Tips for playing with a drummer

I ve always played by guitar alone or with others but never with a drummer. I find that playing with a drummer is a tad challenging. Maybe i over think and then the whole things just goes to crap...Any tips on playing with a drummer...ive heard the usual..."feel the groove" thang..but any thing to look or listen for etc?

Originally Posted by: PoleraI ve always played by guitar alone or with others but never with a drummer. I find that playing with a drummer is a tad challenging. Maybe i over think and then the whole things just goes to crap...Any tips on playing with a drummer...ive heard the usual..."feel the groove" thang..but any thing to look or listen for etc?

All I do is play my guitar and let the drummer figure it out :p . I don't think playing guitar with a drummer is all that different from alone, just that the drummer forces you to keep in time, which you should be doing anyway.

I've only done it with bass. Supposed to follow the bass drum closely but also noodle around in accordance with other stuff they're doing (i.e. tom fills, hi-hat flourishes, etc.). I usually had a way of pissing off studio-type (semi)pro drummers because they seem to not want you to deviate from the bass drum at all whatsoever, i.e. match it and nothing else as if you were their slave on a dog leash. (Really, they get thrown off too easily; too tightly wound, I think.) Always preferred playing with wildcard improv type guys because me and them could go to town with the greatest of ease and without butting heads, and it would be free of screw-ups to boot.

It helps bundles to know what the drummer's looking at. When you want to suggest a certain type of sound don't make crash and snare sounds. There's nothing more aggrivating and indescriptive to say "do a pshh, pshh, boom, pshhh, tsss" when every cymbal makes different degrees of the same sound. On the other hand, it is kind of entertaining from a third person view to see this kind of thing happen between an inexperienced guitarist and an inexperienced drummer. But if you want good communication, then learn what they have available so that when you make a reference to a particular drum you can tell him exactly what you mean.

Get the drummer to play the beats first and imagine the riffs playing along in your head. When you can 'hear' what you want to play before you pick up the guitar it makes things a lot easier.

Know your time signatures and where you want the accents.

One of the funnest things for me is to try and imitate what the drummer is doing rhythmically on my guitar. In other words, whatever the drummer is playing--where he places accents, etc--I'll copy that rhythm and improvise a riff. I think that's a good place to start when jamming.

Listen to what the drummer plays on the hi-hat or the ride. If you've every practiced with a metronome, think of what is played on either of those two as the metronome beats. A crash cymbal is usually hit on the first beat of a measure, especially after a drum roll. If you play in time with the hi-hat/ride, you and the drummer should be in sync. The snare and bass drum are the drummer's own improv. to what he's feeling in the music. Also, a good drummer will mostly likely syncopate these two, so if your following those. You'll have problems. When the drummer does a drum roll just maintain what you've been playing, and let the drummer fall back in time with you.

Whoever wrote or starts the song should take the lead, while everyone else including the drummer follows. When your in the lead, your job is to maintain the song form, while everyone fits to what you do. If the drummer starts the song, the rhythm section should add something first. So just start of with a rhythm guitar part, rather than an overly complex riff. Once you fall into the groove, then start showing what you can do. If someone wants to take a solo, call it it so that everyone knows to just fall back, give that person some room, and keep a strong rhythm backing to whoever leads.

Once you've been playing with a drummer for alittle while, some of the more complex relationships between you and the drummer will take there place. Start with something simple until you get it. Communication is the key, if everyone stays shy and quite nothing will get done.