three!" he already had it in his mind.
3: Drums, guitar and bass ..
Bro. If you’ve watched a few of these, you’ll see the drummer typically do a full listen through of the song without drums just to get a feel for the song structure. Chad just goes right in, first listen. It’s crazy. Dude is one of the best drummers on the planet, for real. He’s been drumming for like 40 years. Full time gig with the Red Hot Chilli Peppers.
When he say a “3”, he’s talking about the timing of the song. A LOT of songs are typically 4/4. This is a 3/4 beat on this song. Killer reaction bro.
We (the viewer) heard the track with drums at the start but he's not playing the drums by ear, he heard the track with NO DRUMS at all (6:32) and had to improvise a drum track to it. No memorization, pure feel. Absolutely nailed it!
I love seeing you take this stuff on board because with musicians, there's constant need to listen and to learn more, and i've noticed since you started checking out Ren that you've really gone out there and exposed yourself to all sorts of different stuff, and all of that makes you a better musician. The fact that you're even doing it speaks to your level of intellectual curiosity. And intellectual curiosity is what helps people who are good at a thing become masters. Stay on this path, brother! Keep listening and keep learning. Let your only limitation be your imagination!
Chad is one of the most respected drummers in music. You should check out his many collaborations not to mention his 30 years with Red Hot Chili Peppers. He came up with this based on what he would have done at 3. I love when he gets that smile like yeah I got this. Three is a drum triad where he plays 3 consecutive notes. He figured that out and took off.
Chad Smith is like the jedi master of the drums lol fr
3/4 time is the time signature. Just like 4/4 signatures…he completely improvised this and he was listening ahead and just winged it. Talent.
You have to understand he is one of the greatest and once you get the note beats count it’s easier to read do I make sence !
Evety drummer I've known plays by ear! Most don't know how to read music. The drums are an extension of their arms! Rock on!!!!!
Your face when he just dove in 😂 I think I’ve watched every reaction of this yours is so genuine ❤
So amazing! I've heard for years he's one of the best of my time
Chad is a jam session junkie and a session drummer with decades of experience. Improve is a massive part of his skill set.
Also add…. Chad Smith is currently in that top tier of well known drummers and has been a session/recording drummer for other artists as well as the core band member of Red Hot Chili Peppers.
I’m n expert ether, I have play guitar and had the fortune of hooking up with a incredible rhythm section in the first band I was in. The drummer and bass player had been playing together since they were in junior high school and the drummer not only came correct with god only knows how many songs he had already learned and played before. On one occasion the 311 song down had just hit and was on the radio. I had got the CD the previous guitar player for this band I was in taught the song to me. I learned the guitar part and practiced it. The next day I picked up the drummer on the way to band practice and told him about learning the song. I played the 311 cd for him in the car on the way to practice he listed to it 2 times. When we started practicing he nailed it stops, cymbals, fills all of it. I really miss both of those guys. R.I.P. E.P. Hicks (drummer)aka Garage Mechanic Paul and C.B.Long (bassist) Love you my brothers always!
Drummers are so underestimated by every musical person. You guys have no clue how much we have to know.
But yeah, the guitarrists are the main characters. 😂😂😂
It's really amazing that Chad can do this. Even though I have zero musical talent, even I know it's amazing.
Chad is one of one. From him personality wise, to his drummer skills, he is the man.
There are a couple of thins running here.
1. Familiarity of Song/ Music Structure
2. Music beat/count Identification
3. Experience
He's able to predict whats coming from an unknown songs because of the usual or standard arrangement/ structure of a song (ie, intro > stanza > bridge or refrain etc...). Chad also easily identified the beat from the other instruments and with the help of experience from years of drumming, he's able to lay his own drum beat.
30+ years he's one of the best in the world, that's how
13:36 3 is essentially the rhythm of the song (what people do uncionsciously when they tap their foot to a beat). I believe someone said it was 3-4 time. Which means the song counts 123,123,123,123, then repeats. A lot of popular songs are in 4-4 time, where the beat counts 1234,1234,1234,1234 and repeats.
This one is 6/8 but same principle. 123FOUR56 123FOUR56 with the accent on 4 each time.
chads a jam style drummer, this is his element
How crazy that he was able to re-create Shannon's drumming just by listening for 2 seconds. Like what??
13:40 When Chad says the song is “in 3,” what he’s talking about is a time signature. Most songs are in a couple of basic signatures, usually 4/4 or 3/4. The first number is how many beats are in a measure, the second is what kind of note counts as a beat. So 4/4 is four beats, 1, 2, 3, 4, and each beat is a quarter note. It’s why you can hear some bands count off like that, like The Beatles song “When I Saw Her Standing There” starts with a count off to set the speed. Most drum patterns put a kick drum on Beats 1 and 3 and a snare hit in 2 and 4 to keep everyone on time.
3/4 means there are only three beats in each measure, but you still use quarter notes to count them off. And he’s right, it’s a fast 3/4. It’s more common in classical pieces, waltzes are written in 3/4 for instance, but it shows up in rock music now and then too. That’s why he had to get that locked in before starting, a standard 1,3 kick, 2,4 snare wouldn’t work on this song.
There are tons of different time signatures, varying from 2/4 to 6/8, to weird stuff like 7/4 or 11/8. Prog rock and metal bands tends to use odd time signatures, songs like “Money” by Pink Floyd or “Diary of a Madman” by Ozzy Osborne are examples of songs written in 7. The latter uses it to make you feel slightly unsettled since we’re so used to even numbered time signatures, 7 just feels… off. It adds to the song’s slightly sinister quality of someone struggling with the voices in his head.
There's a whole bunch of these from Drumeo. Fun to watch these really crazy jazz drummers trying to play along with Tool or Slipknot. Good reaction content on that channel for sure.
Chad Smith was PHENOMINAL!!! He's a beast. But, also check out El Estepario Siberiano! Next level... He does many songs (Slipknot, Megadeth, etc) 1 handed!
The equivalent of getting lyrics and improv perfect pitching. It shouldn't exist, yet here we are. "Who knew?"
Say it's people like this that old folks like me grew up listening to this is what we thought real music should be