What to do when your drummer doesnt have a kit?

doc-phil

A mate and I have been jamming a lot together recently. Only thing is, he studies in Cape Town and I'm in Durban, so we only get to practice when he's down here on holiday. He's only been playing for about 3/4 months so he doesn't have his own kit yet. Our dillema is that after being chased away from two practice venues, we've got nowhere to practice. He's only gonna get a kit in december the earliest.. we can't wait until then, we wanna jam over the September break!

Our first practice venue was a friend's church hall. We went there about 4 times. On the last time an old granny came in raging with an unholy temper saying that we were disturbing her granny meetings. She also told me that she doesn't just walk into my room and start playing my guitar without permission, and that I shouldn't do the same with the church drums (although we had phoned the owner of the drums and been given consent).

Our second venue was a mates house in an exclusive gated community in a well-off area. His sister has a kit that she doesn't use so over our last varsity holidays we played there twice. On the first day only the domestic worker was there.. on the second the dudes mom was there.. and after about 5 hours of us hammering away at the same song she kindly asked us to leave since the goodwill of her neighbours was not going to hold out much longer ?

So.. what do you do when your drummer doesn't have a kit and you really wanna jam? And how do you practice quietly? When my mate gets a kit his neighbours are gonna have it in for us!

vic

doc-phil wrote A mate and I have been jamming a lot together recently. Only thing is, he studies in Cape Town and I'm in Durban, so we only get to practice when he's down here on holiday. He's only been playing for about 3/4 months so he doesn't have his own kit yet. Our dillema is that after being chased away from two practice venues, we've got nowhere to practice. He's only gonna get a kit in december the earliest.. we can't wait until then, we wanna jam over the September break!

Our first practice venue was a friend's church hall. We went there about 4 times. On the last time an old granny came in raging with an unholy temper saying that we were disturbing her granny meetings. She also told me that she doesn't just walk into my room and start playing my guitar without permission, and that I shouldn't do the same with the church drums (although we had phoned the owner of the drums and been given consent).

Our second venue was a mates house in an exclusive gated community in a well-off area. His sister has a kit that she doesn't use so over our last varsity holidays we played there twice. On the first day only the domestic worker was there.. on the second the dudes mom was there.. and after about 5 hours of us hammering away at the same song she kindly asked us to leave since the goodwill of her neighbours was not going to hold out much longer ?So.. what do you do when your drummer doesn't have a kit and you really wanna jam? And how do you practice quietly? When my mate gets a kit his neighbours are gonna have it in for us!

LOL thanks for the funny story doc-phil.....yeah you have a problem. Better to hammer away at different songs...even if you don't know them well...
Maybe your drummer should practice without a kit...it's HIM causing all the problems for you. ?

AlanRatcliffe

You get practice dampers for kits. Almost essential for learning, but they do kill the stick bounce and thus feel a bit. Playing with blasticks/bundlesticks also brings down the volume a bit.

I used to use a very loud kit too (Pearl Masters Maple) and the snare was particularly vicious (6.5" Pearl free floating maple - the single biggest reason I have tinnitus today), so damping was essential a lot of the time. I used to use home-made hard rubber O-rings (about 2.5mm thick IIRC) that brought the level of the kit down by half and still let me play on the heads, so kept the feel. That's not enough volume attenuation for some situations, but it was fine to save my ears in personal practice and worked well for lower level band practice and even the occasional "unplugged" gig.

A good drummer will make do with anything (they often have to). I've played with drummers that for quick practice/impromptu jam would grab whatever they could lay their hands on. In school (many moons ago), my drummer would play in my bedroom with a wooden board (kick), Tupperware containers (snare & toms) and a few pot lids. And chopsticks for drumsticks! I also had one guy that would only bring kick, snare and hats to practice and only break out the whole kit for gigs.

Renesongs

The trouble with inexperienced drummers are that they are always too loud the good ones learn to control their volume fairly soon. I think until your mate learns to control his volume you should try and find a practice venue outside of a residential area or in a basement hence the name garage band

doc-phil

I must definitely look into those dampener things because even with earplugs my ears are busting after our sessions.

He can play softly, but it just doesnt seem like rock and roll that way ? maybe my inexperience in a band situation also contributes to the noise. I turn my amp up... he hits harder... I turn my amp up... he hits harder; and so the cycle goes on.

I find the way my friend practices drums without a kit while he's in CT is quite hilarious.. he just has a practice pad and visualises what he's meant to be hitting. We plan to cover certain songs at practices, so he'll sit in his room and just play air drums. The funny thing is that once he gets behind a real kit he can lay down the beats almost immediately. I suggested that he buy some paper plates and build some stands (him being an engineer and all) and practice like that. I dunno if he took up my suggestion.

Renesongs

He can play softly, but it just doesnt seem like rock and roll that way Tongue maybe my inexperience in a band situation also contributes to the noise. I turn my amp up... he hits harder... I turn my amp up... he hits harder; and so the cycle goes on.

Aha the thick plotens. Let me reiterate

The trouble with inexperienced guitarists is that they are always too loud the good ones learn to control their volume fairly soon.

fixed

Garth-S

Build yourself a Cajon (pronouced "Kahoon" i think). We've had some band practices at a friends flat and it works brilliantly. It's basically a wooden box with ahole in the back, and a thin front panel. You can also put guitar strings inside to give it a snare sound. You sit on it a drum on the thinner front panel.

doc-phil

Garth Strydom wrote Build yourself a Cajon (pronouced "Kahoon" i think). We've had some band practices at a friends flat and it works brilliantly.

No need for that anymore! Just a lil update.. my friend bought a kit today. It's now set up in his garage so nobody can chase us out his own house, except maybe the popo!