Drummer Cafe Community Forum

I have found that in the various bands I have been in, that the other players, for the most part, really don't pay much attention or care about what you play as long is it is the correct tempo, stays that way, and is not TOO busy.

I mean, you can do all sorts of change-ups on the bass drum, throw in all sorts of crashes, go from 2/4 to 1/3 on the snare (for a short while), play ride instead of HH, do triplets instead of 8th..etc. Heck, for most covers, you can do alot of things (not like the recorded version) and they won't even notice or care as long as it sorta fits the song.

Sure there are certain intros, fills and bridges that must be dealt with but often there is alot of room for "your own thing" as far as most bands go.

I remember once, asking the band leader a very detailed question about how he wanted me to handle part of a song; and the guy is looking at me like..WTF...and says, "hell, I don't care just play it -- those questions make me crazy".

Perhaps those guys are so busy with their own parts that it really doesn't matter to them what we do within some wide range of loose limitations.

Am I the only one seeing this? :)

OX

THE most important question/concern on the part of my bandmates:

uh, you got a cowbell for "Honky Tonk Woman"?

oh yeah, and guess who gets the dirty looks when guitar player starts out too fast ...    ::)

I dont think its apathy about what you do as much as they-hired-you-for-a-reason.    I wouldn't bother having anyone in my band I didn't trust to not only come up with their own parts, but to come up with parts that worked for the song.   I can't imagine anyone else would either.

In the band I'm drumming in, I'm a late comer.  As such I do view the guitarist (and main songwriter) as the leader and will check in from time to time to make sure he's down with what I'm doing.   And on occasion he'll aske me to make a change, play something more lo-key, drop out for half a measure, etc.   And I'll comply or at least try it.   But I'll do that to him too on occasion too because he opened the floor for arrangement/writing ideas.

So no ... you aren't the only one seeing it, and I view it as a good thing.    ;D

I got a call from a guy I didn't know who was needing a sub drummer for a couple of weeks.  He said I was well recommended but wanted to know if I had a cowbell.  "Do I have a cowbell?"  "Does Clinton have a girlfriend?"  End of discussion, see you at the gig!   ;D  

Since I play in a big band that is reading charts, there is some expectation by the other members  that I do not rush fills and that solo breaks end with a recognizable figure to set them up for the 1st bar following the break. The rest of it is up to me.  

Roger

I usually have a lot of lattitude.  But certain tunes have certain parts that need to be played a certain way.  For popular/recognizable tunes like that I try to stick to the basics.  There are plenty of other tunes I can 'make my own'.

For covers i play as close to th original as possible. I let loose creatively on my own songs.

My experience with covers is that almost anybody plays exactly as in the records, so sometimes I need to play it differently because it won't fit.

Guitar players (spacially) have their own view of how things should sound, so I try to lock with them more often than with the bass players.

Man, I'm sick of this happening, it happens to me all the time.  I finally told the band what I think at a recent rehearsal.  I said to our guitar player, "I can only play the tune as fast or as slow as you start it."

Why do these dorks insist that the only one on stage in charge of tempo is the drummer?

Anyway, to answer the original question.  Exept for the tempo battles, my bands pretty much leave me alone as far as what I play.

There are 9 other people in my band and I'm pretty sure the bass player is the only one who actually pays attention to my playing.  

 :(

Play LOUDER. They will have little choice but to pay attention to you.

 ;)

Ox, you have consistently good threads.

Bands always seemed to care the most about tempi in my case.

I have consistently tried and still keep trying to maintain the best groove I can whenever I play.  It wasn't always like that and it is something I still work on.

I got a backhanded compliment from my last bands guitar player about my tempo keeping just yesterday *head expanded to monstrous porportions- then it was popped in the egg beater thread*

Aside from that, as long as I never dropped a beat and hit the changes no one cared what fills I played.  Subsequently,  I was never a person to overplay much (but have and always ended up regretting it.)

In my experience, the more theory the other musician understands, the more they will pay attention to your every little detail. I haven't played with too many people, but the ones i hvae played with are quite a mix of people. My brother use to not understand how to even keep time, but over the past year he has been getting mroe and more into theory, and now i hear him tell me a lot that he thinks this or that would match better. It's actually nice, because sometimes i can't choose between two things and he can be the final say and either way i'm happy. But the friends of mine who just play for fun, they just say keep time and have fun. Just my experience though.

Hmmm...I honestly don't know.  ??? Other than staying within the form of the song..
But, they hired me for some reason   ;)

For DRWM, We had a piano player some years back and when we got him he was used to playing alone and as such he set his own tempo and went fast or slow to satisfy his abilities. This could not happen in our band. Each song went a certain way and tempo and I set the tempo. Each guy depended on this and was one of the main reasons for a drummer. After banging on this piano man for a few gigs, I got a little  unnerved as did the other guys. After almost waisting a BD head to keep him in Tempo, I had a short conversation with him to let him know he was not following what I was laying down. I understood his problem, but he had to over come it. There after he was with the tempo set. Sounds like you have a similar situation with your band. They may not be off, but they may be depending on you to keep them straight. As far as the original question, our band doesn't care what I put in as long as it fits. I try to with the original from the song if it's some thing that really clicks. I feel you almost have to do that. If it's some thing we've played for a number of years, I'll go with what feels right to me and make sure everyone knows when my back is coming to an end. So far no problems. Sorry for taking off on the other part.

yeah, that's why I quit my last band....  ;D

About 12 years ago I was in a band with a guy who took this to a ridiculous extreme.  We were in the process of writing a new song and he didn't really like what I was doing in the chorus.  So he had my try out basically every rhythm idea I had in my arsenal.  Finally, after he had halted practice for two hours for this, he decided he could live with my original part afterall.  Boy, I wanted to throttle him something bad.  Generally though I try to do what makes the songs happy.  If the songs can't be happy then maybe the songwriters can be.

HEY!!!  

(in case you didn't know, The Luna Moth was Red's last band ... in which I played guitar)  (and I think in the 2 and a half years we played together I made two, maybe three suggestions ;) )  (smart alek)

And they were all quite appropriate!  Never leave me to my own devices.

I definitely believe that it could be that the other band member dont pay much attention to the drum groove because they are to concerned with their own part and not the song as a whole. It can also differ in the different styles of music. Such as in just a Classic Rock band as long as the drums are just groovin hard then band members wouldn't care compared to a Fusion band where the drums have a bigger influence or are involved more in the song.

Great post, OX!  

The guitar player in my band also happens to be a great drummer.  He hears EVERYTHING I do and will offer comments/suggestions about what I play.  Most of the time the comments are positive, but sometimes not.  

I appreciate that kind of input, though.  It really helps me to focus on the song.  In general, my band likes it when I take a less technical approach to our music.  

AHhh the thing I love about my new/current band is that they notice what I'm playing and i get compliments so that's cool. In my previous band no one really ever said anything, so I'd always rely on one of my mates for feedback.

i started the band, i play what i want. end of story.

From my experiences, it really depends on the situation.  

I've worked with some leaders who were happy with whatever went on in the rhythm section as long as we didn't step on the vocals.

Last year I worked with a funk band whose leader was a very good percussionist in his own right. He was very in tune with what actually makes a song groove and had very exact ideas of what he wanted me to play.  He would  suggest things like having me bring the tempos up in the chorus of a certain song, maybe letting things drag in another.  There were sections of songs where he would really want me to simplify things and other sections where he would want me to go a bit over the top.

He didn't really like what the drummer had played on his CDs so I could not use them as a reference.

Some of his ideas were counter-intuitive to a drummer but I was just a hired gun so I didn't argue with him.

I must say that after listening to a few gig tapes, he was pretty much right on. Those little suggestions made an appreciable difference in the end result.