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Band experience

Started by Murgen, December 03, 2014, 01:45:16 PM

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Murgen

Here is a personal story and I ask you for your experience and opinion on this (thank you for your time):

I started banging on empty cardboard washing-powder drums when I was a little kid. Unfortunately my mother experienced the Rotterdam bombardement in 1940 and cannot cope with loud noises. My drum aspirations were pushed aside and for a long I forgot about them. Tried to play guitar when I was a student but I'm slightly tone-deaf (hard to decide which note is higher or lower in pitch when they are close together). Then a career need to be builded and it was only in 2003 when my wife pushed me behind a Roland e-kit. Summer 2003 I started to take lessons and learned to play the drums. I'm not a John Bonham, far from that. And deep inside I'm glad because if I was, I had chosen the wrong career path and profession.  But I do know I play quite decent, yet technically very basic. I feel time and keep time and I know how to play fills. Less is more. I can read and play from music sheets if they are not to complicated (Black Page, Zappa, is a nogo). I played in walking brassbands for 9 years, rehearsals and gigs, on cymbals, snare or big drum. I know what it is to play on a stage and can cope with the stares of wanna-be and many times better fellow-drummers.

But my band experience behind a drumkit is limited. And I learned the hard way that band-members judge you on that big time. They played a tune a hundred times where they expect me to play it perfectly straight away. And yes, I can in many occasions but need to train/practice for other songs especially up-tempo.

What are my options, personally I think I need to find fellow musicians on the same level but where and how? For now I keep practicing to improve myself but next time it will take a lot of consideration to join a band with more experienced players ... The good thing is, it gives me time to master Pro Logic, I defined a 10-year project to create a concept album. Wanna bet I can. :)
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2Box Drumit 5 Mk2 since 2012

DocBrown

Quote from: Murgen on December 03, 2014, 01:45:16 PMWhat are my options, personally I think I need to find fellow musicians on the same level but where and how?

Well, I thik it depends on how things work in your area/country. My experience is quite different. I started playing drums when I was 16 (I'm 39 now) and never studied too much, only about 1 year lessons when I was 19 or 20, but that improved my skills a lot. I started with some friends -beginners, as me- and then, with the years I moved to other bands. I actually played with more people than I can remember. I mostly played metal -power, thrash, heavy, death- and hard rock, but I also played some other things, and with many bands we never got out rehearsal room.

As most of my life I lived in the same area, many people know me, and I don't have much problem to find people to play with, and sometimes just my phone rings. I'm in three bands now and maybe another one is coming. Change came when I moved. I lived for 5 years in a different city, 500km away from my area and I didn't know anybody. After some time I needed to play with people, and what I did was just search for music forums and classified websites. Many bands had their Myspace, and then Facebook, Soundcloud, Reverbnation, etc, so I could listen to some of their music before answer their ads.

I think one important thing is age. I prefer to play with people around my age rather than with younger ones, just because objetives are totally different: when you're over 30 you know you're not going to make a world tour in stadiums  ;D Another one is musical level, if you play with beginners, you get bored, if you play with people with a much higher level than you, you can feel insecure or "intimidated".

Anyway, I don't know how things work in your area (is it Netherlands?) but you can try searching in music forums in your country, or just asking your musician friends. Good luck!  :)

Murgen

Thank you for your reply. Yes, it is the Netherlands. I spoke one of the members of my first band, the bass-player and he cheered me up. We played together for about 6 months and from his point of view this is more a case of a guitarist with star-aspirations and a brother on drums than me being a lousy drummer.

Peace on Earth and loud banging on drums.
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2Box Drumit 5 Mk2 since 2012

teletom007

Peace on Earth and loud banging on drums.

:) :) :) yes, you have to set priorities :rock:

DocBrown

Quote from: Murgen on December 05, 2014, 04:19:43 PMa case of a guitarist with star-aspirations

I think this is universal...  ::)

Murgen

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2Box Drumit 5 Mk2 since 2012

teletom007


Murgen

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2Box Drumit 5 Mk2 since 2012

mcrackins

Hi Murgen,

I've been playing in bands since I was 15 years old....I'm in my late 40's now.

It depends on what you want to achieve. If it's to play live and have fun. See if any of the pubs/clubs around your area have Jam Nights. Sometimes you can meet cool people at those and start from there.

If it's to record and just do things from fun....do you have friends that play and contribute guitar/bass/vocals to your project?

You could also answer adds in the trade papers etc. and pick something that really appeals to you.

To be honest, finding a good group of guys right away is difficult. Over the years I've kept in touch with guys I've played with, that I really got along with and we had very similar interests in the same kinds of music. So I have a pool of friends/musicians I can contact and say..Hey I'm doing a recording project...are you interested in playing guitar on it. I write songs and play guitar/bass so it's easy to get my ideas across.

I think maybe if you state when go to try out for a band, what your objective and wants are up front, you'll filter out the jack-asses. If you go and try out for a band and they like you, state that you are doing this for fun, don't want any pressure or stress and you just want to rock...you're not trying to emulate Rush or Genesis  8)  Some guys might take that one way, and other guys may take it "Cool, this guy just wants to rock, no headaches, power trips etc"

I remember several years ago, I joined this band briefly that were quite good. We were getting ready to start playing shows and the singer started pulling this BS power trip on the guitarist, telling him he was harmonizing out key etc...when it was actually the singer. I thought...Nope not going to be around this again and I quit. Formed my own band and got all guys I knew from other bands and started playing live about 4 months after that.

In a nutshell, state what you want and are looking for and don't settle for less.

Murgen

Thank you for your kind words. And of course you are right. I can do both except that the jam and sit-in scene over here is limited. Luckily I know some pretty decent guitar and bass-player who can help me on solo-projects. In the mean time I try to work on my skills and technique. Take care!
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2Box Drumit 5 Mk2 since 2012