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Communicating with the Drummer
- Thread starter graystork
- Start date
I personally feel that music can have an ebb and flow that can make it interesting, but everybody has to be on the same page. You have to know the rules before you can break them.
That sounds dangerously like an abstract description of a guitarist.
I've never known that to stop a drummer resorting to cannibalism.
A good band can subtly move the tempo. One trick is to pick up a few bpm in the first chorus. Unskilled bands ALWAYS do that!
Good idea to nip it in the B at rehearsals. I suggest he write down tempos next to songs on the set list and use a metronome to establish tempo before every song.
well, enough of that, then...my non-helpful suggestion is to just have his drum tech tap the proper tempo on his leg
So if the drummer is less skilled than the bass player tempo wise, you have no way of influencing him ?
It's often said that bass and drums must lockin, that they are a duo, but there is always someone in the end that will basically say the bass must follow the drums and basically can't influence the drummer.
There is no consistency in what people say on this latter.
What should happen isn’t always what does happen.
Yes, skilled musicians work off each other and influence tempo. But when push comes to shove the drummer is going to be able to dictate the speed.
I have a friend who is in a completely amateur band and I saw them at an open mic one night. My friend (who plays bass) often complained it was so hard to follow the drummer. It was clear the guy was in his own world behind the kit, and wasn’t listening to anyone but himself. It’s like have a one way conversation where the other person is just talking at you, not with you. There was nothing my friend could do to get that guy to LISTEN.
Last night I had a gig where half the band hit traffic on the way down to the gig and were exhausted. By the third set the drummer lost some steam. One song in particular was a little slow. I looked at him, moved my bass to the faster beat I thought we should be playing, but to no avail. He was driving the bus and I wasn’t going to get him to budge.
I say this with no disrespect to drummers. On the contrary, I studied drums and percussion and spent the first 30 years of my career as a drummer, so this is experience talking. The drummer is the final arbiter of the tempo. The only exception is when playing to a click or pre-recorded track.
Well I am not saying I have a different experience, but I am complaining about it.
About playing to a prerecorded track beeing an exception, at a rehearsal, I on purpose looped myself, and played the loop.
It took like a few bars for the drummer to realise something wrong, and he could play to the bass.
So either I am really so bad that no one can play along, or he just cannot listen to the bass.
That's sneaky, but I think a drummer should have this skill, as a proof that he can listen to the bass, or make the bass 0layer aware that he should be tight too.
Sure, he then can decide that his tempo is better, and lead more, but not being able to be sort of "conducted" is a proof of rigidity.
I mean I can play drums a bit, it's just about listening.
This non listening makes me want to pack my bass and leave when I feel no hability for interaction whatsoever.
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It's been pretty consistent in 100% of my experience; If I have to drive the bus tempo-wise, I'm limited in what I can do, compared to the drummer who's got ultimate authority over tempo, fills and dynamics, to trudging ahead & trying to keep the tempo on track. Otherwise, drummer's gonna do what drummer's gonna do.
Yeah, there's a difference between intentionally playing ahead of the beat (to add excitement, and energy), and trying to lead a horse to water (where it just makes the whole band sound bad, or at best everyone things the bassist is rushing, and can't play in time).
You're totally right, if the drummer isn't responsive to input, then he is the hammer. Period. The end.
You simply can't have instruments playing a different tempo than the drums. Disaster.
I've been told that I drive the band with my playing, and in a sense that may have truth to it... in that, the bass does have a lot of power over dynamics and feel. But the drummer controls the tempo.
