Improvising on the spot

[Pleaseme]

So last night there was a band night at my local youth centre, where I always organise sound/ lighting for it (and not play :( ) A band walked on and said they needed a drummer since theres wasn't around (not a clue why), and my mate just shoved me onto the stage. The guys just told me to play 'something', and I just thought WTF do I do??
So yeah was kinda nerve racking, they started playing and told me to join in once i half knew what I was doing. It wasn't helped by the fact that the bass pedal wasnt screwed on to the bass, and I had to play for a while with one hand whilst trying to screw the stupid pedal back on :mad:, and that the kit had been left in a general state from the user before me and i had no time to adjust or anything. Am kinda annoyed now, because that was my first time on stage, and I made a rather crappy impression.
Any of you guys had to improvise blind for someone or anything like that?

[Tim]

Ive improved once at a house party. But it wasnt in a bad situation like yours. Everything was set the way i liked it and i wasnt just shoved to do it, it was my choice.

[Flamacue]

Sucks man, but don't worry at all. Look at it as a learning experience, at least you've been on stage now and know that you were able to cope with crap like that.

[aznriceball]

me being a very subdue-able person was used for many english class presentations involving music... and i didnt even get extra credit..bah!

[poppinfresh]

how long have you bee playing, im sure that had something to do with it.

I like improving, i prefer improv'ing to playing a piece over and over again.

[FockerTheLopper]

Let me tell you, even when everything is planned out something goes wrong. I'm pretty sure even Mister Peart has things against him when he plays shows.

[Pleaseme]

Yeah it was definately a good learning experience, I'm glad of that.
I've been playing for around 4/5 years, and while it was fun and I tried to get some more fun and interesting stuff down, I'm annoyed that my nerves and lack of setting up made me screw up a few times. so it didn't do me much justice seeing as I'm trying to at least get my name out there a bit.
I agree, improvising is loads more fun, but it was kinda scary at the time, having never been on stage before.

[Loser]

Was it like a cover song or a song they made?

[Pleaseme]

Let me tell you, even when everything is planned out something goes wrong. I'm pretty sure even Mister Peart has things against him when he plays shows.

Heh yeah, although I don't have the excuse of gallons of rain to back me up :thumb:

It was a song they made up- made it all the more intersting not knowing where to fill, or actually stop playing :D

[AtomShip]

My idea on improvising is basically mastering the basic rock beats, that way you have some solid grounds to stand on, than after you've manage to just master basic beats start adding in different styles. Improvising takes years to get "good" at so just play nonstop and you'll be on your way in no time.


Also try to "feel" the bass players groove and beat your "bassdrum" to it, sounds really good if the rhythm section plays in time together.

[Loser]

My idea on improvising is basically mastering the basic rock beats, that way you have some solid grounds to stand on, than after you've manage to just master basic beats start adding in different styles. Improvising takes years to get "good" at so just play nonstop and you'll be on your way in no time.


That'd work for improvising rock.
Knowledge of rock beats won't help improvising something it doesn't sound good in.

[gastery6]

I think that improviation is a great way to improve your playing with people. When ever my band starts to jam and we improvise is when I am haveing the most fun.

[Seafroggys]

i always improvise on the spot....

in fact, when my guitarist writes a song, he just starts playing it, and I follow along, and after like the second run through I got the whole song down.

[Brokensticks]

I think that Improv is great and that what you did was a great experiance, but I know I would never want to be shoved on stage and forced to play my intrument. I would be so terribly nervous. Glad you got through it ok :thumb:

[LittlePound]

i improvised once at school when of hte drummers brought his guitar and started playing, turned out rather well but we were only playing for our percussion class and other than the kit sounding like crap nothing bad really happened....i did have to try out for a talent show once with some guys. We decided to try out the day of tryouts and i had never played with these guys or the song before (but i had a feeling of how it shoud go). So i came in way to fast, (cuz the intro is slower than the actual song and i just anticipated way to fast), the stage didn't have monitors so i couldn't hear where they were and well....that turned out really bad....so i have experience in both

[Janbacca]

That would be a tough position to be in. Was the band good to you though, or explain to the audience what was going on? I don't think there are many drummers who could walk on stage with strangers, and brand new material and expect to actually do well. It's good that you accepted though, and I'm sure you did fine!

[LittlePound]

well, we didn't make the talent show and they weren't strangers, (ther were friends, we just hadn't played together before) and there was only like 20 or so people in the crowd (the other people waiting to try out). But i was really embarrassed at how it turned out becuase....well i planned on it going better and that really amazing girl that i want to go out with was in the crowd so big ego killer there....even though she said it sounded good i knew i could do 10x better if i had actually practiced with em

[SkaRabbit]

Improv i find easy and refreshing. Great fun.

[CombatWombat3]

I LOVE doing improv work, it's a ton of fun.

I think being put in a lot of different spontaneous situations really helps your improv skills. I remember this year for one of our pep band games, we were playing outside at a football game. Now, it gets mighty cold in Minnesota, so it was about 40 degrees even in early October. I was warming up my hands inbetween songs, and at that point I got stung by two bees, one on each hand. I didn't even have time to take the stingers out before I had to play. Needless to say, I couldn't do a lot with half-frozen hands that hurt like hell. So I relied a lot on my feet, improving so much as I went.

[Seafroggys]

uh bees in 40 degree weather?

[LittlePound]

that's what i thought when he said it but i don't live anywhere near there so what would i know

[Massik Kretal]

I forgot the bass pedal one time for jazz band so I had to improvise. It was fun.

[statdat]

once this band needed me cause their drummer was in miami, so i learned 3 of their songs in 30 minutes.
it was fun, straight ahead rock too so no problem

[Jezen]

Improvisation is usually done on-the-spot....

[crazyguy832]

I forgot the bass pedal one time for jazz band so I had to improvise. It was fun.
I would've just kicked the drum with my foot, but I play without shoes.

:chug:

[SkaRabbit]

tune floor tom similar to bass. and use that between snare hits or something

[Caleb3221]

I improvise pretty much all the time. Obviosuly in jazz always, and most of the stuff I play is improvised in any rock stuff I play. My main band is literally all improv. We have no songs. We just play. We've figured out we play best if we don't even talk about what we're going to play. At most the guitar or bass will name a key.

The key to improvising is...wait for it....chops.
Not for the sake of showing off. That has nothing to do with it. The reason you need sheer techincal abilitiy is that the basis of improvising is to play what you hear in your head on the first try. If you can play well above the speed of the idea in your head, you can play the idea much easier. If you have good independance, you'll find it much easier to play whatevers in your head. The more chops you have, the more you can groove and play melodically without having to concentrate on the techincal part rather than the musical part. Get your rudiments down well enough that you don't even have to think about them, you can just think about the sound and play thesound without playing a sticking or orchestration. That's the heart of improv.

Done.

[crazyguy832]

I like my floor tom.

^_^

If I want to accent my bass I'll hit the floor tom at the same time during a normal beat. One of the advantages of open-handed.

[Massik Kretal]

tune floor tom similar to bass. and use that between snare hits or something

There was no time. I found out like a minute before we had to start.

[pabster]

So last night there was a band night at my local youth centre, where I always organise sound/ lighting for it (and not play :( ) A band walked on and said they needed a drummer since theres wasn't around (not a clue why), and my mate just shoved me onto the stage. The guys just told me to play 'something', and I just thought WTF do I do??
So yeah was kinda nerve racking, they started playing and told me to join in once i half knew what I was doing. It wasn't helped by the fact that the bass pedal wasnt screwed on to the bass, and I had to play for a while with one hand whilst trying to screw the stupid pedal back on :mad:, and that the kit had been left in a general state from the user before me and i had no time to adjust or anything. Am kinda annoyed now, because that was my first time on stage, and I made a rather crappy impression.
Any of you guys had to improvise blind for someone or anything like that?

One time at a party I did a quick unexpected solo on the spot and I hadn't been playing long at the time. I was nervous but just focused hard on keeping an even beat and not doing anything fancy. It was someone else's kit too and was setup backwards from the way I'm used to so that made me even more nervous. Though I stuck it out and it worked out fine and people liked it. No one remembers it now but me so don't worry about it if you feel it went bad, no one else will remember tomorrow anyway. If it bothers you really bad, when you feel good enough on the skins, do a solo or share some recordings with some of the same people and you feel a lot better!

[Pleaseme]

Cheers for the comments guys! Improvising is well fun, but it sucks when you're not given any time to adjust to the kit or anything like that.
And yeah the band were good to me, and explained to the crowd what was going on which helped. Ah well, good times!

[Obelisk]

Open mic jams are awesome for working improv skills. I was part of the backline at a pub for a year or so, you would never know who was going to show up and play what songs. Taught me a lot about reading other musicians. Find out if there is something in your area you can just show up to a wail out for a couple tunes... fun and good for your playing.

[Pleaseme]

Thats a really cool idea..haven't heard of anything like that, but since I help organise our band nights, I might be able to get something like that going!

[Panopticon]

Open mic jams are awesome for working improv skills. I was part of the backline at a pub for a year or so, you would never know who was going to show up and play what songs. Taught me a lot about reading other musicians. Find out if there is something in your area you can just show up to a wail out for a couple tunes... fun and good for your playing.

Don't mean to hi-jack but Obelisk have you heard of the band Cue the crowd? They have played in Toronto a couple times...

[Obelisk]

Don't mean to hi-jack but Obelisk have you heard of the band Cue the crowd? They have played in Toronto a couple times...

Can't say I have... are they from Toronto?