The Beatles 'Come Together' Groove - Drum Lesson (Drumeo)

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This iconic drum groove in "Come Together" by the Beatles, performed by the great Ringo Starr, is one you're all familiar with. This is from their 1969 album titled "Abbey Road".

TIP: If you're looking to achieve a tom sound similar to the recording, throw some towels over your drums!

[williamlegge]

For the Ringo critics, he is a drummers drummer, more people, and many of the greats were inspired to play drums because of Ringo. He was doing things no one else was doing. He played for the song like a great drummer should. His timing was excellent and his groove and feel was amazing. His drum parts are iconic. The 60’s were a different time, there were no drumeo videos, or you tube and defiantly not many drumming snobs, Ringo made a lot of what you you see today possible. He will go down as one of the greatest and most influential drummers in history. And that’s the truth.

[CameronFleury]

Great song. Ringo is such a talented drummer, and his simplicity with rhythm is definitely a reason why his parts were so complicated.

[maddma]

I'm not a musician, but Ringo has always been the most musical of drummers that I've ever heard. I don't know how many hours I spent as a kid listening to Abbey Road on headphones, hearing, feeling every note, every instrument on that album especially the drums. To me Come Together still holds the test of time all these years later. Thanks for the video.

[stevescott]

Finally someone got this intro correct. Lots of "drummers" here apparently can't hear the difference between a high Tom and a floor Tom. Ringo did play only one rack Tom and a floor but in the recording studio for let it be and Abbey road, he played a Ludwig maple kit with a 12 & 13 rack Tom and a 16 floor. He also played with thin towels over the heads. If you listen to the isolated drum track it's fairly obvious he is rolling down, not up. Amazing how many different versions of this is on YouTube. I play this version and sounds spot on.

[oldenmusicianco.]

I need to clear this up, I’m a fanatic. All of you people in the comments saying ‘He’s left handed so the fill starts on the floor tom’ are wrong. This is the only tutorial on YouTube that actually shows how to play the intro. No one else gets it right. Not even Ringo later on. The fill starts on the high tom and rolls down to the floor in the way that it does because... he was left-handed and that was the only way he could roll all the way down! These guys got it perfect. If you put this guy on Ringo’s Hollywood Thermogloss Maple kit from the album then it would almost sound identical!

[mike]

My take: how many drummers, past and present would ever come up with such a progression, purely from emotion and to fit the song?

[xhrsex]

I'm also a left handed drummer that plays a right handed kit, except I move my hats to where the floor tom normally is, and play open-handed with my right hand. It's sort of a hybrid setup.

[snoopythedoge]

I don’t even have a drum set it’s just cool seeing how the drumming works in this song

[johnfoster]

This is the ONLY absolutely correct video on the internet regarding the exact drum pattern. Ringo himself today cannot even remember exactly what he did on the record. I have dissected this pattern myself by extremely slowing down the original recording and it reveals that the pattern indeed begins with the left hand on both the hats and the toms, with the right hand progressing down to the two lower toms, as he correctly shows above. Ringos awkward approach of playing a right handed drum set as a left handed player led to MANY unique and distinctive drum fills by him which magically fit in Beatles songs in a manner no one else would have done. The beginning of " Tell me Why" is another example, along with a quick fill at the start of " From Me to You ". Later on, Ringo elaborated with other notable fills in "Rain" and "She Said, She Said". Of course, his distinctive " falling down the stairs" drum fills in " A Day in the Life" were very reminiscent of the drum fills in John Lennon's favorite song : " A Whiter Shade of Pale", by Procol Harum. It must be said that although Ringo was no impressive soloist, or, virtuoso on the totally unique style was an integral and massive part of the Beatles their success....they may have not made it without him.

[DavidLeeKing]

There's a Ringo video on Youtube showing him starting with the floor tom and going up to the rack tom instead of rack to floor. Weird.

[joshscus]

Finally! This has to be the first video on YouTube that demonstrates this correctly! So so many incorrect videos and it's great to see this finally showed how Ringo actually played it on the record!

[abbeyroad]

Finally I understand that genius tom fill thank you!

[Jerry-oohd]

Nice Job, Mr Creed. I’ve been trying for …ever to figure this out, talking to drummers, listening to others and never finding the right thing. You, Sir, have found it. Thank you. Now it all makes sense. Nice job!

[TOAOM]

Ringo is simultaneously the most underrated and overrated drummer of all time
Those who completely write him off are wrong
But those claiming he could go toe-to-toe with some of the other greats are also wrong

Dude was very important to drumming
And perfectly solid player

[chriscruz]

Love this video. Drumeo is truly the best organization out there for drumming

[paulm]

I don't even play the drums. Just here for the most iconic drum beat

[Trismagia]

This is the groove. Same thing it was recorded. Don't pay attention to Ringo videos on Youtube. Just hear the record (much better if you get the multitrack version) and you'll see what's really going on...

[JacobShubaly]

Great video. it was very helpful and now I've got a better idea of how the songs played.

[walterzannino]

Thanks thanks !!! Perfect!!! Good groove for you!! Walter from Italy

[ARIZONA.RIC]

Ringo gave a a drum clinic and he played the two beat bass drum then stared off on floor Tom and went to rack on come together. REALLY COOL WATCHING HIM EXPLAIN WHY HE WENT BACKWARDS DUE TO HIM BEING A LEFTY.