P Diddy's Makin the Band.

[ElMon]

i need as many drum fills as humanly possible

See there ya go. Its all about serving the song and serving your employer. In your case, the chopmeisters would ALWAYS have a gig! I have a hard time seeing how a normal organic drum sound will fit with Diddy's new material. Let alone any organic, non-synthesized instrument. If I were there you better believe I'd be woodshedding that keyboard bass.

 

[DWBass]

I work with a drummer who, when he plays solid simple pocket, is as good as anybody around but struggles to not throw in flashy things because as he tells me"that's what people react to"!

This has been my experience with quite a few 'church bred' drummers while playing paid gigs! They're so used to 'shedding' all the time, they just don't know how to turn it off! One guy actually started some off-time groove in the middle of a song that totally screwed up the rest of the band and the song and we all had to end up 'shedding' with him to make it look we meant to do that. Needless to say, he was promptly fired!

 

[narud]

This has been my experience with quite a few 'church bred' drummers while playing paid gigs! They're so used to 'shedding' all the time, they just don't know how to turn it off! One guy actually started some off-time groove in the middle of a song that totally screwed up the rest of the band and the song and we all had to end up 'shedding' with him to make it look we meant to do that. Needless to say, he was promptly fired!

part of the fun,imo, of playing with drummers like this is having your time together to the point where they could play any fill or whatever and you know exactly where you are and always know where one is. at first i would lose it. once i knew nothing was going to through me off, i find it hard to not play with that style of drummer.

 

[MoEllis]

I love the show, the only thing that really grinds my gears is the fact that some of the musicians have already had a successful touring career with big artists. So much for finding hidden tallent...

Sorry if this has already been touched on in this thread

 

[vision]

You know, that brings up something for me. The drummie that got sent home is, IMHO, a good drummer. Not flashy. The other guys are also good drummers, no argument there. However, can THEY, like the dude that was sent home, play a groove and resist flash? Remembr, they sent another drummer home because even tho he can shred with the best of them, he was not able to play/read/interpret a piece of music given to him.

I think it's all important. At this point they have cut TONS of drummers. It's already established that these drummers can play grooves. They've been through a challenge where they had to play straight pocket (the episode where they played American Girl), had a challende where they had to read music as written, and they also went through the 80's challenge where they had to recreate the drum parts exactly as done on the recordings. This week, the challenge was all about flash.

All aspects are needed as a touring drummer. I know that many R&B/pop touring bands will at some point during the show feature the musicians (at least the drummer). I would DEFINITELY think that will happen on Diddy's upcoming tour, since the musicians won't be faceless players, but they'll also be reality TV stars by that point and the crowd will want to see them to what they do best (at a Diddy concert, it's pretty safe to assume that the crowd in attendance will be made up of Diddy fans, most of whom are watching this show right now.) So if you're gonna have to solo on the tour, you need to have some chops in addition to the fundamentals. Like Nisan said to Diddy at the beginning of the show - at this point, everyone in the house is really good, so they just have to weed out whoever is the BEST. If the contest is about flash, which it was this week in the battles, then you better be able to bring the chops. The drummer that got cut didn't chowcase the chops that the other drummers had, so he lost this challenge.

It's just like any other competition reality show. I'm a fan of Top Chef on Bravo. On that show, every season someone who is one of the best overall chefs will get cut earlier than they should have because in the competition that given week they were subpar with a specific style, or whatever challenge they were presented with. It doesn't matter that they were great up until that point, or that they are good enough to win. On a reality show competition you have to be consistantly good in every challenge, every week.

 

[DWBass]

part of the fun,imo, of playing with drummers like this is having your time together to the point where they could play any fill or whatever and you know exactly where you are and always know where one is. at first i would lose it. once i knew nothing was going to through me off, i find it hard to not play with that style of drummer.

That's fine if it's something that is expected but it wasn't supposed to happen. This was a straight up corporate gig! I had no problem following him but the keys and singers got thrown off and they were all staring at him with :scowl: eyes!

 

[vision]

part of the fun,imo, of playing with drummers like this is having your time together to the point where they could play any fill or whatever and you know exactly where you are and always know where one is. at first i would lose it. once i knew nothing was going to through me off, i find it hard to not play with that style of drummer.

+1...in the gospel scene here in the Detroit area we call that getting "cooked". There's definitely a time and place for it. One of my favorite drummers is Chris Dave - when he's playing on a club gig with jazz cats he plays EXTRA loose and flips the beats all over the place to the point of you having no idea what the time is. But then he'll play some straight ahead jazz with Kenny Garrett, or R&B with Maxwell or Erykah Badu, etc., and he plays at various levels of restraint based on the gig.

 

[vision]

That's fine if it's something that is expected but it wasn't supposed to happen. This was a straight up corporate gig! I had no problem following him but the keys and singers got thrown off and they were all staring at him with :scowl: eyes!

Yeah, he definitely should have gotten fired for that!

 

[Sounbwoy]

I think it's all important. At this point they have cut TONS of drummers. It's already established that these drummers can play grooves. They've been through a challenge where they had to play straight pocket (the episode where they played American Girl), had a challende where they had to read music as written, and they also went through the 80's challenge where they had to recreate the drum parts exactly as done on the recordings. This week, the challenge was all about flash.

All aspects are needed as a touring drummer. I know that many R&B/pop touring bands will at some point during the show feature the musicians (at least the drummer). I would DEFINITELY think that will happen on Diddy's upcoming tour, since the musicians won't be faceless players, but they'll also be reality TV stars by that point and the crowd will want to see them to what they do best (at a Diddy concert, it's pretty safe to assume that the crowd in attendance will be made up of Diddy fans, most of whom are watching this show right now.) So if you're gonna have to solo on the tour, you need to have some chops in addition to the fundamentals. Like Nisan said to Diddy at the beginning of the show - at this point, everyone in the house is really good, so they just have to weed out whoever is the BEST. If the contest is about flash, which it was this week in the battles, then you better be able to bring the chops. The drummer that got cut didn't chowcase the chops that the other drummers had, so he lost this challenge.

It's just like any other competition reality show. I'm a fan of Top Chef on Bravo. On that show, every season someone who is one of the best overall chefs will get cut earlier than they should have because in the competition that given week they were subpar with a specific style, or whatever challenge they were presented with. It doesn't matter that they were great up until that point, or that they are good enough to win. On a reality show competition you have to be consistantly good in every challenge, every week.

I hear you loud and clear, man. I guess part of being "good" will ultimately depend on who's listening. Either way, the show has me hooked.

 

[vision]

Did they cut the BIG boy? That cat was a gospel drummer up and down! But even in gospel you can't shred like that at will. No one will be able to follow you for very long. You have to wait for your green light.

Yeah, he got cut. That's my boy Kris Brooks, I've played with him and his brother Kenny for years. He has crazy chops, but he can also groove and can play drum parts exactly like the CD. His weakness is that he never learned to read music, and he got cut when that weakness was exposed.

 

[vision]

I hear you loud and clear, man. I guess part of being "good" will ultimately depend on who's listening. Either way, the show has me hooked.

+1...I'm definitely hooked on the show! By the way, my picks for winning it are Thaddeus on drums (Detroit!), Tim Williams on bass, Jason and Brockett on keys, and Tom on guitar (Detroit!)

 

[T-MOST]

Yeah, he got cut. That's my boy Kris Brooks, I've played with him and his brother Kenny for years. He has crazy chops, but he can also groove and can play drum parts exactly like the CD. His weakness is that he never learned to read music, and he got cut when that weakness was exposed.

Too bad. He's a really good drummer and a lot of folks will recognize.

 

[vision]

Too bad. He's a really good drummer and a lot of folks will recognize.

Yep, but he'll be fine. He's touring with a national act right now (an R&B artist named K'Jon) and the show definitely got him some exposure. He was already working with alot of artists in the Gospel scene. I also think he took it to heart as far as reading music and will work on that aspect of his playing.

 

[Sounbwoy]

I also think he took it to heart as far as reading music and will work on that aspect of his playing.

LOL!! Me too and I'm not on the show. I decided this is the year I'll work on learning to read music and the show is what made me decide. I'm lazy because I have a good ear..time to get it DONE!!

 

[willgroove2]

He will learn

The funny thing is that he already knows,we had a very long intense conversation about the fact that ,although we work together often, he is not my first,second or third call (he's kind of my 3 1/2 call) and that he has not had chances to play on the next level like many of his contemporary's. One of the hardest things to do as a musician IMO is unlearn habits and he has made a effort to change but every once in awhile he will reach for something and I shoot him a look and we laugh

 

[Phil Smith]

Yeah, he got cut. That's my boy Kris Brooks, I've played with him and his brother Kenny for years. He has crazy chops, but he can also groove and can play drum parts exactly like the CD. His weakness is that he never learned to read music, and he got cut when that weakness was exposed.

This task didn't really call for reading music per se, it did call for reproducing the excercise and in the amount of time they gave him, he could have plugged that into a notation program or sequencer and learned that part.

 

[vision]

This task didn't really call for reading music per se, it did call for reproducing the excercise and in the amount of time they gave him, he could have plugged that into a notation program or sequencer and learned that part.

I doubt that Kris would have even known how to enter that notation into software or a sequencer without someone showing him what the rhythms were. But what he probably could have done given the time was work on it with one of the other drummers in the house.

 

[agreatheight]

First, is this show available to watch on the net?

Second, there have been a lot of negative comments about Diddy's new tunes in this thread. Maybe I am the only one, but I give him props for actually trying something new and pushing his musicianship forward. He's always had a good ear, but his past tunes have been heavy on samples / beats, and him going "uh, yeah, uh, yeah" and then spitting some lyrics. This stuff is more advanced than that, more songwriting than beatsmithing. Sure the auto-tune is a bit much, but hell, he is at least trying to sing and write some serious melodies. And it's a concept record! I give him credit for trying.

 

[Dr. Cheese]

First, is this show available to watch on the net?

Second, there have been a lot of negative comments about Diddy's new tunes in this thread. Maybe I am the only one, but I give him props for actually trying something new and pushing his musicianship forward. He's always had a good ear, but his past tunes have been heavy on samples / beats, and him going "uh, yeah, uh, yeah" and then spitting some lyrics. This stuff is more advanced than that, more songwriting than beatsmithing. Sure the auto-tune is a bit much, but hell, he is at least trying to sing and write some serious melodies. And it's a concept record! I give him credit for trying.

You can see episodes on the MTV website.

 

[DWBass]

First, is this show available to watch on the net?

Second, there have been a lot of negative comments about Diddy's new tunes in this thread. Maybe I am the only one, but I give him props for actually trying something new and pushing his musicianship forward. He's always had a good ear, but his past tunes have been heavy on samples / beats, and him going "uh, yeah, uh, yeah" and then spitting some lyrics. This stuff is more advanced than that, more songwriting than beatsmithing. Sure the auto-tune is a bit much, but hell, he is at least trying to sing and write some serious melodies. And it's a concept record! I give him credit for trying.

I agree. Some of the tunes are killin'! It's too bad he can't sing...even a little bit as it would legitimize him more as an 'artist' but he's done pretty good with the talent he does have.