Any other drummers have this problem?

Drummer in Need

Ok, So I’ve been taking lessons a few years now and consider myself a pretty good drummer.
The problem is most of my playing and practicing is done alone without other musicians.

I hooked up with a band for a jam about a year ago confident I would be able to hold my own but I don’t know if it was the state of the kit I was subjected to play at the rehearsal studio or maybe nerves or whatever but my whole playing just turned to ****.

As you may have guessed, I wasn’t asked back, I decided to give it another go and respond to another band in need of a drummer.

Different rehearsal studio, different band, same problem.

Again the kit was a disgrace and I felt it hindered my playing quite a lot and I dunno, my playing fell apart again.

It’s been over a year since I’ve even attempted to jam with or try join a band and it’s wrecking my head.

I love playing drums and I just don’t want to put myself thought the embarrassment of making a show of myself with a band again..

What about you experienced drummers out there? Is this a common problem? Would you have any advise for someone in my position and how do you get around the kits they supply in the rehearsals rooms around Dublin.

Baggio

Sorry for your hassle my man,
..........well one simple solution - bring your kit to the studio,,,7 times out of 10 i bring my whole extra large "Red Machine" drumset with me...takes 30 mins to set up, but im comfy, the guys are happy to jamm to a real on form kit that sounds good and it all helps. so thats one simple bit of advise.
Maybe you dont have a kit of your own??..well playing baad studio kits doesnt help anyone for sure when jamming or auditioning......maybe arrange the band to come to you at a studio of your chooosing??..i know some bands may raise an eyebrow at this one..but heyy if they want a good jamm/audition where THEY can be sure of their man./woman for the job...well try a studio that has good condition gear, its not much to ask.
When you practise alone it can give you/anyone a false sense of security..i did it for years! * had to...in 80's no on had any money or drive to REALLY set up a band...so me and my 5 piece gold sparkle job with crappy cymbals just attacked every RUSH album i could get my hands on,,,best lessons i ever had! * anyway - yeahh its easy to have a comfy zone.,but then yur right in it with reallll people!... and the nerves WILL creep in.,...you'll just have to overcome it as soon as ya can...maybe yu should jamm with some pals...doesnt matter if its crap stuff and everyone sounds awfull,,its just to get used to working/playing with others..could settle your nerves, then keep practising alone your more important technique/skills etc
Lessons?...hmmm Im a bit of an oddity...in most ways their critical!,...in my weired mind tho i cant help feeling they make drumming veryy "by the book" and ridgid and keep folks tied down,,,when many just want to explode *musically of course!* ..i never had lessons and im glad i didnt...i just found my own rebellious way of learning with Mr.Peart,,,although he doesnt know he was my teacher hahaha....anway i kind of learned backwards...all the crazy maad fills etc first ..after all thats what caught my ear!..so learned all that stuff and in latter years have tried to make things smoooth and fills/beats seemless when moving from one to the other.
Anyway...hope some of this waffle is a help to ya amigo....check in on www.drummingireland.com sometime...many good folks there and it's free..they will give yu top notch advise without all that old snootiness so many big headed saps tend to have we all come across in drumworld!

ciao' amigo....Baggio......

My name is Mud

Howdy,

The majority of rehearsal rooms have absolutley rubbish kits, with hardware thats equally useless. Because of this, I bring all my own hardware, and sometimes a full kit. I simply wont use the hardware in the rehearsal places, as quite frankly, my cymbals alone are worth more than the entire kit, PA system, and amps in the rooms themselves.

So I bring all my stands, pedals, stool, and sometimes a kit as I cannot stand to use the crap in these places. I find that jamming somewhere else is better, usually my parents house, as it has a good solid CLEAN room, with my monster kit setup in there, and we can play till our hearts content. Im quite lucky to have that option really.

Dont worry about your situation, and if you dont have a car or access to transport, why not ask some like minded musicians to your place of practice for a little jam?

To name and shame - City Centre places: Loop, TBMC, Applerock are taking the joint top prize for "worst gear in a rehearsal place". The Reherasal Room off Clanbrassil street is quite good I found for having actual decent equipment. The problem with the other places is that they are cheaper and therefore attract more people, and the gear takes a beating because of it.

Hope to catch you on drummingireland.com soon!

Magic Eight Ball

Name and shame, TBMC is unbelievable.
I was playing in there last Friday and the kit was shocking. The floor tom had half a skin, the rest was gaffer tape.
The stands.. Were well, err mic stands. Had an office chair for a stool, time before that it was a bar stool, before that I had to use the sofa in the room.
+ some funny bastard decided to draw cocks all over the skins!

LOOP is even worse, no end of problems with that place.
Applerock isn’t as bad though.

I feel your pain man, I don’t have a car so all I can bring to a jam is my cymbals, snare, pedal and the normal bits and bobs, most times I can get about 60% of my skill out, it’s a horrible feeling knowing you can do better on a decent kit.

It’s a rock and a hard place situation alright.

crazeehorse

try playing along to live cds and never the same song over and over again to keep you on your toes.this will really help your jamming when you practise on your own

filament

my advice is to jam casually with people, play new stuff for friends and stuff
takes a while to get over nerves but once you do it you're free to do whatever, after a while you tend to forget that the crowd is there

Baggio

just a quick apology folks

dammmm thought i put proper paragraphs in my post there,,,now i see it all looks like one big sentence ughhhhh sorry folks!!!

ciao' amigos...Baggio............

dmadman

Hi,

You have got some good advice here already.
I dont normally post about this but thought i could actually help here.

Im a session musician in Ireland, England and sometimes America (whenever called)
Im a guitarist and drummer.

In my opinion the Bad Kits are only adding to your nerves.
At the start it can be very nerve wrecking turning up to a studio/gig/audition with a band as you dont know anyone and are trying to find a groove/style/level they like.
The worst thing you can do is become a bedroom player though man. IE just bangs around at home without ever gigging etc.
You will hit a certain level and stay there without playing with other musicians live.
Dont get me wrong... playing with a great Jazz/latin whatever cd will bring out different styles in you. My favourite CD to play along to at the moment is Dave Matthews Listner supported live gig!!!

Anyway

The answer....

Start your own little band for kicks and thats all.
Get a guitar player bass and singer and play songs you like.
As you well know its a completly different ball game playing live. You are the back bone and the time keeper. Without a cd its very hard to do until you get confident in yourself.

You gotta learn to listen while playing also.
You will soon start to notice you and the bass player "getting it on" so to speak and add a few accents here and there etc and generally enjoying playing.

But dont stop man by no means you will get there.

Hopefully see you gigging somewhere in the near future!

Have fun

DublinWriter

Drummer in Need wrote: »

or maybe nerves or whatever but my whole playing just turned to ****.

First of all, if you are serious, forget using the kit that you get 'free' with those rooms. They are always in an awful state and won't help your confidence if you have nerves in the first place.

Could it be a problem with your basic timekeeping? When alone do you practice to music or with a metronome?

Drummer in Need

Cheers for all the advise guys.

DublinWriter wrote: »

First of all, if you are serious, forget using the kit that you get 'free' with those rooms. They are always in an awful state and won't help your confidence if you have nerves in the first place.

Could it be a problem with your basic timekeeping? When alone do you practice to music or with a metronome?

I'll be honest, I don't use a metronome as much as i should. I play along to music alot when alone.

I don't drive or have hardcases so i don't know how else I'd get all my stuff to and from town on my own.

DublinWriter

Drummer in Need wrote: »

I'll be honest, I don't use a metronome as much as i should. I play along to music alot when alone.

The problem with that is that it makes you follow, rather than lead.

Drummer in Need

Thanks guys for the advise.
So you think i should try find other musicians to have a relax jam with, just learning and playing songs and also spend more of my own time playing to a metronome instead of CD's?

I'm gonna try that for awhile and see what happends. You know yourself, sometimes i feel i'm never gonna get any better.

MagicMarker

Definitely start playing to a metronome. If you can start recording yourself also, this way you can listen back to yourself and pinpoint any issues you may have, you could try and get a hold of some tracks of songs you like without the drums (i assuming drumming magazines would have these?) so make it a little less tedious and a lot more fun.

DrumSteve

yeah loop is pretty **** i went in there one time and the bass drum was full of cans of dutch gold.... im not complaining i just wish there was a few there left for me lol

tbmc isnt that bad compared to loop but the fcukin chairs they give youto sit on are a disgrace. six hours sittin on a plastic seat? i came outta that studio like the taker from brokeback mountain...

and to your question just do what every decent drummer has done at some stage. get a group of musicians worse than you(i.e. any punk) and play with them. it'll make you feel so much better about yourself.

as regards equipment and transport? try an electric kit. ive a good one its a roland(cost bout 1400 tho) you can can practice anywhere without any worries about sound.

and dont worry about fcuking up. just keep it simple and you wont.

petethedrummer

2 things.

1) If the kit sounds ****, try to re-tune it. I know the skins are always in terrible nick. But at least if you tune the snare and kick to something approaching a decent sound & feel, its a start. You should be able to establish a decent 'groove' with the other players. And tell them you're not going bother with any fancy fills as the toms sound awful. As far as I see it there is such a drummer shortage that most bands just want someone who can stay in time, not Dave Weckl.

2) It may not be your fault.
After a long stint of not playing I joined a band and something never felt quite right. I was having serious doubts about my playing(particularly timing). After a while it dawned on me that the bass player's timing was ****, well not incredibly bad, but just enough to put me off. He eventually left. Problem solved. We went on to sell 35 million albums in America and Asia and I retired a multi-millionare at 32*.

*not true

Baggio

heyy petethedrummer what do ya mean * not true *??,,


i believed ya maaaan!!..now my dreams are shattered!!!!

Baggio.....

actually have a confession to make,,,Ive never ever tried to play along to a bassist...not sure why...i just forgot he was there each time and somehow it just knitted itself....so hey drummerin need maybe concentrate on your own job,,and let the basist whenever you have one.,fit himself to you?

just a thought...Baggio.///

petethedrummer

Baggio wrote: »

actually have a confession to make,,,Ive never ever tried to play along to a bassist...not sure why...i just forgot he was there each time and somehow it just knitted itself....

Well I don't religiously listent to the bass player either, It just happened that in this instance it was the bass players timing that was putting me off, or rather making me doubt that I was playing in time.

DublinWriter

Baggio wrote: »

actually have a confession to make,,,Ive never ever tried to play along to a bassist...not sure why...i just forgot he was there each time and somehow it just knitted itself....

Thank God I'm not the only one!

If good drummers are hard to find in Ireland, good bass players are even rarer.

I generally found myself playing off the lead guitarist in most of the bands I was in.

Most bass players don't invest enough money in getting a decent amp, and it tends to sound like so much 'mush' from behind the kit.

Mr.Mond

I have to say, a drummer without transport for his/her kit will no doubt have difficulties when trying out for bands in studios. I would suggest getting at least a soft case for your cymbols and snare, throw your pedal into a Dunnes bag or something. When you are trying out for a band, phone the studio beforehand, tell them you're auditioning and ask if they can get better gear into the room for you, they usually always have "more decent" gear hidden in the studio somewhere even if "bringing an extra tenner is required"......

Good luck...

sleazybass

Hey man,

I read about your problem and all I can say is playing a lot, to cd's as well as with people (possibly the right ones, I mean those you can feel comfortable with) is the only solution...
I'm a bass player and together with a (stunning) female vocalist and a good guitarist, we're trying to start a band, but can't find a drummer.
If you don't mind me asking, where are you based?
We're all in Dublin (Southside). If you're nearby it'be cool to give it a shot.
We've rehearsed a few times in town: when you talked about disgrace drumkits I immediately thought of loops studios... I'm not a drummer but that place was a nightmare for all of us. Blackpitts and Apple's are pretty good.

Well if you feel like giving a try (we're really laid back), let me know.

Take care

Baggio

stunnning female vocalist?..sounds interesting hehe what kind of stuff you doing sleazybass?

yu MIGHT get your drummer on www.drummingireland.com have a go there anyway

ciao' amigo...Baggio....

Magic Eight Ball

Check out the sexy kit i had the joy of playing in the music centre this week..

irishthump

Ah sure I know it well!

Let me guess, about 3 tension bolts on the floor tom, am I right?!

I'll be in there on Sunday, probably playing on the same heap of cr*p!

Magic Eight Ball

irishthump wrote: »

Ah sure I know it well!

Let me guess, about 3 tension bolts on the floor tom, am I right?!

I'll be in there on Sunday, probably playing on the same heap of cr*p!

Indeed, That kit has had many a great drummer behind it.
Check out the snare in room 4 the next time your in TBMC, someone illustrated a nice big cock on the skin!