General Music Chat

Beware of the absolute, there is no one approach IMO that fits all personalities, for your drummer you have to device an approach based on his personality if he’s worth the effort.

I’ve always believed that the success of a band is determined by how successful personalities are managed by the band members more so than any other factors such as song writing, musical skills, good front man and other requisites needed to succeed.

I relate to your problem as to how drumming should be done, fills, rests, tabs serve a purpose in a song they mark the passage from a verse to chorus or to a bridge a solo or a turnaround or whatever, if a drummer adds to the fills the song requires he’s better be pretty good if he wants to get away with it without frustrating the rest of the band not to mention what he does to the song.

Wish I could help... but fact is there is no one way, nor a guaranteed method.

I've done the humor approach, its worked AND failed.
I've done the recording approach, it too has worked, and failed to work.

These days I blame myself, beat everyone to the punch and we review... last few times that has worked.

An example... Drummer was missing a crucial line in the song Heavy, just a little double pop on the snare during the chorus. If you listen to our recording on the myspace... its pre-remedy.

I screwed up the timing during that part of the song... blamed myself heavily (no pun on the song title) and said "lets listen to that part, see what I'm doing wrong". And during the pointed review to find MY mistake we discovered I was looking for a "landmark" that wasn't there.

Problem fixed itself after that. But I have a great Drummer. Wish I still had my Great Bass Player.

Just tell him what you told us.
That you want the singer to shine and be the focal point.
If that doesnt work then go with the KNOCK IT OFF ALLREADY.
If that doesnt work, then dive into his drum set and knock a bunch of shiat over.

RG and Phil are right on about bass and drums , that is the real backbone of a band. You got these locked and the question is a mute point.
Jimmy was great,,,, but much of it had to do with his band,and the great talent backing him.
I have an old video of Steve Vai, his drummer was not cutting it and it made all the other great talent around him look weak.
Drums ,Bass, You find two guys like RG and Philby and you got a great band.

For example: I don't know what it is with drummers, but they seem to be the biggest problem children when it comes to playing a song in what I consider "the right way". They always want to go nuts with too many fills and too many crashes during certain parts of songs when the vocals should shine instead.

Very interesting question.

As a drummer, when I jammed with my old band, it came natural to me to just keep the beat going, ( often a little lighter ) and do softer cymbal crashes when the singer was singing. It seemed like simple common sense.

But another guitar player told me that he was once trying to get a new band started, and one of the guys he auditioned just wanted to play a loud, continuous drum solo the entire time he played.

Weird...

I used to be too critical of everyone including myself. It's not worth worrying about really. Play your material IN FRONT OF AN AUDIENCE. If they are enjoying what you're doing then it's NOT BROKEN. If it's not broken don't fix it. I can pick apart all kinds of things. All that does is get people on edge and perhaps worse not want to play with you any more. At this point the only opinions that really count are the audience's. They'll let you know if the drummer is doing something wrong or YOU are doing something wrong...

I ended up sending a private e-mail to the drummer after the last rehearsal and I basically listed the songs and parts that needed to be fixed. I used the word "we" a lot. I would write something like, "We need to fix the end of this song because we quit too soon", etc.

Drummer came in and had almost all of the parts to those songs fixed this last practice. I was happy. He still overplayed on one song, but we're working on it. I think we'll be fine.

Cool.
Love me a happy ending.

I thought it was the guitarist job to overplay.

"I'm so sick and tired of the political discussions here and the constant back-and-forth between certain people. Ugh. Not going to do it anymore."

When I have issues like this, I always ask myself "WWSD?" (What would Sarah do?)



Good thing I never tried doing it with emails, CF. I don't typerate all that friendly, I think...

OK, as I have said before, I have been playing music for a long time.
The first thing that you must do: Get their attention. The thing that works for me,...slap-em twicked the face and eyes, aleast three times. If they try to show any resistance, beat-em severly about the head and shoulders. THEN, tell-em what you think. They'll listen.
Seriously, First and foremost, Bands and all musicians, should understand. WE are featuring the singer(.) !! Not the Drummer, Not the Lead guitar. They are the colors/music, for the song.

We are featuring the band.
Acapella is for featuring singers.

Just my take on the situation.

I have to agree fellas... honesty tempered w/a lil humor, and record your practice and review it mid way through so you can make some immediate progress.
Believe me, progress is the #1 motivator for a band!



"I know my sh*t stinks"

It's always good to sandwich your criticisms in between praises...

1) Praise
2) Criticism
3) Praise

Start off with a compliment... puts them in the right frame of mind. Then touch on the criticism, but then end with another compliment, to save them from a lingering bad feeling, or any potential embarassment.

Always hammer people in private if they need hammered.

Never deliver ugly shots as is, dress them in their Sunday best.

Try to human

Try to be understanding

definitely be firm

Only repeat yourself so many times, else someone is ignoring what you have said.

We are featuring the band.
Acapella is for featuring singers.

Just my take on the situation.

Of course sans, you don't have our singer

I really need to get some audio of her posted sometime...