Long rant I just need to brain-dump and get some feedback.
timeline: My audition + 2 rehearsals so far.
Man I really want to like this new band, great singer, great guitarist, I enjoy the music (late 70s early 80s rock & pop covers) and good attitudes. They want to bring in a keyboardist and backup singer and it sounds like it will be a good group to gig with.
The thing is, the drummer… Nice guy but he appears to be brand new on the drums and has absolutely no natural feel for groove or timing. Overplays, no dynamics all hits are *PLAM PLAM POP BANG*. The meter is in constant rush & drag I mean like within each measure. It’s so hard to concentrate and just get a groove going. Fills are rushed & misplaced, sometimes looses the 1 or flips the 3 and the 1 and doesn’t realize it sounds off. Sometimes I just pause and correct for it which throws everyone off & other times I try to motion or establish some gestures when this happens to little avail. Any rhythm with a shuffle is way out of grasp.
I am no drummer but I think that he’s trying to dance before he has learned to walk. He does take critique pretty well and I am really trying to not be an jerk or a bully about it. I will mention “hey on this next one is it cool if I throw on a click? I think it will help us all tighten up.” “Cool no problem!” so I put it on, LOUD, and we are playing and he’s still rushing the click, like, lapping it and just happily plowing through as if it’s spot on and it’s even more confusing so I drop that idea. Or I’ll mention “hey how about a very simple backbeat to keep this simple & clean, we don’t have to try to reproduce all of the complex things going on with the record we just need to lay down a good steady beat that’s the #1 job everything else is secondary.” I do this as subtly as I can, like lean over and discuss as a rhythm section; But his reply usually seems to go toward “yeah I think I’ve almost got it I just need to get this song down. It’s kind of like a boom ba cha tap tap thing” like no man develop a steady basic 4/4 or 2/4 for now, forget the song.
I am pretty sure that everyone in the band is aware that the drummer is not great, but the problem is it’s a new band that the singer and drummer founded. I’m not sure how far the two go back or how good of friends they are. I’m the newest member so I don’t really have much of a say at this point. The guitarist has been in a project or two with the singer before so I think he’s just riding with this to see where it goes. Also the drummer has secured & is paying for the rehearsal space, which is great but also really kind of entrenches himself in the whole thing.
Here’s the other thing: I’m no pro myself, I am pretty solid and I think that I am good with staying in the pocket and playing to the song but also I’m late 30s and have only been playing a few years. I have played with a few bands for a couple years up until this point and my personal goal is to work with a gigging band (when/if that is ever possible considering the pandemic) but none of these bands actually ended up gigging for one reason or another (pandemic, lack of clear goal to do-so, been-there-done-that, etc). For this reason I don’t have a ton of music connections or opportunities and a lot of working bands understandably see this as a red flag that I don’t have any gigging experience and there are not a lot of 30/40 year old groups that haven’t been playing/gigging for 20 years already. So my only source of connections is hitting up CL & FB musicians-wanted groups.
Is there hope with this project / drummer? Should I cut and run? Can a drummer that is new and has a good attitude but seemingly has no natural rhythm come around in a few months? What would you do in this situation?
timeline: My audition + 2 rehearsals so far.
Man I really want to like this new band, great singer, great guitarist, I enjoy the music (late 70s early 80s rock & pop covers) and good attitudes. They want to bring in a keyboardist and backup singer and it sounds like it will be a good group to gig with.
The thing is, the drummer… Nice guy but he appears to be brand new on the drums and has absolutely no natural feel for groove or timing. Overplays, no dynamics all hits are *PLAM PLAM POP BANG*. The meter is in constant rush & drag I mean like within each measure. It’s so hard to concentrate and just get a groove going. Fills are rushed & misplaced, sometimes looses the 1 or flips the 3 and the 1 and doesn’t realize it sounds off. Sometimes I just pause and correct for it which throws everyone off & other times I try to motion or establish some gestures when this happens to little avail. Any rhythm with a shuffle is way out of grasp.
I am no drummer but I think that he’s trying to dance before he has learned to walk. He does take critique pretty well and I am really trying to not be an jerk or a bully about it. I will mention “hey on this next one is it cool if I throw on a click? I think it will help us all tighten up.” “Cool no problem!” so I put it on, LOUD, and we are playing and he’s still rushing the click, like, lapping it and just happily plowing through as if it’s spot on and it’s even more confusing so I drop that idea. Or I’ll mention “hey how about a very simple backbeat to keep this simple & clean, we don’t have to try to reproduce all of the complex things going on with the record we just need to lay down a good steady beat that’s the #1 job everything else is secondary.” I do this as subtly as I can, like lean over and discuss as a rhythm section; But his reply usually seems to go toward “yeah I think I’ve almost got it I just need to get this song down. It’s kind of like a boom ba cha tap tap thing” like no man develop a steady basic 4/4 or 2/4 for now, forget the song.
I am pretty sure that everyone in the band is aware that the drummer is not great, but the problem is it’s a new band that the singer and drummer founded. I’m not sure how far the two go back or how good of friends they are. I’m the newest member so I don’t really have much of a say at this point. The guitarist has been in a project or two with the singer before so I think he’s just riding with this to see where it goes. Also the drummer has secured & is paying for the rehearsal space, which is great but also really kind of entrenches himself in the whole thing.
Here’s the other thing: I’m no pro myself, I am pretty solid and I think that I am good with staying in the pocket and playing to the song but also I’m late 30s and have only been playing a few years. I have played with a few bands for a couple years up until this point and my personal goal is to work with a gigging band (when/if that is ever possible considering the pandemic) but none of these bands actually ended up gigging for one reason or another (pandemic, lack of clear goal to do-so, been-there-done-that, etc). For this reason I don’t have a ton of music connections or opportunities and a lot of working bands understandably see this as a red flag that I don’t have any gigging experience and there are not a lot of 30/40 year old groups that haven’t been playing/gigging for 20 years already. So my only source of connections is hitting up CL & FB musicians-wanted groups.
Is there hope with this project / drummer? Should I cut and run? Can a drummer that is new and has a good attitude but seemingly has no natural rhythm come around in a few months? What would you do in this situation?
