C.M. Jones
Diamond Member
Hopelessly conventional . . .
With your permission, I might borrow "hopelessly conventional" at some point.
Hopelessly conventional . . .
Not always but often situated at the back of the stage looking at a wall of backs (of the singers/guitarists) during the gig.
"Life for me is a series of asses that I’m behind. Adrian’s got a very nice ass, slim. John Wetton’s is fat. Jon Anderson’s is very small. Nice legs, lousy ass. It’s a series of asses."
Run with it baby!With your permission, I might borrow "hopelessly conventional" at some point.
Listen, I don't need your useless passive-aggressive commentary, putting the worst possible interpretation on my posts.Why does this sentiment not surprise me?
Edited to add eyeroll.
Listen, I don't need your useless passive-aggressive commentary, putting the worst possible interpretation on my posts.
You've done this before. If you don't like what I say, put me on ignore. Or stop being a punk and say what you want to say.
Regardless of whoever's concept of balance, the engineer should be able to create a mix that favors the better output without having to be a drummer or a drum fan themselves.
Cure for that is to hit the singer hard with your stick every time he places his foot or anything of his on any of your drums or slaps your cymbals, slap him back in front of everyone, he'll learn. And yes the cowbell skit was not funny to me even the first time....
Just to clarify, since someone helpfully framed this as me saying I'm great and everyone else sucks, or whatever nonsense:One is that your musicianship is often targeted by mediocre non-drummers-- and mediocre drummers occasionally. You have to know you're doing the right thing-- timewise, volumewise, knowing where you are in the music-wise, etc-- and it's their perceptions that are screwed up. All good things to have your stuff extra-together on anyway...
There's also the general sense of inferiority bc other musicians speak a different language than I do, and the feeling I'm doing something easy while they're doing something hard-- again, mediocre players are the ones who vibe that.
Just to clarify, since someone helpfully framed this as me saying I'm great and everyone else sucks, or whatever nonsense:
These are things that happen to drummers in particular. Bad players will be happy to blame you for whatever is happening that they don't like. They'll blame you for their own failings. If the other musicians aren't real confident and weren't thinking about it, they'll think maybe the guy's right, and they lose confidence in you.
It happens more among amateurs and students than among professionals, and more when you're an assertive player. It's a "curse" in the sense that it would be nice if people would just play and not be like that, but it does give you a strong impetus to get your stuff together and really know what's going on, esp with those easy topics for complainers.
The EGO quotient is off the charts. too! I gigged in one Blues band for less than a year and that was too much for me. I met too many rank musicians who thought they were the shit! Musicially, never has so little been done by so many. The attitude towards drummers was demeaning. "Anybody can play drums; all they gotta do is just keep time." I loved playing out doing Jazz, Classic Rock, Reggae, and Funk. Blues? Pass the Ibuprofen please.church
this pretty much explains the "world" of every blues/open jam session I ever was a part of back in the day...and why I quickly left that scene
it also happens in the world of church gigs; community choir/band gigs etc....
there is a WHOLE LOT of judgement and "advice" coming from a demographic of people who should NOT be making that kind of commentary
It would be like me making ANY kind of commentary at a basketball game...I know that there are 2 hoops on the court and that Micheal Jordan played it....
I don't condone hitting a woman, my own mother was abused until (at 5 years old) I took my father's gun and held it against him told him that if he hit my mother one more time I was going to kill him... that was the last time he ever hit her... that said, women abuse that fact because they know that a guy will get arrested if he so much as raises his hand , but there are ways to correct bad behaviour without violence...but either way if you have to get to that you are in the wrong relationship anyway. my wife and I have not had a single argument in the 7 years that we have been married, my prior wife (of 14 years) we had some bad arguments and I hate to argue so I just walk away. but I am by no means a pushover, I stand my ground if I need to.well...this particular guy took care of himself by getting arrested for beating on his GF and like 10 years of back child support...
According to Jordan Peterson, that's the entire key to getting your life together. <looks about for the sarcastic font underlined in facetiousness>I'll go clean my room.
A number of years ago I happened to sit next to Joe Locke on an airplane flight (he was reading an issue of Downbeat BTW).There several curses that come to mind; first being ton of gear to always lug around
I don't condone hitting a woman, my own mother was abused until (at 5 years old) I took my father's gun and held it against him told him that if he hit my mother one more time I was going to kill him... that was the last time he ever hit her... that said, women abuse that fact because they know that a guy will get arrested if he so much as raises his hand , but there are ways to correct bad behaviour without violence...but either way if you have to get to that you are in the wrong relationship anyway. my wife and I have not had a single argument in the 7 years that we have been married, my prior wife (of 14 years) we had some bad arguments and I hate to argue so I just walk away. but I am by no means a pushover, I stand my ground if I need to.
A number of years ago I happened to sit next to Joe Locke on an airplane flight (he was reading an issue of Downbeat BTW).
If we think drums are a pain to lug here and there, he was telling me about hauling his vibraphone around in the early days just to jam. Whew!
I tend to agree with this. There have been numerous times I wished I'd fallen in love with a quieter instrument.Volume is The Curse.
I have stopped playing multiple times over the years because of noise issues. Even now that I own a detached single family home I’m still very conscious of my family and neighbors. Very few of us get to noodle away on our drum kits late into the night like our guitar playing friends. Other instruments share this curse to some degree (brass?) but drums take it to the next level of frustration.
We also need to protect ourselves from the volume. So we take a beautiful sounding instrument, one in which we argue the nuisances of wood, heads, sustain, what cymbal so and so played on that one recording etc etc and then, if we’re smart, we muffle the crap out of it with industrial hearing protection. My guilty pleasure is when I sneak in playtime without my headphones. That my friends is a curse.