So of course, we asked Gregg to share his favorite drum parts of all time.

He’s chosen a baker’s dozen of grooves, fills, and all-around awesome sections from a variety of genres and musical eras (in no particular order).

Read on to get a peek into Gregg’s mind – and the rhythms that fuel his mojo!

1. “Noticeable One” – Missing Persons

Terry Bozzio is one of my best pals, so let’s start with his band Missing Persons and the song “Noticeable one.”

Check out the section at 3:03:

2. “Ticket To Ride” – The Beatles

Here’s a classic: Ringo Starr – my favorite drummer of all time – with the song “Ticket To Ride”! I love the groove in the verse:

3. “Fool In The Rain” – Led Zeppelin

It’s one of the greatest Bonham parts of all time:

4. “Quadrant 4” – Billy Cobham

I really love this original groove that Billy Cobham came up with (at 1:10) and it just so happens to be the groove that Alex Van Halen borrowed for Van Halen’s “Hot For Teacher”.

Alex played it a little bit different without the ghost notes on the snare, but both this song and “Hot For Teacher” are two of my favorite drum grooves ever – all thanks to the great Billy Cobham!

5. “My Hero” – Foo Fighters

Dave Grohl double-tracked drums on this song, so only an octopus can play it note-for-note live. But this tom groove is one of the greatest:

6. “Now That You’ve Gone” – Chicago

I played along to this song so much as a kid. Danny Seraphine’s work on “Now That You’ve Gone” by Chicago is legendary.

7. Medley – NG La Banda

Jimmy Branly is my Afro-Cuban drum set instructor and one of my best friends. He’s been my teacher since around 1998.

He’s from Havana, Cuba and he’s the most amazing Afro-Cuban drummer. This song is kind of a culmination of a lot of songs, and you hear him playing a great cowbell groove and a 2-3 rumba clave on his left hand. He plays bongo bell with his left foot on the quarter notes and improvising on the bass drum.

What an incredible groove by an incredible drummer and great friend.

Jimmy himself wrote out an example of the groove he’s playing in the above video! Keep in mind that he’s comping a lot:

8. “Manic Depression” – The Jimi Hendrix Experience

The great Mitch Mitchell, everybody:

9. “Soul Vaccination” – Tower Of Power

David Garibaldi on “Soul Vaccination” – what a great groove! Listen to the section at 0:18:

10. “Red Alert” – Tony Williams

The late, great Tony Williams.

11. “ABC” – Jackson 5

Gene Pello played on “ABC” by the Jackson 5. Drummers don’t know that much about him, but what a great drummer.

Here’s the section at 1:27:

12. “Express Yourself” – Charles Wright

This is classic James Gadson. These are the funkiest 8 bars in soul music as far as I’m concerned. It makes me want to dance every time I hear it, and believe me you don’t want to see me dance!

Listen to the section from 1:39-2:00:

13. “Hey Pocky A-Way” – The Meters

This is Joseph “Zigaboo” Modeliste at his finest with The Meters. This intro is the quintessential groove for New Orleans second line. Ziggy is so incredible and a great guy!

More from Gregg Bissonette

Wanna steal a page from Gregg’s playbook? Watch his video courses, “Becoming A Well-Rounded Drummer” and “How To Start And End Songs”, available with your free 7-day Drumeo trial!

I was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan. My dad was a drummer and my mom played jazz vibraphone. Dad’s band used to play a lot of weddings and private parties and I’d sit in on drums while my brother Matt would sit in on bass. Our sister Kathy was also super involved – she played guitar and violin. 

My brother is my favorite bass player. It’s funny how our paths went the same way. We both went to music school. Matt plays with Sir Elton John and I play with Sir Richard Starkey – aka Ringo Starr. How much fun is that?

I didn’t just want to be in a big name band; I had such a great family and I wanted to be a dad. So I thought about where I could live and raise kids, but also be in the center of it all.

Detroit was too cold. I didn’t want to live in New York City. To me, the real entertainment capital of the world was Hollywood – and the sun shines almost every day. I wanted to play drums in movies and TV shows, and on albums! I was really into Johnny Carson, and the NBC Orchestra featured Ed Shaughnessy on drums. How cool would it be to be on The Tonight Show like Ed and only work for two or three hours a day?

I remembered going to my high school girlfriend’s upper Michigan cabin one summer with her parents. We were water skiing and swimming and taking the boat out.

Maybe in LA there could be a place with a lake like that, I thought. I could hang out on jet skis, drive to Burbank and play drums on The Tonight Show, then sub out and go on the road with bands.

I was in my senior year of high school, and one night at dinner my dad said, “You’re getting a performance degree? You already make good money playing parties and events in Detroit. Why don’t you do what the sax player in my band does? He teaches middle school band, and at 2 o’clock on Friday he locks his door and doesn’t have to go back until 8 am on Monday. And then he locks his doors from June to September, and plays on cruise ships in the Bahamas.”

I decided to have something in my back pocket, so I took that advice and got a music education degree.

I remember when the first issue of Modern Drummer appeared in our percussion professor’s office at North Texas State (now known as The University of North Texas). I started reading it every month and formulating the dream I’d been praying about. “God, help me be a drummer that can go around the world someday.”

While studying at North Texas, I started hearing that if you move to LA or New York, you can’t be a recording and touring drummer.

I said, “Why not?” 

“Well, if you’re a recording drummer, they call you a day before to play on the commercial or TV show. If you’re on the road, they’ll call someone else.”

These were college professors and I felt like they didn’t know what it was really like.

“What about Steve Gadd?” I shot back. “He plays on a million albums and does a million tours and balances it! People seem to wait for him to get back to town, and his phone rings off the hook.”

I knew it could be done. But I was still a bit nervous. What if I move somewhere and don’t make enough money playing drums? 

What if I move somewhere and don’t make enough money playing drums?

Skip forward to 1982, and I was teaching in Dallas. I had a gig with one of the top bands in the area, Buster Brown: a really cool R&B/funk band playing stuff like Stevie Wonder, Tower of Power, and Earth, Wind & Fire. We got called to open up for Lee Ritenour, who was one of the guitar guys in the ‘80s. 

Lee’s drummer was this guy from Peru. You might have heard of him. His name was Alejandro Neciosup, better known as Alex Acuña. 

He came to see us play the night after the Lee Ritenour gig. 

“Alex! You’re still in town?” I said.

“Yeah, we have the day off.”

“Is there any way I could take a lesson with you?”

“Unfortunately I don’t really have time. My luggage was lost and I have to replace everything. But can I give you any advice?”

I was kind of in a creative drought at that time. I was regurgitating a lot of the same fills and beats and needed to work on my vocabulary. 

“Yeah,” I said. “I feel like I’m in a rut. I’m doing this really cool gig, but I feel like I’m just playing the same stuff over and over.”

“Well, here’s what I would do if I were you…”

I was all ears, listening like a madman. What’s Alex Acuña gonna tell this 22-year-old drummer? I got my degree, I can teach at a school if I can’t make enough playing drums, but I know I wanna be a recording and touring drummer and play with big name bands all over the world.

“Dallas is a great city, but this band might not get a record deal here,” said Alex. “If I were you, I would quit this band as soon as possible, pack everything up, and move to Los Angeles. And three nights a week – Sunday, Monday, Tuesday nights – you should go to this club in Encino, The Flying Jib, and listen to my favorite drummer.”

“Who’s that?”

“Vinnie Colaiuta.”

“The guy on the new Gino Vannelli album, Nightwalker?”

“Yeah!”

“The guy that played with Frank Zappa?”

“Yeah. Go and listen to him. Try and figure out what he’s doing.”

“What’s your favorite thing about Vinnie? Is he your favorite at rock, funk, samba, Motown?”

“Everything.”

What? Alex Acuña says he’s his favorite drummer at everything?

As soon as I could, I gave the band my notice, packed up my drums, my water bed, a little stereo and cassette recorder, and my clothes into an old LTD station wagon, and drove from Texas to LA not knowing anybody, really. 

My university band director had given me a list of thirty North Texas alumni who lived in LA who he thought could help me out. I picked up the phone and called them all.

I started beating down doors and auditioning for every possible gig I could. I did a lot of private teaching. Weddings. Bar Mitzvahs. Retirement parties. I played in Top 40 bands because DJs weren’t a thing yet. I did tours and recording sessions. 

Long story short, I ended up playing with one of my musical heroes, Maynard Ferguson (whose band already included my brother, Matt on bass). Shortly after that great year-long tour, I met one of my drum heroes, Myron Grombacher, who helped me get the gig with David Lee Roth – my start in rock and roll. 

All I’ve ever done is play the drums. And now I feel like my childhood prayers have been answered. When you ask somebody you respect for their advice, you should probably take it.

That one night in Dallas when I met Alex Acuña, he gave it to me straight. He told me to move to LA and watch Vinnie Colaiuta, and I did. Vinnie is now one of my good friends. Alex said I would grow if I branched out into other styles, and I did.

I took all the advice I was given and I’m so happy. I never want to live anywhere else. I love LA. I love my kids. I have my amazing brother and sister here, too. I never want to leave. This is the city where I think things are happening. If you want to audition, they happen here. 

If I hadn’t moved to LA, I would’ve never been able to play with artists like Ringo or David Lee Roth or The Electric Light Orchestra. 

When they needed a drummer to play on Santana’s album Supernatural, they called Vinnie Colaiuta first. When he couldn’t do it, guess who Vinnie recommended? 

What a huge honor…he recommended me.

Thanks, Vinnie. Love you, man.

Gregg Bissonette

Have you ever practiced drums while sitting in traffic? Maybe tested out some rudiments on the dashboard? You can get even more sounds out of your own body while your hands stay safely on the wheel: by singing your drum parts.

Gregg Bissonette is always singing drum sounds. As someone who does a lot of sight reading, he often has to figure out the drum part before he sits down on the kit. He assigns a different vocal noise to each drum or cymbal and sings out the patterns. A long crash might get a ‘pssshhhhh’ sound, and a short hi-hat hit might sound like ‘tsst’. Even just remembering a series of sounds – for example, short short long – can cement it in your memory.

The rhythmic pattern is just as important as the sounds you assign. How would you play the phrase ‘follow the yellow brick road’ on the drums?

You’d follow the syllables, and maybe assign different sounds to full or partial words. Like the food-themed rhythmic exercises some drum teachers use to teach young students, vocalizing rhythms can help us internalize drum parts.

So whether you’re in the car, in an apartment or in an airplane, sing the bass drum, the snare, the cymbals and the toms – even if it’s just in your head – and then translate it on the kit when you can.

In this video, Gregg explains how vocalizing parts helps us learn and internalize them long before we actually get to try them on the drums. We aren’t just drummers who hit things – we’re musicians, too!

If someone throws a new song at you, how quickly can you learn it?

If you want to be a recording or touring session drummer – especially if you don’t have a superhuman memory – being able to read and chart songs could be the difference between getting the gig or being told ‘no thanks’.

In this video, Gregg Bissonette shows us the power of sight reading and transcribing with a song that was chosen for him to learn off the cuff. He’s able to identify sections and get the gist of the track before adding detailed notes.

First, Gregg listens to the song and roughly transcribes a form chart of the structure and identifies key accents and sections (you can write it on paper instead of your floor tom). He listens again and maps out the number and length of the bars. Then Gregg was given the actual chart as a reference, where he added phrase markings.

As a session drummer, it’s important to be able to read and transcribe music so you can learn songs quickly and accurately. In fact, that’s how Gregg landed a gig with David Lee Roth. He has the skills to feel phrase length and repetitions, identify figures and solos, articulate longs and shorts, and identify roadmap signs (like a dal segno or coda). You can develop these skills too!

If you enjoyed this challenge, watch Rashid Williams also learn a song after hearing it just once.

Gregg Bissonette is a drummer of many flavors. If you ever wanted to see someone break out every style in the book (well, many of them, anyway), check out this dynamic solo!

From fast brushes and jazz to technical fills, funky grooves and latin splashes, he covers the style spectrum and makes some of the best drumming faces while doing it. Watch out for the duck!

Why is Ringo Starr so great? Why all the hype after this many years?

Gregg Bissonette has been playing ‘double drums’ with Ringo since 2003, and has been drumming in his All Starr Band since 2008. The former Beatle was one of Gregg’s earliest influences, and as he puts it, he now gets to play a few feet away from his drum hero every night.

Why does Gregg think Ringo has been such a game changer for so many drummers?

The Beatles wouldn’t sound the same

Songs like “I Feel Fine” or “Ticket To Ride” wouldn’t be the same without Ringo’s unique parts. The drums mirror the bass perfectly in “Come Together” and the main theme is immediately recognizable. The groove from “In My Life” only has one hi-hat hit per measure, yet it’s so effective that even drummers like Stan Lynch (Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers) have found inspiration there.

Ringo has his own style and swing

Many people started playing drums because of Ringo (and not just because he in one of the biggest bands in the world). Gregg changed from traditional grip to matched grip to emulate his hero. Ringo ‘dances’ while he plays, throwing his shoulder into it as he gets into a rocking motion.

He’s got a real swing to his style, which probably comes from his favorite drummers, including Cozy Cole. Even when the tune has a straight 8th note feel, Ringo tends to swing his fills (“Strawberry Fields”) which add some perfect unpredictability and feel to the song.

He changed the perception of drummers

You used to see artists like Elvis and Buddy Holly perform with the drummer in the background, generally unable to be seen by the audience. Suddenly, there was Ringo Starr up on a riser, just as important as John, Paul and George. They were a real band! The drummer isn’t just keeping time in the shadows anymore; they’re counting the songs off, leading the way, and creating the feel.

Ringo also led the way in how drums were recorded. The compression on the drums and cymbals, the sound, the tuning…it was a real game-changer at the time.

He’s an incredible musician

Ringo and the band had such a great time, you’d never notice they didn’t record to a click. They always played as a unit, and Ringo listened carefully to the vocals. He never wanted a fill to get in the way of the song.

Even when he sings, he sings with the same great time and feel and swing. Plus, he brings joy to the music and makes it fun.

Whether or not you’re a fan of Ringo Starr or The Beatles, you have to admit it: he was ahead of the game as a drummer, and he has forever changed the landscape for beat keepers everywhere.

Gregg Bissonette calls it a ‘four limb single stroke roll’, which involves two and four limb coordination. You can alternate this roll between your limbs like this:

Right hand, right foot
Left hand, right foot
Right hand, left foot
Left hand, left foot

Not only will this exercise help with your note spacing, but it’s a cool idea to use in a solo or at the end of a song.

Gregg suggests playing a roll between your left hand right foot while your right hand plays a pattern on the ride cymbal. You might even try striking a tom with your left hand and playing right-left on a double pedal as your right hand keeps the pattern going (watch the video to see what this looks like).

One of Gregg’s ‘what are you playing’ moments comes from Vinnie Colaiuta: RH LF LH RF

When he was learning it, he found that if he phrased it like a triplet, he ‘forgot’ about his feet. Gregg recommends leading with the hands and letting your feet fall into place.

Take it slow and be patient!

The blushda has become one of Gregg Bissonette’s signature licks. If you aren’t familiar with the rudiment, it’s a left flam followed by a right-right-left (rLRRL).

In 1982, Gregg had just moved to LA and heard one of his drum heroes, Vinnie Colaiuta playing this lick at an Encino club called The Flying Jib. “I thought…what is that sticking?” He didn’t know for years. But eventually hearing Gary Novak play it at the NAMM Show, he had to know. And Gary showed it to him. Later on, he was talking to Steve Smith about the blushda, who said that when he and Vinnie were at Berklee School of Music in the ’70s, they pulled it from Tony Williams!

To give your blushda a real ‘oomph’ like Gregg does, make your flams really wide (“stretch them”). Put a bass drum hit – or even two or three – in the middle. Make sure you accent the left. It’s the accents that help give it that organic, “greasy” feel. So much for a straight corps rudiment, huh?

Watch the video and let Gregg sing it for you!

Gregg Bissonette (known largely for his gigs with David Lee Roth and Ringo Starr’s All-Starr Band) is one of today’s most well-rounded pro drummers – he can play virtually any style on drums! He’s so well versed in versatility, he made a DVD about it (“Musical Drumming in Different Styles” with Hudson Music).

In this lesson, he talks about how techniques and vocabulary from one style translate to another, why you should study the greats, why you should play with live musicians, and that time Tony Williams learned how to play heavy metal in one week.

Lesson Outline:
0:10 – SONG: “After All” by Gregg Bissonette
5:34 – Introduction
9:35 – How to become a versatile drummer
10:52 – Why you should learn to play jazz
22:30 – Why you should learn to play rock
26:14 – Why you should learn to play funk and afro-cuban
33:45 – Why you should learn to play reggae and fusion
38:10 – SONG: “Twenty Dollar Bill” by Gregg Bissonette

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About Gregg:
Gregg Bissonette is one of the most versatile drummers in the music business. His incredible range of styles from jazz, rock, Big Band, blues, latin, and fusion has allowed him to work with many of the world’s top artists. A GRAMMY Award-winning drummer, his impressive resume includes Santana, David Lee Roth, Maynard Ferguson, Toto, Joe Satriani and Ringo Starr, and you’ll find his name on many TV and movie scores.

Gregg Plays:
Dixon Drums
Sabian Cymbals
Remo Drumheads

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