Do you ever get tired of it all ?

skinner

Member
Do you ever get tired of all the stuff that goes along with being a drummer ? I love to play, but sometimes I really get tired of all the subjective things that you have to deal with - endless tuning variations and placement / positioning options.

I seem to be always chasing the ever elusive perfect sound and perfect ( for me ) placement options. Sometimes I really envy guitar and keyboard players. You just buy your instrument and tune it based on specific objective criteria and then play.
 
Do you ever get tired of all the stuff that goes along with being a drummer ? I love to play, but sometimes I really get tired of all the subjective things that you have to deal with - endless tuning variations and placement / positioning options.

I seem to be always chasing the ever elusive perfect sound and perfect ( for me ) placement options. Sometimes I really envy guitar and keyboard players. You just buy your instrument and tune it based on specific objective criteria and then play.

Guitarists have this disease that makes them buy old crappy amps that to get a sound, while it just sounds the same. The keyboardist in my band envys me playing the drums. He says that drummers always got something to improve or practice on. The possibilities are endless. Just take some days of, and get back to it!
 
man i know what your saying, its such a pain to always have to tune your drums and it takes forever, and placement man ive tried so many different positions, its like somtimes you know something is uncomfortable but you dont exactly know what to do, but hey at least were not piano players imagine having to tune one of those old grand pianos, but at least for me its the funnest instrument to play ive tried bass but it was to boring the drums satisfy my need to be constanly moving around
 
I just took a 6 month hiatus from this site because I was sick of visiting it everyday. I've been in a drumming slump the past 7 months. Haven't barely practiced or played. I'm still not out of it so I feel your pain. I'm just sick of "What kind of heads/drum/crap should I get?" and always having drums in my head. I took a break. I'll come back to it when I'm ready.
 
Do you ever get tired of all the stuff that goes along with being a drummer ? I love to play, but sometimes I really get tired of all the subjective things that you have to deal with - endless tuning variations and placement / positioning options.

I seem to be always chasing the ever elusive perfect sound and perfect ( for me ) placement options. Sometimes I really envy guitar and keyboard players. You just buy your instrument and tune it based on specific objective criteria and then play.


The drumset is my friend and I never tire of it. But the business, that is another story all together!
 
I think to be a good drummer, you're never really content. Sure you can practice a bunch, but as for drum placement, tuning, sounds, etc. it NEVER FRIGGIN' ENDS!!!

I'm always tinkering with drum placement, how many drums to the kit, cymbals, sticks, where to put the cowbell...and it goes on and on and on. Non-drummers can never understand this.

I've stayed up until almost 2 am in the morning just jacking with where my toms should go, or at what level should my floor toms be to my snare. Should I tilt my snare stand outward? What happens if I put my ride cymbal THIS way? Should I move my crash two inches to the left? What happens when I move my hats closer, or out more? Nope, it never ends!!

I envy trumpet players, or guitar players, even piano players. All horn players have to do is put the mouthpiece in and start blowing. Piano players, just sit down and play.

Drummers have to worry about where each piece of equipment is placed, how it sounds, etc. No wonder most drummers I know drink too much! Drumming messes with your mind in ways non-drumming normal people cannot possibly understand.
 
This is really weird as i was going to come on here and post something similar.

All I have to add is - How many of your life's hours/days been spent adjusting and moving crap?

I reckon I have probably spent as much time fussing and fiddling about with my kit as I have playing it.

Though I kinda think that's something that we have over all the other instruments- the ability to move things around and adapt
 
Perfect placement--think at long last I have found it, and I am realy pleased with throne hight, tom angles etc. and i love tinkering around and working out where to put cow bells and tamborines etc--but then I think I was always frustrated that my mum would not buy me a mechano set when i was little--she kept buying me dolls.

As to packing up and setting up for a gig. i do find that boring, i have got it quite smooth with a taped drum mat, memory locks etc but I do think sometimes it would be good if I could find a drum tech with a car to do it all for me and i could have a drink at the end of the gig. i would not mind paying him and so not get a profit out of the evening, but I think that would loose somehting from the whole band feeling, we all set up and pack up toghether. They carry my drums, I carry their amps and so I think I am stuck with the way things work.
 
Guitarists have this disease that makes them buy old crappy amps that to get a sound, while it just sounds the same.

It doesn't help when they're running three different distortion pedals at the same time.

I myself haven't run into the problem too much yet, just when it comes to tuning. I've got everything pretty close so I don't have to move so much while playing. But when I have to tune the kit (which I'm a nut job about and do it at least once a week), I've got to move at least two items out of the way, and don't get me started on the bass drum.

I recall about month ago I was jamming with some friends and broke my kit down after we finished, and they were' sitting there looking at all of my equipment and saying, "I'd hate to be a drummer".

Fortunately I've played guitar for ten years and still do from time to time, but it just feels like work. I'll gladly deal with taking 30-45 minutes to setup and lugging around multiple parts and stands and hardware, etc., because I myself find drumming a hell of a lot more fun than guitar.
 
Since I started practicing heavily and generally working hard towards where I want to be as a musician, I haven't thought about gear and stuff like that at all. No problems with my set-up, and no desire to change anything. Just focus on getting better man.
 
Guitarists have this disease that makes them buy old crappy amps that to get a sound, while it just sounds the same. The keyboardist in my band envys me playing the drums. He says that drummers always got something to improve or practice on. The possibilities are endless. Just take some days of, and get back to it!

I think guitarists are worse than drummers when it comes to sound.

One more amp, one more effect pedal, maybe if I just twist the mid EQ a hair more.

I can't tell you how many countless hours I've spent in a rehearsal or recording studio waiting for the guitarist to dial in that perfect sound, when it doesn't sound any different an hour later than it did when they started. Although at least they never think about moving their frets around.

As for my set up, I've learned over the years the exact placement thing isn't that important.

When I was at P.I.T.,you spend a year on intense practice, but never on your own kit.
You had one kit in your little practice room, that you had to share with 3 or 4 other people, a different kit in another room to rehearse with your band, another one on stage for when you band performed, other kits for other classes. Basically, you were on different kits all day long, so you were forced to get used to maybe set the snare height and angle, and maybe the hats, and whatever everything was is where it stayed. There just wasn't time to think about it.

Then in the real world, I've played at numerous events where all the bands had to share the house drum kit, or I've sat in on some else's kit and changes aren't really permitted. Or I did bring my kit, but the stage wasn't level, or bowed in the middle, which threw all my settings off.

I do set my kit up in the way it's most comfortable, and I carry rug with markings, and mark my stands so I can get everything as close as possible to the way I want it, but I've learned to not sweat the exactness of it all.

But trust me, there are a million other things that I get tired of when it comes to drumming:

Set up and tear down.
Sound checks that take longer than the gig itself.
Flaky band members.
Booking agents.
Dealing with band members who do one or more of the following:
  1. suddenly turn into an alcoholic
  2. move to a different city,
  3. quit for no reason.
  4. quit because their significant other or family member told them to
  5. don't show up,
  6. lose interest,
  7. get arrested,
  8. chase underage girls,
  9. hit on your girlfriend/wife,
  10. move on because they say they don't feel included even though they wrote 90% of the music and are in on every decision.
  11. Decide they own all the songs, regardless of your or anyone elses input
  12. fire you because they're too drunk to keep time, but it must be the drummers fault they can't keep time.
 
Being a FOH/Recording engineer AND drummer for the same gig. Imagine your problems with kit set up and tear down? Multiply that by three.
 
Not the drums but the business. I've been tired of that for decades now, which is why I'm semi-retired. Hell, to be honest with myself I'm just plain retired.
Now the ins and outs of getting your instrument to sound good and feel good and all that, I always loved that part of it, I still do. I love my drums. They sound great, they feel great, I'm very much at home when I'm behind my drums.
It's the horse-race that is the music business that I got tired of. And for every day you're out of it the chances of ever getting back into it decrease exponentially.
I've decided that all that's for the young guys, the guys who are strong and optimistic and are willing to take chances.
But the drums, no, no way. I'll never get tired of my little old drum kit. Drumming has been a great life. If it wasn't for the guys in the suits, playing music would be heaven on earth.
 
MFB, your hard yakka to playing ratio must be about 5 to 1!

A solid list, DrumEatDrum but I'd add tyrannical bar managers to the list.

It's true. I really don't play that much at the moment. But when you record a Champion Brass Band, it makes it all better!
 
Hey Skinner,

Two words for you--HELL NO!

I'm a "music addict", I guess, and it's only second to my love of God and family.

Yeah, a lot of B.S. goes on in the music world, but life is a series of constant changes--both good and bad, and it'll get more "roller-coastery" as you get older. Just makes the dedicated get stronger, and the weaker move on to something else.

I'm in it for life, man!

Cheers,
C. P.
 
Being a FOH/Recording engineer AND drummer for the same gig. Imagine your problems with kit set up and tear down? Multiply that by three.

I feel you pain! Our sound engineer has more equipment than any of us other musicians. I am so appreciative of his participation that I am always the last to leave a gig (with him) because of helping him with break down and pack up. It is all about the sound and he 'brings it' to every gig. I will always be there for him. I hope you get the same appreciation.

I always pre-tune, clean my cymbals and rub down my stands before packing up my drums before a gig so that getting the sound at the club takes little time. Not to be preachy but I think drumming is about more then just hitting. It is an art and a science. The science begins before the gig and the art is the gig.
 
The problem is, I don't get the same recognition. It's hard for me to explain to others how to pack away all the gear I use, so I tend to do that all myself in case it gets messed up. It's amazing how few people know how to coil a thirty foot XLR cable tidily! That and a lot of the recording gear I use is my own - and it's delicate. If nothing else, the kit usually gets packed away partially by others, but I have been known to kick up a storm about that as well. I tend to leave concerts a good half-hour after the others have left and that's assuming they've been efficient. The irony is that I'm not always the last to leave because others end up not doing their jobs properly and are still packing away their (much smaller amount of) gear because they're inefficient and lazy!
 
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