Larry
"Uncle Larry"
On Sunday nights, I am part of a 3 piece house band that does an open mic Blues jam. Naturally I get to see the local drummers play, as they use my set.
I just thought I'd share everything that this one guy was doing to give drummers a bad name. Let's call him Dick. Now Dick is not a beginner, I wouldn't cut into a beginner.
First off, when the song was counted off, and Dick fell in, immediately the tempo dragged and stayed dragged. The time felt like it had a 50 kilo weight dragging behind it. The time wasn't bouyant and energizing. This was enough to kill the song right there, but that wasn't enough, Dick was out to really demoralize the tune.
Let's see, his bass drum was barely heard, more than I can say for his backbeat. Talk about your limp handed backbeat. Ugh. You could see the motion, (trad grip) but you couldn't hear his snare hits. His cymbals however were quite present. Not overly, thank someone, but enough to stick out in a bad way. His sonic balance was way off. No concept whatsoever of a popping snare and controlled cymbals with a good solidly played kick.
Way too many fills. Not even good fills, just..."Oh I'll do a (reverse) ascending tom roll in the middle of this verse, because technically, it will fit. No regard to the singer on mic, or the guy trying to build their solo. His fills were limp handed and unconfident to boot. The fills were a little louder than his backbeat, because unfortunately, you could hear them. Stupidly played flat flams (he used these a lot) at the most unexpected (not good sounding) places. Basically, he used 75% of the song so he could play all these stupid noodley fills. Needless to say the concept of groove hadn't yet occurred to this man. I'm thankful he wasn't a hard hitter or it really would have been atrocious.
The man was in his own world. The leader, a tall man who is a total pro concerning stage signaling, (and everything else) turned his entire body fully around to cue the drummer about an upcoming stop, (because he knew the drummer would be out to lunch) but the drummer wasn't mentally with the others, I think he was in Bora Bora or Uzbekistan or someplace. He missed the cues, and missed the stops. So the band takes another lap around the chord progression and they finally get this guys attention, and he did do the stops finally.
At this point, he was being laughed at by the leader, who was shaking his head and smiling as if saying "Ay yi yi" (Oh yeah, it's brutal. you'd better be able to pull your weight with this guy or suffer the embarrassment)
Just to give Dick enough rope to hang himself, the leader decided to give him a drum spot. The whole band stops at the appropriate time.
Nothing. Dead silence.
Dick didn't realize he was getting a spot. Finally after a very pregnant pause, he get's it and goes into this limp, crappy, thing...I don't know what you would call it, but it was as appealing as a fresh pile of steaming doggy poo. I just felt like wearing a dress afterwards lol
Then came the ending of the song, which of course he muffed and there you have it. He covered all the major pitfalls in one song. With 2 more to go! The man was a crash course of what NOT to do. Teachers could use a vid of Dick to illustrate the major pitfalls.
When I got back on my drumkit, my sticks started wailing on me, and my drums cursed me out lol.
This guy totally embarrassed the family.
Just thought I'd share, and remember...
Don't be a Dick.
I just thought I'd share everything that this one guy was doing to give drummers a bad name. Let's call him Dick. Now Dick is not a beginner, I wouldn't cut into a beginner.
First off, when the song was counted off, and Dick fell in, immediately the tempo dragged and stayed dragged. The time felt like it had a 50 kilo weight dragging behind it. The time wasn't bouyant and energizing. This was enough to kill the song right there, but that wasn't enough, Dick was out to really demoralize the tune.
Let's see, his bass drum was barely heard, more than I can say for his backbeat. Talk about your limp handed backbeat. Ugh. You could see the motion, (trad grip) but you couldn't hear his snare hits. His cymbals however were quite present. Not overly, thank someone, but enough to stick out in a bad way. His sonic balance was way off. No concept whatsoever of a popping snare and controlled cymbals with a good solidly played kick.
Way too many fills. Not even good fills, just..."Oh I'll do a (reverse) ascending tom roll in the middle of this verse, because technically, it will fit. No regard to the singer on mic, or the guy trying to build their solo. His fills were limp handed and unconfident to boot. The fills were a little louder than his backbeat, because unfortunately, you could hear them. Stupidly played flat flams (he used these a lot) at the most unexpected (not good sounding) places. Basically, he used 75% of the song so he could play all these stupid noodley fills. Needless to say the concept of groove hadn't yet occurred to this man. I'm thankful he wasn't a hard hitter or it really would have been atrocious.
The man was in his own world. The leader, a tall man who is a total pro concerning stage signaling, (and everything else) turned his entire body fully around to cue the drummer about an upcoming stop, (because he knew the drummer would be out to lunch) but the drummer wasn't mentally with the others, I think he was in Bora Bora or Uzbekistan or someplace. He missed the cues, and missed the stops. So the band takes another lap around the chord progression and they finally get this guys attention, and he did do the stops finally.
At this point, he was being laughed at by the leader, who was shaking his head and smiling as if saying "Ay yi yi" (Oh yeah, it's brutal. you'd better be able to pull your weight with this guy or suffer the embarrassment)
Just to give Dick enough rope to hang himself, the leader decided to give him a drum spot. The whole band stops at the appropriate time.
Nothing. Dead silence.
Dick didn't realize he was getting a spot. Finally after a very pregnant pause, he get's it and goes into this limp, crappy, thing...I don't know what you would call it, but it was as appealing as a fresh pile of steaming doggy poo. I just felt like wearing a dress afterwards lol
Then came the ending of the song, which of course he muffed and there you have it. He covered all the major pitfalls in one song. With 2 more to go! The man was a crash course of what NOT to do. Teachers could use a vid of Dick to illustrate the major pitfalls.
When I got back on my drumkit, my sticks started wailing on me, and my drums cursed me out lol.
This guy totally embarrassed the family.
Just thought I'd share, and remember...
Don't be a Dick.
