Just gotta vent!

Hey all,I'm a 42 year old drummer/percussionist that has played every genre on music and like most drummers in every situation imaginable.I have 30+ years of playing my instrument under my belt and cherish playing with competent musicians,I can really apprciate a great guitar rif/solo as well as respect and understand most other instruments and their parts in a band situation.Please bare with me ...I am getting to my point!!

I can play guitar,a bit of piano,can get by on bass and I sing quite well...
My point is that I have just joined a jazz quartet and all of the musicians are very competent players both in theory and practical playing so why is it that there seems to be a trend that for the most part other players of other instruments know ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about drums and their role in music?????
I had our guitar player look at my snare the other evening when tearing down and he politely asked "what are these metal wrinkly thingys under there"? of course thinking he was simply joking I let out a chuckle then he say's to me "do you hit those things"..well ..I'm not professing to be a master of music but it seems to be contagious as our piano player said that same evening "just play something with those wire things"meaning brushes.

Has anyone (and I'm sure the answer to be yes) experienced this sort of "DRUM IGNORANCE"??? I'm very curious to hear other opinions and personal experiences on this matter.
This concludes my Tuesday rant!
Just goes to show everyone just how well rounded drummers are as musicians!!


Cheers, Bif
 
I think this is very common. People assume drums to be incredibly barbaric so they assume that there is nothing to learn. Wood cylinders with metal circles. My old guitarist played with me for two years and didn't know the difference between a crash and a ride. He had no interest in that sort of thing. I was always helping him work on his stuff but he hadn't the foggiest about what made one thing different from another. It's still kinda the same way. My bassist is ignorant about drums but he's ignorant about his own instrument too. He knows how to play but in a technical sense... I went with him to make sure his new bass and amp sounded good. He wouldn't have known the difference.
 
I feel your pain brother!....it's quite unfortunate but I'm thinking I'm not alone on this.

Thanks for sharing Mr. Pasquini!
 
Just this last weekend, I had a guitarist tell me to play with those "swizzle stick things", and he motioned his hands like he was playing brushes. I pulled out a pair of Vic Firth Swizzle Sticks just to make a little joke. He told me that I obviously didn't know anything about drums. So, I showed him the label on the sticks that said "Swizzle" and said, "Do you mean BRUSHES?" I pulled out my brushes and counted in the tune while he just stood there, half-fuming and half-embarrassed. ZING!

Not as a drummer, but as a MUSICIAN, I find it important to learn more about the other players and the instruments they play with. It helps you see where they're coming from, what they're capable of, and where you can take the music with them...
 
I keep hearing this but I have to say I have never experienced it. In my current band, all 5 other guys can also play the drums. And reasonably well I might add.
 
oh yes! ignorance of drums and drumming is very common. but i can't talk because i have no idea what those guitarists are doing with those tiddly wink looking things they use to strum those wires.
 
Hah, I know what you mean. I've been scholaring the keyboardist in my band in drumming 1-2-3. He'd only heard of Mike Portnoy, and thought he was the best ever. Now hes digging Jojo, Vinnie and the lots. Our guitarist is actually a stable drummer, especially with double-bass drumming. It's good to have a guitarist that knows rythms and drums.
 
I Normally get a band member suddenly say for a (cheap laugh),

what do you call someone who hangs round with muscians, -

" A Drummer" Ha ha bloody funny.

But when you are not there in reharsals, and they only use a drum machine, they are suddenly so pleased to have you back.

Then they will have a little play on your drums, and say things like "oh, it's not as easy as it looks".

Bloody right you bunch of muppets.

i like personally to put a tripplet feel in half way through a straight four beat and then watch everyone look round in puzzelment.

Sorry mate, just a drummer, dont know what i am doing.

aarrrhhhh !!.
 
I just started playing with some new folks recently and when we played our first show, I set my '68 Ludwig Downbeat Blue Sparkle kit up on stage and our second guitarist asked me if it was a toy drum set.

I just gave him a dirty look and went back about my business.
 
I just started playing with some new folks recently and when we played our first show, I set my '68 Ludwig Downbeat Blue Sparkle kit up on stage and our second guitarist asked me if it was a toy drum set.

I just gave him a dirty look and went back about my business.

My guitar player gently tapped Zildjian 22" K ride as if he was about to crack the shell on a hard boiled egg and stated "I've always wanted to do that"
 
Has anyone (and I'm sure the answer to be yes) experienced this sort of "DRUM IGNORANCE"??? I'm very curious to hear other opinions and personal experiences on this matter.

I'd say it's more common that not.

I've been asked/told all sorts of things, from the inane (You should put your splash cymbal over there), to the why do you care? (If I were you, I'd get the biggest rack to you could find), to the funny (when my bass player wanted me to play a double stroke roll in one spot of a song and asked me to "play those parraddiddle thingys").

I think part of being a drummer is learning to translate other musician speak into something that makes sense.
 
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Just this last weekend, I had a guitarist tell me to play with those "swizzle stick things", and he motioned his hands like he was playing brushes. I pulled out a pair of Vic Firth Swizzle Sticks just to make a little joke. He told me that I obviously didn't know anything about drums. So, I showed him the label on the sticks that said "Swizzle" and said, "Do you mean BRUSHES?" I pulled out my brushes and counted in the tune while he just stood there, half-fuming and half-embarrassed. ZING!

Not as a drummer, but as a MUSICIAN, I find it important to learn more about the other players and the instruments they play with. It helps you see where they're coming from, what they're capable of, and where you can take the music with them...

I would love to learn to play "those swizzle stick things"!
 
I'd say it's more common that not.

I've been asked/told all sorts of things, from the inane (You should out your splash cymabal over there), to the why do you care? (If I were you, I'd get the biggest rack to you could find), to the funny (when my bass player wanted me to play a double stroke roll in one spot of a song and asked me to "play those parraddiddle thingys").

I think part of being a drummer is learning to translate other musician speak into something that makes sense.

Ah Yes....the famous "Can you play that boom chic boom chic kinda thing" while the other musician flails about wildly air drumming with his arm trying to get his point across.
I guess being a drummer is really a test of patience.
 
Ah Yes....the famous "Can you play that boom chic boom chic kinda thing" while the other musician flails about wildly air drumming with his arm trying to get his point across.
I guess being a drummer is really a test of patience.

It happens at the pro level too.

Read an interview with Kenny Arnoff about recording "Jack and Diane" and John Cougar asked him to play a drum "solo" when he wanted a drum "fill".

I remember years and years ago seeing a video of a Larrie Londin clinic, and he discussed how when he started out in sessions, producers would use really weird descriptions to explain the kind of beat they wanted ("play like a 3 legged dog!"), and Larrie's initial success came from translating these weird terms into actual playing.

If you watch U2's Rattle and Hum closely, you see bassist Adam Clayton asking drummer Larry Mullen Jr about where he (Adam) is supposed to come in, and we're talking about one of the biggest bands in the world!
 
Great point about Kenny and John Cougar,I had seen Kenny in clinic a long time and a lot of hair ago and he was saying sort of tongue in cheek how difficult Cougar was to work with/for and one reason that he had mentioned was that Cougar would tell him how high to put his cymbals and at what angle to put his toms for nothing more then this is how he thought a drum kit should look on stage.He had to watch what he said because he was in my town on tour with Cougar but I definitely got his point.
 
one of the guitarists in my band asked me to play rim shots during a song. Dutifully did I do it. After a bunch of dirty looks and me asking a whole lot of questions, I found out he wanted rim clicks, not a rim shots.

He is constantly flailing his arms when he wants to demonstrate a fill, but I can see he is frustrated by not having a command of drumming language. Then again, he doesn't show any inclination to learn.

My jazz band mates are even more ignorant about drums even though they are better educated as musicians compared to my rock bandmates.

And they all think its easy until they sit down and I try to get them to play a real basic beat: eighths on the hats, 2 and 4 on the snare and 1,2,3,and 4 on the kick....they quickly see that it ain't so easy. That;s my revenge for hanging out with "real' musicians!
 
So I guess the question is,what can we as drummers do about this?
Do we try to school them in all that is drum? how do you politely say to someone that's being a complete dummy that "excuse me but that's a hi hat not a crash"...it seems that we have a long road ahead of us fellow brothers of the drum.
Maybe we should launch a worldwide drum literacy program.All joking aside it is insulting and frustrating to say the least,the lack of knowledge and respect from other musicians about our beloved instrument.I'm still holding out some hope!!
 
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