Hi,
I'm a guitar player in a band (but I also play drums myself). In my band my drummer frequently hiccups during fills and then comes out of them upside down on the beat...meaning suddenly the snare is hitting on a count where the bass drum normally would and the bass drum is hitting on a count where the snare normally would. This obviously screws up the groove. This happens about once every practice or every other practice. When it happens, he typically doesn't correct...he just stays upside down on the beat and the rest of us have to purposely miss a beat and correct to him...which is super hard when I'm singing. Is this something that frequently happens to drummers? It has never happened to myself or any drummer I've ever seen playing in a band. The other members in the band say that when the beat suddenly goes upside down like this...it is up to the rest of us to hang on a note for an extra beat or skip a beat and correct to the drummer but I say the drummer should immediately correct and come back in on the right beat. Who's correct?
The other thing is that the drummer plays to a metronome click in his in-ear monitors. So when he ends up upside down...he's perfectly upside down but still right with the click. I sometimes think he isn't really listening to the rest of the band and is just listening to the click in his ear monitors because he'll occasionally start playing sections of songs a measure or two early...such as going to the chorus before the verse ends on songs that we've been playing a for quite a while. At our last show, he went upside down on the beat during one song...and afterwards mentioned that he didn't patch any of our amps into his ear monitors so he wasn't able to hear anything from the rest of us...so he just relied on the fact that he has all the sections of the songs counted out and sometimes just plays by just having all the counts memorized. Is it normal for drummers to just play without being able to hear the rest of the group? When I drum with other musicians I don't have anything counted out. I just listen to everyone else and know where I'm at in the song by just knowing how the song goes. I also never get upside down on the beat because I am listening to everyone else and just instinctively know where the bass drum and snare drum should hit by listening to the music going on around me. I would like to hear some professional drummers thoughts on these things. Am I right about this stuff or am I crazy?
I'm a guitar player in a band (but I also play drums myself). In my band my drummer frequently hiccups during fills and then comes out of them upside down on the beat...meaning suddenly the snare is hitting on a count where the bass drum normally would and the bass drum is hitting on a count where the snare normally would. This obviously screws up the groove. This happens about once every practice or every other practice. When it happens, he typically doesn't correct...he just stays upside down on the beat and the rest of us have to purposely miss a beat and correct to him...which is super hard when I'm singing. Is this something that frequently happens to drummers? It has never happened to myself or any drummer I've ever seen playing in a band. The other members in the band say that when the beat suddenly goes upside down like this...it is up to the rest of us to hang on a note for an extra beat or skip a beat and correct to the drummer but I say the drummer should immediately correct and come back in on the right beat. Who's correct?
The other thing is that the drummer plays to a metronome click in his in-ear monitors. So when he ends up upside down...he's perfectly upside down but still right with the click. I sometimes think he isn't really listening to the rest of the band and is just listening to the click in his ear monitors because he'll occasionally start playing sections of songs a measure or two early...such as going to the chorus before the verse ends on songs that we've been playing a for quite a while. At our last show, he went upside down on the beat during one song...and afterwards mentioned that he didn't patch any of our amps into his ear monitors so he wasn't able to hear anything from the rest of us...so he just relied on the fact that he has all the sections of the songs counted out and sometimes just plays by just having all the counts memorized. Is it normal for drummers to just play without being able to hear the rest of the group? When I drum with other musicians I don't have anything counted out. I just listen to everyone else and know where I'm at in the song by just knowing how the song goes. I also never get upside down on the beat because I am listening to everyone else and just instinctively know where the bass drum and snare drum should hit by listening to the music going on around me. I would like to hear some professional drummers thoughts on these things. Am I right about this stuff or am I crazy?