don't have a drummer, or a band for that matter, at the moment so I just jam with my dear ol dad, he was a great drummer and still is, and I never have to worry about him forgetting anything because he is the one who controls the jam I just go along for the ride
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the worst drummer you've ever worked with?
- Thread starter crj14525
- Start date
my first drummer was the worst. 16 YO, absolutely talented, but uncontrollable, too many chops, runs, accents, it was always in "solo mode" even on ballads.
In order to do a bit of justice, I must say that my current drummer is female, young (24), and in my (and many other's) opinion, one of the most talented, solid, predictable musician ever. Very very professional. I'm not so bad, as the other members of my band, but sometimes I have desired to talk to her, and say: c'mon, go and build your own shiny career, times goes fast.
In order to do a bit of justice, I must say that my current drummer is female, young (24), and in my (and many other's) opinion, one of the most talented, solid, predictable musician ever. Very very professional. I'm not so bad, as the other members of my band, but sometimes I have desired to talk to her, and say: c'mon, go and build your own shiny career, times goes fast.
Really nice guy I played with years ago. Unfortunately he regularly committed THE cardinal drummers' sin - could not keep time. He kept speeding up or just starting songs at wrong (too fast) tempo. Long as I knew him he never corrected that, maybe because crowds loved his solos. Despite that I know he lost a lot of gigs because of that fatal flaw.
When I started with my side project 6 months ago the drummer that was there was a really nice guy except for a couple of problems that just couldn't be overcome.
1: Every drum, every song.
2: Start at right tempo and speed up from there.
3: Too much herb. Finally ace a tune, play it again in 5 minutes and he would totally forget his parts.
Did one gig with him (he booked it) and it was all the guitar player and I could do to get through it. Most of the night I wound up playing half time just trying to give people something to dance to. Longest 3 hour gig I've ever played.
Talked about the problems at work and turns out one of the guys I work with said he's a drummer and would we be interested. Steady Freddy, nice simple chops, no overplaying. The last couple of months have been a blast.
1: Every drum, every song.
2: Start at right tempo and speed up from there.
3: Too much herb. Finally ace a tune, play it again in 5 minutes and he would totally forget his parts.
Did one gig with him (he booked it) and it was all the guitar player and I could do to get through it. Most of the night I wound up playing half time just trying to give people something to dance to. Longest 3 hour gig I've ever played.
Talked about the problems at work and turns out one of the guys I work with said he's a drummer and would we be interested. Steady Freddy, nice simple chops, no overplaying. The last couple of months have been a blast.
We've got a guy who has a Mike Mangini/Neil Peart set-up. I mean this set is huge. But he only uses one bass drum (out of 3), he can't fill, can't keep the tempo, but insists that due to the size of his kit, he is awesome. The moment we gave some advice, he threw a temper tantrum like a baby.
I have to say, this thread is just awesome! I really did laugh through most of the posts. Since I haven't been in a band (yet), I don't have a story of my own, but these stories certainly teach us newbies what we might encounter.
Fascinating experiences with drummers.
All of them sound interesting. Even more stories to laugh/ learn from.
Fascinating experiences with drummers.
All of them sound interesting. Even more stories to laugh/ learn from.
No offense to her or anything, but thats what music education does when you either have a really bad teacher, or lack talent (if theres such a thing as talent, im still not sure if there is or not).
Sadly, there are tons of kids that get rushed into it by their parents and dont even listen to music at home when they start playing an instrument like that, and that doesnt help either.
Being one of those guys that enjoys playing alot of different instruments (currently piano,guitar,bass,blues harp, drums and a little violin), I find that it was my classical training in piano when i was small that enabled me to learn all the others fast and easy. Bass is my main thing now though, cant bring myself to leave it aside to play any of my other instruments for a second.
Not to derail though, my worst drummer story was a few years back, and I was a keyboardist for a goth band and we had a metal influenced drummer who was always running ahead, always banging away like he is possed and always blasting his double bass drums.:scowl:
Then we found a girl who's biggest influence was Jason Cooper (The Cure) and Scott "Rock Action" Asheton (The Stooges). We went along fine with that girl, and she has been my drummer in basically all my bands since then. She can hold down any beat, in any time, rock steady like the world's fate is in the balance, great show-woman on stage, the works. She also draws massive crowds all the time to the gigs cause she is hot as hell, which helps.
my current one
SAdly, I'm in this boat. Nice guy, but doesn't practice on his own, speeds up, looses it during fills. I'm the time keeper, so if I fill or deviate at all, it throws him off.
But I'm only 3 rehearsals in, so I really have no say in any of this
I played - just a few months ago - with a "drummer" who had not just problems staying in time, but also playing a simple 4/4 beat. He had to count while playing, and he had to count LOUD! We recorded a song and his stuff was impossible to use because of him shouting "1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and" in the background.
He was also playing the same stuff in every song - and then I started writing drum parts for him. Took me one day to explain a triplet to him.
I quit, together with both guitar players.
He was also playing the same stuff in every song - and then I started writing drum parts for him. Took me one day to explain a triplet to him.
I quit, together with both guitar players.
Auditioning a drummer back in the 80's for our rock cover band. He showed up with the biggest Yamaha set I'd ever seen. I think it took him two hours to set the thing up. He could not hold down a 4/4 beat... I even went as far as putting a metronom (sp) in front of him... no luck.
Flash foward to 25 years later after my self imposed music stoppage, I ansered an ad on Craigslist for an experienced band, they had been playing together for 8 years. I show up and the drummer has a "Stewart" kit. I remembered those kits as being entry level back then, this was 2008! I then notice that the drummers posture is a little out of wack, but what ever, let's play. The drummer stops playing about half way through the song, puts his elbow on his snare and uses his hand to hold his head up... I'm thinkin, he must be pissed about something... no, he's not pissed, just lost! Oh, he's not jsut lost, I found out later that he had had an opration to remove a few discs from his neck and that his neck would get tired and he had to hold his head up with his hand!
Ok, I get that people have issues, we all do, but if you can't hold your own head up for a 3 minute song, there is no way that he is going to be able to do a gig... I found a new band!
Fishheadjoe
Flash foward to 25 years later after my self imposed music stoppage, I ansered an ad on Craigslist for an experienced band, they had been playing together for 8 years. I show up and the drummer has a "Stewart" kit. I remembered those kits as being entry level back then, this was 2008! I then notice that the drummers posture is a little out of wack, but what ever, let's play. The drummer stops playing about half way through the song, puts his elbow on his snare and uses his hand to hold his head up... I'm thinkin, he must be pissed about something... no, he's not pissed, just lost! Oh, he's not jsut lost, I found out later that he had had an opration to remove a few discs from his neck and that his neck would get tired and he had to hold his head up with his hand!
Ok, I get that people have issues, we all do, but if you can't hold your own head up for a 3 minute song, there is no way that he is going to be able to do a gig... I found a new band!
Fishheadjoe
1) I played with a guy who's actually a wonderful drummer... he went on to become a longtime member of a famous person's band. And he's my friend. The problem I had with him was that he had a fabulous, laid-back feel, but would enforce it above all else. I remember one gig where crowd satisfaction and happiness depended on us revving up just a tiny bit; the lead guitarist and I both turned back to give him the "pick it up" sign, and he simply shook his head "no" and closed his eyes. (And continued to play his laid-back groove.)
2) Occasionally when I'm the house bassist at a blues jam, we get a guy who is a Buddy Rich wannabe. In the middle of any blues song, he'll yell, "Mine!!" and launch into a Rich-style big band drum solo. If the song has a straight-eighths feel, it doesn't matter-- he'll still go into a swing solo. This guy has heavy chops, but he absolutely does NOT play for the song. I mean, he carries it to ridiculous extremes.
3) Once, at one of these jams, I had a total beginner who played the blues as though he were a free jazz drummer like Sunny Murray or Rashied Ali (when Ali recorded with Coltrane). Completely out-of-time fills, 100% of the song. The kid was a nice guy, so I wasn't hard on him.
2) Occasionally when I'm the house bassist at a blues jam, we get a guy who is a Buddy Rich wannabe. In the middle of any blues song, he'll yell, "Mine!!" and launch into a Rich-style big band drum solo. If the song has a straight-eighths feel, it doesn't matter-- he'll still go into a swing solo. This guy has heavy chops, but he absolutely does NOT play for the song. I mean, he carries it to ridiculous extremes.
3) Once, at one of these jams, I had a total beginner who played the blues as though he were a free jazz drummer like Sunny Murray or Rashied Ali (when Ali recorded with Coltrane). Completely out-of-time fills, 100% of the song. The kid was a nice guy, so I wasn't hard on him.
Quite a few years ago my wife set me up a play date with a friend who was a drummer and had a killer kit. While he did have a killer kit that his wife had just bought him but could not do a basic 4/4 beat to save his life. I tried to count and play simple 8th note pattern for him to catch on..nothing. I had to just get a way to get out of his "Jam room" fast 
Jazzdogg
Less barking, more wagging!
A few years ago, I met up with a drummer on Craigslist who wanted to "jam." I had a bunch of original material that I wanted to flesh out, so we decided to meet up. When I got there, all the dude wanted to play was "Purple Haze." I was like, "well, we don't have a guitarist, but... whatever." I had just spent about a half hour getting there, so I figured we could play at least one song together.
So we started playing and when we got to the solo, the dude threw his sticks down, yelled "keep going!!" and jumped up and started playing air guitar while verbalizing the entire solo in scat style. I kept going. Then he sat back down and finished the song. After that, I did about an hour of playing while he bashed away at the drums and then I packed up and left. He was a decent enough dude and not the worst drummer, but man was he clueless. He was at least 30.
So we started playing and when we got to the solo, the dude threw his sticks down, yelled "keep going!!" and jumped up and started playing air guitar while verbalizing the entire solo in scat style. I kept going. Then he sat back down and finished the song. After that, I did about an hour of playing while he bashed away at the drums and then I packed up and left. He was a decent enough dude and not the worst drummer, but man was he clueless. He was at least 30.
My first instrument is the bass and back when I started I had a drummer who could ONLY play 2/4 on the snare and in 4 on the kick but the worst part was playing 16 on the HH. Thats enough to drive anyway crazy!!!! To this day I do not play 16 on a HH and no amount of money can be paid for me to do it too!!! HA! Doc
Played with a terrible drummer in a previous band years ago. It was one of the first "successful" cover bands I was in so the whole thing lasted longer than it really should have.
Timing all over the place, coming into/out of fills too early/late, botched turnarounds, lack of independent practice .... just awful. But he is a great guy and a good friend.
It affected me as a bass player because I learned to ignore him. When I got into other bands I had to re-learn how to connect with the drummer.
Timing all over the place, coming into/out of fills too early/late, botched turnarounds, lack of independent practice .... just awful. But he is a great guy and a good friend.
It affected me as a bass player because I learned to ignore him. When I got into other bands I had to re-learn how to connect with the drummer.
Worst - I once played with a drummer that couldn't play jailhouse rock because he couldn't feel the snare hits and couldn't count them.
Craziest - in the 70's we had band uniforms. We auditioned a drummer and asked him to try one on. He went in the changing room and came out stark naked! What a waco. Too bad, he was actually not a bad drummer, just no impulse control.
Craziest - in the 70's we had band uniforms. We auditioned a drummer and asked him to try one on. He went in the changing room and came out stark naked! What a waco. Too bad, he was actually not a bad drummer, just no impulse control.
