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strangle my second drummer!?

jnuts1

jnuts1

Inactive
Nov 13, 2007
2,277
1,919
#1
Oh man have i had enough of our 2nd drummer. he is constantly speeding up during fills, jumping on top of the beat, getting behind the beat and general overplaying. all while telling me i keep speeding up. drummer 1 and i have zero problems.

i did 3 sub gigs over the holidays and not one time did any of this happen so i know its not me.

just venting. i'm not quitting, we already have too many bookings for far too much money.
 
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#4
ArtechnikA said:
Record and review; recordings don't lie. Although every now and then someone (IME a singer but YMMV...) will try to convince you your recorder is broken...
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I don't need a recording. i called him out in real time on saturday and he tightened up a lot. so he knows.

but seriously are there 30 drum fills in Rocky Raccoon? i think not.
 
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#5
There is a Dave Garibaldi quote out there somewhere where he talks about how he and Prestia don't talk about rushing vs dragging, instead they just work it out by playing. It seemed he came to the conclusion talking doesn't work.

Not being in tower of power I'm only speculating here, but I think I get what he's on about. A bass player and drummer who are team players will compensate for each other and negotiate a good groove between them. Two players with ego will talk to each other saying "you are doing it wrong" rather than giving up on "their" way of doing it. Often before this ego conversation even happens there has been an egotistical play through where neither player would work with each other and it sounded...about how you expect when two folks who are supposed to be cooperating are instead putting their foot down.

Usually both are "wrong" because players are humans not metronomes, but often one is more "wrong".

I have been in a situation where I played a song in church with a pianist that had only recently learned the song and was dragging it (probably because they simply couldn't play it at the right tempo) and so i "pushed". It was the wrong thing to do. It would have sounded better if id simply accepted their limit and compensated. However if i had to play with them week after week and they didnt get up to tempo, i'd have to consider moving on. Probably worth a good chat with d2...in private so no audience to get ego involved.
 
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#8
we have 2 drummers/percussion. they switch off during sets. I have no problems with the other drummer. we lock hard but we have been playing together for a long time now. probably 9 years or so and we used to be a backing band for various songwriters before this band. but ive played with this drummer over 2 years so I feel like we should have clicked by now.
 
#9
Shalto said:
I have been in a situation where I played a song in church with a pianist that had only recently learned the song and was dragging it (probably because they simply couldn't play it at the right tempo) and so i "pushed". It was the wrong thing to do. It would have sounded better if id simply accepted their limit and compensated. However if i had to play with them week after week and they didnt get up to tempo, i'd have to consider moving on. Probably worth a good chat with d2...in private so no audience to get ego involved.
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its already out. we all talk right away and he loves to run his mouth about any slight clam he may or may not have heard of mine so I let him have it. well we recorded the last gig with our engineer and it was clear who the clam man was, guitar...…. either way he is just rubbing me the wrong way. BUT he brings in big paying gigs so what do I do? rant on TB
 
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#10
jnuts1 said:
its already out. we all talk right away and he loves to run his mouth about any slight clam he may or may not have heard of mine so I let him have it. well we recorded the last gig with our engineer and it was clear who the clam man was, guitar...…. either way he is just rubbing me the wrong way. BUT he brings in big paying gigs so what do I do? rant on TB
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My sympathy. Sounds like a "what cannot be changed must be endured" scenario
 
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#11
jnuts1 said:
Oh man have i had enough of our 2nd drummer. he is constantly speeding up during fills, jumping on top of the beat, getting behind the beat and general overplaying. all while telling me i keep speeding up. drummer 1 and i have zero problems.

i did 3 sub gigs over the holidays and not one time did any of this happen so i know its not me.

just venting. i'm not quitting, we already have too many bookings for far too much money.
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There are a lot of inadequate drummers out there. I'm wondering why you all need the second guy if he's not up to par. Most bands only have one, but if you're doing a lot of latin percussive stuff or similar, you might need the extra guy.
 
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#13
Some like to march to the beat of a different drummer...some like to march to the beat of two drummers..hey the grateful dead did it for 30 years and made a hell of a lot of money doing it...the problem with two drummers both on kits is, in bars and smallish gigs is the space. There is just not enough space for the equipment on stage..I don't really mind two drummers as long as they listen to each other and compliment one another but as so many threads have noted, hard enough to find one drummer, finding two that will listen to each other and play tastefully......probably better odds winning the powerball lottery. ha ha
 
#14
jnuts1 said:
we have 2 drummers/percussion. they switch off during sets. I have no problems with the other drummer.
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1. I don't know what you mean by that bit I put in bold there.

2. What do the two drummers do? If they're doing the same thing, you only need one. Is #1 keeping the main beat (which is why he's easy to lock in with) while #2 is spicing it up with fills and frills? If so, where's he getting his drum parts from? Just making them up?

I've seen a few bands with two drummers on two kits. Even when it sounded OK I never thought it was actually necessary. One good one would have been fine.
 
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#19
I'm not sure that posting in a public place that you have strangled two drummers is a wise thing to do, there may be law enforcement people on here!!!

However I'm sure we all thoroughly understand the despair and frustration caused by drummers, therefore I will volunteer to run a Just Giving Page to pay your defence costs, after all what better cause can there be that KILLING the drummer :hyper: :hyper: :hyper: :thumbsup:


EDIT - sorry just read the thread and realised my mistake, oh well we can just live in hope
 

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