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A gig tantrum, first ever

#61
That's no tantrum. That's admirable. Don't apologize. Instead, stand your ground. Almost twice the tempo??? If the drummer is that inept, then he has no business playing in public. Normal drummers (oxymoron) don't do that. It should not be excused. Instead, it should be pointed out. Doesn't have to be harsh, but some people don't respond to sugarcoated pablem. You have to decide what is best.

I've had some problems with our drummer. We all have. At our last meeting, we all told him about his problems. I told the band leader in front of everyone that the drummer better get right or I was gonna get gone. The band leader had a come-to-Jesus meeting with him, and our last job was MUCH better.

Good luck!
 
#62
drop a five dollar bill on his floor tom. When asks "what's that for?" tell him congrats- it's for winning- he finished the tune first...

seriously, though, you need to tell him he is speeding up, and ask him to fix it. If he says he doesn't think so, then record a gig, and let him hear it. If he cops to it, but doesn't know how, then the man has a lack of groove problem, and that can be solved by playing the tunes slower, until he finds the groove of the song. Or get him a blinking metronome, and let him play along with it.
 
#63
richtea said:
this is the one I bought and the one my other band uses. the "needle" sweeps back and forth to tempo, its suprisingly easy to see from qoute a few feet away
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Thanks, I will look into it. I am a drummer (mostly) and tempo issues are always a classic issue. I know that I want to know if I am speeding up (or slowing down) even if it is not comfortable to hear. There's always room for more humility! I've noticed as I get older that as my blood pressure goes up with the intensity of the songs and the gig, it gets easier to speed the songs up, even if just a tiny bit at a time. My bass player and I have discussions (as needed) about this to make sure we are working as a team to keep the tempos where they should be. Having a visual tool to help monitor this would be the bomb.
 
#64
JKos said:
You call that a tantrum? I think you handled it extremely well.

- John
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Well, I agree it's not really a tantrum... but it is letting stuff get to you that you shouldn't. If the guy can't play (which is what you are saying) OR the guy gets away with being bad - then either you accept it or you don't. I personally HATE drummers that speed up, but sometimes you gotta roll with it.
 
#65
I have two words for you: click track.

echoing earlier comments about visual metronomes...they will eff the drummer up more than help. Our drummer (and I) use his only for the start of a song. If he so much as glances at it, it'll lock him up faster than a Louisiana sheriff. It's happened to me too.

We all use IEMs and the packs have an additional input where he can feed the metronome if he wants to (rehearsal especially).

Hope your band meeting went okay...
 
#67
Ok. Meeting went well. It seems they were in panicky mode because they thought I was intending to walk out.
After we got that out of the way it was two hours of discussion around helping the drummer to overcome his tempo issues, with constructive input from the whole band. He has agreed to use the metronome to count in songs. He has also been out a bought a drum trainer to practice to. So we will see. Sometimes a sulk works.
Thanks for all the great advice, as usual. Used allot of it last night.
Richard
 
#72
Hi all - my 1st ever post on TB!

Glad to hear that drummer issues aren't a rare thing at all, at least not from a bassist's point of view.

I'm currently dealing with pretty much every drummer issue spoken about in this thread (no fisticuffs yet though!) for the last year since our band formed.

We've recently had a 4th member join our ranks on vocals and rhythm guitar. This guy is awesome, and since he's appeared on the scene our drummer's shortcomings have become painfully obvious. Myself and the lead guitarist did at least have the foresight to warn the new guy about the drummer before he came on board.

This guy's biggest problem is that he's just plain lazy. He's not a bad drummer, but he's not good one either - though he could be if he bothered his arse practicing. I had a word with him a few weeks ago after he played like a drunk toddler at rehearsal that he needs to start practicing - it's nowhere near enough to walk out of rehearsal one week and not hit another drum until you walk back in a week later. He promised he'd be 'doing his homework' as he put it, but a few days after our talk I was in his apartment - his drumkit he'd spent a small fortune on earlier his year was still sitting in it's box unused in the corner.

We've got a bunch of really cool tunes written, and getting a good frontman in has seriously increased our chances of making a good run of things with the band, but we're being let down in the percussion department.

Anyways, just thought I'd vent......
 
#74
Purple Aki said:
Hi all - my 1st ever post on TB!
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Glad you joined the fray with the rest of us.

Purple Aki said:
Glad to hear that drummer issues aren't a rare thing at all, at least not from a bassist's point of view.
Click to expand...

Not from any other musician's point of view either. A good drummer is worth his weight in gold. A bad drummer is, well... a detriment to society (to put it mildly).
___________

Purple Aki said:
... he could be if he bothered his arse practicing.
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Purple Aki said:
...he played like a drunk toddler
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I'd like to use those quotes sometime, if you don't mind. :D
 

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