Buddy Rich and Gene Krupa

Buddy Rich and Gene Krupa. They were both great drummers. Buddy Rich has his totally amazing technique, which I don't believe has been equaled to date. Gene Krupa had a little less technique, but he had the technique of playing the crowd. At Krupa-Rich drum battles (JATP usually), Krupa would play a little bit of 'sing sing sing' before they botyh went into the crazy sixteenth notes and rolls and the crowd would go wild. He won the whole crowd over with just a few bars even though he was usually totally outplayed by Buddy Rich. But Buddy Rich is always remembered by the drummers as the man who could do it all. I understand that technique is only a means to making music through your instrument; it's like language, the more words you know, the more you can communicate. So here's my question. What's more important? Winning the audience? Or being able to play all the triplet sixteenth paradiddles at 300bpm?

=)

If you have no audience, who's going to hear those fantastic triplet paradiddles?

~kuraigu-chan ::::live forever, play forever::::

Neither. Creating genuine music and communicating it to someone else is most important?

I'd say a little bit of both. I'd rather listen to someone who can truly make music than someone who has amazing technique. The people with a ton of technique often come across as lifeless. Play for the music and listen to the feeling that is put into blues and jazz. Learn from it and apply it to your playing.

Don't just play riffs and don't just play drums...Play music.