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the worst drummer you've ever worked with?

#121
It was funny, and sad too.

Back in the day in AMsterdam I once was invited by a vague acquaintance to join a jazz standards Thursday night session run by a certain drummer. (Not that I am/was the greatest jazz player-but let's say at least i could hold a tempo and read a chord chart)

I was told the session started at midnight,down in the cellar. Now that bar was famous for being 'special' already - it was cheap, they had homeless dudes do the busboy thing, and they opened at 10am to service the early bozo set. Weed smell you could cut with a chainsaw. Not violent, spent many a relaxed evening there, but colorful, so to speak.

So I meet this session leading drummer and he looks like a serious basket case. A sizable crowd of zombies, drunks and other unhealthy looking denizens had gathered in that cellar. He counts off Caravan, goes off into nowhere, and what made it funny is that the crowd as on cue started hurling insults at everone on stage. After half an hour the owner came down and took away the bass drum leaving the session leader in a great state of artistic indignation. I had the impression that this whole spiel was a weekly Thursday night ritual.

I later learned the drummer had been a real talent on drums and vibes in his 1st year in conservatory, got addicted, and went totally down the drain. It is sad to end up like that.
 
#122
I once went to a practice and we had a new drummer show up...and he didn't own a kit. He had sticks though so we scared him up a couple of pots and pans to bang on and he couldn't keep time either. The guitar player tried to can the regular drummer because in his words "we clash" so he was actually going to try to play a job with this non playing, non kit owning kid because apparently his ego was so bloated he'd rather be an epic fail in public than share the stage with an excellent drummer who just happened to mention something about screeching guitar tone. I told him to hunt another bass player while he was at it.

I can't remember the drummer kid's name and you wouldn't know him anyway...so what was the point of this thread again?
 
#123
In my first band, we had a drummer who, though nice, couldn't sync his limbs up at all.
This would be fine if he was a new drummer, but he had been drumming for seven years. His kick and hi-hit hits were really off, and his snare hits were just random.

Me being a massive prog-rock fan, I always wrote stuff in some odd-time signatures (the odd 5/4, 7/4, nothing hard), but he never learnt a beat outside of a basic rock 4/4. It was pitiful.
 
#124
I think I have a drummer that takes the prize on this one... She said she was a jazz drummer so we figured she could pull off faster rock beats. We were so wrong she never practiced the songs even though we gave her a cd with all our songs on it. She never played the same thing twice or at the same speed. Our 2 gigs with her were so awful. She got offended when I called her out on not practicing and quit... Luckilly we were brainstorming ideas on the best way to let her go anyway.
 
#125
spaz21387 said:
she never practiced the songs even though we gave her a cd with all our songs on it... She never played the same thing twice or at the same speed...

She got offended when I called her out on not practicing and quit...
Click to expand...

I still, for the life of me, cannot figure out how some people can delude themselves to such a degree. People thinking they're opera singers when they sound worse than a karaoke wannabe?

It must suck being them... having no sense of introspection, honesty or humility.
 
#128
Last serious original band I was in was between drummers. Had one come over and audition; he was older than all of us by several years and claimed to have been a 20-year vet behind the kit. His meter was terrible and fluctuated wildly with each fill. After we decided (quickly) that he would not fit the bill, he split amicably but left his kit at my singer's house. After he'd known us for less than a week. Being decent guys, we put them in a spare bedroom. Where they sat for 18 months. After making several attempts to contact him (twice succeeding and even scheduling a time for pickup which he did not show up for), my singer's brother (whom he was sharing the house with) sold them. I didn't necessarily agree, but dude; a year and a half? Any drummer who'd leave his kit in the hands of strangers for that long obviously did not take it too seriously...
 
#129
^^^^ you know a simular thing happened to a band my dad was in but it was the bass player who dissapered. He had a 2x15 Peavey with a Peavey Head set up and he just dissapeared. My dad's guitar player eventually sold it to my buddy who ended up not being able to pay for it, we took it a local music store for consinment and the store went out of business and kept all of our stuff we had for sale there never to be seem again . . . . strange!
 
#130
As my great-grandfather used to say " now in my Young Days...." (generally followed by "...cattle driving in Argentina" (1890s), I can honestly say that I would prefer to remember only the better drummers that I worked with or sat in with us.Several of them did well. What put me off recently was being in retro mood, I decided to Google some musos from late 60s/early 70s. The very 1st I chose had a fairly illustrious career, including Jazz Rock band, IF here in UK and drummer producer for Rock legend, Ted Nugent in U.S.A. To my horror, I discovered on Wikipedia that he died of self-inflicted gsw at home in Atlanta - reason financial - root cause ~ medical bills 2008. A really easy drummer to play alongside on bass but not the only one to have similar success who sat in or worked with us. One, in pre-pro days ran off stage before a gig and puked. Drummers!
 
#131
I was invited by a drummer-friend to play in an r&b project. I'd known him for years and he has a practice space, where he would jam along with CDs or occasionally with some random musicians.

After a few rehearsals, and trying to understand why he and I couldn't lock in, I asked him how he approached playing with a bass player.

He said he LOOKED at my fingers. I explained maybe he should listen.

At the next rehearsal, after a few songs, he said he finally got it-he was going to look at my foot. :(
 
#132
Some 7-10 years ago I was playing with a drummer with a few chemical dependencies. We all knew it was going to be bad when the first 4 count click was speeding up and or slowing down.

I too had a member disappear, a frontman guitar player/singer. Really talented too. He just disappeared one day, no call, no show, his phone was turned off. No response to emails.... and I had the bottom cab to his matching rig at my place. I eventually sold it after holding on to it for several years and trying to get ahold of him occasionally.

Recently I found him on facebook and we talk from time to time... But the cab and the band never comes up in convo.
 
#135
I've been pretty lucky as well. I've only played with 4 different drummers.

1st one is still my current drummer for my originals band. We've been playing together forever

2nd is my buddy from high school. He was pretty good, just not my favorite style

3rd was a John Bonham wannabe. He had a Ludwig Vistalite kit, couldn't keep time for crap, and had no hand/foot independence. If he tried to do something even different with his foot, his hands would automatically do the same thing. It was ridiculous.

4th is my cover band drummer. He's a drum teacher and Berklee grad. Nothing but good things to say about him. He plays what he needs to, keeps excellent time, knows how to count, sounds great, etc, etc, etc.
 
#136
SolidFooting said:
This guy:

yamaha-YPG635-keyboard-stand.jpg
Click to expand...

Um that's a keyboard unless I've misunderstood?!
 
#137
Wow, my worst is really not so bad by comparison.

I recall a drummer who was fine as long as he didn't have one beer. Somewhere in the middle of the set he would have one beer, after which songs would get slower and slower and really just sort of drag down to a halt. Hmm...now in retrospect I wonder what he was washing down with that beer. Downers anyone? But I didn't know they took effect so fast...
 
#138
The drummer in my high school jazz combo right now. The (good) drummer who was supposed to be in my combo is in the useless Student Council thing, so we got stuck with this guy. He has no sense of tempo and timing, and doesn't listen to any of the other instruments, particularly me and the piano. Also a very disagreeable person in general, he never admits he is doing anything wrong, and shifts the blame to the pianist and myself. I have caught myself making timing mistakes, but none nearly as severe as his. We have been playing the same song for about two months now, and every time he slows down by literally 40 bpm or more. 10 bars into the song and the tempo is half what we started at. So, yesterday we took it slow to work on the timing of the horn sections, and the band director said "I won't yell at you today for slowing down because we're taking it slower," and he slowed down even more than usual. Everyday I just want to club him with a dead salmon until he keeps the tempo right.
 

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