Tuesday, January 27, 2015

What Makes a Good Drummer

A friend recently made a posting about what makes up a good drummer. The summary of her article:

Good:
Pays attention to the band in performance and when writing.
Knows how to read cues from the band
Knows how to give cues
Gives feedback on song structure
Has a strong start and strong stop.
Likes to figure out new beats and tricks.
Has a stage personality.
Keeps time no matter what.

Bad:
Tries to be too fancy.
Doesn't participate in songwriting.
Doesn't hit the drums hard enough.
Hits the cymbals too hard.
Requires an enormous kit.

I think, excepting the comment about not hitting the drums hard enough (I find most drummers do the opposite and hit way too hard) that her assessments are mostly on point. In part because she's not a drummer though, I think she missed a couple of key points...


  • Has good limb independence
  • Is familiar with a range of styles and knows the basics of most (unless you only need them to do something specific and narrow, in which case I'd still say knowing the other styles is good musical background)
  • Practices on their own, both the songs your band plays and fundamentals
  • Has enough experience (time spent learning and practicing) to do all the things above and is at least as experienced as the other members of the band (ideally more)
  • As with all band mates...the person is easy to get along with
  • As with all band mates...the person is reliable (on time, does what they say they will do & not always drunk/doped up)



Friday, January 23, 2015

What a Difference a Mere Three and a Half Years Makes

I was just doing a google search and happened across one of my own posts in which I muse about some day being in a Breeders tribute band but listing all of my misgivings.

In the last 9 months I've recorded most of the Breeders catalog and played everything on the recordings. I've also been asked to join a live tribute and sort of turned it down (but when asked I felt pretty strongly that I'd only want to drum or play lead guitar in such an enterprise, which is no where near what I was thinking when I made that old post). I have even learned to play power chords and then subsequently realized that KiD doesn't really use power chords much and so I've started to learn to play barre chords.

Time is weird.

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Getting Back to It

Laid down drum tracks for Safari, Oh!, Glorious, Night of Joy, Mom's Drunk, and Dedicated last night (Safari the day before).


Tuesday, January 20, 2015

TD Recording at DNA 1/16-1/18/2015

TD went in and laid down drum, bass, and much of the guitars for an upcoming 8 song cd. We spent 16 hours in studio plus 3 hours of load in. I was SUPER nervous and probably played at about 75% of my ability, but it was good enough. The producer/engineer was awesome. After my parts were done it ended up being a great experience, but I'll be ok if I don't have to lay down drum tracks for a pro recording that impacts other people again for a long, long time.


















SVFD Club Tavern 1/15/2015

SVFD played Club Tavern with Madpolecats.  BL was getting over losing her voice, so we cut a few tunes due to that. Stage sound and general stage setup was a bit weird...I could really only hear myself, the drums, and the vox...but since that's mostly what I needed it was ok. Hot on stage from old style lights. It is hard to see the audience from the stage.

Setlist:
Rudy (x-accord)-soundcheck
Freedom (no vox)
Rascal King (B)
Came out of a lady (J)
About a girl (J)
Sergio (B)
Wallet (J-accord)
Somewhere in the between (B-accord)
Spiderwebs (J)
Mr. Smiley (B)
Metro (J)
Lost again (J&B)
Lemuel (B)
Point-Counterpoint (B)
Grazing in the Grass (no vox)
I don't love you anymore (B)
Dandelions (J)
Red rubber ball (J&B-accord)
Mr. Blue Sky (B)
I will survive (J)