Who do you listen to while playing?

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deltdrum

Senior Member
I was thinking about this during rehearsal the other night. I personally am always switching between who I'm consciously listening to throughout a song.

My written part for a song differs wildly depending on who I happened to lock into when I was coming up with a part. I'd love to say that I'm 100% aware of the whole group as a musician, and maybe I am (I feel like I pick up on sour notes and what not) but I know that sometimes I'm just off in my own world.

Do you have a certain person in the band you lock into? I know that the standard seems to be the bass player, but I've had times where I draw more influence for a piece based off of the rhythmic cadence of the vocals, or even a dynamic horn line that happens to cater to the main riff in a nice way.

It's sort of a weird question, but I'd love to hear how, when, and to who you guys open your musical ears up to in a playing scenario.
 
This is an extremely important question!

I'm in a band. I watch and listen to the lead singer who is the band leader. He is constantly giving us hand signals as to what is coming next.
Including the breaks in the songs. He also counts off the tempo to the songs.

When I play at open mic jams it's a little different story. I watch the lead singer for signals. And I listen to the singer and the lead guitar player.
When the song starts I watch and listen to the bass player for a little while to make sure we are locking in.
It is important to watch and listen to everyone in the band at jams.
The worst thing you can do as a drummer is retreat into your own world while playing and not have eye contact with the other players.
Usually all you see is their butts. However as drummers we need to watch and listen to everything that is going on.


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I find myself listening to whoever is doing the important stuff: the stuff that is that bit different from everything else that's going on. If somebody changes their dynamics, I change mine (and when I change mine, I like it if everybody else changes theirs too). If somebody accents something, I accent it in some way too. If the guitar does a twiddly bit, I might put in a little drag to complement it. Sometimes I even shut up ;)

This is precisely why it's so much fun, because although I know broadly how and what I'm going to play, if one person makes a small change to what I'm expecting them to do, it gives the rest of the band all sorts of opportunities to complement it in some way.
 
I try listen to the entire band, with a healthy respect for the vocals, which is actually the lead instrument in a band with a singer. But I probably take most of my direction from the rhythm guitar or bass, or keys. It depends on the song and the vibe. I don't think there's a hard rule that applies to playing in bands, or even within the same group of players. Each song may dictate something different to guide me.

Bermuda
 
Being in an original band I expect everybody to follow me. There are no on the fly changes, no changes in the composition, no random solos in the middle of songs. The songs are played as they are recorded so I just play the parts, expecting the band to follow my tempo. The one exception is that I need to hear the vocals. Our singer has a great voice, but terrible timing, so he has a habit of missing his marks, meaning a 12 bar verse becomes a 16 bar verse as we have to wait for the next turnaround for him to come in. So as long as I can hear the vocals I can get through a show.

Another factor is that we play a lot of places where there is only one or two monitors, and those are needed for vocals. It requires adaptation and the ability to play the songs in a vacuum if necessary.
 
It's going to depend on the style of the song, the genre of music, the groove, et cetera.

In jazz, for instance, there is not a lot of playing in the pocket, and more interplay, so we listen to everyone at the same time, or whoever is taking the head.

In Rock/Pop, usually there's a lead instrument (most likely vocals) that everyone in the band locks onto, then click into a groove/pocket.

These aren't set in stone. I've played some spacey rock music that didn't have a pocket, and I've played some cabaret style jazz that did have a pocket. The important thing is that you are flexible, able to listen to all members, and know who the leader is.
 
I am aware of the vocals/lead , I watch the vocals/lead but I mostly listen to the bass. Others have a tendency to rush and it doesn't work for me.
 
Depends on the song or even where in the song. I always try to lock in to bass or rhythm guitar, but shift focus to vocals or lead as required.
 
I try to listen to everyone, but I find myself taking most cues from the rhythm guitarist, both when it comes to creating drum tracks and when we play.

It's probably because my other main instrument is guitar, or possibly because I grew up listening to so much guitar-riff based music. Hard to say.
 
It's all one thing for me. The whole band and vocals are part of the plan in my mind and I react to them as one thing. When learning or developing a new song, I'll tend to listen more to the bass guitar so I can somewhat match up my bass drum pattern to the roots.
 
In my 3pc band, I listen to both guys actively, but I hold my ground and set the pulse.

I hone in mostly to the bass player, who happens to be the singer also, so it's easy. Me and the bassplayer are always locked in, we don't even have to think about it anymore. The guitarist is tricky, but I also hone in to make sure that I never step on the vocals or guitar solos with anything that could interfere rhythmically or frequency-wise. I believe when you have lots of cymbals (voices) like I do, you need to be careful and in good taste.
 
Listen to the Bass & Rhythm guitarist ONLY. Vocalist can do one!!!!
 
Whoever is leading. In my world, the drummer backs up whoever has the floor. Vocal trumps everything, soloists take the rest. Bandleaders or persons who are paying me can also trump if they force the issue.
 
Lead vocalist/lead, locked with bass and rhythm guitar. Ample mix of keys.
 
In my band, I am the lead vocalist and drummer. I try to listen to the bass and guitar, bass for groove and guitar for chords to make sure I sing as close to the correct note as I can. But in some of our tunes, I listen to the horns because I will tend to rhythmically "punch" some of their parts.

The Leslie for the organ is usually right next to me, so I can't help but hear the Hammond.
 
In my Lady Gaga band, I'm the band leader, so I have to listen to everybody during rehearsal, to make sure nobody fucks up or I can offer corrections to mistakes in the music (I'm also the arranger).

Although during performance, I listen to the singer, because she's the primary driver of the songs, and if she happens to come in on a verse 4 bars later than normal, we have to compensate.
 
Hi Deltdrum, very nice question and interesting one. When I started out I ran the rhythm guitar and lead vocals through my monitor. Then when we went to three piece, it was base and vocals. For some reason it took awhile working with the base but it came around. Now it’s the melody of the song and vocals. The count off is what we rehearsed it at and who ever sings the song counts in and I lock into. After learning a new song or songs and putting them into our set, usually after one or two shows everyone’s parts are fine. So you could say I listen to everyone in the band and they lock into my timing.
 
I don't think I single anyone out when playing along. I'm like a regular Joe music consumer listening broadly to the whole thing and responding to the overall sound.

Vocals are important to pay attention to of course, since they often define the general road map, but it's not always desired for everyone to come down when the vocals come in - like when the band is ramping up to some climax, vocals might then add to the cacophony, so you wouldn't want to back off when vocals suddenly appear in that case.

It really depends on how songs are constructed, though. Typically vocals set the arrangements, but not always - I've been in more than one band where the music was set first with vocals coming last, almost as an afterthought.

It's common for drums and bass to lock in, but again, that's not always set in stone. For example, bass doesn't always have as much rhythmic definition as say, guitars, especially if the bass signal has hair on it (fuzz), so guitars might be the accompaniment in case like that. One of my current bands sort of operates that way.
 
really depends on the band and the song. In cover bands I tend to listen to a lot of the lead guitar and vox. In my own projects usually bass and rhythm guitar

again, it depends on the project. For certain recording dates i'll kind of just blank everything out in my except for the click.
 
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