• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Drummer won't play the same fill twice

#21
Years ago I worked with a drummer that in fills couldn't get to the four count...........................completely maddening I'd have to adjust and make things "fit". Bass and drums need to work together, listen to him and learn his style, you'll quickly recognize his patterns. If he isn't totally off you'll find a way to lock in. If he can't count to four your doomed.
 
  • Like
Reactions: hrodbert696
#26
adchaino said:
None of us is getting paid yet, so it's all good. I mind inconsistency though. Firstly, if we're doing a cover and he plays a fill in one spot, I expect a fill to be there (of the same length hopefully) the next time we play the same song. Which doesn't always happen and leaves me looking like an idiot who doesn't know what he's playing. That's unpleasant even if the crowd didn't notice.
Secondly, his fills aren't always the same rhythmically...
Click to expand...

Let's say, Madonna (or any other famous Singer) hired him and he does the same thing about fills.
How long is he going to stay with her?
 
#27
morgansterne said:
as long as they're not triplet fills. Our drummer is very good, not too loud, really happy with him except . . . he loves triplet fills. The singer's trying to come back into the verse and sing his straight eighth notes over quarter note or eighth note triplets. Really rather difficult to do! from a bass playing view I love to sync up with the fills Geddy style, but if he won't cooperate, do your own thing.
Click to expand...
Triplet fills work well in blues, but of course context is everything.
 
#29
Interesting how many responses are "just listen and let him do his own thing"
my response was the opposite : The drummer sounds a bit like an uncooperative egotist.
Sloppy transitions are sloppy, period.
why wouldn't you work together to tighten up and improve the music?

I guess it depends on what a the role of a particular "fill" is.
If it's just an ornamentation at the end of a phrase, less important to be tighly synced
But wingin it on a fill that cues the band out of the solo section and back into the chorus is risky, and you had better be good at it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Whousedtoplay
#30
This may have been mentioned before - getting in late -- talked about drum fills with our drummer. I was trying to go boom, boom, de boom if he went boom, boom, de boom and we came to the conclusion that his fills could stand on their own. All I need to do is lock with his kick drum and be in sync with the beat. The fills take care of themselves. He does his fills, I am welcome to add mine, just be sure we are not stepping on any toes.

I think that, not stepping on toes, is the main thing to take into consideration. In the Praise music I play it is 95% roots (however, there are many ways those roots can be played) with about two, really not any more than that, fills or runs, per song. I make sure my fills do not step on the vocalist message, and then after that the drummer and I work together on the rhythm needed for this song.

Point -- nothing gets in the way of the message or story. After that help yourself to any fill that augments the message or story.

Of course instrumentals have different "rules". Here the "head" is allowed to be heard.
 
Last edited:
#33
Spaldo said:
I wish some drummers I play with knew what that was.....

I asked one drummer to 'do a Ringo' in the chorus of song....got a blank look and had to show him.....
Click to expand...

hmmm...so the drummer got busted for not being able to decode a personal catch phrase that you used...and he is an idiot?

What if i asked you to bust out a "gallop a-la Number of the Beast?" or "nail the thumper with the left hand blast-o-matic"?

Not trying to ruffle feathers, but being a drummer first, I just have to stand up for the number of times some other "musician" tries to tell us what to do with out using the proper terminology - like we are a bunch of idiots. I will bet that of you had said, "dude, keep it to a simple 2&4" or something similar, he would have understood.
 
  • Like
Reactions: QweziRider
#34
More and more good points.

We had a band talk last night. Looks like we came to a mutual agreement (the drummer was a bit passive-aggressive at first, but came around) that any changes to the covers should be coordinated with the rest of the band first, the drummer will do less fills (everybody else sided with me that the new songs got too overloaded with all the embellishments - all of us sharing the blame equally), he'll also try to play with more dynamics paying attention to the melody, the guitar player will stop trying to write drum parts for the drummer, I will concentrate on the groove and will add a bit to his fills, but sparingly; we need to practice more (especially me and the drummer *), the vocalist should help with the gear after shows rather than disappear as a ninja.

* The drummer and me thought it'd be cool to cover Lines by Feersum Enjinn, so we (+ guitar) played it to the singer last night who got really ecstatic about it and started writing the lyrics on the spot :) That got the rest of us really confused. It turned out (after we listened to the song again) he didn't recognize it at all because "the rhythm section butchered the rhythm". The "rhythm section" timidly agreed.
 
  • Like
Reactions: cheapbasslovin
#39
xUptheIronsx said:
hmmm...so the drummer got busted for not being able to decode a personal catch phrase that you used...and he is an idiot?

What if i asked you to bust out a "gallop a-la Number of the Beast?" or "nail the thumper with the left hand blast-o-matic"?

Not trying to ruffle feathers, but being a drummer first, I just have to stand up for the number of times some other "musician" tries to tell us what to do with out using the proper terminology - like we are a bunch of idiots. I will bet that of you had said, "dude, keep it to a simple 2&4" or something similar, he would have understood.
Click to expand...


Drummers ain't idiots. I am one myself. And I didn't say this drummer was an idiot....but maybe i could have worded my phrase better. I actually said to him 'do a Ringo, you know, open hats, stick to the backbeat' because at the time he was playing the verse all snare and cymbals and just got busier in the chorus...which, as one half of the rhythm section, is very frustrating.

So pleeeease don't think I'm hating on drummers. Most of the ones I know personally bring ALL their drums to a gig, take up all the stage room, and play all over the song.....but they're bloody nice blokes =^)
 
#40
Spaldo said:
Drummers ain't idiots. I am one myself. And I didn't say this drummer was an idiot....but maybe i could have worded my phrase better. I actually said to him 'do a Ringo, you know, open hats, stick to the backbeat' because at the time he was playing the verse all snare and cymbals and just got busier in the chorus...which, as one half of the rhythm section, is very frustrating.

So pleeeease don't think I'm hating on drummers. Most of the ones I know personally bring ALL their drums to a gig, take up all the stage room, and play all over the song.....but they're bloody nice blokes =^)
Click to expand...

well, as I mentioned i wasn't trying to ruffle any feathers, and my initial feeling was hoping that you were not being confrontational but more joking. My experience in the past though, has been that many "know it all" musicians of any kind will come at the drummer with an attitude, and usually be putting their foot in their mouth the whole time. In my experience it is always vocalists and bass players....OR the "armchair quarterback" music people who think they know it all but really don't. These are usually older folk at a place of worship in my experience.

That being said, there are also MANY idiot drummers out there who DO perpetuate the image of the dipwad who plays the middle fill to Tom Sawyer in every song....

I just want people to be careful in how they treat the other instrumentalists amd define their own credibility! Sounds like all is good between you all so that is all that really matters....hopefully the drummer will get to understand his role as time goes on
 
  • Like
Reactions: Spaldo

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back