Drummers are not like girlfriends (I has drummer problem pt II)

BillyRay · #1 06-10-2008, 01:47 PM

I have posted a while ago complaining about my drummer who would never practice alone, had poor rythmnic feel when playing loud but was awesome when actually LISTENING to the others. Well, I'm proud to report back that he actually changed, unlike girlfriends who never change.

He now:
1) Bugs me to go practice with him. Yes, even without guitars and voice.
2) Practices on PADS using a metronome. I had to show him the finer points of actually how to practice with a metronome though.
3) Takes criticism and listens during practice. How will know the guitar/bass/vocal parts, when to play softly andf when to put the pedal to the metal.

He is still far from being what I would call a dependable drummer, but he at least is going in the right direction.

I FINALLY BROKE HIM !

peter6725 · #2 06-10-2008, 01:51 PM

Nice one!

My drummer has exelent time and such but has terrible dynamics!
ah well, all is fair in love and death metal....

Keep It Metal.

Drifta · #3 06-10-2008, 01:55 PM

i have a problem with my drummer. he always talks about wanting to jam. but he never practices, doesnt hold time and wants to play to me instead of allowing me to lock in with him. he randomly changes his rhythm and cant play a steady beat, main problem is is that he is one of my best friends and he just doesn't take it seriously. he just shrugs off our critiques as "bitching"...

has no sense of pitch too,.

jazzy grille · #4 06-10-2008, 02:01 PM

LUCKY..

I had to stop playing with a good friend becuase he could not handle constructive criticism, had a hard time keeping tempo and was louder than a gun battle.. No matter how nice I was he would take it as a total attack, me and him were in many bands together and they always broke up becuase of his poor social skills.

I love the guy, he is a great friend, but I just cannot play music with him anymore and it kills me that it has to be that way. I recently started palying music with a couple of people from some of these other bands we were in, but with a different (much better) drummer. I have done nothing but try to keep our friendship going (invite him to hang out, etc..), but his jealousy is eating our friendship from the inside out.

Not much I can do... I have tried my hardest and I am about to say **** it.

BillyRay · #5 06-10-2008, 02:04 PM

I think what made him finally snap was when the whole band ganged up on him and made him redo the same freaking part 50 times in a row before he got it right. And did he get it right.

Afterwards, he confessed that the reason he never arrived on time was that he tried to do too much (rolls, hi-hat tricks) and that the song should go before personal gratification (showing off). He also plays softer in order to hear us.

Now, he tries to make things simpler and tastier, but his old self often comes back to haunt him. This is when I stop the band and make him "play it right": he gets it right 5 times in a row or we stay put and play the faulty passage over and over. I don't mind, I used to play roots for 3 hours straight in my past life

BillyRay · #6 06-10-2008, 02:12 PM

I have a guitarist friend who is like that. Classical guitar virtuoso but he can't play electric lead (or rythmn for that matter) to save his life. So he hacks up tired and cliche pantatonic runs everywhere since he has next to no improvisational skills in rock or blues. I mean, playing an A minor run when you are in G works, but would it kill him to at least outline the chord changes during his solos ? No, he'll just keep plugging away at the same 3 notes, playing them as fast as possible.

His classical guitar days also made him love the rubato a little too much, so what comes out of his guitar isn't "tight" or "danceable". But put sheet music in front of the guy and he slays. Just can't play with an ensemble.

ric1312 · #7 06-10-2008, 02:17 PM

It's nice when people actually work on improving. Hold on to him, these are the types of people that will evenaully become really awesome.

gb2 · #8 06-12-2008, 09:29 AM

I had the same problem with drummer too. he's absolutely awesome, but he kept changing his parts every rehearsal, so there was no chance for me to really lock my parts with him.
the guitar player and me got really angry about it, and since we know him from his former band where he contantly changed his parts, too, we didn't believe he'll ever change his behavoir and were quite depressed about it, because our style of music has to be super-tight to really punch you in the face.
but the next time when we came to rehearsal and told him to play the songs the exact same way every time, he just nodded and since then: he did it. without any questioning. I love him very much now.. ;-)