Carter Beauford: A Unique Drumming Perspective

Carter Beauford has helped the Dave Matthews Band become one of the most successful touring acts in music history. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.org

Carter Beauford is one of the original and founding members of the Dave Matthews Band and has gained an awesome reputation for his skills on the drums. One of the things that I think makes his drumming style unique is the idea of the broken drum patterns. My whole experience is about laying down a drum beat that is consistent so that the song can be built on a solid foundation. Carter has managed to incorporate that solid foundation into his playing, but also plays many inconsistent or “broken” cymbal and drum patterns on top of that foundation. The result is a beat unique to Carter and the Dave Matthews Band. I shared a few videos that should make sense of what I’m talking about here. Enjoy!

Carter Beauford started out with the Dave Matthews Band many years ago and has helped build the band into one of the most successful touring acts in music history. Check out this early performance featuring some great clips of Carter on the drums at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=We56pauuWCI&feature=fvwrel.

Carter shares his hi hat technique in a special drum lesson in this next video. See what he has to say about “broken” hi hat patterns at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qb192JvNLHE.

Lastly, Vic Firth produced a behind-the-scenes video with Carter during a show. This footage offers some great views of the drummer in action doing his thing. Check it out at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUAaDLgpNnk&feature=related.

I hope you enjoyed this feature on one of the most famous drummers out there, Cater Beauford. The Dave Matthews Band has become one of the most successful touring acts in music history, with a lot of help from Carter on the drums. There’s more coming your way at Play Drums By Ear, so stay tuned.

Thanks,

Chris