well, the drummer is the heart of the band.

I'm not sure how I feel about that - me and my keyboardist write the majority of the material. Plus I like to think of bass as being the true backbone, given that it serves as a bridge between the rhythmic and tonal aspects of a piece of music.

A good drummer is always hard to find!
I book bands and they always have drummer troubles.

well, i think of the drummer as the one who conducts the band, almost. he/she sets the beat and the rest follow it.

i didn't mean to subtract from the songwriters, but if you write a song, it needs a beat, right? i meant the heart, in terms of the one to keep a certain tempo, etc.

I'm a drummer. I challenge you to a duel at sundown.

bass is the backbone? may i please listen to some of your music? sounds very george clinton.

bow chica bow wowwwwwww

See, I don't mean bass is the lead - it's the anchor. In lots of music, rock, funk, rap, whatever. Bass works within the melodic range of the lead instruments while working with the drums to maintain a rhythmic pulse, so for me, that's a backbone.

My music is sort of math-rock-jazz stuff; http://www.myspace.com/notpeople
I'm primarily a guitarist but play bass on two tracks on that page, "Tenebrism" and "Empire of Lights"

Empire of Lights is a bad example of what I'm talking about, though, since the bass plays the melodic lead there.

I used to learn percussion.

Mainly rock style drumming.

Its physically draining.

brian!!! Are you in a band???

She Says So - yeah, drumming is very physically demanding. I do some drumming too and it can really kill you after enough time. But when I started my topic I meant more generally - not just because of physical constraints, but in general, our drummer is what causes scheduling problems with the group. And I know there are plenty of old stereotypes about drummers so I was wondering who else here could support/negate them.

hey niv

before we just cut the sonmi crew to two people, we had a third person who played drums. that was always tough, because they kind of came from a different style musically from us. and just that one extra person was difficult for us to imagine. keeping bands together is tough! he was physically capable to play our songs, because he normally drummed in a bunch of hardcore bands, but there was always some weird tension in the air, even though he's a good friend otherwise.

imagine=manage

I'm not in a band.

But I'm sure it's not always the drummer who can cause issues.


I don't think we should argue of the importance of each band instrument/member because you need them all, and they all contribute heavily to the music.

Well of course it's not always the drummer who causes problems. We've also got some issues with the other bassist/guitarist in the band, who is a good friend but less musically experienced than the rest of us. I'm not talking about musical issues so much as reliability ones, which in my experience tend to revolve around our percussion section.

Then find yourselves a new drummer.

Haha, nah, ours is too good.

Give him an ultimatum

I know what you mean... if you cancel a show 90% of the time it's because of the drummer. It's a musical phenomenon...

No, not necessary. An ultimatum would just frustrate all parties involved and the band works really well together musically. We aren't together that often anyways since college started. I really wasn't seeking advice, just wanted to see what other people's experiences are with their bands.