What’s the best way to deal with a drummer who plays too slow?

[garp]

We do an original arrangement of Take me to the River that I brought in with me from another band I was in, which is actually a bit faster than the original Al Green version. In the drummer's mind, Talking Heads did the only version of that song, so for months he tried to start it slowly, driving me and the other singer nuts.

Excellent example. The tune is great at either tempo – and anywhere in between – but given that the drummer was only familiar with Heads' rendition, I can certainly understand how pig-headed he must've been.

 

[LBS-bass]

Excellent example. The tune is great at either tempo – and anywhere in between – but given that the drummer was only familiar with Heads' rendition, I can certainly understand how pig-headed he must've been.

Yeah, theirs is a long way away from Al Green. I have a video of it up on YouTube and it's clear that he's really embraced the faster arrangement now, but it took a while to get him to understand what I was going for.

 

[Gougedeye]

Use the real recording as a reference and set the tempos for all of your songs. Get a metronome to keep the beat. Use a click track.

 

[diegom]

Oh... Another Russian Dragon has been discovered!

 

[svlilioukalani]

Drummers are simple primitive beasts. Their capacity for learning has been diminished by all the pounding they do. It's like the shaken' baby thing. The only thing that will speed this guy up is Meth. And then you will need to fire him cause of the meth habit. It may be helpful and cheaper to politely let him know verbally before spiking his drinks with the meth.

 

[Frank77]

...hpf?

 

[Evanforbass]

as one first commenter said, pull him aside and shoot straight. and part of shooting straight is being real about consequences for a. failure to execute his primary responsibility, and b. unwillingness to change/grow.
If a line cook consistently burns burgers on the grill, and wont adhere to the suggestion of using a meat thermometer, well s/he wont have that job for long (insert other analogy)

 

[EdO.]

Have him play to a visual metronome at practice.

That or a click track. If he won't get on board with that you need another drummer. Period.

 

[MasterG]

Besides the tempo how are the rest of his drumming skills? I played a solo sequenced gig about ten years. My internal clock couldnt handle dragging drums. Fire him if he doesnt want to carry his weight. Let him go drag another band down.

 

[lermgalieu]

I agree with firing the drummer

 

[Element Zero]

 

[Nevada Pete]

Have him play to a visual metronome at practice.

Nothing wrong with using a metronome to set the tempo when playing live. Seen lots of big acts do it. You just can't see it from the audience. You have to be on stage. They use the strobe function and maybe tap their sticks together lightly on the last two lead in beats.

Now, with the IEM's, there queus's and click tracks piped in for the drummer, and the other musicians that nobody else but them can hear. No reason for your problem to have to happen at all. Except for lack of awareness of faltering timing on the part of your drummer. There's no technology that will fix that. You could try playing a recording of your band to the drummer. Whether your drummer will acknowledge the problem even if it's played back to him on a recording is anybodies guess. Something like that would be a deal breaker for me, personally.

 

[EdO.]

Nothing wrong with using a metronome to set the tempo when playing live. Seen lots of big acts do it. You just can't see it from the audience. You have to be on stage. They use the strobe function and maybe tap their sticks together lightly on the last two lead in beats.

Now, with the IEM's, there queus's and click tracks piped in for the drummer, and the other musicians that nobody else but them can hear. No reason for your problem to have to happen at all. Except for lack of awareness of faltering timing on the part of your drummer. There's no technology that will fix that. You could try playing a recording of your band to the drummer. Whether your drummer will acknowledge the problem even if it's played back to him on a recording is anybodies guess. Something like that would be a deal breaker for me, personally.

We use both - strobe and click track to IEM's. Plus our drummer is top notch. No worries.

 

[JRA]

What can we do to get him to play at the right speed?

exactly what you wanted to do in order to fix it.

"I’m not playing with a metronome."

he's probably intimidated by the thought of a steady click because he hasn't practiced that skill...you should practice with him + metronome until he 'gets it'. if he's not irish he should pick it up quickly! good luck!

 

[jchrisk1]

he’ll hand me the sticks as if to say, don’t tell me how to play drums

Nothing pisses me off more than someone doing this. Whether it's a drummer, guitarist, saxophonist, etc. I always remind them that it's not my job to do their parts right, it's their job to do it right. I had a guitarist do that once, subtly. He was like, Hey why don't you play guitar on this with me? Okay. It came time to solo and he gave it to me, so I slayed it, and you could tell he was expecting something else so he could say something about me always telling him his parts weren't right. I'm no amazing guitarist, but I can play if need be.

 

[pcake]

Or give him some amphetamines...

 

[Oddly]

if he's not irish he should pick it up quickly! good luck!

OI !!! You mind explaining that comment, pal?

 

[pcake]

Thank you for your advise. I actually have many recordings of us playing and that’s how I confirmed just how slow he was playing on some songs. I thought maybe I was crazy or being just too nit picky. So one day after practice, I played back our recordings and tapped the tempo of what we were playing on an app that tells you what bpm your taps are. I confirmed I was not crazy. 15-20 too slow. I did relay my findings at the next practice when he played the same songs slow as ever, but didn’t actually demonstrate with the recordings and metronome. His response was, “it doesn’t really matter that much”. + or - 5, it doesn’t, but 15-20 it does. I suppose I’ll have to sit down and show him one on one, so he can hear it in black and white lol, but I’m pretty sure he’s not going to be receptive and won’t even let me finish.

did you point out that it mattered to you? i wouldn't talk about beats per minute, just that when a song is too slow it lacks energy and excitement.

is there a band leader? are these originals or covers?

your problem, as i see it, isn't that the drummer is too slow - or sometimes to fast. it's that he's hard-headed and doesn't care what the rest of the band wants.

 

[Pings Bass]

man tempo makes so much difference in audience engagement. 15-20 BPM is a huge difference. Who counts in? Can you count him in? Hum a few bars with finger snaps, then count in. I do that in my current group; the leader (vox/piano) tends toward really slow tempos, so I've taken it on myself to push things a bit. She's found that at higher tempos, she can simplify her piano playing and leave it to me and the drums to really drive the song. Win-win!

 

[fhm555]

If the drummer is not on board, it’s time to find one who is. Same with any other spot. It’s a joint effort and when it's not, you can muck about or move on. Your drummer has made it clear it is what it is, so now you must decide if you can live with that or not.