markdavid Posted November 1, 2019 Share Posted November 1, 2019 Having played bass for a number of bands I know that the bass player and the drummer generally get little recognition , guitar players and vocalists tend to get a lot more recognition. This got me thinking about how strange this situation is as drummers have to be the best at their instrument in a band, you can have a weak guitarist in a band or a weak bass player (and I could name some well known bands where this is the case)and as long as the material is not overly complex you can convey the songs reasonably well, on the other hand if you have a drummer that is weak the songs can fall apart very quickly. What this is leading to is that the band I am playing with, our drummer is leaving and it has really brought this home to me, he is a phenomenal drummer, easily the best I have played with, always on the ball, never loses tempo and we really gel as a rhythm section, he has a crazy Keith moon kind of drumming style and we both play off of each other, I was reminded very quickly of this when we played some songs at an open mic the other day without him, I played the bass parts I usually play which play off of the drum rhythm heavily and they were just not working with what the drummer we were playing with was playing and it all sounded rather clumsy. In short if you have a good drummer, look after them they are worth the effort 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dad3353 Posted November 1, 2019 Share Posted November 1, 2019 Hmm... £3.7M at current bullion rates, eh..? They're gonna miss me when I'm gone..! ... 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monkey Steve Posted November 5, 2019 Share Posted November 5, 2019 I'm broadly in agreement, but I'd say that bands generally do know when they have a very good drummer. In fact most musicians do, as long as they have experience of playing with one. And once they have, they'll always be able to spot when they have a less than exceptional drummer. A mate of mine is currently depping as a drummer in a band who had no intentions of replacing their current drummer as they thought he was fine and he just needed to skip a couple of gigs...until they gigged with my mate and saw the possibilities of what they could play with a much, much better drummer on board. Depping may become permanent... Tend to find the same with bass (YMMV) and rhythm guitarists. Bands/musicians who haven't played with very good ones probably don't know what they're missing, but ones that have had a very good bass player can spot what they are missing when they get an bad or average one Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikel Posted November 5, 2019 Share Posted November 5, 2019 I believe its the same with all instruments. I have played with some great musicians and they always make their presence felt. Not through overt chops but by knowing what the song needs and, more importantly, what it does not. I played with a guitarist who was the master of restraint and great tasteful playing. Ask him to shred like a maniac, purely for our own entertainment, and he did it without breaking sweat, but it held no interest for him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris_b Posted November 5, 2019 Share Posted November 5, 2019 . . . . worth their weight in gold?. . . . and then some. A couple of weeks ago I did a dep with a band who I'd never met before. It was an easy enough set but afterwards they were saying all the nice stuff people say when things have gone well. I didn't let on, but the drummer was the guy who made it all possible. He was fantastic. Like riding on a magic carpet. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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