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aaargh! Drummer!


3V17C
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If my mother died, it'd absolutely destroy me and the obvious person to turn to to replace the gaping hole it'd leave behind would be my wife.

If you're a proper friend, you'll sit him down and ask him straight.

A lot of bands fail to get anywhere because of personnel issues rather than ability. Fact.

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An amateur drummer died and went to heaven. He was waiting outside the pearly gates when he heard the most incredible fast and furious drumming coming from within. Immediately he recognized the playing and rushed to ask St. Peter if that was Buddy Rich playing drums inside the gates. St. Peter responded: "No, that's God. He just thinks he's Buddy Rich."

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to be fair, he has stopped the texting thing since i caught him doing it between songs and now apparently switches his phone off when its time to play. thinking about it though, it wasn't too long ago when our singer was constantly texting at rehearsals (due to woman trouble) and the drummer kept telling me how much it was annoying him!!

its tricky - yeah i've known him for absolutely years but he is an odd bloke - he looks like a big scary tattooed biker or something but is really insecure so always have to tread carefully. he is also the most stubborn man on the planet not just with band stuff but with everything and will happily 'cut off his nose to spite his face' rather than try to work things out.

he insists that, drum wise at least, all songs must be played 100% as per the original record but myself and the rest of the band always put a bit of our own spin on things. and anyway, even for instance with the maiden stuff we do, nicko plays alot of it differently to how clive burr used to do it on the originals. our drummer says 'oooh its got to be right though because any drummers in the audience will notice' but honestly, what percentage of the audience are drummers? and even the ones that are - how many of them would notice if one drum fill was slightly different to the original? alot of the songs we do are old and have been around so long that there isn't even really a definitive version anyway.

i don't know how many of you read the 'hate mail' post i put up but when i told the drummer about it (abbreviated version by text obviously!) he said ' sod that we won't play there again then'. .........so 99% of the audience really enjoyed us and one bitter person didn't so thats reason not to go back? definitely, definitely a confidence thing.

its not just been since his mum dying but has been getting worse of late. personally i find music to be the best form of escapism when going through tough times but i guess everyones different. if he was a lesser drummer then yes, he would be gone, but the trouble is good drummers are hard to find round here so we've got to take things easy.

cheers

c

(still bored at work!)

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[quote name='3V17C' post='72879' date='Oct 11 2007, 02:57 PM']i should also say in his defence that on the very day after his mum died he turned up for rehearsal as usual![/quote]

That's not necessarily a defence. I wouldn't turn up for a practice if my mum died. I might go for a drink with my band, but, y'know, if you said that to Trisha, she'd be telling you about how he's a classic case of whatever and needs therapy.


Little Johnny: Mummy, when I grow up I want to be a drummer!
Mummy: Now Johnny, you can't do both.

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MB1. :)

Beat Him?????Beat him......Yes,......thrash him,with in an inch of his sorry life,let him dread the day he was ever born to this place!, Pummel him,into nonexistence and let the vultures feed on his rotting lifeless flesh!
Sorry!.....wheres my Medication!

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is the band or music really more important than friends? talk to him, find out how he feels about being in the band, find out whats going on. then take action, maybe he leaves the band, maybe you put the band on a break for a month or so. maybe the band and playing music is one of the only things holding him together?
thats the emotional side. on the flip side he needs to loosen up. try affirming how good a drummer he actually is. get into a habit of communicating the positives in the whole band. try something that's not a cover and see how he finds it. have fun, music's all about enjoyment right?
surely relationships with friends is more important than this music lark?

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[quote name='The Funk' post='73051' date='Oct 11 2007, 07:38 PM']I said talk to him first. Then beat him up if it doesn't work. Trust me - physical violence has its place.

Sorry, I can't keep this beating thing going. I didn't mean it literally. ^_^[/quote]

:) :huh: did'nt think anyone would endorse violence. our drummers built like a brick proverbal and hits stuff, so i talk to him from a distance. :huh:

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I had the same feeling with the guitarrist in the band i recently quit, he's ok at playing, just terrible at learning new stuff. We would spend half the practice session just showing him how to play one part of a song (not even the full song) as a band i just think we were disorganized really. It really hit home when i realised we were playing as a support act to a band who've got 5x as many freinds as us (the vast majority of ours didn't even add us in the first place) have played 10x as many gigs as us (about 20) and are just much more respected despite being around for as long as we have, if that (about 8 months) really just because of the trouble any of us (not just him really but he's the worst) had learning new stuff. I think it's my fault really. We're both much happier now we've gone our seperate ways.

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[quote name='3V17C' post='72655' date='Oct 11 2007, 10:23 AM']our drummer is starting to bother me!

Basically we choose a song to learn and then it comes to rehearsal and we play through it for the first time and its pretty much bang on perfect. But then he'll say - 'nah, can't play that'! ......We're all like - 'but you just did - perfectly!' and he says 'yeah but I wouldn't be comfortable doing it live' and thats the end of it. That song is now out. He will not budge.

Thing is, fair enough, some songs may have tricky bits in BUT THEN YOU PRACTICE IT surely?! but he won't - if he can't do it first time, then thats it - it simply can't be done. End of. He has an electronic kit at home, plenty of spare time on his hands and easy access to rehearsal place for setting his kit up and running thru stuff but insists that practicing it won't make any difference. It might be something as little as just one particular fill in the song that causes the whole song to be scrapped.

Theres also one or two songs where he's made a very slight mistake live and which he now refuses to play in case he repeats the mistake!...again....practice, surely? and we all make mistakes from time to time. Any new songs we learn have to be rehearsed and rehearsed about a 100 times before he'll even think about playing them live despite the fact they may be fine after just a few rehearsals.

Every other band member now has spoken to me individually and said that they feel he is holding us back and it is kinda true. Its got to the point now where when its time to chose songs to learn it is purely just down to him to pick based on whether or not he thinks he can play them ok. Which he can! i can't re-iterate how good a drummer he is. its a confidence thing is all, i'm sure.

He doesn't really help set up/pack down after gigs apart from his own stuff,[/quote]


Substitute 'drummer' with 'singer' and we have exactly the same problem, except that its pretty well brought our band to a halt. He is a good singer and excellent front man, but a complete pain in the arse to try and work with. He does a good gig, then announces he isn't going to do it again. Then when the next gig comes in he says he will. He says he doesn't like the material we do, but won't tell us what he wants to do, and then says 'I'll just do what you want to do'. Then we hear from his wife that we don't listen to what he's saying!!. Then it all starts again.

It's just taken all the pleasure out of it, to the extent that I am currently looking around for something else to do.

No real advice to offer I'm afraid, but take comfort if you can, that you're not the only band with this problem.

Clive

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