Bad night tonight :(

JayJohnson777 said:
I saw a few videos of you playing and noticed you are a smaller guy. How does that affect your playing on a big bohnam set?
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The thing I'm still getting used to is that my rack tom is a little farther out to my right a bit. And the ride cymbal is a little farther to my left than normal (but since it's a 24" ride cymbal, I don't have a problem with that so much. I left my snare and floor toms where they would normally be comfortable for me. So nothing really changes, and my rack tom, although maybe a couple of inches farther to my right, is basically in a comfortable spot for me. It helped going back to the 14" hi-hats because then my hi hat foot wasn't reaching for the hi-hat stand as much as it does when I use my 17" hi-hats. I think I may compromise and find a pair of 15s because I think bigger hats slosh better.
 
I don't know anybody who doesn't have off nights. Anybody; on any instrument. Sometimes it's your fault, sometimes it's not. It should only be addressed as a problem if it keeps happening.

I sometimes tell the story of the one time I saw weckl live. He kinda sucked. You could see the bad mood on his face, and it came out in his playing... Missing cues, dragging fills, even got some weird looks from the bass player. Maybe it was lack of sleep, fighting with the band, or just bad mojo. He got through the gig, and I heard the next night he knocked it out of the park.
 
Don't know if this necessarily applies here, but the type of kit I play wildly influences how I play. For example, whenever I play on a large Bonham-style kit, I naturally tend to play just like Bonham. If I'm playing on a small bop kit, I tend to play like Elvin. (Well, not quite like Bonham or Elvin, but you get the idea.) So if I took a Bonham-esque kit to a gig that was anything other than hard rock, I'd naturally be out of my comfort zone because my tendency would be to play in that Bonham style, even if the music didn't warrant it. So even though the "newness" of the kit certainly could have been a factor, it might have also been the kit itself, only because it may have promoted a certain style of playing that wouldn't have normally come out at that gig.

Of course, if it was a hard rock gig (though calling it a "school gig" makes it sound like it wasn't), then I suppose you can just chalk it up to the newness of the kit and fuhgettaboutit.
 
Dr_Watso said:
I don't know anybody who doesn't have off nights. Anybody; on any instrument. Sometimes it's your fault, sometimes it's not. It should only be addressed as a problem if it keeps happening.

I sometimes tell the story of the one time I saw weckl live. He kinda sucked. You could see the bad mood on his face, and it came out in his playing... Missing cues, dragging fills, even got some weird looks from the bass player. Maybe it was lack of sleep, fighting with the band, or just bad mojo. He got through the gig, and I heard the next night he knocked it out of the park.
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I can understand that. And on the second night, I hit it out of the park too. So I'll end it there. The kit didn't make a difference because I'm the one playing it - I find it hard to play like someone else when I'm being hired to be me. And blaming it on the kit I think just sounds like a cop-out. It was total band vibe that was a little screwy. Once I brought it out into the open and re-staged our set-up on stage before the second night, at least when there were musical mistakes, that's all they were. It was clear what is unknown and what is known. The night before just came across as strange.
 
Bo Eder said:
I can understand that. And on the second night, I hit it out of the park too. So I'll end it there. The kit didn't make a difference because I'm the one playing it - I find it hard to play like someone else when I'm being hired to be me. And blaming it on the kit I think just sounds like a cop-out. It was total band vibe that was a little screwy. Once I brought it out into the open and re-staged our set-up on stage before the second night, at least when there were musical mistakes, that's all they were. It was clear what is unknown and what is known. The night before just came across as strange.
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Good. As I said, it's neither uncommon to have a bad night or wonder what's wrong with you when you do. Dwelling on it is where we start having issues.

After my bad evening and a couple of days of just relighting the fire at home (almost literally -- I have a couple of space heaters in the garage that I start up about 20 minutes before I actually go play), I had a great show on Sunday. We're human, we have down days. The trick is to have them any other day except days we're playing for money.
 
All the great drummers have bad nights or "off" times. Chalk it up to being human.
Totally kick butt the next gig! You know you can do it. WE know you can do it.

Go forth and conquer!
 
A wise man (me actually) once said, "wherever humans interact with other humans there is the capacity for greatness and chaos in equal measure". Now, I quoted that in relation to my day job as a social worker, but I think its equally, if not more, apt for drumming and bands.
 
bigiainw said:
A wise man (me actually) once said, "wherever humans interact with other humans there is the capacity for greatness and chaos in equal measure". Now, I quoted that in relation to my day job as a social worker, but I think its equally, if not more, apt for drumming and bands.
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I agree. I just hate that precarious feeling you get when you realize somebody else can ruin the vibe on the bandstand. It sucks.
 
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