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Here is my problem. I just recently started to see a drum teacher, first time since band in high school. This guy who shall remain nameless is a good teacher with a lot to offer. I recently had to sub out a jobbing date so I figured he could cover it for me. I mean after all he is still gigging and has his own jobbing band........ Sounds simple right? Wrong....... The jobbing band that I work with is plays very high energy dance tunes with very long sets. There is also a lot of fast pace song switching that occurs. My point is that they thought he stunk????????? This guy is a legend, granted I have not seen him in a live setting but I have heard some of his recordings..... Any way here is the problem. Apparently he did so poorly that my band leader took him of the other gigs that he had him booked on. Now my teacher (sounds like a bad kung-fu flick...... TEACHER) he is mad at the leader of the band, and the band leader feels bad cuz he had to let him off the gigs and doesn't want me to be mad at him.......And I am caught in the middle. My band leader said the singers were asking where I was that I could not do the gig. When the singers displeasure was expressed to my teacher he could not believe it because they gave him the you did great musicians brush off. There so much extra that can be said about this situation but I digress......
I handled the situation well and everything is cool on all sides for the most part. The moral here is the key to success in life is the ability to manage personalities.....
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Well, you're right about having to
manage personalities.
Sometimes, keeping the distance be-
tween 'family', friends and work
can help too.
When you relate to a teacher, they
almost become a part of your family.
Maybe one more point - When you refer
people for gigs, always do it with
foreknowledge and if not, make sure
everyone knows it's a gamble.
Glad everything worked out.
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Ya, remember also that filling in isn't the easiest thing in the world to do, especially for bands that have been playing for a while together.
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It sounds like you handled the people end of it well.
Hopefully, you did everything you could to prep the guy. If you sent him in there cold, especially with a band that has specific segues, etc., then you may be partly at fault for his performance. He may be a great drummer, reader, musician, and teacher but that doesn't mean he can read minds.
In a typical jobbing situation, the tunes and arrangements are standard so he should've been able to cope without any help unless he's playing a group of songs, or style he's not familiar with. I always ask for a set-list or go to the band's website and look over their song list.
I'm playing a gig for a friend in a couple of months that is all sequenced and he is spending a bit of time writing out notes on each song, making CD's, noting how the count-off's go, etc. This is all for a one time gig. I didn't ask him to do this, he knows it's part of his job and that my performance reflects a bit on him as well as his band's reputation.
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Interesting DDS, thanks for sharing that with us. It must have been an awkward situation for you. I was thinking, is your teacher an 'older guy'? I mean that in the respect that he may be a phoenominal teacher who has a lot of knowledge and can improve you as a player, but my first thought was is he used to playing long, up tempo dance sets (as you described) regularly? If he's not used to playing that type of music then his knowledge of that style would be limited. For example, I would never take on a salsa gig as my knowledge of that style is fairly limited.
It's a shame that you were caught in the middle. How was the situation resolved? Did things get sorted between you and your teacher?
I'm happy to pass on other drummers numbers for gigs, but I always make sure I know what the gig is and what style of music will be being played as I don't want to send a wicked jazz player to do a heavy metal gig! Also (as you have now found) it will reflect on you for putting a guy who's not suited to or cannot handle the gig. It's no reflection on your teacher, it just means that he won't be called to play banging dance music again!
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<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ June 12, 2004 10:30 PM: Message edited by: Dazzler ]</font>
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Wow that's a funny story. Glad you managed it well.
Interesting difference between playing different situations and what it takes to be successful on different gigs. Yes I said "different" 3 times.
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Good story soc,
I had a similar experience... Back in collage band days, I played with a jazz ensemble
with one of the professors, a sax player, whenever we played out, he always had a chart
and sounded good so I asked him to fill in one night at a blues gig with my band. He just
couldn?t do it. He couldn?t improvise on the blues... Of course we were the only two
white guys in the whole place but that should have helped him, everybody was clapping
on the 2 and 4 instead of the 1 and 3...
Some of my drum lessons in life...
I once took lessons from a guy and 6 months later I ended up playing in the band he was
in when he started teaching me. I once took lesson?s from a guy who would come out to
my gigs to hear me play and then proceed to steal our gigs by undercutting our pay.
I once took lessons from a guy who was going through a divorce, he smoked and sobbed
and wasted a month of lessons.. But it?s all good
diddle
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In response to VDRUMMERS reply, yes this was a typical jobbing gig and my teacher went to the bands website to get the song list and I gave him the exact tunes we normally do. But maybe he new the tunes to well???? Have you ever known a drummer who has done everything and think that they are the greatest and they know how to play the tunes and have been playing them for 20-30 years????? The problem with that is there is no room for growth of new ideas, so the song is only played the drummers way instead of the way the band leader wants (who is paying the bills). Just to add some more intrigue to the story, one of my teachers long time friends canceled him on a gig and my teacher stated to me the reasons, which were the same complaints I heard from my band leader..... Coincidence??????????? [img]graemlins/whatever.gif[/img]
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When I do a cold gig like that
I try and do some extra leg-work,
up-front, getting in touch with
the leader and aggreeing on the
counts etc.
I do this with HUMILITY.
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Good Point Pete.... I was told that when my teacher was axed of the other gigs his reply was "I am the greatest drummer in the world, do you know who I played for?" Maybe he said it because his feelings were hurt who knows, but not the best way to handle that.......
P.S. This is how I handled the situation.....
When my teacher got axed he called me immeadiatly. While on the phone with him, the band leader called. I called my band leader back after 30 minutes of hearing my teacher complain..... TEACHER!!!! So within 40 minutes I had both sides of the story. Now, my teacher was told of the singers displeasure with his playing and he wanted me to investigate for him. Of course I already knew but, I didn't want my teacher to be mad at the singers (who were ok with his playing, but really didin,t like his playing and THEY did express this to the band leader). My band leader was the easiest to settle because he was more worried about my teacher being mad at me, so that's one down. Now to my teacher. I basically covered for my band leader and tried to leave the singers out of it as much as possible(because like I said, my teacher does other jobbing work and I wouldn't want to screw the singers out of possible work). I explained to him that it was a differnt kind of band and that it was a decision that nmy band leader thought was best. My teacher understood begrudgingly and complemented me on how good a drummer I was to be able to deal with the band leader (who he is still a little mad at) and the material load. Every ones happy for the most part.... It is just really hard finding a sub for this gig for a host of reasons.......
