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Playing Songs you Can't Stand

Im sure there are songs i dislike that i play occasionally……what i really find painful is when the song is massacred, no matter what song, by the band. Also, playing drum parts in a recording session you dont feel are right for the material but thats what the artist wants.
 
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Skeet6 said:
Why play them, then? I mean life is too short to play stuff you hate. Unless of course, you are a hired gun. My band? We play what we like. If someone doesn't like something, it doesn't stay on our list like penance.
Mike B
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Me, I used to feel that way till someone told me that if we could bottle our song list, we could use it as audience repellent.
 
Drummingdog said:
Im sure there are songs i dislike that i play occasionally……what i really find painful is when the song is massacred, no matter what song, by the band
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Totally agree. I don’t care if I dislike the song in itself. I’m a drummer I like to play drums. My problem is when we don’t manage to play the song well. In my band, we try ; if we don’t get it right after 2/3 rehearsal we let it down. We did it for its my life (no doubt version). It was not dynamic enough, the public wasn’t responding that much. We dropped it.
 
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As many have said, playing songs you wouldn't listen to or otherwise don't like is part of the job. But listening and playing are different things.

I find pleasure and satisfaction in figuring out what makes the song, and particularly the drums, give the song the certain feel and focus on recreating that. This is fun to me. Also fun is the audience reaction to what we're playing. Who really needs to hear Wagon Wheel again, much less play it???!!! But, it fills the dance floor EVERY SINGLE TIME with happy, singing people. That's fun enough and leads me to recreate the drum part as best I can (not that difficult) for 5 minutes a night.

Being open to songs you "hate" can also widen your musician skills and appreciation for music. The best example I can personally think of is Ballroom Blitz which I absolutely HATED in my youth. But you know what, when you pull apart the song in order to learn it you realize there's a lot of intricate drum and other instrument parts that make that song what it is - not all that easy to pull off just like the recording. There's a lot of fun and musical advancement in tackling that. Now I have grown to really appreciate the song and enjoy playing it.

Example 2 I'm working on right now to perfect a bit better & pick up more flavor: Eddie Rabbitt, Drivin' My Life Away. In my youth all I heard was boom-chick, boom-chick, boom-chick, etc. (Snooze.) But listen to that drum part more carefully... There's a lot more going on with drums than what I thought in my youth.

My 2 cents.
 
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jda said:
oh the first two words "English Beat" are a turn off, I shall continue...

I wager no one's ever heard that ..no wait.. I remember that

"Sooner Or Later" how he says 'Lay-ter'..

That's like a Talking Heads Copy cat

"Just pretend you're backing up David Byrne"
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They come from Birmingham - not the Alabama one, but the one in England with an even more impenetrable accent. :)

On a side note, two of The Beat later formed Five Young Cannibals.

I think it's a great song. So does Pete Townshend.

 
Boy, I'm TIRED of playing Proud Mary. Even if its the CCR version with a little speed mixed on it, I've been playing that song since I was 16. I'm not even old, It's just a boring song!

That said, I exclusively play it when I have to, so all things considered, it ain't that bad. I've got my easy going cover band and we just see each other on gig time pretty much, don't need much practise to play Jailhouse Rock and its thousand derivates for the 69th time.
 
Good topic!

I’ll weigh in on Proud Mary and how we as a band make it fun. When I joined this band and soon after one of the members suggested Proud Mary I thought here we go again. But we made it more interesting for us.

As a band we play on the fun theme (the word ‘Jester’ is part of our band name!) so anything goes. We play the slow intro then pretend we are done before hitting them with a 1-2-3-4 and into the faster version. I’ll use the wall behind me as part of a drum fill, the bassist goes into the crowd and dances.

I guess in short, make the song fun for you.
 
Ive played plenty of songs I haven't liked but generally grow to like them over time. It's messed up my carefully nurtured musical taste.

All song choices are enjoyed by someone in the band so the challenge is presenting the song for them in a way that they can shine.

Some songs I die a little inside when called and some I have grown bored of. The worst are the ones I don't like the sentiment of, I'm bored of and Im not very good at. There have been times I haven't respected a song enough to do it justice. This is a failing. If someone in the the room likes the song I should give them the best version I can.
 
It’s all part of the mental game of being a musician. I think of it similarly to how a sports professional has to learn to keep their focus and belief, even when things are going against them.

You have to play sports by trying to always be your best, and music is the same.

:)
 
Springsteen,
Cover Me, Dancing in the Dark. Complete bores for me.
How I get through? My mind goes somewhere else for 4 minutes.
For Dancing in the Dark, I also have mental contests with myself to see how long I can keep this same simple beat without varying anything.

I think I wouldenjoy Pump it Up…there’s a lot I would try to mix it up on that song.
 
The Dire Straits microwave oven song I absolutely detest. The intro is too long and will bore the audience, so can't even have fun with that. The rest is sooo tedious for a drummer (plus I just hate the song). To help me get thru it, I start it straight, playing as tight as I can, then gradually introduce a swing and see how far I can push it. By the end the guitarist is glaring daggers but the bass player has a huge grin.
 
Some interesting advice in the posts above. I also try and focus on playing as well as I can even though I might not like the song and figure that at least I'm improving in the process, ie. treat it like a training exercise. This sometimes happens when jamming with the bass and guitar player who both like country (which I loathe).

The good thing about being the drummer is when I get bored I just through in a couple of big flams and wind it up, prematurely ejecting out of the tune ("Oh, isn't that when that one finishes?").

By the way, I know drummers get annoyed when they see a kit set up incorrectly, usually when a non-drummer has assembled the toms at crazy angles for the purposes of taking a photo to sell it, but did any chess players notice that the board was set up incorrectly in that film clip to English Beat?
 
Alex Sanguinetti said:
About "how to play songs that I don't like", I believe that people that do that have a further goal behind, such as money, friendship, simple practice, or whatever it is.
So to me it seems you have to find a goal that makes it worth going through such inconvenience.

Now, personally, I don't play music that I don't like and above all with musicians that I don't like, and that despite being a professional musician, since my main goal is to play what I think is good music with good musicians, so doing the opposite would go against my objective and principles.

But I have a question TO YOU about the songs that you like and those that you don't, in essence there is not really stylistic difference between them to me, it seems strange (and not at the same time), it´s all rock/pop back beat music, many times very similar and/or same tempo... basically you have to play the same thing in all of them.

Your examples of LIKE/DISLIKE:
LIKE 1)

DON´T LIKE 2)

Are you sure they are too different?

P.S.:

To me something different would be (I´m trying to restrict myself to music with singers):

A . Med Up Jazz:


B . Mostly 3/4 Fusion


C . Up Tempo Samba


ETC. x 1000, the list and styles would be endless!
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Thank you for the great reply!!!! I don't know..."Pump it Up"...I just hate the song, the lyrics, the chord progression...I can't put my finger on it. The Judas Priest song...I just like the groove...not sure why I hate some and not others. One member says he hates half the material in our band. Why play it? I guess no one likes ALL of the songs....in the list.
 
Playing for money does make this issue relevant...satisfy the source of resource distribution to be distributed to.

I feel fortunate that I can play what and when I want...no external controls that flatten my satisfaction.
 
Otto said:
Playing for money does make this issue relevant...satisfy the source of resource distribution to be distributed to.

I feel fortunate that I can play what and when I want...no external controls that flatten my satisfaction.
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Im at the point where i play with who i want and get paid for it. The best of both worlds
 
Otto said:
Playing for money does make this issue relevant...satisfy the source of resource distribution to be distributed to.

I feel fortunate that I can play what and when I want...no external controls that flatten my satisfaction.
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And i completely agree with you
 
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