ezbass Posted March 7, 2019 Share Posted March 7, 2019 1 hour ago, cheddatom said: I was chatting about this to one of the best drummers I know last night and a couple of things came up Playing "melodic" or "musical" beats that fit the song, rather than just picking a beat and keeping time Moving with the music, not just an effort to entertain others but rather actually "feeling" the music Fast fills, double strokes and stick tricks do not make a good drummer, but when a good drummer does it, it's very entertaining When my drummer (who is fantastic by the way) throws in a little something, it always makes me smile and seems to make me play better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stub Mandrel Posted March 7, 2019 Share Posted March 7, 2019 7 hours ago, cheddatom said: Playing "melodic" or "musical" beats that fit the song, rather than just picking a beat and keeping time Moving with the music, not just an effort to entertain others but rather actually "feeling" the music That's Ringo Starr's forte. You can recognise Beatles songs just by the drum line. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 7, 2019 Share Posted March 7, 2019 Setting aside ability (or lack of), the fact is that many musicians believe they’re a great when they’re not, and have an equal amount of arrogance and pride preventing them from seeing the truth. Many players also fail to practice enough to be able execute what they’re trying to play. And if you’re not listening and playing for the music then it’ll sound crap, and one player like this in a band makes for awful music. As to needing time to get used to another musician - the better they are (and you are!), the quicker the groove starts working. The best drummer I ever played with was on a recording session - we did one run-through then recorded the whole track in one take - and (imho!) it sounded great. I can clearly remember that it took about 2 minutes to adjust to his playing - and from then on it was just perfect. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tauzero Posted March 8, 2019 Share Posted March 8, 2019 Hit things at the right speed and stay at the right speed. Get the right feel for the basic beat. Put in fills as appropriate and come back out of them in the right place. Creativity is going to depend on the situation - I'd like to play with the drummer that I play with in the Marillion tribute band in a more flexible situation (covers or originals), but we're trying to be faithful to the original. Almost all the drummers I've played with have been good. Currently I'm with the above tribute, an originals band whose drummer was originally the slide guitarist but finished up drumming after the previous drummer threw his toys out of the pram, and an eclectic covers band with a cajon player. Although they're wildly differing, I haven't got any problems playing with any of them - see sentences one to three in my first paragraph. A couple of years ago, the covers band I was in underwent a series of drummer changes. All other personnel remained the same. It was interesting playing with three different drummers over three or four years, the first being a rock drummer, the second with more of a soul background, and the third being rock and prog. All three adapted well to the music (rock and power pop with the odd bit of soul) and did the speed right, got the right feel, and put in appropriate fills, but were by no means clones of each other. I could definitely tell them apart, but I really couldn't rank them in order of preference. Other things which drummers should do - when rehearsing, don't keep bloody hitting things between songs. Get to gigs nice and early to set up. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bazzbass Posted March 10, 2019 Share Posted March 10, 2019 Our drummer listens to my basslines! I KNOW ! then he comes up with different beats til he is happy with it, and then I change or adapt my bassline to fit with what he is doing. He will always be on the beat, comes out of rolls in time, if he drops a stick, he comes right back in time, no guesswork on my part. I never ever need to look at him to get him to speed up or slow down, in fact I never have to look at him, he is always on time and on beat. he is 65, no, you can't have him Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stub Mandrel Posted March 10, 2019 Share Posted March 10, 2019 4 minutes ago, bazzbass said: Our drummer listens to my basslines! I KNOW ! then he comes up with different beats til he is happy with it, and then I change or adapt my bassline to fit with what he is doing. He will always be on the beat, comes out of rolls in time, if he drops a stick, he comes right back in time, no guesswork on my part. I never ever need to look at him to get him to speed up or slow down, in fact I never have to look at him, he is always on time and on beat. he is 65, no, you can't have him Isn't it great to have a drum machine? And you only have to punch the rhthym in once too 🙂 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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