This is Senri Kawaguchi. She’s 18 and has been called one of the best drummers in Japan, if not the world.
Here, she’s showing her support for Japan’s national team by drumming in the new Samurai Blue uniform.
If you’re not familiar with Kawaguchi’s drumming (you should be!), check out the clips below — some of which are from when she was only in junior high school.
Here, she is drumming with goofy glasses.
Some K-On! drumming.
Some more.
*applause*
Comments
20 responses to “Damn, This Is Good Drumming”
Welcome to Brian’s personal Tumblr, today he’s bringing you a good drummer but nothing amazing, definitely not one of the best in the World
I dunno, she’s definitely my new second-favourite Japanese drummer, behind Satoyasu Shomura of Alexandros and ahead of Electric Eel Shock’s Tomoharu Ito. Honourable mention to Rumania Montevideo’s Shinbi Miyoshi (just because).
I love drummers who are real characters. Skill is great but a good drummer can really give the band a whole new dimension to its act 🙂
EDIT: Brian is revisiting his article of five years ago, lol. http://kotaku.com/5542441/this-schoolgirl-is-good-at-drumming
No Akira Jimbo on that list? Dude is boss.
He just made the list!
https://youtu.be/CJSXBXJw6sE
I tried looking for this one solo I saw back in high school but couldn’t find it… He starts playing on a full kit, and you’re like ‘yeah, I could do that if I had a kit like that too!’. Then technicians run over and start removing the kit piece by piece while he’s still playing, until he’s left with just a snare, and you’re like ‘holy shit how does he do that with just a snare drum!?’ and then they take that away and he’s just hitting his leg and you’re like ‘WTF HOW DOES HE MAKE HIS LEG SOUND THAT GOOD!?!?’.
It’s pretty cool.
A real showman. That’s my kinda guy 🙂
She sounds like 95% of music school trained drummers, and has a looooooooooong way to go before she gets to be counted as one of the best.
Not when there are guys like this.
But yeah, it’s pretty clear why Brian has put up this story.
Gavin Harrison counted as one of the best? Get out of here ya weirdo!
I like how Joey plays -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUibKh0Z–c . He’s doing it upside-down(sort off) 🙂
Mike Portnoy is and forever will be my favourite drummer. His drumming with DT was out of this world, Train of Thought is quite possibly my favourite album of all time.
Skip the first clip and watch the one with the glasses. Free solos are often arse and tend to run into gravy.
one of the best in japan? maybe, dunno. The world? nah. not even close. you’re talking about comparing her with guys like Danny Carey and Brann Dailor.
Danny is the king.
Ugh. She’s good, she’s not the best. There is no “best” in the world… Except for Vinnie Colaiuta.
The unsung heroes of this story are the parents that one day, when their little girl told them she wanted to be a drummer and asked for a set, resisted the urge to give her a flute or some other, more ladylike instrument, instead.
Ha ha, assuming she wasn’t pushed into it by her parents who were mad drumming fans 😛
I’ll take a person like this with musical ability [instrument, voice, whatever] over rap performers any day.
Nah, she’s good but where’s the musicality? She plays very well but there’s no texture, there’s no soul. This is a great example of the difference between the taste in musicians everyone has; I’ve always thought that (as a drummer myself) players others love like the Thomas Lang, Mike Portnoy and pretty much any fast-paced metal/ hard-rock drummer are boring as hell (to be clear, they are both very good, but lack musicality which I prize in a drummer; otherwise you might as well just get a machine; realistically speaking no drummer can keep better time than a computer, so you’ve got to do more that just play to the rhythm), while the typically slower players like Peter Erskine or Bernard Purdie are horribly under-appreciated outside of Drumming circles. Check out how much tone, soul and feel Erskine can get out of a drum kit in this clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpPXybuQ7cM he’s more musical by himself than a lot of bands are all together.
Not to take away any of the ability this drummer has, but if it weren’t for her age I very much doubt anyone would pay her much attention even though her playing is pretty good.
agree 100% this is just where technical skills take priority over feel.
i checked out your drummer and when i first watched senri, it was all just completely robotic subdivision feels. watch your drummer you linked, i started grooving so hard to his style. SO MUCH FEEL, cannot handle it aha!
Shes got the skills but everything she does feels quantized and 100% accurate, and everything she did there was more along the lines of “look how complex i can make my beats”, thats great and all but i got no sense of real groove, nor did she do one simple beat.
look up virgil donati, hes probs one of the most if not the best at complex beats and when he plays with planet x it will just blow your mind, yet he takes the time to always lay a simple beat down, and man does it sound PHAT.
thats what i define as an amazing drummer, one who can give the feel as opposed to ” im technically perfect”
shes still acomplished alot tho good for her!
Joey Jordison is better.