Drummers

[AM1]

Idle curiousity here, nothing more.

Does your drummer slow down? Or speed up? Or do they keep consistent near-perfect timing?

[OldGit]

[quote name='AM1' post='443199' date='Mar 23 2009, 10:17 PM']Idle curiousity here, nothing more.

Does your drummer slow down? Or speed up? Or do they keep consistent near-perfect timing?[/quote]


All of the above, at various times ..

[GreeneKing]

Our drummer Dave is an ace guy.

Sadly he often takes his cue from me.

I'd die for a crisp clean drummer who had metronomic time.

A band is only as good as it's drummer, that's why the Beatles sacked theirs.

[Johngh]

[quote name='OldGit' post='443202' date='Mar 23 2009, 10:18 PM']All of the above, at various times .. [/quote]


You know what, that just about sums it up. The fastest way, guaranteed, to get my drummer mate wound up is to tell him his timing is off, its hilarious. As a bass player, its amazing how much better you play if you have a good drummer to lock into.

[AM1]

[quote name='GreeneKing' post='443209' date='Mar 23 2009, 10:21 PM']I'd die for a crisp clean drummer who had metronomic time.

A band is only as good as it's drummer, that's why the Beatles sacked theirs.[/quote]

I totally agree. Likewise about the crisp drummer with good timing! The only drummers that I know whom have metronomic time are the ones that have spent years practicing with a click track. It can be done - it is just not often that you see it. I do know drummers that have never used a metronome.

I have seen drummers that slow down, ones that speed up, ones that ignore this when you tell them. But now I'm playing bass and I am really beginning to see how difficult the bassist's job can become with a less than solid on timekeeping, drummer.

[grumble]

No problem with my drummer, always does exactly as told, only slows down when the batteries run out and ,best of all, NEVER drinks my beer.
Damn that Boss Micro BR is a godsend

[SteveO]

Tempting as it may be to 'diss the drummer', Arvid is one of the best drummers I've worked with. Total 100% accuracy on the most convoluted syncopated rythms you can imagine. (well, he did train at some famous Dutch music conservatory that i can't be bothered to remember the name of). You know the quiz where you play the first few bars of a song and then fade out....... then fade in after a while and see how far out you are? well I played 'Pull Me Under' (Dream Theater) and faded out after about 30 seconds, (It's one of the tracks we're rehersing).... faded back in after 5 mins, it's an 8 or 9 min track and there's at lest 4 or 5 time sig and tempo changes, and he was PERFECT. Bastard.


Edit:
[quote name='grumble' post='443235' date='Mar 23 2009, 11:40 PM']No problem with my drummer, always does exactly as told, only slows down when the batteries run out and ,best of all, NEVER drinks my beer.
Damn that Boss Micro BR is a godsend [/quote]

I think i've just wet myself.

Edited March 23, 2009 by SteveO

[josh3184]

I've never really been worried if a drummer speeds up or not, I just pay as much attention to what he's doing as possible and move with him. Either that or give him some headphones and a click track

[OldGit]

It's only a problem if the speed changes are not apropriate. Being able to speed up and slow down in the right places ia a skill in itself .. My mate the drummer can do that, and respond to a twirled finger to speed up or slow down .. ..
He also drops the odd beat now and then and misses cues .. and there are some types of drumming that he can't do ..
But then I do all that too and there are some types of bass playing I can't do .. ..

We've been paying together for 20+ years and sometimes it's just telepathic

[grumble]

[quote]We've been paying together for 20+ years and sometimes it's just telepathic[/quote]

Nowt to do with the 'Last Orders' bell being rung then ? Thats the usual reason for drummers speeding up

[OldGit]

[quote name='grumble' post='443252' date='Mar 23 2009, 11:00 PM']Nowt to do with the 'Last Orders' bell being rung then ? Thats the usual reason for drummers speeding up [/quote]

ha ha nah .. we're neither of us drinkers, though he does like to start packing up a tad too fast after the last chord so maybe that's it.....

Actually a metronomic drummer, click track or drum box would be horrible... No feel ..

[josh3184]

[quote name='OldGit' post='443293' date='Mar 23 2009, 11:52 PM']ha ha nah .. we're neither of us drinkers, though he does like to start packing up a tad too fast after the last chord so maybe that's it.....

Actually a metronomic drummer, click track or drum box would be horrible... No feel ..[/quote]

I agree actually, if there's no slight variation in speed its too robotic in my view.

[Bassassin]

The most consistent, solid, reliable & accurate drummer I've ever worked with:



Never speeds up, slows down, drops a stick, blows out gigs, dumps its kit in my house, expects a lift, takes forever to learn a song & still plays it wrong, expects me to modify the bass part to a song I wrote to accommodate it, farts, gets insulting when drunk, prioritises its crap sheepshagger pub band over this one, has overpowering BO, marries evil psychotic French harridans...

And yeah, you only have to punch the song into it once.

You'd never guess I'm having drummer problems.

Jon.

[josh3184]

but I love punching songs into drummers, its one of the best things about being in a band!

[The Funk]

I've only recently noticed that my drummer speeds up and slows down from time to time - but he is seriously one of the best young drummers in town and his time/feel are excellent.

The usual reason for it is that we've either started the song too slow or too fast or that we haven't yet worked out the best tempo for it.

Edited March 24, 2009 by The Funk

[Bassassin]

[quote name='josh3184' post='443305' date='Mar 24 2009, 12:11 AM']but I love punching songs into drummers, its one of the best things about being in a band![/quote]

Trust me, after punching the same song into the same drummer for 8 years - and they still f*ck it up, it gets a bit old.

J.

[josh3184]

fair enough!

[AM1]

[quote name='Bassassin' post='443304' date='Mar 24 2009, 12:10 AM']The most consistent, solid, reliable & accurate drummer I've ever worked with:



Never speeds up, slows down, drops a stick, blows out gigs, dumps its kit in my house, expects a lift, takes forever to learn a song & still plays it wrong, expects me to modify the bass part to a song I wrote to accommodate it, farts, gets insulting when drunk, prioritises its crap sheepshagger pub band over this one, has overpowering BO, marries evil psychotic French harridans...

And yeah, you only have to punch the song into it once.

You'd never guess I'm having drummer problems.

Jon.[/quote]

I can't stop laughing. Sums it up about perfectly!

That's when they're out on parole!

[Rich]

[quote name='OldGit' post='443293' date='Mar 23 2009, 11:52 PM']Actually a metronomic drummer, click track or drum box would be horrible... No feel ..[/quote]
A bit like Mike Portnoy, in fact

[alexclaber]

With our previous drummer who often struggled with tempos the solution was to get him to focus on the lyrics - if the lyrics feel like they're going by at the right speed then so the song is running at the right tempo. Once he had them in his head then he usually ended up pretty dead on.

Alex

[Count Bassy]

[quote name='josh3184' post='443301' date='Mar 24 2009, 12:08 AM']I agree actually, if there's no slight variation in speed its too robotic in my view.[/quote]

Me too. When its a bassist we have whole threads about people being all technique with no feel/groove/soul (which IMHO comes down to subtle variations in timing and dynamics), yet when it comes to drummers it seems we want them to be metronomic.

Give me a real drummer anyday.

[Stylon Pilson]

[quote name='alexclaber' post='443463' date='Mar 24 2009, 09:39 AM']With our previous drummer who often struggled with tempos the solution was to get him to focus on the lyrics - if the lyrics feel like they're going by at the right speed then so the song is running at the right tempo. Once he had them in his head then he usually ended up pretty dead on.

Alex[/quote]

I think that often, drummers are so focussed on their drumming that they forget there's a song going on around them. In fact, I think the same can probably be said of any instrument, it's just that the effects are most noticeable when the drummer does it.

S.P.

[Huge Hands]

I find, and this is from experience being a former drummer, that being able to hear the rest of the band is everything.

Our drummer can be amazing in rehearsal, but on a gig night can (very occasionally) be shocking.

I have realised this coincides with nights where we can't hear too well on stage. His usual problems are the speed up/slow down things or he gets excited in a fill and comes in half a bar out. It's scary when that happens, but some good reggae grooves sometimes come out of it

My theory is that there are drummers that are leaders (as most would expect), but quite a few who are followers (as I believe I was when I first started as a drummer). I believe this comes from years of playing along to recorded music - you are constantly trying to keep up rather than drive the band. If something goes wrong, this kind of drummer is not listening to their own "internal clock", so things go wrong. I believe our drummer is like this as I have to count in a lot of songs and drive stops/starts etc.

I also found that my timing got much better once I'd sorted out my seating position at the kit. The more comfortable I was, the better I played.

All obvious stuff when read on paper, but it took me years to twig some of it myself!

P.S. I'm not really complaining about our drummer, he's a top bloke and I'm used to working with him now!

[Dubs]

I once quit a band cos the drummer was so sh*t. I guess you set your own standards…

[crez5150]

The guy I play with..... Craig Blundell.... he's rock solid.... though he does throw this lil trick in now and then to try and trip me up which is that he can play two different time signatures at once..... he'll be playing like a straight four then chuck a 6/8 over the top.... or he'll take the 4/4 up 15/20 bpm over the original tempo for a bar and then drop back into the groove..... git!