What qualities do you want in a drummer?

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Basically a drummer the polar opposite of Lars (garden gnome) Ulrich
 
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LOL my cover band plays this song
It's a good song that used to be an overplayed standard but seems to have fallen by the wayside in the last 20 years. I was doing that one a few years ago but dumped it in favor of some lesser traveled stuff.
 
The dude I'm scared of volume wise is the guy who shows up with Zildjian Z's and American Rock Crusher sticks. That's the point where I start thinking about shoving a bit of cotton in my ear/s for protection. Those Z's could just about be un-mic'ed at a stadium gig. White noise.....

Yep, Z's are not made for finesse! LOL
 
the best of the best, vinnie c, dave w, steve g, stewart c, are not by default loud drummers, but can play loud when needed.

vinnie played with sting, megadeth, faith hill, zappa, jeff beck, chick correa, herbie hancock, robben ford, allan holdsworth….that is a great drummer.

i saw him at the baked potato playing with the mike landau trio and my seat was close enough to his kit to be able to touch his ride. it’s a small club and they were loud. i am totally anti bash when it comes to drums, but vinnie plays with authority and control. his dynamics are perfection. he played with intensity and had to change frayed sticks twice during the set but not once did i feel oppressed by his volume.

i can live without caveman guys who use big sticks swinging from the rafters with high tuned gunshot snares and fill every space with blacksmith anvil rides and white noise cymbals. played and mixed sound for those and it is not fun.

I miss the Baked Potato. Ah, those were the days.
 
Yep, Z's are not made for finesse! LOL
I think I lost more hearing in two years of playing bass with a blues-rock group where the drummer had a Z crash. Occasionally I can still hear that thing 25 years later, lol. A's and K's I love but Z's, man those are to be feared. Like jamming a steel wool covered icepick into your ear.

The drummer in my punk band uses all Z's 🤣
I'll bet you either have hearious searing damage or own a pricey pair of earplugs.
 
I'll bet you either have hearious searing damage or own a pricey pair of earplugs.

I have minor hearing loss in one ear (from being the same position stage right for 27 years) but we practice in a relatively large room, so it isn't that terrible unless he's really going for it with the cymbals.

If we ever play a tiny venue or something, I absolutely wear plugs

If you're practicing in a normal (tiny) room, everyone else better be wearing earplugs or else your drummer is a bitch
 
I have minor hearing loss in one ear (from being the same position stage right for 27 years) but we practice in a relatively large room, so it isn't that terrible unless he's really going for it with the cymbals.

If we ever play a tiny venue or something, I absolutely wear plugs

If you're practicing in a normal (tiny) room, everyone else better be wearing earplugs or else your drummer is a bitch
I've used stage right for about 15 years so when someone is whispering in my left ear I be like:
 
I think this goes for any member of the band but it boils down to respect. Respect the performance, the listeners, the venue and the other musician's effort they put it when you're not there.

I think if you have that base you tend to do the right things. Maybe these 3 things for drummers:

1. Practice with a metronome
2. Learn the whole song
3. Serve the song

From a guitarist's perspective I had a lot of anxiety for a particular cover because it was difficult so I put in lots of hours to get it ready for the performance. The drummer didn't practice and come gig night he couldn't keep a solid tempo, did the wrong fills, and rushed the whole thing when my solo came making it 10x more difficult. Singer forgot the words, other guitarist and the bassist had an ongoing volume battle all night.

Felt like a fool putting in so much effort. The lesson learned would be to make sure you play with people who know what you want to do (play loud in your case) and that you all are aligned. If its a paying gig and some people need the $$ you're the douche if you can't read the room and are unable to tone it down if needed. Don't take a quieter gig and go full ape knowing you dont want to play that way in the first place. Goes for everybody
 
Fresh outta high school I joined a ski circuit band that had been playing together for 5 years, replacing a bassist they had for 3 years. They were all 25-28 years old, I was just turning 18. They were definitely pro players. The drummer was the oldest and had his kit and technique down AF. He was so easy to line up with, totally in the pocket night after night. 200+ songs, different set list every night. Powerful kick, great snare technique. When you're doing all different genres of songs from The Romantics and Huey Lewis to Willy Nelson to Judas Priest and such, he had a different approach that fit them all. He was absolutely amazing.

After that, every other drummer I played with was bullshit. I watched Vince Abbott from the beginning and was always blown away by how solid he was. He was definitely a pro level player by the time "Projects" came out.

By 1986-87, I had started writing with the early drum machines like the Boss Dr.Rythym.
Now? Fuck drummers. In fact, fuck people altogether.
 
I think this goes for any member of the band but it boils down to respect. Respect the performance, the listeners, the venue and the other musician's effort they put it when you're not there.

I think if you have that base you tend to do the right things. Maybe these 3 things for drummers:

1. Practice with a metronome
2. Learn the whole song
3. Serve the song

From a guitarist's perspective I had a lot of anxiety for a particular cover because it was difficult so I put in lots of hours to get it ready for the performance. The drummer didn't practice and come gig night he couldn't keep a solid tempo, did the wrong fills, and rushed the whole thing when my solo came making it 10x more difficult. Singer forgot the words, other guitarist and the bassist had an ongoing volume battle all night.

Felt like a fool putting in so much effort. The lesson learned would be to make sure you play with people who know what you want to do (play loud in your case) and that you all are aligned. If its a paying gig and some people need the $$ you're the douche if you can't read the room and are unable to tone it down if needed. Don't take a quieter gig and go full ape knowing you dont want to play that way in the first place. Goes for everybody
To me, that sounds horrible. I can’t imagine what kind of attitude you must have, to put yourself in the spotlight and forget the lyrics or play wrong fills. The embarrassment alone would force me to practice my part.
It’s not like our stuff was crazy complicated, but what you are describing are absolute basics you should know or else you are going to look like an idiot on stage
 
umm dependable not a total drunk, like a little drug use it's fine,

not in 4 other bands because he/she is the only decent drummer to actually play with

had a guy like that, passed away early from a congenital disease, and was honestly one of the best i've ever played with

dude was all metal all the time but spread thin with 3 bands, so we jammed but uhhh yeah no time

so, not too much of a junkie/alcoholic, available, and metal, also easy to work with, and or is able to jam, in a metal style, or were really good drummers but had no interest in the things i was interested in playing

that's rare i think? i've had drummers not really able to play or keep up in not odd meter stuff, but odd accented stuff would be more appropriate

uhhh yeah miss the guy who passed way too early for normal people

but having had a double lung transplant because of cystic fibrosis he knew he had a time limit on his life,

made him interesting, knowing he had about 10 years or so, sucks that guy was solid, not just as a drummer good dude

edited again

another thing has a vision themselves and gives decent feedback or ideas for any part of the music

idk what else, probably plenty i haven't thought of and it's early currently so who knows what else, there again is plenty you'd want or would/could benefit from in a good decent drummer
 
If you tell me Niel Pert is your favorite drummer, I automatically know that you can't find the one on the way out of a fill. lol! If you tell me you're a Bonham guy... I know we're gonna have a good jam.

Neil Peart (well, Rush in general) used to be one of those things I'd bring up in a phone conversation. Anyone who disses Peart (or the band) can't play and I can just not bother with, while anyone who gets all slobbery about him (them) is going to overplay all the time for their own abilities. With drummers, I can have a pretty good feel for them just on how they talk about Peart. (May be less relevent now than when I was doing this way back.)
 
Fresh outta high school I joined a ski circuit band that had been playing together for 5 years, replacing a bassist they had for 3 years. They were all 25-28 years old, I was just turning 18. They were definitely pro players. The drummer was the oldest and had his kit and technique down AF. He was so easy to line up with, totally in the pocket night after night. 200+ songs, different set list every night. Powerful kick, great snare technique. When you're doing all different genres of songs from The Romantics and Huey Lewis to Willy Nelson to Judas Priest and such, he had a different approach that fit them all. He was absolutely amazing.

After that, every other drummer I played with was bullshit. I watched Vince Abbott from the beginning and was always blown away by how solid he was. He was definitely a pro level player by the time "Projects" came out.

By 1986-87, I had started writing with the early drum machines like the Boss Dr.Rythym.
Now? Fuck drummers. In fact, fuck people altogether.
The problem with being a musician is you have to deal with other musicians.

…edit… Every time I feel the itch to play with people again, it quickly subsides as all the memories come back of instances where the frustration easily outweighed anything positive.
 
The problem with being a musician is you have to deal with other musicians.

…edit… Every time I feel the itch to play with people again, it quickly subsides as all the memories come back of instances where the frustration easily outweighed anything positive.
I don't see the point in even playing guitar if I am not going to gig and work with others making music. It's a job, not fun and games. Jobs have downsides. I guess I always looked at it like a sort of career path so what other dumbass musicians do and think is irrelevant to what I'm doing.
 
 
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