As anybody who has been in a band will know, the people who play in it often get chosen by their availability. How many times have we heard the phrase in an interview 'Well, we didn't have a bass player, so I switched to bass from guitar and the rest is history'?

Moreover, in my experience the hardest position to fill in a band is always the drummer. Sure you can find a guy/girl who WANTS to play drums but they either have no drum kit/car or they are just (for the want of a better word) plain sh*t.

Guitarists are always easy to find and sometimes hard to get rid of . However if you find a good drummer, then you have struck gold. What is it about the drum kit that attracts the flakes and stops the rest of us from taking it up?

Drummers are just guys that hang around with musicians...

StarvingArtyst wrote: It's all about getting the chicks. Guitarists get women, vocalists get women. Drummers.....well, not so much.

Okay, bit of an admission here, I've played both guitar and drums (although not at the same time ) in prog and non-prog bands for about a decade. It can be a real pain having to cart all the drums around (first to arrive, last to leave is the old joke) but let me tell you...I get more female attention as a drummer than I ever do as a guitarist/singer.

Maybe it's something about the physicality of playing or the ablitity to pound out a rhythm that attracts 'em . British women, who knows??

Man Erg wrote: Another reason that they are so rare is their tendancy to spontainiously combust!

And don't forget old Stumpy Peeps, who died in a bizzare gardening accident.

...and Eric "Stumpy Joe" Childs, whose cause of death was (officially) choking on vomit.

Off the record, of course, it's not clear whose vomit it was...

Spinal Tap A to Zed

Childs, Eric "Stumpy Joe" (1945-1974): Former Wool Cave drummer became Tap’s second drummer in 1969 after John "Stumpy" Pepys died in a bizarre gardening accident. Derek remembers Childs as having "big hands, big feet, big heart. Small lips. Thin hair. Big ears. That really says it all." (IST) Childs would perform on four Tap albums before choking to death on someone else’s vomit in 1974. Who produced the vomit remains shrouded in mystery. Nigel: "You can’t really dust for vomit." Inexplicably, the band would later claim he died of a melanin overdose. (STR) And even later, when asked about the investigation into Childs' death, Derek reported: "Last we heard, they had conducted DNA tests on [the vomit]. The only results to get back to us was that, on closer analysis, it may not have been vomit." (PB) An early Tap session drummer, Childs played on "(Listen to the) Flower People" b/w "Rainy Day Sun," although he didn’t join the group officially until 1969.

LOL

You know some one really died from choking on someone elses vomit:

On 7 March 2002, the Saskatoon StarPhoenix in Saskatchewan, Canada, citing witnesses inside the Pine Grove Correctional Centre, reported that some female ex-heroin addicts so desperately crave methadone that they routinely consume the fresh vomit of fellow inmates currently on methadone treatment because enough is still present in the regurgitation. The newspaper uncovered the practice while investigating the death of an inmate. Said a source, "The whole building knows (that the inmate choked on vomit). That's how she died." —from http://www.newsoftheweird.com/" target=new>News of the Weird , compiled by Chuck Shepherd

^ HA!  

  Next time I o'erindulge, and puke beer through my nose (very, very, VERY rare occurance, these last 15 or so years, thank cod!), I'll save it in a bucket for all you British "real ale" drinkers, and fans of bottle-conditioned brews....

"Re-fermented in bucket -- contents will be naturally cloudy."

  Mmmmmmm! Lumpy!

Peter Beer? Hahahhahahahahhahahhaa. Sorry. Bwhahahahhahahahahhahahaaa

Life imitating art. Remember Jeff Porcaro of Toto who really DID die in a bizzare gardening accident. Allergic reaction to some weed killer I'm told. Poor bastard.

why are good drummers so rare?

Because they can never remember the way to the rehearsal room, or indeed, occasionally the name of the band they are in.

Actually, I had the good fortune to play with a number of excellent drummers, two of whom could actually write!!!! I consider myself blessed

A psychologist wants to undertake research into IQs and professions so posts a message in various places asking for volunteers to come and tell her what jobs they do.

The first to arrive at the office is striking looking woman in a sharp business suit.

"What's your IQ" asks the psych.

"145" says the woman.

"Oh, impressive and your job?"

"Brain surgeon."

"Very good, thanks" says the woman.

this is a repeared several times with varying results, "150 - Astrophysicist", "140 - trial lawyer" etc until a rather disreputable figure with lank greasy hair and pizza on his sweater walks through the door.

"So," says the psych. "What's your IQ"

"Duuuuhhhhhhhhh 75," says the ne'er-do-well.

"I see. So.... what sticks do you use?"

Finding a great drummer is like finding a pair of lesbians who are willing to help you with your amateur pole dancing documentary.

arcer wrote: why are good drummers so rare? Because they can never remember the way to the rehearsal room, or indeed, occasionally the name of the band they are in. Actually, I had the good fortune to play with a number of excellent drummers, two of whom could actually write!!!! I consider myself blessed

As Oscar Wilde might have said; "To know one good drummer is very fortunate. To know two is greedy."

trouble was that one of the one who could write also wanted to write the music and insisted on wasting hours in rehearsals tapping away at piano keys in the search for the notes that were in his addled head but not within his ambit as a pianist.  

Being a good guitar player/singer/ego-maniac I fired him....

Woah Woah woah, slow down there children. As a prog Drummer I can honestly say that it's harder to find a bassist and a singer tan a drummer, no question.

Take it from a guy who has searched high and low for non flakes, it goes both way. I also do some of the aranging (for all you non musician jokesters out there).

Michael

mikedevilsfan wrote: Woah Woah woah, slow down there children. As a prog Drummer I can honestly say that it's harder to find a bassist and a singer tan a drummer, no question. Take it from a guy who has searched high and low for non flakes, it goes both way. I also do some of the aranging (for all you non musician jokesters out there). Michael

You're onto a losing streak here mate. No-one hails the worth of a good drummer and to get the rest of a band to consider the stick-man as a fellow musician would be a miracle. I know from personal experience and it's why I switched to guitar .

For what it's worth you are part of an elite group and prog would be lost without you  

To be completely honest, a good drummer isn't as rare as a good singer. Usually the trouble and expense of a drumkit weeds out the pretenders, but there's no such barrier for vocalists...any fool with a throat can start to think they're can sing.

In my experience, drummers tend to cause less trouble, too.

James Lee wrote: In my experience, drummers tend to cause less trouble, too.

Ooh, are you sure???

Jim Garten wrote: Had that offer come from someone used to drinking good old British real-ale, it would have been tempting. However, what you fail to grasp, Peter, is that the beer has to be good quality pre-regurgitation, not the fermented moose milk you routinely imbibe. The standard practice for disposal of - how can I put this - collonial beer vomit is to strain it, allow it to clarify, fizz it up again, then sell it to Australia, labelled as 'Fosters'.

Absolutely classic. I'm currently on holiday in Houston trying to come to terms with beer that actually tastes worse than Tennents. 

Incidentally, I've had some incredibly good luck because some friends and I are in the first band we've been really serious about and our drummer is AMAZING!

Singers are hard to find if you want someone who sounds like someone else (e.g. Halford-clones), but it's definately best to go with what you have. I can't sing anywhere near as high as most metal singers, but I write music around the fact that I'm a bass/baritone and by all accounts it works very well (even/especially when I'm singing in 3 part harmony with myself ).

Prog bassists are extremely easy to find. Prog guitarists are a bit harder, but not really that hard. Prog has a sort of converse to normal rock. While most rock bands have trouble finding a good bassist (meaning one who plays along and never embellishes) and they have one guy switch from guitar to bass, prog has too many bassists who end up switching to guitar! (that's probably what I'll be doing).

On the drummer thing, yeah they're real hard to find. Drum kits are LOUD. You have to find someone whose parents will put up with it, plus they have to be good and prog-oriented, and usually drummers are not proggers, but metalheads. That's really the reason.

penguindf12 wrote: On the drummer thing, yeah they're real hard to find. Drum kits are LOUD. You have to find someone whose parents will put up with it, plus they have to be good and prog-oriented, and usually drummers are not proggers, but metalheads. That's really the reason.

When I was really young (back in the 18th century ) and before I had a kit to practice on, I used cushions as drums and I have to say it really helped to develop wrist strength and it was quiet too!! These days I have a Roland TD3 for home practice which are just about as close as present technology will allow to the real thing and at a controlled level 

I liek Phiol COllins sound better then steve cokeland sound, but I know thats my own opiniopn and everybody has there own opinion. I have my own u have ur own opinion. so we cant disagree because we each have ourr own one. BUt I like Collins better (my opinion).

THis post would make a good essay.

Good drummers are hard to to find because most drummers can't play anything not in 4/4 time. And when the song is in 4/4 time, the little ankle-biters just wanna hit the hi-hat and bass drum on every eighth note and the snare on the second and fourth beat of each measure. C'MON. You guys know what I'm talking about: bass-bass-SNARE-bass-bass-bass-SNARE. As Neil Peart put it, "Most drummers don't play drums--they play BEATS." Especially these Christian bands. Talk about a lack of musicianship. Their songs are all corny, but their image is wannabe-punk. Bands like Relient K or Jar's of Clay think they are real cute. I'm all for Christian music, but if these posers tried half as hard to master their respective instruments as they try to please Jesus and the Lord, maybe they would be more popular and earn the respect of the media. GOSH!!!

I've gotten a little off topic havent I?

Well, they don't call this a FORUM for nothin' do they?

Um, I play drums, and I think it's much harder to find a bassist.  I can think of at least five or six drummers that go to my school and are decent.  I also think the reason we're so hard to find is because there are people who play the drums, and people who are REALLY into playing them.  Anyone can hit a drum, but it takes skill and talent to play the drums well.

and cause some of us play too loud (Myself included, but I'm working on it!)

My old band had the biggest drummer problem, trying to find one with an electronic kit!!!!!!! lol

Trying to find a good one is hard enough but one with a good electronic kit was realy hard to find.