In-a-gadda-da-vida, baby
Don’t you know that I’ll always be true?
I was doing research for a 2 or 3 lines post about “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” earlier this year when I stumbled across a YouTube cover of that song featuring a young German drummer named Sina.
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| Sina |
Most of the video is split screen, with individual windows not only for Sina, but also the singer and the lead guitar, bass, and keyboard players who performed with her.
Click here to watch Sina and her friends cover “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida.”
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Sina is 21 now. She was several years younger when she recorded the “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” drum cover I watched on YouTube – and she looked even younger than she actually was.
You rarely have a chance to focus on a rock drummer’s playing all the way from the start of a song to its finish – movies or videos of live performances usually show only brief snippets of the drummer.
But Sina’s many YouTube videos usually capture every drum hit and cymbal strike. In fact, some of them show views of her from two or three different cameras simultaneously, so you don’t miss a thing.
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The drum parts in many of the classic rock songs she covers are incredibly complex, and often include rapid-fire sequences that I can barely follow. (Her feet are often working quite independently of her hands.) I find watching her videos to be absolutely mesmerizing.
Maybe that’s because I always wanted to be a drummer. Most rock music fans I know are wont to start playing air guitar after a few drinks at a party, but I’m an air drummer.
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After watching “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” and a dozen or so of Sina’s other drum covers, I e-mailed her and asked if I could interview her. Fortunately for me and for you, she agreed to answer my questions.
Here’s part one of my conversation with Sina:
2 or 3 lines: Sina, about how many classic rock covers have you recorded for YouTube?
Sina: I’m clueless! It depends if you also count the ones that are blocked or songs that we recorded from scratch or songs that launched on collaborator's channels. I would estimate about 150?
2 or 3 lines: Which one has been viewed the most?
Sina: The cover of “Sultans of Swing,” by Dire Straits. That video has 38 million views as of today.
2 or 3 lines: I discovered your videos while doing research on "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" – I came across the YouTube video of you and some of your friends doing a cover of the album version of that song. Why did you choose to cover "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida"?
Sina: I chose to cover this song because it was requested a lot. Of course I get a lot of requests for all kinds of songs every day, but this one I could not ignore! To be honest, I did not know this song before reading about it in the comments to my other videos. Of course, the epic drum solo almost begs for a cover. I looked up the song on YouTube and found several covers of this solo, but no video was really accurate, so I decided to learn the whole 17-minutes-plus song, and learn every note of the drum solo.
2 or 3 lines: Did “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" require a lot of takes to get right?
Sina: I put a lot of time into learning this song, a lot more than I usually do. I transcribed the whole solo and learned it by heart. The groove part of the song was not so hard for me to do, so at the actual recording session it did not require a lot of takes.
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2 or 3 lines: Do you attempt to play your covers exactly like the original drummer? Is it even possible to tell from listening to a record exactly what the drummer is doing?
Sina: That really depends. I try to sometimes do very exact covers and sometimes do more of a “freestyle” thing. It also sometimes depends on how much time I have to learn a song and whether or not I know it very well. It is almost always possible to tell exactly what a drummer is doing just by listening to the original recording. Of course you can not hear things like what hand does he use to hit the cymbal. But usually you can hear and distinguish the sounds pretty well and then imitate it easily. Of course, if there’s a video, that’s a great help. :-)
2 or 3 lines: I understand that you departed from the recorded drum track on your “Sultans of Swing” cover.
Sina: I grew up in a time when there were still CD players in the car. My dad had a mix CD of his favorite songs that he played in his car all the time – including a live version of “Sultans Of Swing,” which was the only version of the song I ever knew. When I wanted to make a drum cover of the song, I tried to learn the studio version, but found that difficult because I was so familiar with the live version on my dad’s CD. So we found a drumless track of the studio version and I added the drums from the live version, which are much more energetic than the drums on the studio recording. I assume that’s why it has become so popular on YouTube.
2 or 3 lines: How do you actually learn the drum part to a particular song? For other instruments, you can write the musical notes down and you know exactly what to play – you look at the music while you are practicing it. Is there a way to do that with a drum part? Or is it more just a matter of memorizing it while listening to the recording over and over?
Sina: Of course you can write down notes for drums as you would do with a piano or violin piece. Personally, I prefer learning a song by listening to it. If it is a difficult song it helps to watch a video of the original drummer playing it, or if there’s no video, you can slow the song down digitally to be able to hear details.
2 or 3 lines: Tell us a little about how you actually record a cover. Are you usually able to get a version of the original recording with the drums silenced?
Sina: There are many drumless tracks to be found in the internet. Just do a search on YouTube for “drumless tracks” and you find a lot. If there is no drumless track available, we use the original recording and try to remove most of the original drums through filters. This is not 100% reliable – sometimes you can still hear part of the original drum part. So I have to be really exact with my drumming in order to cover all those random hits from the original recording. Otherwise you would hear drums that I didn’t play.
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2 or 3 lines: Are you left-handed or right-handed? I was a left-handed pianist, and most piano pieces have much more difficult right-handed parts. Do drummers use both hands equally, or are there certain things you tend to do with your dominant hand?
Sina: I am right-handed. I play like most right-handed drummers do, with the dominant hand on the hi-hat. This makes sense because in a basic groove the hi-hat usually plays eighth notes while the snare does a backbeat on the second and fourth beats.
2 or 3 lines: Is there anything unusual about your drum kit, or how you position your drums and cymbals? Anything unusual about your playing style – for example, the way you hold your sticks?
Sina: No, not really. I am currently trying to learn how to play with the traditional grip though. That’s a pretty unusual technique for rock drummers, but there are exceptions – for example, Stewart Copeland of Police plays with the traditional grip.
(If you want to see what a traditional grip looks like, click here to see Sina’s brand-new cover of a live Elvis Presley performance of “Polk Salad Annie.” Focus on the way Sina’s left hand holds the drumstick as she plays – that’s what drummers call a traditional grip.)
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The next 2 or 3 lines will feature part two of my interview of Sina. We’ll find out which classic-rock drummers are Sina’s favorites – and you’ll find out which of Sina’s classic-rock drum covers is my favorite.
While you’re waiting for that post to become available, why don’t you click here and join Sina’s YouTube channel? You’ll have access not only to dozens of drum cover videos, but also to many videos featuring original music.
Or you can click here and become a patron of Sina on Patreon.
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