Comments on: Improve Your Play With Drum Covers

By: Omar Alvarado

Omar Alvarado — Sun, 11 May 2014 03:48:00 +0000

Hi David.

Copyright is a serious matter, but at the same time, I try not to complicate it. In my case, I do not bother with trying to obtain licenses to do the covers. The videos are not put up to make money off of them, and I try to educate the viewer as to the making of the video, and possibly give them ideas for their covers. I believe YouTube has made it easier as of late to post covers, since
when they detect a similarity between a copyrighted song and your cover, they will notify you. However, you have the option of acknowledging that the material does belong to someone else, and when you accept, they video is not removed.

I also would not worry so much about your video being deleted. Look at it from the perspective of having gained experience playing the cover, and that it is something to build on for the next cover, whether others see it or not. Your goals should be to have fun, and to get better every time. And if you want to
play covers in a band eventually, this is a good tool to gain some experience.

And another thing: If your cover sounds so much like the original that YouTube has to notify you, then take that as a badge of honor – you must be playing good enough to be noticed! I take it as a complement,
actually.

If others want to chime in on the issue of copyright as relates to YouTube, please do!

By: David Bustos

David Bustos — Sat, 10 May 2014 01:07:00 +0000

I know I might be a little late to post this, but I just stumbled upon this article recently and it piqued my interest. I have been playing drums for about 23 years now and have been getting more interested in posting drum covers. I follow Meytal and Cobus on YouTube, and absolutely love their abilities. However, I am concerned with starting a page of my own. There are so many good songs out there to cover, but they are not my songs. I tried reaching out to them about licensing and copyright issues, but never received anything back from them about the topic. I’d hate to put forth the effort of recording audio/video for YouTube, only to have them issue me a takedown notice because of copyrights. I noticed on your website, Omar, that you have some covers of Rush’s songs posted. I’m curious as to how these videos are not taken down, as Rush is a very established band from years passed. I know that it is possible to get a sync license to cover songs, so long as certain criteria are met and the publishing company gives you the okay…but I’m sure that this wouldn’t be the case for many, many well known songs out there. So I guess my overall concern/question is: How does one properly go about covering songs and posting them to YouTube? Do we just throw caution to the wind and post the videos in hopes that YouTubes algorithm doesn’t detect copyrighted material? Or do we actually attempt to contact publishing companies as a non-profit who is just looking to cover a song? Any and all help/insight would be very, very appreciated! This is an endeavor that I have been wanting to get in to for years…I just don’t want to put in so much hard work of recording the media and performance, just to have it deleted.

By: Omar Alvarado

Omar Alvarado — Thu, 03 Apr 2014 00:15:00 +0000

In reply to Ben Norris.

Great point by you Ben!

There’s no question that playing drum covers can expose some of our weaknesses (which I believe is alluded to in the 3rd benefit above). Paying attention, being disciplined, and recording ourselves will accelerate our awareness of what we need to work on as well.

And yes, it’s all about the song. 🙂

By: Ben Norris

Ben Norris — Wed, 02 Apr 2014 21:10:00 +0000

This is valuable advice – but I think you’ve missed a key point (for me at least!). I found that when I practice drum covers, it highlights all the areas where I need to work on my playing. – For example, one of the songs I have on my drum-along playlist is ‘Easy’ by The Commodores. As I attempted to play it, I realised I needed to really improve on my bass drum technique. To pull off the groove successfully the 16th note shuffle played on the bass drum, has to be both precise and accurate. – This led me to work on some bass drum exercises to improve my speed and accuracy, so I had the necessary skills in my arsenal to pull off the groove. The more I worked on my bass drum technique, I found my ability to play the bass drum groove would improve. My motivation for doing the bass drum exercises was driven solely by my desire to successfully master a groove I wished to play. The rudiments/practice exercises are not and end in themselves – they are simply a means to an end. I had a desire to practice the exercises in order to reach my drumming goal, which was (and is) to master the song.