The Smiley Smile Message Board

I've noticed that in the mid 60s towards the end, when Dennis would drum, he would open and close his mouth like he was chewing gum or something (I noticed it especially when they would perform Sloop John B).  I've seen a couple of other drummers doing that too but I don't remember where I saw it.  so was that just a nervous habit or is that just something drummers do?  I remember viewing an article from the UK or someplace (it was posted in the Media section) where they even commented on him "chewing gum" on stage.

I've noticed that when I play guitar, I'll sometimes move my tongue along with my fingers for some reason.

could it be because you're nervous?

It's just a weird thing musicians do. Have you ever noticed how Jimi Hendrix always looks like he's in major pain during an intense guitar solo?  ;D

 :lol yes

For lack of a better explanation, it's a "drummer thing"-- totally involuntary IMO. My basis for this is that I'm a lifelong guitar player who just started playing drums in a band last year. If you play drums in a rock band for any length of time, you'll find yourself making these mouth movements in a second nature sort of way. I see every great rock drummer from Grohl to Alex Van Halen to Keith Moon do the same sort of thing, and Dennis was nothing if not a great rock drummer.

Great observation, though. I love analyzing this sort of overlooked Beach Boys ephemera so much more than a bajillionth Smile thread.

 :lol yea I first noticed it with Dennis though because I've learned to appreciate rock music through the BB. 3 years ago I wasn't even a rock fan

Well you know, that's great, and I mean it sincerely. There's so many different genres of music out there to get into. I always laugh internally at people who consider themselves "music snobs" because they listen to everything "from rock to indie". Give me a break. There is an entire world of music out there from rock to classical to hip hop to EDM to country to jazz to avant garde and industrial and so on, and those are just western forms.

It's like calling yourself a culinary gourmand when you've sampled every variety of beef but absconded entirely from chicken and vegetables. I don't like everything I've heard by a wide margin, but there's great music coming out of all genres. It might only be 10% of the mass total, but to say there's not talented people working in every genre and sub-genre of music in existence would be the height of ignorance. What I like about you and what you've just proven is that you're open to exploring new forms of music you didn't previously enjoy. There's a lot of people out there way older than you that have never taken that leap.  :3d

I'm not a professional drummer, but have tried it. It's hard, much harder than it seems. My take is a drummer risks going breathless: not only exertion, but drumming messing up with your natural breathing rhythm. The mouth movements are a way to ease that. By the way, it's another reason you'll (very) seldom hear a drummer singing.

Yeah, I always assumed he (as well as other drummers) was mouth breathing due to the amount of physical exertion required to play drums.

Can't add anything to what's been said, but for an obvious modern example watch Taylor Hawkins drumming with the Foo Fighters and he does a similar thing. Terrific rock drummer, too. For old examples, go to the best there was - Buddy Rich. You'll see him among other things start "singing" the band's cues and "hits" as he's drumming, as well as singing the phrases.

How about Gene Krupa, one of the first "superstar" drummers? Watch him play Sing Sing Sing and he's like a madman, sweat flying, hair flopping, mouth and eyes moving wildly...30 years or so before Keith Moon and Dennis helped patent the wild rock drummer look.

Drummers are "phrasing" melodies and rhythms just like a singer would do, and like any musicians who aren't playing horns or bowed strings, they're "singing" melodies as they're playing. And in rock, pop, and jazz, as the improvising is as important to a performance as reading notes on a page, as the mind is working on the next phrase to play you might find yourself singing or mouthing that phrase as you play it. Taken to the extreme, you get George Benson singing every solo line he improvises on guitar, and that became his trademark.

In-joke for musicians and audio geeks:  "NO BEARDS!"    ;D

Lots of musicians make hilarious faces when they play...JOE WALSH

Guitarfool2002's excellent post made me remember the "voice percussion" techiniques used by Indian percussionists who first "sing" complex rhythm patterns and then play them, or do both at the same time.

There is a fantastic Indian female singer, Sheila Chandra, who has brought "voice percussion" (and more generally, using voice as an instrument) to great artistic level. I'd advise anyone who has an interest for Indian music to check her.

While studying jazz guitar in college, my professor (who thank goodness didn't refer to himself in the third person) taught that while improvising, it was good practice to sing along with your solo. The idea, as I recall, was to be conscious and definitive about what you were doing rather than fall back on the rote muscle memory, as well as to retain a melodic sense to your solo.

I got that same advice! At the risk of turning this into a jazz improv thread, I have to say that in all the time I've been studying. playing, and now teaching guitar, the art of playing over jazz changes has been one of the most cryptic topics to get into. I only started "getting it" by playing along on my own and making mistakes to the point where I could play "Cherokee" and nail the bridge changes without sounding like I was playing a scale or arpeggios.

Since I was in my teens playing and learning, I've always been chasing the ghost of how Lester Young improvised his solos over changes. He was the among the most melodic and lyrical jazz soloists I've ever heard, and at no point when I hear Lester playing a solo does it sound like he's running scales. THAT is what I want to do...I hear so many guitarists, some of them no doubt excellent players who could cut me in a few seconds of a jam session, who rely on running fast scale runs and chord arpeggios instead of the kind of melodies Lester would play effortlessly.

It's one of the toughest things to break out of the scale mentality especially on guitar, to take it from the learning process of knowing to play a C major (or G mixolydian or D dorian or a G altered scale...whatever!) pattern over Dmin7/G7 into making actual melodies out of those notes. You never stop learning in that way.

(http://mayerface.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/john-mayer-guitar-face.jpg)

There is evidently an entire website devoted to this: http://www.mayerface.com

thanks everyone  ;D and yea Denny did play the drums really hard so it would make sense he would breath that way plus keep in time with the music.

Jimi Hendrix did this all the time, and I copped the technique from listening to him. It really does help with melodicizing one's solos. Plus it just sounds cool.

Dave Grohl was my first thought reading the OP. Even when he is out front he does it a little and while he's singing and can't move his mouth around a lot you'll see him doing the most intense foot tapping in history. I think it's a way to keep a secondary rhythm going - a kind of subconscious thinking ahead.

No, it's just some weird, involuntary thing I do.

When I get really into my guitar playing my lips twitch around. It'is normal for a musician to do these kindsa things, though some are worse than others. An amazing drummer I used to play with would make a guppy face and would open and close his mouth while playing. It was ridiculous but he was so damn good you couldn't really laugh at him.