Top 10 Cheesy questions asked at a drum clinic

[djmuskateer]

How about best question from a drummer?

Chad Smith [to guy in the front row]: Sir are you in show buisness?

Guy: No!

Chad: Well then get your hand the f**k off the stage!

Afterwards in the line of people waiting to speak to him I said to my BEST FRIEND "hey, we can talk to him about how he came on stage at the Foo Fighters gig we saw the other night, and how de destroyed Taylor's drums at the end!" so my best friend says "yeah cool", is ahead of me in the line, and says ALL the stuff I suggested. Then it's my turn.

[long silence]

Chad: Hi.

Me: Hi.

[further silence]

Chad: Er, so you want me to sign something? Or what?

Me: [nods meekly, departs silently and in shame]....

[LDGuy]

I reckon one of the lamest ones i ever heard was more to do with the answer. It was at a Billy Hart clinic (this guy is a joke).

The question was something like "What do think about when you play?" (i guess this isn't to bad)

Hart said something like...

"Well, usually, my mind is in spiritual places. What do you mean? Play? Is that not a very subjective thing to ask anyway? What defines "playing music"? Is it a soulful thing? Mental? Physical? How do YOU define playing music? It certainly a difficult area to me. Anyway, the nature of one's drumming self is completely apart from your own in it's natural state when engulfed by music. I tend to think about God, my soul's passage through the music, or at least about the spiritual purpose of the music i'm playing. I find it quite easy to lighten up about some things though. It all comes from here [points to his chest], not here [points to his head]. I try not to think about stuff too much. Personally i try and get beyond the music and dwell in other, more important things. It helps me; supports me in my playing. Anyway, what do YOU think about?"

The guy said:

"Well usually i'm thinking about getting exactly locked in with the bassist, or if not that, what i'm gonna watch on TV tonight."

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ June 09, 2005 03:24 PM: Message edited by: LDGuy ]</font>

[Cameron_Mahoney]

Peter Erskine came up to the UP (Upper Peninsula of Michigan) a couple years back, and gave a very awesome clinic, and played with the local college's jazz band as the guest artist. There was one long haired kid sitting behind me, tapping (or stomping) his feet the entire time as if he were playing double bass drums. He looked like the typical metalhead kid, and he wouldn't stop tapping his feet loudly, so I eventually looked back and grabbed his leg firmly, giving him the evil eye. Hahaha... he stopped, even if my reaction was a little extreme. It was a good clinic otherwise. I felt bad for Peter because there were probably less drummers than other instrumentalists there; I live in a small town. His bass drum mounted cowbell fell off and hit him in the foot, too, while he was soloing over a bass drum ostinato. Towards the end, the metalhead kid asked him why he doesn't play double bass (predictable... you could tell he was waiting the whole time to hear about double bass or ask about it or whatever, considering after seeing the kid play, his whole style revolved around playing Portnoy-ish hand and foot groupings) and Peter politely joked how he wasn't good at it and didn't want to compromise not having a hi hat for his foot. He did tell a funny anectdote about some drummer that sent him a video of himself playing something like 4 bass drum pedals at once, and he even used a bass drum as a throne. It was pretty funny the way he described it. Who would send something like that to a pro drummer anyway?

Well, as another guest artist came, I had another clinic experience. Steve Turre, trombonist for the SNL band, came up here, and was talking about how many episodes he's done for SNL, answering someone's dum qeustion. He was like, "well, there's something like 10 shows a season, and I've been with them for 15 years... so, whatever that comes out to; I don't know." (those are just sample numbers, I don't remember what he actually said) He was clearly joking, though, and people chuckled, but some younger kid, probably in middle school, raised his hand. After about five minutes, Steve called on him, and he said "10 times 15 is 150. I just thought I'd tell you that because you said you didn't know what 10 times 15 was." Steve took it very well, though, even though everyone in the audience was clearly shocked at it the kid's rudeness. He must've been trying to be funny, but it didn't come off well.

[Muphkin Man]

LD Guy:

I don't really understand, are you calling Billy Hart a joke?!?!?

[LDGuy]

He's quite a good player. He's just taken far too many drugs in his life and has a few quite twisted views - the clinc was really funny.

[Muphkin Man]

Quite good!?! Twisted views?!?

Just a suggestion but I think you owe it to yourself to pay the man and his drumming a little more respect...

You should check out the stuff he recorded with Herbie in the 70s.

I thought he answered the question well, and NO ONE should be thinking about what's on tv while they're playing!!!

[John Blackburn]

JohnDrum: Gary was great, really went for it (as usual) and his tracks were cool. I didnt play on the Steve Ferrone gig, I dont think I was in leeds when that happened, or I would certainly have been in the audience!

As for the Billy Hart comments, I see what LDGuy is saying, quite often I think people can presume there is more depth intended in a clinic question than there really is. Maybe a more practical 'I try to keep my mind clear, and just really focus on whats happening around me' or something could have been more helpful.

Alot of people find it hard to react positively when they hear philosophical language used to answer what they percieved as a quite practical question, is there an elemebt of that maybe?

Im off t' practise room. [img]wink.gif[/img]

[palmerlouie]

thomas lang told me about the guy that matricks mentioned....he goes to all the clinics and goes up to the guys and just says all this weird stuff about how he is the best drummer in the world and gave thomas of him a video and said how thomas stole all his gigs or something.....friggin nutter.

this thread is funny....you always get the "how did u do that so fast"...or whatever....i am just waiting until the clinician says....go home and do some f***ing practice! thats what they should say.

[funkycarnivore]

Maybe THAT's the guy who played on those Beatles albums!

[five eight]

Bill Bruford was asked if he'd mind playing with a pair of sticks this fool was waving around. Bruford said, "I prefer my own grade, but . . ." and he did. No sense in fuming in front of 'your' people.

At a Bozzio clinic his drum village dominated the Guitar Center room, containing more drums and cymbals than the showroom itself.

A young drummer asked Bozzio how much this kit cost.

Bozzio: It was free.

Young Drummer: May I play it?

Bozzio: No!!!!!!!

And laughed as hard as the audience did.