Want to shine in the spotlight during your next drum solo? Not sure how to go about it? Drummers don't get a chance to solo as often as melody players in most performance situations. So, many drummers are afraid to take solos and have no idea how to create them effectively and relate to an audience.

It might surprise you to know you can solo using ideas from the "melodic" side of music. And you can do this even though you play a non-melodic instrument. The drumset contains relative pitches, so, you can imply or suggest melodies with your choice of drums. You can use the bass drum for the lowest pitch, toms for a higher pitch, and the snare drum for the highest pitch. Cymbals have relative pitches, too. You can make use of long and short notes to mimic the longer and shorter durations of your melodic band mates.

When you're just starting out, it's risky to hope you can "just improvise" on the spot. You might be too eager to play like it's second nature, so you go in without a plan. It helps to start out with a few basic ideas to work with before you actually perform.

Planning might sound boring, but by learning these three soloing methods, your solos will have more interest and more meaning for your audience and fellow musicians. In addition, your all-around sense of rhythm and technique will improve. And you will discover musical ideas you may have missed otherwise. And most importantly, you're far more likely to enjoy performing a drum solo anywhere, without fear, ever again!

The three methods we'll look at are (1) theme and variation; (2) melodic soloing; and (3) free-time soloing. You can use the first two in a variety of situations, including open solos where everyone leaves the stage, when you improvise over vamps and when you trade solos with another band member. The third method, free-time soloing, borrows more from the first two and also mixes in other creative approaches.

Method 1: Theme and variations.
This method dates back hundred of years in classical music composition, and also shows up in jazz improvisation from the start.

• Create a short rhythmic theme, then change it. The theme may be a rhythm running through your head, part of a song, a drum beat, etc. Start with a short theme, or if you know one, a longer theme. Simply play the theme, repeat it, and change it a little each time to improvise around it.
• As you play and vary the theme, return to it periodically. This connects your ideas together and rounds out a musical idea.

This method is an extension of theme and variation method. You take a melodic theme from a song and build on it. You have an almost infinite variety of themes to pick from, from songs you already know! You can use them because you imply the melody of a song with the relative pitches on your drumset. This method was largely created by Max Roach, and became popular with drummers after him.

• Start with simple nursery rhymes since they are short and familiar. Begin by implying the melody and rhythms as literally as possible; then move towards playing more abstractly. Use the entire song as the theme.
• End the way you started. To end, return to the more literal version.
• Always follow the form or melody of the song. Generally, the snare drum and closed hi-hat create the shortest durations. Unmuffled toms mimic notes of medium duration. Cymbals express the longest durations.
• Borrow from others who improvise. As you improvise you may play counter-rhythms and counter-melodies to the actual melody. This is fine - saxophonists play like this all of the time! Steal - or borrow -- their rhythmic and melodic improvisational ideas if you like!
• Be sure to keep the original melody in your head and try to sing it while you are improvising against the melody. This is the difficult part, to keep the original melody in your head while you are improvising.

This method was very popular in arena rock concerts of the 1960s and 1970s and is now often heard in contemporary abstract jazz settings. Sadly, drummers often use it poorly, when they have no concept of the more musical approaches to soloing that we've just mentioned.

Here are the keys to using it well

• Create a theme from other sources besides music. Choose sounds for a theme inspired by the environment - the woods, the sea shore, or a social situation. Hear the sound in your mind, re-create it on the drumset. You can't really be wrong if you play with conviction!
• Solo out of time. Most musical situations call for in-time soloing. Sometimes it is appropriate solo freely out of time. Pick a theme using any Method above (1, 2 or 3), but now strict timekeeping is not necessary.

Whichever method you choose, be sure to tell a story with your solo. Have a beginning, middle, and end. Your climax should come near the end, just as in a book.

Practice each method slowly at first. Try not to "over-run your headlights on a foggy mountain road" or your solos might crash and frustration will settle in. Start thinking a few beats ahead of what you're playing, and you'll be on your way to mastering these 3 methods in the art of drum soloing.

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