Channing
Member
I’ve been playing drums for a year and a half, and the band I’m in now, I’ve been playing with since May. Our set list was 10 songs- 7 original and 3 covers. They had played shows before with their previous drummer, but this was the first one since he moved away six months ago. I didn’t really know what to expect, or how I would feel. I kind of found this band by accident, I had posted on craigslist just looking for people to jam with and they invited me over and we played and my drumming was a really good fit for their music. We rehearsed right before and I freaked out at some point and forgot how to play drums. At the beginning of one of the cover songs there’s a lead in with just keeping time with my hi hat foot, then a pause, then this fill that goes into the main groove. I kept messing up the fill. I would take the pause then have no idea when to come back in. It was the weirdest feeling, I’ve played that song a hundred times and never messed that up before. We restarted the song like four times and I think the bassist was starting to freak out too, haha. So I got a beer and just took a couple breaths and then I remembered how to play it.
When we got to the venue and I set up my drums, we did a sound check and everything was great except my smallest rack tom was just way out of tune and I couldn’t figure out why. I had gotten my friend to tune my drums for me like a week ago to get ready and they sounded great yesterday morning. I don’t actually know how to tune drums because I’ve never really tried, but my friend who’s a drummer was there so I went and got him to tune it for me. Later when we were breaking everything down we realized that the reason it sounded like that is because it was upside down and I played the entire show on the reso head, so that’s fun.
When we went up to play, I was a little nervous but we just went right into it and started playing our first song. I messed up a little on one of the changes but no one seemed to really notice. Then we went straight into the second song, which also felt pretty good and I started to relax. The third song I actually felt like I was playing everything perfectly and even being sort of musical about it and getting the dynamics and stuff right. After that, I was the only one who remembered the set list. Every time we would end a song, either the lead guitarist or the bassist would just name a random song from our set because they had no idea what we were supposed to be playing, but luckily I remembered and I just kept calling out the songs every time to remind them.
I sort of went into this trance where I was just playing drums, it was amazing, I can’t even really describe it or how beautiful my drums looked under the stage lights, or how it felt to look out into the crowd and see all these faces, everyone was watching and listening attentively it seemed. Maybe 50-100 people showed up so it was a decent crowd. I wasn’t thinking about anything except what the next part was coming up, and which parts I should go kind of softer or louder, whether or not to choke the crashes, just generally really focused on the music and sometimes watching my band mates for little cues so we could all make sure we were together. At no point did I feel like the tempo was wrong or that we were all over the place, it all felt really tight and solid. It was great, I can’t wait to do it again.
After we got off stage I could tell my band mates were really happy with our performance, they all said it was their best show ever. We made $120 that we’re going to keep saving from every show so we can record an album eventually.
When we got to the venue and I set up my drums, we did a sound check and everything was great except my smallest rack tom was just way out of tune and I couldn’t figure out why. I had gotten my friend to tune my drums for me like a week ago to get ready and they sounded great yesterday morning. I don’t actually know how to tune drums because I’ve never really tried, but my friend who’s a drummer was there so I went and got him to tune it for me. Later when we were breaking everything down we realized that the reason it sounded like that is because it was upside down and I played the entire show on the reso head, so that’s fun.
When we went up to play, I was a little nervous but we just went right into it and started playing our first song. I messed up a little on one of the changes but no one seemed to really notice. Then we went straight into the second song, which also felt pretty good and I started to relax. The third song I actually felt like I was playing everything perfectly and even being sort of musical about it and getting the dynamics and stuff right. After that, I was the only one who remembered the set list. Every time we would end a song, either the lead guitarist or the bassist would just name a random song from our set because they had no idea what we were supposed to be playing, but luckily I remembered and I just kept calling out the songs every time to remind them.
I sort of went into this trance where I was just playing drums, it was amazing, I can’t even really describe it or how beautiful my drums looked under the stage lights, or how it felt to look out into the crowd and see all these faces, everyone was watching and listening attentively it seemed. Maybe 50-100 people showed up so it was a decent crowd. I wasn’t thinking about anything except what the next part was coming up, and which parts I should go kind of softer or louder, whether or not to choke the crashes, just generally really focused on the music and sometimes watching my band mates for little cues so we could all make sure we were together. At no point did I feel like the tempo was wrong or that we were all over the place, it all felt really tight and solid. It was great, I can’t wait to do it again.
After we got off stage I could tell my band mates were really happy with our performance, they all said it was their best show ever. We made $120 that we’re going to keep saving from every show so we can record an album eventually.