Paul Simon - 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover (drums by Jouxplan)

Well, what can I say about this beautiful drumming by Steve Gadd that has not been said before? This probably represents one of only a very few drum parts that is instantly recognizable to Joe-I'm not a musician-Public (the other being the Phil Collins massive In The Air Tonite fill!).

Like many people, I had no idea of how Steve Gadd actually played this. When you learn it by ear, most normal people would never think to do the left foot hi hat thing to help with the 'sticking'! I mean, that is pure genius! It was not until I watched Steve Gadd himself demonstrating it here on YouTube, that the penny dropped. Awesome.

I then had lots of problems with the second 'press roll'. It just did not sound right when I played it. I could see Steve was doing something different, but could not quite see or hear what it was. Then I watched 'CraigTube' talking about this very issue here on YouTube, and the penny dropped again! Especially his answer to a query from someone else about the sticking pattern for this roll (RRL LR). Nice one! So I owe thanks to CraigTube for helping me out on this.

(Incidentally, I have just had a comment from CraigTube himself on my cover, and he tells me he has actually done another video specifically aimed at the dynamics of this groove. Wish I had seen it before I posted my attempt (!) - anyway, I thoroughly recommend looking at that: CraigTube, you are a great observer of drumming nuance and a great teacher!).

I have watched a few guys doing this on YouTube, and it is interesting seeing all the different versions. I can see that this is one of those songs where the real Steve Gadd sticklers out there give people like me a real hard time over the detail of how to play this. Fair enough! I have tried my best!

In the second verse my left hand does not hit the hi hat fully on top of the hat on the third hit, and this means that the tip of my Blue Flix 'Tip' (not Flix Stick) does not make full contact - the result is that this critical beat is often rather quiet, if not silent! Pants!

The chorus is, frankly, beautiful playing by Gadd. Understated, simple, perfect groove. Tiny little ghost notes here and there, and what sounds to me like the occasional eighth note on bass drum. And just an occasional open hi hat. Perfect.

All in all, a fantastic, genius groove, and I personally think its very hard to copy. It is perhaps considered by many to be 'easy' once you get the technique sorted, but I think the real test is whether you can get the dynamics and groove down: it's too easy for this to sound too mechanical. CraigTube certainly agrees with me on this!

I don't claim by any means to have got this right, or with the right groove. But I've loved learning this over recent days!

Finally, those blue Flix of mine - thank you to Flix for letting me try these 'Tips' out (I'm a recent additon to their official endorsee list, if you did not know!)- they are perfect for something like this! Much more clarity on the snare and hi-hat, then I would have got with the standard Flix Sticks.

:-)

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Paul
• Simon
• 50
• Ways
• To
• Leave
• Your
• Lover
• Steve
• Gadd
• Alex
• Warwick

[mrskinneys1234]

i see you are a good drummer. but i can tell you are self taught. you need to loosen up when you are playing, it dosent look as good

[jouxplan]

@mrskinneys1234 Thank you. I certainly agree that I need to loosen up - you are quite right. Yes I am self taught, and it shows :-)

[1981lowrider]

Great job in tackling this piece - sort of a holy grail for some of us. Your video adds to the body of knowledge in helping us all learn. Well done.

[jouxplan]

@1981lowrider That's extremely kind of you - thank you :-)

[partidoalto1]

The snare-sock cymbal pattern is like a flam paradiddle combination done in a very relaxed manner. More of wrist action going back n forth. Tricky as the tune is you kept the time quite close to the groove so that's a big plus. You can also do a nicer approach to the bridge instead of that rock-disco feel by making it more subtle and shifting the hi-hat pattern into a 16-note feel with the accent on the 3rd note giving it a reverse disco-rock-latin sound. Dynamics is key but good job Jouxplan!

[jouxplan]

@partidoalto1 All good points, particularly 'dynamics is key' - I agree with you :-)

Many thanks!

[ShelterDogs]

Instead of calling me deaf in a derogatory way, why don't you provide some constructive criticsim about what you think is off in his playing?

[TheDice2008]

A little softer please

[drummerkareemovic]

@jouxplan

try playing everything like ghostnotes then the feel wil come

[SwissedToast]

2:58 I see you have a nice dog

[davidntia06]

he sound pretty good to me but leave the song out everybody know it soften up the snair and bass drum and your set

[drummerkareemovic]

yeah to bad you cant play with wooden sticks, and an advice so you dont have to hurry too much try playing the first part so after the hihat part LR(flame)RRR i dont know if u would understand what im saying but i tried to explain it corectly.