Analysis of Ringo Starr's Drumming on Beatles Tracks, Part 5 of 5

I have a confession to make: In pigeonholing Ringo's drumming into three fundamental beats (metronomic, rock, and syncopated), I'm guilty of oversimplification.

My goal is to draw large-scale conclusions on how Ringo plays the drum set. To do that, however, I have to categorize and lump together drum patterns that are similar and but not necessarily identical. Such generalizations help provide conceptual understanding but simultaneously glosses over the subtle diversity of reality. Ringo just payed drums - he didn't care at all about classification. In that regard, my analyses are a somewhat artificial construct.

That's why this fifth and final blog analyzing Ringo's drumming will look at blends of those three primary categories - drum beats that don't fit perfectly into any category but rather fall in between.


The most common blend is the metronomic rock beat, in which one drum (usually the snare or bass) will maintain a constant pulse while the other will maintain its rock pattern (bass on 1 and 3; snare on 2 and 4).

Examples of the metronomic rock beat in which the bass is metronomic while the snare is rock can be heard:

• throughout 'Honey Pie' and 'Sun King' (in which the left foot hi-hat substitutes for the snare)

• in the choruses of 'Every Little Thing', 'Yellow Submarine', and 'Cry Baby Cry'

• in the bridges of 'Hey Jude', 'I've Got A Feeling', and 'When I'm Sixty-Four' (in which the left foot hi-hat substitutes for the snare)

• in the final verse of 'Baby's In Black'

• and in the second concluding refrain of 'Money (That's What I Want)'

Examples of the metronomic rock beat in which the snare is metronomic while the bass is rock can be heard in the verses of 'When I'm Sixty-Four', 'Honey Pie', 'Piggies' (in which the tambourine substitutes for the snare), and 'The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill'

In rare instances, BOTH bass and snare are metronomic, but the accents in the snare on 2 and 4 suggest a rock pattern. This is found:

• throughout 'For Your Blue'
  

• and in the solos in 'The Fool On The Hill'

And in a single instance, neither a bass nor a snare but a tom plays the metronomic beats: the refrains and break of 'Money (That's What I Want)'.

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Less common are syncopated metronomic beats, in which one drum (again, bass or snare) maintains a metronomic pattern while another drum articulates a syncopated pattern.

In the refrains of 'I Don't Want To Spoil The Party', for example, the bass hits constant quarters [1 |2 |3 |4 ] while the low tom plays [1 |2 & | & |4 ].

In the choruses of 'Good Day Sunshine', which alternate between 3/4 and 5/4 measures, the snare maintains a quarter note pulse while the bass and cymbals are syncopated.

Lastly, 'Getting Better' is a bit of an anomaly. The bass is metronomic (constant quarters), while the snare hits beat 2 and the cymbal on the & 3. Technically, it's not syncopated because all four beats are present and accounted for. But with that cymbal hit on an off beat, it sure sounds syncopated! For lack of a better category, I file it under "syncopated metronomic".

Careful readers might be wondering about a syncopated rock beat. That would be the logical next step. Perhaps this could be a [1 |2 (&) | |4 (&) ] pattern, such as found in 'Slow Down', which is about as close to being a rock beat as it can be without actually being a true rock beat.

But all things being equal, it's best to select the simplest option. In this case what might be dubbed "syncopated rock" fits better under just "syncopated". (See yesterday's blog for details.)

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While beats can be blurred, as the above illustrates, it's more common for Ringo to use different beats within the same song to reinforce the song's structure.

He might use, say, a syncopated beat in the verses and a metronomic beat in the bridges to contrast. Indeed, he does exactly that in 'All My Loving'.

Similarly, the verses and choruses of 'Can't Buy Me Love' use a rock beat, while the intro and coda use a metronomic beat.

And lastly, the verses of 'Ticket To Ride' are syncopated, while the bridges are rock.

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Other times he'll use variations of the same beat (instead of different beats) to reinforce structure.

In 'I've Just Seen A Face', the verses and choruses use metronomic beats, but the former uses brushed snare drum while the latter supplements that with a shaker.

Similarly, in 'I Want To Hold Your Hand', the verses and the bridge both employ rock beats, but the former is [1 |2 & |3 |4 ] and lets the cymbals ring, while the latter is [1 |2 |3 & |4 & ] and mutes the cymbals.

And in ' Glass Onion', parts of Verse A feature a [1 |2 & | |4 ] syncopated pattern, while Verse B incorporates a [ |2 |3 & |4 & ] beat.

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All of the above is quite sophisticated. But 12 tracks take things to an even higher level by combining all three styles of beat (metronomic, rock, and syncopated) into a single track.

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Typically, the very end of each blog is where I promote my next (ie tomorrow's) gig. In this case, however, there was a bit of a miscommunication regarding July 15. When the Library Director of the Media-Upper Providence Free Library in Media, PA, emailed me asking, "Could we have you perform on July 15?", what she apparently meant to say was, "I do not want you to speak at my library on July 15." Silly me for misinterpreting! Though, how she misinterpreted my email confirming the booking on that date remains a mystery...