5 Steve Gadd Drum Beats Every Drummer Should Know

_______________ 5 Steve Gadd Drum Beats Every Drummer Should Know

Steve Gadd Late in the Evening. Steve Gadd 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover. Steve Gadd Aja. Steve Gadd...ok, ok, you get it...I could go on and on. Few names in drumming inspire such awe, such reverence, such admiration. Steve Gadd's drumming and drum career speak for themselves...he's drummed on more albums than most of us have listened to in our lifetimes. He's created some of the most iconic pop music drumming out there, has been a major player in the jazz and improvisational music scene, and has inspired countless drummers to follow in his shoes. In this drum lesson I break out my all time favorite drum beats by Steve Gadd: Late in the Evening, 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover, Lenore, Just the Two of Us, and Aja.

These are MY personal all time favs...what's your all time favorite Steve Gadd drum beat?

Like this lesson? Here's some more you might dig:

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Cymbal Setup From Left To Right:

14” Zildjian K Custom Special Dry HiHats

18" Zildjian K Sweet Crash Cymbal

23” Zildjian K Custom Special Dry Ride Cymbal

19” Zildjian Kerope

Drums:
Tama Starphonic Brass snare drum
Tama Starclassic Bubinga with Tiger Wood finish

Sticks:
Vic Firth 5A

Drumheads:
Aquarian
Classic Clear on toms and snare resonant
Response 2 on toms batter
hi velocity on snare batter
Regularor (Ebony) on kick resonant
Super Kick 10 on kick batter

Alclair In Ear Monitors

Earthworks Microphones

[StephenTaylorDrums]

Steve Gadd Late in the Evening. Steve Gadd 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover. Steve Gadd Aja. Steve Gadd...ok, ok, you get it...I could go on and on. Few names in drumming inspire such awe, such reverence, such admiration. Steve Gadd's drumming and drum career speak for themselves...he's drummed on more albums than most of us have listened to in our lifetimes. He's created some of the most iconic pop music drumming out there, has been a major player in the jazz and improvisational music scene, and has inspired countless drummers to follow in his shoes. In this drum lesson I break out my all time favorite drum beats by Steve Gadd: Late in the Evening, 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover, Lenore, Just the Two of Us, and Aja.

These are MY personal all time favs...what's your all time favorite Steve Gadd drum beat?

Like this lesson? Here's some more you might dig:

[Meatman]

Gadd is the reason I fell in love with linear drumming grooves. That and his sweet curly mullet he rocked forever

[donf]

I don't even play drums.  I clicked it because all of Eric Clapton's great live videos have Steve Gadd playing.  I love to watch Steve really getting it... he can't sit still jumping off the throne and his entire body working.  And Clapton said of Gadd that he drives him, pushes him, to really reach for it with his playing.  An amazing drummer.  And I never knew of his other works.  A true artist!!!

[samuelwreed]

Steve Gadd is the man. We had groups of young drummers in high school listening to his tapes. Blew my mind away when youtube/internet came out and I could see what he did. Made me fall in love with the paradiddle all over again.

[WorshipKingJesus]

I cannot say enough great things about how you’re giving to the drumming community! Great content, superb talent, giving heart! Such encouragement!

[calvinpham]

I can feel your dedication to your art and teaching. I watch your videos quite often. Kudo to your effort. Many likes @ love from Vietnam by way of Houston TX

[sampowellmusic]

I always loved his groove on quiet afternoon Stanley Clarke

[albitcapinigro]

Thanks for taking the time to figure this stuff out.. great work.

[harrymiram]

FYI....Read somewhere that when Gadd was drawing up 50Ways pattern, he drew inspiration from his early days of rudiment drumming. Thus, & this is where memory gets fuzzy, he built the pattern around 5 & 7-stroke roll OR 7 & 9-stroke roll. When I started playing, learned basic rudiments, so when hearing 50 Ways intro, my ears perked Up!-lol. But ended up, mostly, playing by feel, so I could be wrong. Nice breakdown, tho....

[bennoschlachter]

great lesson there Stephen! doesn't get any better groovewise than Steve as we all know. love the detail on how to approach 50 ways. touch being number one. the buzz at the end also makes the fine difference to a lot approaches teaching doubles - which won't get the same result of course. lovely. thanx a lot - 50 ways being my favorite Gadd groove plus probably my favorite groove period.

[nickavenoso]

Steve is one of my favorites. He always came up with cool grooves. Love all the grooves mentioned. Some of my favorite Steve Gadd drum work is on Al Di Meola’s Electric Rendezvous album. But, there’s a lot of great stuff that Steve has played on.

[n-dog]

You're correct; Just The Two of Us was by the late Grover Washington jr, with Bill Withers on vocals. 😁

[romancastro_]

Great detail with the buzz roll in the second bar of 50 ways. it really cleared things up for me.

[classixdrummer]

“Don’t you do it, don’t you hit the side of that floor tom!”

Okay, you talked me down. Everything goin’ be okay.

Thank you for this, Stephen. Gadd has always been one of my biggest influences. Pocket to burn.

[vkiperman]

- Late in the Evening
- 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover
- Lenore
- Just the Two of Us
- Aja.

[JeffWald]

Good stuff Stephen. Gadd is my top influence and you did a great job of capturing the vibe as well as the techniques.


The one thing that I've noticed about everything Gadd is that everything he plays has the slightest swing to it. If you slow down "Just the two of us" the "ah 3" on the kick has a very slight swing. I think that's part of what makes that groove so magical as well as the driving hi-hat that you demonstrated. Keep it up!

[MegaLJ]

Once again Steve you've made it all happen.

[zannezarow]

You're a great teacher! I love Steve Gadd. I look forward to wood shedding these grooves. Thank you!

[IansDrumsandBass]

SG has the Hihat going all the time. If you listen, it actually doesn't stop.
And that's all off beats too, which makes it even funkier.

[bigdawg]

Amazing drummer. Listen to river of tears on the Clapton one more car one more driver album set. It brought a tear to my eyes. Some of the best. In the video after the song was finished you see Clapton look up at Steve with a smile as to say "That was fing Getting that reaction from Clapton who has played with so many of the best drummers on this plant. His acknowledgement of Gadd on that tune says it all.