This is not so much a complaint, I am really looking for some advice. I've started playing with a new band. Everybody is new, I'm not just joining an established band. The drummer is a good player but king of irritating. He continually talks about the great deal he got on this piece of drum equipment or about how he found something or other at a pawn shop and was able to talk the guy down in price. These things are like a badge of honor for him. Anyway he recently bought an old Radio King snare drum at some pawnshop and got a "great deal" on it and he was very excited about using it with the band. This snare sounds great for awhile and then something happens and it sounds like he is hitting a wet bag of cement. Whenever this happens he wants to stop and make some kind of adjustment so that the snare will sound good again. He has a number of perfectly good snares he could use but he insists on using the Radio King and so far hasn't been able to keep it sounding good. Right now he doesn't have a problem with stopping rehearsal to spend fifteen minutes or so to fix this snare every time it goes out of wack. This happens maybe 3 or 4 times in a 2 hour rehearsal. It's distracting. I'm not sure what will happen when we start to play out. We haven't come to that place yet. How can I get this guy to just use a good working snare at least until he gets the Radio King sorted out?
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Drummer Issue
- Thread starter REV
- Start date
I would complement him on a great find, but then ask that he keep it home until sorts out the issue with it.
"A spoon full of sugar helps the medicine go down."
"A spoon full of sugar helps the medicine go down."
Are the rest of the band as irritated by this as you are?
If so, you all need to tell him to get his act together.
Are you paying for rehearsal time? Tell him he's paying for every minute wasted.
If not, you're gonna have to just grin and bear it. Maybe use the free time to make a coffee, or go for a short walk...or hit on his girlfriend, if he's brought her along.
If so, you all need to tell him to get his act together.
Are you paying for rehearsal time? Tell him he's paying for every minute wasted.
If not, you're gonna have to just grin and bear it. Maybe use the free time to make a coffee, or go for a short walk...or hit on his girlfriend, if he's brought her along.
Unfortunately.. 1. We practice at the drummers house. 2. His wife and my wife are friends.
he feels comfortable wasting everyones time because you rehears at his house...imagine the horror if he had to use a cheap backline kit at "bleedingzit studios"...at any rate he def should bring two snares and stop with the nonsense
Ask your drummer what year (or era) his coveted Slingerland, 'Radio King' snare drum was manufactured. No professional drummer ever holds up the band unless it is a catastrophic failure (bass drum head breaks, foot pedal breaks or some drunk falls into the set) and then, a real pro has a back-up plan.
the drummer on my band Carries an extra snare, kick drum head, and kick panel into the club, and has other spares in his trunk.
On one hand, I feel for the dude, because I’m the annoying guy in my band, the one who wants to geek out about the new gear I get with the only people I know will understand a word of what I say when I talk about it, even if they probably don’t really care. Same time, I don’t use the gear at rehearsal unless it works properly and makes sense to use. I had plenty of basses come and go in my last band, but only really used the same bass I had for years at rehearsal because it’s what sounded right with that band. I’d save my annoying “check out this new bass I found!” Shtick for the smoke breaks.
Stopping rehearsal multiple times for a busted piece of gear would drive me crazy. I hate waiting on guitarists to change broken strings, and that only takes maybe 5 minutes.
Stopping rehearsal multiple times for a busted piece of gear would drive me crazy. I hate waiting on guitarists to change broken strings, and that only takes maybe 5 minutes.
"Man, that old thing is really cool and all. I'm glad you dig it. Any chance you could throw a regular snare up there and let us get on with rehearsal? Then maybe you can sort that thing out while we're not standing around waiting?"
Either that or let your wife handle it with his wife. Nobody will yell at the women.
Seriously, just say something. If this guy is so unaware, and/or easily butt hurt that he won't be able to take any kind of criticism, you're in a band with an overgrown four year old anyway. If this doesn't end it, something else will. You may as well figure it out before you invest too much time in it.
Either that or let your wife handle it with his wife. Nobody will yell at the women.
Seriously, just say something. If this guy is so unaware, and/or easily butt hurt that he won't be able to take any kind of criticism, you're in a band with an overgrown four year old anyway. If this doesn't end it, something else will. You may as well figure it out before you invest too much time in it.
I used to be a band director and gave drum lessons on the side. The language we always used was 'you practice at home to learn your part and get your sound right' and 'you come to rehearsal to put your right-sounding part together with everyone else.' Sounds like this guy doesn't have his sound right and is using rehearsal for what should be personal practice time.
I can relate, I dealt with that sort of thing years ago (in high school) when our drummer didn't so much bring in new toys to try out but would have to spend forty minutes re-arranging his kit because he saw (place drummer of the week's name here) in a video/magazine/interview/imagined fantasy with their kit set up differently than his was at the time and he wanted to try and take full advantage of the placement (yeah, I know but like I said, we were school kids). It chewed-up time and was annoying as all get-out. We rehearsed in my basement so it's not like I could decide to give up for the day and "go home" so to speak. We had paying gigs to prepare for and it was very annoying having our time burglarized as such when there was work to do. We finally told him that it was really getting to be annoying, explained why, and he was told to either show up early and take care of it before hand (his kit was at my house) or give it up! So, he eventually gave it up. Turns-out that showing up early wasn't in the cards. Over twenty years later we still see each other and still play together from time to time, he's a great drummer and he's finally settled on his kit 
Hopefully, yours will learn to tinker with things before hand and have them ready for rehearsal rather than chew-up everyone's time.
Hopefully, yours will learn to tinker with things before hand and have them ready for rehearsal rather than chew-up everyone's time.
Would you change strings, re-do the set-up of your bass, and perfect its intonation in the middle of a rehearsal?
He has a drum that could be good, but it's not yet dependably ready. That work should be done on his own time.
If I went to a job site and spent the morning sharpening chisels, while keeping other trades waiting... .
He has a drum that could be good, but it's not yet dependably ready. That work should be done on his own time.
If I went to a job site and spent the morning sharpening chisels, while keeping other trades waiting... .
Just talk to the guy. You said the drummer can play and he obviously cares about his sound. I'm seeing an upside to this situation. "Hey man, that's a cool old drum, but if it's going to go out of whack during practice, let's use something else until you get it dialed in and that way we don't lose practice time with the full band."
Just tell him nicely that it's band time and he needs to sort out the problems with his gear on his own time, just like anyone else would be expected to. It's not cool to be wasting band time on one faulty piece of equipment every time.
