Making a cover song your own

The band that I currently play with has a few "disco" type songs in their repertoire. I've never been a fan of that type of music and run from it if given the chance. Playing drums makes it hard to run away! I had to learn a few songs this week and had a hard time getting into the groove. I think it is due to the fact of not liking what I was learning and the songs that I was learning were very straight forward so it wasn't really a challenge playing these disco songs but I do believe that you should put 100% into whatever you play or don't play it. I had to find my groove for these songs so I looked to one of my idols to see how he pulled some of these grooves off. Jeff Porcaro was one of my first choices. This guy has an unbelievable list of dudes that he has played with and makes whatever he plays sound good, how?

 

Some drummers have that very unique style of finding that groove in any song, adding some subtle changes to a regular beat and all of a sudden that rhythm section just sounds killer. Jeff used to add in ghost strokes on his snaredrum in between a regular beat and it makes all the difference in the world. I mean you can always add in some phat drum fills that you just feel in the groove but what else could you do if the song is that easy to play and you feel bored ......

If you are a right handed drummer, try playing left handed. Do the entire beat playing on the hi-hat with your left hand. Start all your drum fills with your left hand. In theory all drummers should know how to do this but let's face it, most drummers don't switch back and forth from left to right handed.
I find that if you feel bored during a song it will come across in your playing and as the backbone to any band, what you do will bring the whole band down.

Experiment with several ways of playing songs that you just can't get into to find that special something in every song that peaks your interest. Remember as a drummer you are the driving force behind every band so own the beat and make it your own. Stay tuned or go phlat ........