Congratulations! It's good to hear that your gig turned out well. Keep up the good work! [img]cool.gif[/img]
For those of you who have been following my soap opera (see below for the earlier post).
So, we did the gig, and it turned out well (ended up with only three rehearsals). I had been a bit nervous about my stamina, but no real problems there ? lots of energy throughout. I was tired afterwards, of course, but went right through. We played something like 20 songs (many extended) with a short break halfway through. Had the energy for many more.
I had decided to play fairly straight head ? my reasoning was that I would rather do that and do well then try to be fancy and mess up. I found, though, that I as I went on, I could ramp up without difficulty.
No danger of being elected drummer of the year, and I?m sure that if drummers were listening, they would have heard mistakes, but I don?t think the citizens did. I had a couple of rough spots, but I was able to pull them out. The worst was during one of the few sequence-backed numbers. I have never played live to a back-up track and it was a challenge. I realized that we were starting to creep ? not sure whose fault it was (probably mine), but I knew I had to stop it. I also knew that it seemed to be impossible to do it abruptly ? so I just began to shift back for four measures to get up back on, and it worked. I am glad we only did a couple of songs with sequences, though.
The best moment (as far as I was concerned) occurred when the guitar player and leader decided to have just a bit of fun with me. We were going along and he looked over at me and said something like ?Let?s play like those old drummers used to play!? Everyone cut out - - and gave it to me. I wasn?t vocally miked or I might have done what Tommy Smothers did in one of the Smothers Brothers' routines. His brother called, ?Take it Tommy!? And he said, ?No. You take it!? I was, of course, not prepared for any solo, so I decided to just keep the groove with a bit more attitude, and then slowly fill around the beat. After awhile the bass came in with me, and then everyone. It actually sounded good, and big applause at the end. [img]smile.gif[/img] I also know that he trusted me to do well, and that feels good, of course.
All in all the guys sounded great -- what a blast, lots of fun.
Anyway, if I never play live again, I feel good that I could do it after all these years, and that it worked. However, I think we will play again, and I am happy!
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From a couple of weeks ago:
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So, I?m pretty happy about this. Some of you may remember (there?s actually no reason you should really, . . .) that I came on this board last year after laying out of drumming for years. I didn?t have a kit, kids, job, etc., etc. I always had sticks and played on my leg and pillow and such, and I always thought of myself as a drummer, although a drummer without drums.
Anyway, I started drumming again in earnest last year. My goals were (and are) modest. I have no goal to become the world?s greatest drummer or to win competitions (good thing, hey? ). I simply wanted to play for myself, and to perhaps play around locally. Have fun.
Well, I felt I was getting better, and getting back my drumming instincts. I started doing some recordings with friends and sounding not too bad.
Anyway, I have teamed up with some musicians and we have a low key gig in a week or so (private club). I have had a few rehearsals with them (they have been together for awhile, so I'm the new guy) and it seemed to go well.
I can?t tell you how good it felt playing with other people and getting ready for a date. I haven?t felt like that in years. Even when the rehearsals were through (after many hours), I didn?t want to stop.
For many of you who gig all the time, you might not realize what this feels like to me, but . . .
As I say, I am a bit psyched. I also want to say I appreciate the direct and indirect help I have received on this board over the last year.
Congratulations! It's good to hear that your gig turned out well. Keep up the good work! [img]cool.gif[/img]
Congratulations on the performance. Your review sounds great. Here's something I really recommend:
Do you have a recording of the performance? I would listen to that and really evaluate myself. I tend to sit down with pen and paper and note down stuff to improve. Believe me, it's rarely fun to listen to yourself but it's vital to improving. You'll be surprised how many mistakes you can pick out. Now I don't mean you in particular, but when you get a chance to revisit the material you really get a chance to listen to yourself. Give it a shot!
Right on man!!
Hopefully you'll get a chance to show your wears more often. Just curious?? How old are you and what caused you to not play for so long?? Kids?? Marraige?? Job?? Money??
Not sure what your situation is, but if you can practice your bands material (copy or original) several times during the week, for several hours at a time, you'll eventually internalize it. And as many have said here, come to the point you'll "own it"!! Once you "own" what you're doing, it's all icing on the cake from there.
I too am not thrilled about playing to sequencers. I think they're lame. But I guess if you've got a bunch of cool stuff sequenced to make the band sound fuller/larger.... thats cool.
Your comment about just playing "time" is so so true. Many times when I go to play at a jam night somewhere or whatnot, I try to focus on locking in with the bass player and the rest of the band. I try to settle into a HUGE pocket. Somthing that was pounded into me since childhood... GROOVE GROOVE GROOVE. And there again, once you settle into it, you'll find that "stretching out" feels alot more comfortabe and flowing.
Thing I hate the most is when you're playing with a group of guys and one or several of the members are "pushing" or "pulling" the "time". Nothing like having a bunch of percussive musicians that also have a really good foudation of where the time is.
Post some of your gig if you can!!
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Dig.Your comment about just playing "time" is so so true. Many times when I go to play at a jam night somewhere or whatnot, I try to focus on locking in with the bass player and the rest of the band. I try to settle into a HUGE pocket. Somthing that was pounded into me since childhood... GROOVE GROOVE GROOVE. And there again, once you settle into it, you'll find that "stretching out" feels alot more comfortabe and flowing.
Right you are, Joe's. There's only a few things worse than having [or listening to-] a drummer sit in who fills the end of every bar or so with just dumb drumistic stuff [AKA, "unmusical-accompaniment"], ESP if it's an unfamiliar tune for him/her. [img]graemlins/hmmm.gif[/img] [img]frown.gif[/img] [img]eek.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/sure.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/thumbs_down.gif[/img] [Obviously I'm not talking about "Wecklisms," either;c)]. And they won't be getting "the call" anytime soon after that either. I [& everyone else on the bandstand] would rather hear the phat pocket in this case AW.
<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ March 28, 2005 04:18 PM: Message edited by: fuseU1 ]</font>
Good comments as always.
We didn't record the gig -- I too an a big proponent of going over something like that to learn and grow.
In this case, I am kind of glad I don't have it. My thinking goes like this -- it was a real confidence booster. I know I made mistakes that I would hear. And right now I am enjoying the confidence. [img]smile.gif[/img]
On the second gig, I will record it and go note by note.
Start practicing with a click track, or even better, a recording of the sequences the band uses. You need to be able to hang onto the beat as tightly as possible. You may want to simplify your fills, or avoid them entirely on the sequenced tunes since you're probably rushing them. You might also want to work up a simple solo in case they call it again. I too make notes on set breaks (or after the gig) on things I missed and want to catch next time. Good luck!
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I do practice with a click, and I do practice with the sequence. I honestly don't know what happened -- I don't think anyone in the audience noticed really -- but we did. I'm not even positive if it was my fault -- perhaps it was.Start practicing with a click track, or even better, a recording of the sequences the band uses. You need to be able to hang onto the beat as tightly as possible. You may want to simplify your fills, or avoid them entirely on the sequenced tunes since you're probably rushing them. You might also want to work up a simple solo in case they call it again.
I am glad to say we don't do many sequenced songs, and there is talk about losing them entirely. [img]smile.gif[/img]
As far as the solo goes -- I'm not a big drum solo fan really, but yea, I guess I'll have to do that.
On the other hand, since they had their fun, they might not do it again. On the other hand, if they think I think that . . . [img]confused.gif[/img]
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