Yoshiki's Art Of Drum

[Keppikeksi]

There are drummers who manage to play over 1000bpm.... yes, you think it's impossible, 800bpm means 13,33  beats in one second, but listening to his drums, I think he plays a higher frequency but 800bpm - that's why I was thinking if they possibly only counted the bass drums...

@Anna: ThX for checking I don't have the book.

You should learn the right musical terms before saying anything. It really is IMPOSSIBLE to play 800 BEATS per minute. But 800 STROKES in one minute is possible. Bpm means the TEMPO (basic pulse) of a song (one, two, three, four, one, two.. etc) and f.ex. Silent Jealousy's basic tempo is around 185 BPM, which means the song has 185 quarter notes in one minute. But as we can hear, Yoshiki plays 16-notes in that song so the total amount of strokes is much higher.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WFD_World%27s_Fastest_Drummer_Extreme_Sport_Drumming

In 2001 WFD acquired its most recognizable competitor when Steve Vai drummer and Berklee College of Music professor Mike Mangini joined its ranks. Initially Mangini was hard pressed to surpass Afanador, but eventually became the first drummer to surpass 1200 SINGLE STROKES IN ONE MINUTE, and has since dominated the sport, holding several world records at any given time including fastest hands (matched and traditional grip) and a 15 minute bass drum endurance record.

BTW, I'm a drummer myself.

[Maverick]

There are drummers who manage to play over 1000bpm.... yes, you think it's impossible, 800bpm means 13,33  beats in one second, but listening to his drums, I think he plays a higher frequency but 800bpm - that's why I was thinking if they possibly only counted the bass drums...

@Anna: ThX for checking I don't have the book.

You should learn the right musical terms before saying anything. It really is IMPOSSIBLE to play 800 BEATS per minute. But 800 STROKES in one minute is possible. Bpm means the TEMPO (basic pulse) of a song (one, two, three, four, one, two.. etc) and f.ex. Silent Jealousy's basic tempo is around 185 BPM, which means the song has 185 quarter notes in one minute. But as we can hear, Yoshiki plays 16-notes in that song so the total amount of strokes is much higher.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WFD_World%27s_Fastest_Drummer_Extreme_Sport_Drumming

In 2001 WFD acquired its most recognizable competitor when Steve Vai drummer and Berklee College of Music professor Mike Mangini joined its ranks. Initially Mangini was hard pressed to surpass Afanador, but eventually became the first drummer to surpass 1200 SINGLE STROKES IN ONE MINUTE, and has since dominated the sport, holding several world records at any given time including fastest hands (matched and traditional grip) and a 15 minute bass drum endurance record.

BTW, I'm a drummer myself.

AAAH!! That's confusing me - I wouldn't have said if when I wouldn't have read it anywhere - sorry if it was wrong, but I know where I found it: http://www.stevedowdrums.com/rankings.htm
Rank 8: "Johnny Rabb - 1st in history to break 1,000 bpm"
@_@ So, how could I learn it, when I find wrong informations???

[Sander]

Thanks to a really great anime, I just found out a classical composition Yoshiki uses in his drum solo (the Last Live version)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZRbko3UsnQ[/youtube]
Watch from ~00:38

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z22nSEgrAQI[/youtube]
From 01:36


I have always loved that part, one of my favorites in the solo, I have always thought what it was

[jigokugal]

gosh.. ppl who insult yoshiki in youtube really pissed me off. If they can't accept the fact that freakin thousands of ppl adore him, just leave the page peacefully.
I know he isn't the best for techniques. But just like previously said, he put all of his soul into his music that's reflected from the body. How his body actually merged with the music.
I would say he is a musician who is willing to trade his life for music. and that serves him as the "best" drummer for me.

[jigokugal]

THe song for Yoshi's drum solo background is piano concerto #2 in C minor Op. 18 by Sergei Rachmaninoff. I like it too.. a good classical piece.

[Sander]

That was the point of my last post ... ^^

The second I heard it I knew I had heard it before

[Hollywood]

I guess this topic has already been sufficiently discussed, but just to add my perspective... count me among those who really admire and appreciate Yoshiki's drum solos.

I bet the people who complain about his drum solos are the same people who don't like his piano-key-banging and/or don't like hide no heya because hide doesn't have a deedle deedle deedle deedle deedle Malmsteen-fest.  None of those three X solos are "solos" in the typical "show off your technical skills" sense, they're musical performance pieces.

I also think that the people who hope Yoshiki takes care of himself and doesn't waste too much energy on his drum solos are missing the point as well.  Don't get me wrong, I also don't want him to hurt himself, but Yoshiki pushing himself to (and beyond) his physical limits is part of his performance art.  It's about Yoshiki physically driving himself to the "verge of destruction" and being willing to take it so far as to literally collapse onstage.  That's powerful stuff.

It's not what he's playing, it's how he's playing it.  Lots of drummers are willing to go onstage and participate in some prolonged check-out-my-skills drum noodling.  How many other drummers are willing to risk physical collapse to have (as I think I said in some other thread) intense, public, multiorgasmic death-sex with their drum set?

[VioletCamicat]

Haha, a really good comparism, Hollywood!
I think it's true, since the drum solos match perfectly to his lyrics. They're full of rage, violence and also indeed very sexual IMO, hehehe!
That's X! That's Yoshiki!

Well, but I gotta admit, that I don't really like his drum and piano solos, since I don't really understand them. They match perfectly - indeed!!! But in some ways they're really too weird in my opinion. I always think something like: OMG! The poor instruments! What have they done to you?! :shock:


But yeah, he's not the only guy who doesn't care really about the point, that the instruments may be damaged. Keith Moon from The Who kind of invented that with the drums, though of course he did it way different (and I think also with a different intention) than Yoshiki. And there are also many guitar players, who like to smash their guitars (Paul Stanley from Kiss for example) - so yeah, why shouldn't Yoshiki be allowed to do so as well? It's just simply not my taste.
I can accept it, but don't really like it. And since no one will force me to watch it, I'm fine with that.

[Hollywood]

Haha, a really good comparism, Hollywood!
I think it's true, since the drum solos match perfectly to his lyrics. They're full of rage, violence and also indeed very sexual IMO, hehehe!
That's X! That's Yoshiki!

Thanks!  Exactly how I feel too, those drum solos perfectly reflect X's major themes-- pain, pleasure, sex, love, violence, rage, death-- essentially, both the positive/creative and negative/destructive aspects of passion, as well as the parallels between them.  And the fact that he can communicate all of this with a drum solo, drums being the least "musical" of the rock instruments and unable to carry a melody, makes it all the more impressive to me.  Totally X and totally Yoshiki; much like you said, I also see it as a physical expression of those old violent-sexual Yoshiki lyrics.

Well, but I gotta admit, that I don't really like his drum and piano solos, since I don't really understand them. They match perfectly - indeed!!! But in some ways they're really too weird in my opinion. I always think something like: OMG! The poor instruments! What have they done to you?! :shock:

Ah, so is it just the instrument destruction that turns you off to them, or the weirdness in general?  (Slightly offtopic for the thread but I'm curious: what do you think of hide no heya?  Since that's weirdness but without the instrument destruction.)

Actually I understand not wanting to see instruments abused, though for some reason when it's X it doesn't bother me, not sure why.

[VioletCamicat]

Ah, so is it just the instrument destruction that turns you off to them, or the weirdness in general?  (Slightly offtopic for the thread but I'm curious: what do you think of hide no heya?  Since that's weirdness but without the instrument destruction.)

Is hide no heya the part where he has the strait jacket and is laughing like totally nuts and so on? I'm not really sure about that.
Well, I think it's funny to watch (if I guessed right about the hide thing) - as well as Yoshiki's solos. But both are things I wouldn't really call impressive, but somehow funny and... err... unsettling..?
Yeah, I think it's the weirdness then in general, when it's shown really intensive. I often tend to analyze things and when it comes to points where I'm not able to easy analyze it / not able to see the story which is told by the action, I'm too confused.

[Hollywood]

Is hide no heya the part where he has the strait jacket and is laughing like totally nuts and so on? I'm not really sure about that.
Well, I think it's funny to watch (if I guessed right about the hide thing) - as well as Yoshiki's solos. But both are things I wouldn't really call impressive, but somehow funny and... err... unsettling..?

Yep, that long guitar solo thing where he starts out playing guitar and by the end is taken away in a straightjacket with the totally nuts laughter.  (I know he did it differently in different concerts, but the one I'm most familiar with is the On the Verge of Destruction one.)

And though I like hide no heya and also Yoshiki's solos-- and am personally impressed by them , though for performance rather than musical reasons-- I agree about them being possibly funny and unsettling.  I think it's due to the drama level (Yoshiki) and weirdness level (hide) being SO over-the-top that it can be hard to know what to make of it.  Some people that I've shown the Verge of Destruction concert to have become almost disturbed by hide no heya.  I can see why: something about it is creepy in a way that may not even have been fully intended.  And some people laugh about Yoshiki's continual tendency to... fall over, dramatically.  There too, I get where they're coming from: when Yoshiki starts banging on the keys and nearly falling off the piano bench, you've really got to be "into it" to appreciate the performance and not just see... well, a guy being highly, highly dramatic with the piano.

But me, I like that ultra-high-drama as well as that slightly unsettled feeling, so to me this crazy stuff all rocks.

[X-J]

Is hide no heya the part where he has the strait jacket and is laughing like totally nuts and so on? I'm not really sure about that.
Well, I think it's funny to watch (if I guessed right about the hide thing) - as well as Yoshiki's solos. But both are things I wouldn't really call impressive, but somehow funny and... err... unsettling..?

Yep, that long guitar solo thing where he starts out playing guitar and by the end is taken away in a straightjacket with the totally nuts laughter.  (I know he did it differently in different concerts, but the one I'm most familiar with is the On the Verge of Destruction one.)

And though I like hide no heya and also Yoshiki's solos-- and am personally impressed by them , though for performance rather than musical reasons-- I agree about them being possibly funny and unsettling.  I think it's due to the drama level (Yoshiki) and weirdness level (hide) being SO over-the-top that it can be hard to know what to make of it.  Some people that I've shown the Verge of Destruction concert to have become almost disturbed by hide no heya.  I can see why: something about it is creepy in a way that may not even have been fully intended.  And some people laugh about Yoshiki's continual tendency to... fall over, dramatically.  There too, I get where they're coming from: when Yoshiki starts banging on the keys and nearly falling off the piano bench, you've really got to be "into it" to appreciate the performance and not just see... well, a guy being highly, highly dramatic with the piano.

But me, I like that ultra-high-drama as well as that slightly unsettled feeling, so to me this crazy stuff all rocks.

I'm with you there.    Aestheticising a life is what artists do... For people who are used to purposiveness, rational conduct, order and security it's all too weird. But, it's just that the antinomies of those terms also belong to life, almost more than the terms above. It's more a question of how much an individual realizes this herself. In short, rationality is "only" a special case of irrationality when probed really deep.

My only concern is that Yoshiki will travel too much into de-aestheticising directions... Which has been the trend since Dahlia times. In other words, that he forgets the organic and the aesthetic and focuses on nu-metallish or some other "commercial" elements. Hope not...

[Hollywood]

I'm with you there.    Aestheticising a life is what artists do... For people who are used to purposiveness, rational conduct, order and security it's all too weird. But, it's just that the antinomies of those terms also belong to life, almost more than the terms above. It's more a question of how much an individual realizes this herself. In short, rationality is "only" a special case of irrationality when probed really deep.

My only concern is that Yoshiki will travel too much into de-aestheticising directions... Which has been the trend since Dahlia times. In other words, that he forgets the organic and the aesthetic and focuses on nu-metallish or some other "commercial" elements. Hope not...

Totally agree.

And I share you concerns about Yoshiki's musical/artistic direction.  The Dahlia times, for me, were just... missing something.  Too "safe" somehow, none of that previous edge of danger/taboo.  I'm not opposed to commercialism itself, but I truly believe Yoshiki can make the money he wants without having to dilute the "weird" aspects of his performance.  After all, Vanishing Vision set indies sales records in Japan when it came out... personally I think a really really unique band like X (pre-Dahlia, anyway) has the potential to make it even bigger than a safer, more "normal" band which could easily get lost in the shuffle of every other safe, normal band.