John Otto Quotes

Some of [drummers] drop time because they want to hear what you're doin'.

Perhaps of all the most basic elements of music, rhythm most directly affects our central nervous system.

And there's always one special element. In 'There Goes My Baby,' it's the out-of-tune timpani. 'Stand by Me,' it's the bass pattern. Of course, all the elements come together to make a great record. But there's always one standout.

If you hear Bing Crosby trying to swing, it doesn't work. He swings like a rusty gate.

I noticed a lot of guitar players neglected the rhythm part of rhythm guitar and decided I would try to focus in that.

I have all the rhythm in my left hand, and I use the rhythms that Gene Krupa did on his drums.

I like creating these rhythmic patterns. These interlocking rhythmic things are really fun.

My trumpeting sounds like a goose farting in the fog.

Many classical musicians lack pulse and rhythmical strength and precision, so for us it was very important to acquire and learn those.

A jazz beat is a dynamic changing rhythm.

So I concentrated on the rhythmic side of things, and therefore left a lot of holes. I didn't want to use big pad chords everywhere. All of the songs are built up of small melodies and counter melodies all played very rhythmically.

The heart of a music is its rhythm. The heart of rhythm section music is the rhythm.

Yes, the audience is so important to Negro music, especially the element of call and response.

But since the middle of the century in particular, the music has become very irregular in rhythm.

Essentially my contribution was to introduce repetition into Western music as the main ingredient without any melody over it, without anything just repeated patterns, musical patterns.

Drumming is so hard.

He comes in on the beat and plays on top of the beat. I think when Prince makes love, he hears drums instead of Ravel.

I learned it was crucial to play right on the edge of the beat... It makes you drive the song more. You're ahead of the beat, but you're not.

All syncopation means is accenting beats that you don't normally accent.

I dunno... I feel out of step. Musically. Just out of step, not even behind or ahead. Just sort of like... I dunno, sometimes I feel like I'm still... just not... in sync. I don't know how to explain it. I just am.

I can't hear rhythm.

When I started rhyming, my favorite rhythms were from John Coltrane and some of the things he did on sax. And certain rhythms that I hear on drums, I try to emulate with my words, dropping on the same patterns that them beats or them notes would hit.

I've never tapped in my whole entire career.

You listen to a Metallica song, and you listen to the drums, and they're not necessarily swinging, but the arrangements are different. Why is that? Because it's more in tune with jazz arrangements. It's very different. It's not a traditional rock and roll production, in terms of the drums.

It's as if my left heel is my bass drum and my right heel is the floor tom-tom. I can get snare out of my right toe by not putting it down on the floor hard, and, if I want cymbals, I land flat on both feet, full strength on the floor.