I am frequently asked "Rob, who is the best drummer in the world?" To this I have to ponder, and chortle knowingly, and I must remind the neophyte that different drummers have different styles, and some drummers are technically very good and some are very creative. Some are both.

OK, I admit that nobody ever asks me who the best drummer is. But I always wish they would.

Technically proficient drummers include the likes of Jimmy Chamberlin, Danny Carey and Neil Peart. Original and Creative drummers include people like Bill Bruford and Terry Bozzio. They also have a good technical command of the art, because if they didn't they wouldn't be drummers at all, but their technical proficiency is not as pronounced as their creative ability.

I also include Stewart Copeland in both of these categories. In fact, I'd have to say that he is among the most creative drummers on the job today. Copeland is a dark horse of sorts, not as well known nor as highly respected as others on my list, but he is definitely one of the world's great drummers.

His technique is actually quite strange. On the surface, it is easy to follow what he is doing, but beyond that, you're in strange territory, and the way is not clearly marked.

With a drummer like Danny Carey, it can be very difficult to emulate him from the get-go, because his style is very confrontational and aggressive. A song like Ticks and Leeches is a challenge no matter what you try to do - it's hard just to keep up.

With Copeland though, you can follow along pretty well and get a passable performance without too much work. His rhythms aren't very hard to figure out, and you can play reasonable versions of most Police/Copeland songs without stretching. The challenge comes when you try to emulate exactly what he does. It's practically impossible. It is far easier to exactly copy Danny Carey or Neil Peart than it is with Copeland.

Copeland's style is... well, it's just wierd. He has a tendency to start rolls and fills where nobody else would - like in the middle of a measure, and continuing it half-way through the next measure. It's very unorthodox.

He also has a stellar command of dynamics. On one end of the dynamics scale are drummers like Mike Portnoy or any 80's metal drummer - one snare strike sounds just like any other. Every stroke is the same intensity as the others. Drummers like this can be technically excellent, but I find them tremendously boring. On the other end are people like Copeland, who has a dynamic range that is all over the place. He can play a snare very softly or extra hard, or anywhere in between.

Listen to a song like Synchronicity I for a good example. The beat isn't complicated, but the dynamics are tremendously complex. If you listen to how he plays the ride cymbal, for example (he plays it through most of the song), you can hear accents and different levels of velocity when the ride is played. Add to this the unorthodox placement of the accents, and you can start to see why Copeland may be the world's best "Stealth Drummer".