What did I learn

basset52

Senior Member
Went to a pub last night with my wife. I chatted with with one of the house band members during their first set break. During the discussion I related how I was a drummer but hadn't played live for 40 years, got back into it 2 years ago when I retired and now jam with a few old buddies. A set later he comes and invites me to join them on stage !!! ( I am twice their age - I'm 64 )Despite having to change my underwear I gave it a go.Fortunately their regular drummer was about my height i.e. 5'7" and not 6'5"!They kindly asked me what I could play so I played it safe and said Creedence, ACDC, songs like that. They asked if could I play some blues and I said I could. I had a ball and despite me not being anywhere near as good as their regular I did OK. What did I learn? 1. Musicians ( these anyway) are helpful, supportive and encouraging of others to have a go. 2. Play with commonsense and use the wisdom often repeated on this forum i.e. play "with"the song and the other musicians. Don't tread all over the vocals and others doing their bit i.e. guitar solos 3. Play within yourself. 4. Occasional mistakes are mostly not noticed or cared about by anyone but yourself ( I managed to drop a stick and had to play with one hand whilst I retrieved it - nobody looked!)5. Don't overstay the welcome in circumstances like these. After 30 mins I said thank you to all the band members and said I should hand the sticks back to the regular guy. 6. Nothing, but nothing beats playing live with others in front of an appreciative audience. I think I'm still on a high and its one sleep and 12 hours later!
Cheers
 
Good for you! Love hearing this, and really happy for you. Yes, play within yourself! Welcome back.
 
Only in Adelaide would a pub proudly advertise "reasonably priced coffee"!! :)

Great story Basset. Good to see there's still plenty of promise in store for those that have been out of the loop for a while. Well played!
 
Great story. You can practice till your hands bleed but playing live with other musicians is what being a drummer is all about. Nice one mate.
 
That does my old heart good! There are some nice people out there, and I'm sure they are chuffed to bits that you had a good time.
 
This is how musicians should treat each other, I think the people that run jam sessions and open mic nights should really take note of this.

I've been asked to backline a few open night mics, and everyone has always been polite to me, but when the guests start coming in, people just start messing with them... throwing out songs in odd meters, or playing songs super fast, et cetera.

I'm glad you had this experience, and I hope it catches on!
 
Wednesday nights - blues jam at the Gov. Hindmarsh.

Thanks Morrisman - appreciate it. Although the Gov sounds a bit scary i.e. I reckon I am C grade and that sounds like A grade to me, knowing the reputation the Gov has.
Cheers
 
This is a great story-thanks for posting. Reminds me when I was in grammar school and graduated from 7th grade to 8th grade high school-didn't have middle school back then. I wanted to be an impersonator at that age so I was doing all kind of impressions of politicians and people like JF Kennedy and bros, Hubert Humphrey, LB Johnson, Nixon, Elvis, John Wayne, Cary Grant, Dean Martin, etc. Well we were rehearsing for graduation in the auditorium when one of the teachers called me out to come up on the stage-I was thinking oh crap what have I done now-I was always in some kind of trouble. Well some of my friends and fellow students had noted my impressions and told the teachers so they called me out. Man I was freaking out, but I never new I had so much "ham" in me, because off the cuff I went into a continuous litany of impersonations and even invented a song (to Little Indians song) of all of Robert Kennedy's kids-he'd just had another one, sang an opera, they had to drag me off the stage. Funny all my friends told me I either belonged on a stage or in a cell-had Hollywood blood apparently LOL. Course by 9th grade I completely encased myself in a shell and became shy and aloof-hormones-also my voice changed and killed half my impressions. Oh well I digress=which I do quite a bit.
 
Thanks Morrisman - appreciate it. Although the Gov sounds a bit scary i.e. I reckon I am C grade and that sounds like A grade to me, knowing the reputation the Gov has.
Cheers

The jam at the Gov is in the front bar - much less intimidating than the main room. They encourage amateur & less confident players to have a go.

The Railway Hotel at Pt. Adelaide is being refurbished and will soon be hosting jam nights too. (I'll be the house drummer for some of these).
 
Well, following up JustJames suggestion from DW my band of fossils went and played a set of 9 songs at the Gaslight Tavern here in Adelaide last night at an open mic. Generally we did OK. Settled down after one or 2 songs after the nerves had diminished. The floor tom from the house kit fell ling against my bass drum leg in the middle of one song, after a leg had given way, and had to fend it off for the rest of the song, funny now, but not at the time!. Playing live, it seems, is an exercise in overcoming adversity at times!We were supported by our fossil groupies ( wives, sisters, brothers ) and even my 2 1/2 year old grandson stayed up late to watch granddad play ! My wife recorded some of it on the iPhone. Video is a great leveller I reckon, and there is plenty for me to work on. Nothing like good feedback though, and work needs to be done with some of my "ugly" fills. The house muso's were very supportive and asked us to come back and do it again. So we will. We will probably follow up Morrismans suggestion and next year play at some other open mic venues for experience.
It is a blast though, isn't it!
 
Great stuff - very well done!
 
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