Hi.
First I want to say the drummer I play with is an awesome drummer with excellent timing and technique, who's very easy to play with, but also a very busy musician these days. Gigs every weekend, and band rehearsals or studio sessions every other day of the weeks. No regular once-a-week rehearsals. He's becoming a professional drummer, and is now 20 years old and playing with the best cats in town already. Well anyway...
On our band practice yesterday for a wedding gig incoming saturday, I noticed that he don't care much about any details (riffs, breaks etc) in the music. The guitarist, who is an awesome one, had nailed all the riffs in all new songs, which wasn't an easy or small thing to learn, but the drummer obviously didn't care about any details at all in the songs. He laid down the main beats well, but didn't really care of any details apart from the beats. We discussed it a little and he's of the opinion that it really isn't very important and the audience wouldn't notice anyway if you're not playing those details, e.g. breaks or certain fills or riffs.
The guitarist said he had a lot to do to in practicing the songs and he though it wouldn't be such a big thing for the drummer to learn a break or two. The drummer was however of a different opinion and said he can't really compare it, he needs to look at it in his perspective. I'm with the guitarist here. The drummer is busy, but so is the guitarist (who by the way also have two young kids at home)...
To me it seemed like the drummer had just taken a quick listen to the each song to catch the main beat. I don't think he even listened to the whole songs for any fills or so. One of the songs we played was "Just the way you are" by Billy Joel, and there was a small break in the bridge that he just didn't want to play. I spent half an hour with that song to pick out and write down all chords to it, even though I don't even play the chords on my bass. I just took it as my responsibility to make the lead sheets that everyone is following. My guess is that the drummer spent maximum one minute with that particular song.
If you're a stand-in for a gig, I'd accept this kind of attitude (citing his own words: "if you need to learn 30 songs you don't have time to catch more than the most important stuff"), but this time we had only 5 songs or so to practice for this rehearsal. I just don't "get" his attitude in this case. Do you? Do the details matter to you? Sure you can make a song work with only the main beat and nothing more, but I think the details often are what makes the songs interesting to play and listen to. What do you think?
Sorry for the long post..
First I want to say the drummer I play with is an awesome drummer with excellent timing and technique, who's very easy to play with, but also a very busy musician these days. Gigs every weekend, and band rehearsals or studio sessions every other day of the weeks. No regular once-a-week rehearsals. He's becoming a professional drummer, and is now 20 years old and playing with the best cats in town already. Well anyway...
On our band practice yesterday for a wedding gig incoming saturday, I noticed that he don't care much about any details (riffs, breaks etc) in the music. The guitarist, who is an awesome one, had nailed all the riffs in all new songs, which wasn't an easy or small thing to learn, but the drummer obviously didn't care about any details at all in the songs. He laid down the main beats well, but didn't really care of any details apart from the beats. We discussed it a little and he's of the opinion that it really isn't very important and the audience wouldn't notice anyway if you're not playing those details, e.g. breaks or certain fills or riffs.
The guitarist said he had a lot to do to in practicing the songs and he though it wouldn't be such a big thing for the drummer to learn a break or two. The drummer was however of a different opinion and said he can't really compare it, he needs to look at it in his perspective. I'm with the guitarist here. The drummer is busy, but so is the guitarist (who by the way also have two young kids at home)...
To me it seemed like the drummer had just taken a quick listen to the each song to catch the main beat. I don't think he even listened to the whole songs for any fills or so. One of the songs we played was "Just the way you are" by Billy Joel, and there was a small break in the bridge that he just didn't want to play. I spent half an hour with that song to pick out and write down all chords to it, even though I don't even play the chords on my bass. I just took it as my responsibility to make the lead sheets that everyone is following. My guess is that the drummer spent maximum one minute with that particular song.
If you're a stand-in for a gig, I'd accept this kind of attitude (citing his own words: "if you need to learn 30 songs you don't have time to catch more than the most important stuff"), but this time we had only 5 songs or so to practice for this rehearsal. I just don't "get" his attitude in this case. Do you? Do the details matter to you? Sure you can make a song work with only the main beat and nothing more, but I think the details often are what makes the songs interesting to play and listen to. What do you think?
Sorry for the long post..
) and I'm the singer and thus the frontman. If I'm uncomfortable with a song we'll skip it.
