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How to fail a drum audition within seconds

#62
I remember one funny drummer audition. This guy comes in thinking he's all Dino Danelli (drummer for the Rascals), but without the solid time. I'm holding the tempo down with the rest of the band and the drummer winds up about 2 beats ahead of us, then asks why are we dragging? Then he over plays. Guitar player tells him " this is a simple little Stax type beat - just keep the groove", but the drummer over plays again, trying to fill in every little hole. The guitar player says to the drummer, "hey, can I see your sticks for a second?" The drummer hands them to the guitar player, who hands him back one stick. And says "OK, let's play the song again."
 
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#63
"I like playing fast" would've been the end for me, after he'd already been late and didn't really take the time to go over the material.

Time is too valuable to waste on someone who doesn't understand how to function in a group...time better spent in finding a serious drummer.
 
#68
Hevy T said:
My favorite is when they come to audition and they don't know the material but insist on doing the songs that they know! Like ahh Mr Wonderful you are auditioning for us, we are not joining you! You are joining us!
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At least they let ya know before they were brought in that they were going to try to change the direction of the band. :D
micguy said:
The first requirement for any good musician is a good sense of timing. Someone who has poor timing is a poor musician - regardless of what instrument they play. Next!
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Funny, I have terrible timing, in that I tend to speed up in short order; I'd make a horrible drummer for that reason.

Thankfully I can follow the drummer very well, so it's not a problem in the context of a band. :D
 
#69
I recently auditioned a drummer for my fusion project. He insisted that we play at his studio, because he didn't want to move his drums, so three people had to come 40 minutes to his town. We got there, and the studio, was literally a 6x10 metal shed that doubled as a chicken coup. It was 100 outside (Arkansas), so it had to be 130 inside that shack. We played 3 4/4 tunes, and he played excessive fills, that were all one or one and a half beats too long. He also sped up and slowed down. The guitarist I rode with and I left after 30 minutes. Needless to say he failed the audition. At least I have a story to tell my kids lol. BASS.
 
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#71
themickster said:
My first warning was being told before he got there that he likened himself to Keith Moon. I've never known anyone else say that about themselves.

He was maybe 15 minutes late, this drummer. Things happen to make us late. Some are fair. Not 'My clock was an hour slow; it must have stopped, when the time changed'. This was today, 2nd July. Our time changed at the end of March. 'Have you listened to the CDs?' He'd listened to them in the car, he said. Listened in the car. Not practised them, let alone learnt any.

He played the first song well, with good fills. On the downside, we'd said 130bpm. He went off at 180+. The next song starts with the guitar at 130bpm. The drummer came in at 180+. I told him he was too fast. I like playing fast. My other band's slowest is 172, but I wasn't liking playing this with him. I played a busy, walking bassline to it, for the first time. It didn't help. I almost walked out. Drummers and bassplayers can have something between them that others in the band don't have. There was none of it here.

Next song has a middle 8 with heavy kick drum only from the kit and leads into a bar of rests. He didn't get it after being told three times. He tapped softly on the kick and played heavily in the rests.

We did the first song again; I don't why. He said 'You want it a bit slower?' We said we did. He started at 180+ bpm.

His timekeeping on the four songs was bad, speeding up and slowing down.

Afterwards he told us about his own kit: 'I've got a cowbell and a thing that goes on the hi hat'.
'What's this "thing"?' I asked, reckoning it would be a hi hat tambourine. I was right, but why didn't he know what it was called?
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He’d already lost the gig when he said he’d just listened to the songs in the car on the drive over :roflmao:

Any musician comparing themselves to a famous player, much less an archetype for an entire style of playing, is almost invariably going to disappoint to a comical degree.
 
#72
BAG said:
That's the drummer from one band I'm in...... the other band's drummer couldn't be more different. He does his homework and even makes notes for changes, bpm etc. Wish we could have him for both bands.
Mind you, he's only 17, I'm early 50s, guitarist is mid 40s and singer is late 30s and yet he appears to really be enjoying himself. I'd really like to see him find a young band with some great players as his skills deserve it.... even if it meant we'd lose him.
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Ostie said:
Wait, the drummer had a car? You should have hired him on the spot. No need for an audition.
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The good drummer in my post above doesn't have a car..... doesn't even have a license.... but that's pretty much par for the course for a 17 year old here in NZ. We've all decided to take turns picking him up and dropping him off..... and hassling him every week to get his license. Luckily I have a rudimentary drum kit in my studio so he only has to bring his favourite cymbals. We're also investigating potential bus routes so he can at least get himself to jams and we'll drop him off.
 
#73
MDBass said:
He’d already lost the gig when he said he’d just listened to the songs in the car on the drive over :roflmao:

Any musician comparing themselves to a famous player, much less an archetype for an entire style of playing, is almost invariably going to disappoint to a comical degree.
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Keith Moon would have been fired by 99% of the bands I've ever been in based on antics alone.
 
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#74
Lance Bunyon said:
Keith Moon would have been fired by 99% of the bands I've ever been in based on antics alone.
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Also probably true, though it seems like everybody was getting into absolutely outlandish stuff back then.

One of the greatest bassists ever was beaten to death at a bar by the manager for being a drunken lout.

Fortunately there seems to be significantly fewer musicians actively seeking their own early demise these days.
 
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#75
In my experience, not many drummers actually listen to the song. By that I mean the singer, the lyrics, what the song is about and what it needs from the instruments. If they did they would understand tempo a lot better.
Some people play the drums. Some people use drums to play music. The latter are the fewer.
 
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#76
Nashrakh said:
In my experience, it's the drummers who necessitate weekly rehearsals because they can't or won't put in the practice time. I get it, it's not easy to find time to drum when you have very young kids and work a day job. But why make four to five other people suffer for it, and regularly at that? That's just sadism.
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I gotta address the fact that what I said initially sounds like a big old excuse and it kinda is. However, I submit that playing along with the band isn't nearly the same as playing to the recording. And, while that might not necessitate weekly practices, I think it's preferable (even as a bass player.)

Also, when playing originals (which I recognize may not be the case for OP), it's especially difficult to practice drums on your own. That's because you either have a recording with a different drummer (sometimes the original songwriter) and you don't wanna just ape their parts, or you don't have a recording at all and you're going off your (usually incomplete) memories.

Also also playing music is fun! More so when you're playing with good friends and/or folks who you play well with. Why wouldn't you want to do it more often?
 
#80
definenredefine said:
I gotta address the fact that what I said initially sounds like a big old excuse and it kinda is. However, I submit that playing along with the band isn't nearly the same as playing to the recording. And, while that might not necessitate weekly practices, I think it's preferable (even as a bass player.)

Also, when playing originals (which I recognize may not be the case for OP), it's especially difficult to practice drums on your own. That's because you either have a recording with a different drummer (sometimes the original songwriter) and you don't wanna just ape their parts, or you don't have a recording at all and you're going off your (usually incomplete) memories.

Also also playing music is fun! More so when you're playing with good friends and/or folks who you play well with. Why wouldn't you want to do it more often?
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Sorry, that's just an excuse. I play both covers and originals, and on some I cop the exact bass line (and some not). But before any audition or rehearsal, I will have the song down exactly - tempo, breaks, etc.
 

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