Mentally freezing up while recording drums

[Abna]

don't get it all the time but yeah I have gotten this before. Just stressed to nail the whole song without ****ing it up. But, I find it way less stressful to be recording drums at someone elses studio when I won't be doing the mix or anything. Probably cause I only have 1 job to worry about instead of several

[joeq]

Originally Posted by Piranhadrum

Any other experienced drummers feel like this? Over the past 5 years I've recorded a lot of drums tracks at home. I feel like it's hurt my confidence, because of the option to 'keep doing another take'. And I also find myself getting tense, even when I'm alone recording.
....
I used to just go for it, but now if I have even a little hiccup I start the song all over again(going for perfection I guess).

After 18 years, thinking about taking lessons again. I hope it will pass.

Any thoughts? Have you had this, if so what did you do to overcome it?

I have felt the pain of perfectionism, for sure.

drums are tough because every single note is completely exposed
recording yourself is tough because you are the artist AND the producer as well as the engineer.

but remember: that also means you are the boss of yourself


you need to put on your Producer hat and make the drummer stop wasting time
then you need to put your drummer hat back on, and NOT JUDGE the takes while you are playing. That would be the Producer's job.


Stopping the take when you think something is imperfect is a Producer thing to to. When you are listening to your own take in real time and trying to judge whether or not it is good, you are taking attention away from actually playing the drums. Wear one hat at a time.

When practicing the tunes, I'm 100%...but when the red button is pressed, it all changes.

Make sure this is true. That is, make sure you are really practicing the right things and are practicing playing to the same standards as you will be using to evaluate the Real Recording. Sometimes when practicing, we 'look the other way' at small errors that will actually not pass muster.



make whatever rules you need to simplify your process
how about:

- full takes only - you're not allowed to do any part again until the next full take...then you just comp the best parts together.

- a limit on total takes... whatever you need, but no more. Don't make it so many that listening back to them becomes a chore in itself. Want 'just one more'? Then you have to choose one to delete! Sorry, rules is rules.

-or go the other way- punch your way through the song. Play the intro until you have it good, then back up over the transition and get the first verse. Be 'businesslike'. Build your drum track the way a painter paints a wall. Start at one end, work your way to the other, touch up occasionally.

-write out a chart.

-invite a hot girl over to watch you lay down the drum track. Amazing how little time you will waste getting a good take if you think she is getting bored watching you do it over and over.

-before you play, do some pad work. For a drummer, having your chops loose is more important even than knowing the song, IMO!

one thing I try to do whenever possible is to do all the setup one day -including mics, cables, DAW tracks, headphone levels etc etc and then shut down, kill the power and NOT TRACK any keepers until the next day. Or a least a several-hour break.

Going straight from using a computer, to hitting hollow skin-covered tubes with sticks is a big mental leap. Think about it: you are going from Spaceman to Caveman. Give yourself time to settle into that transition.

It will also help in shutting up your Inner Producer.

[Gamelan]

Originally Posted by Piranhadrum

When practicing the tunes, I'm 100%...but when the red button is pressed, it all changes.

Sounds as if you are listening more critically while recording. I do it too. It's totally natural. Either learn to be more forgiving of your playing while tracking, or up your game. The thing I find most difficult about recording one's self is the distracting thought of "oops...can I fix that later or not?" while playing. But, it's gotten to where I can just plow ahead after an error, even a big one, because the next thing I play after that mistake might be the best thing I play all day and there's nothing a little editing can't fix.

[biggator6]

I'm neither the best drummer here nor the most seasoned studio drummer (or eng).. but I find that the more I 'get into' the song and stop thinking about it - the better I can lay tracks.

Turn down the light... turn up the phones a little.. bang your head... groove with it. FEEL the song and your tracks will follow.

[drumzalicious]

I used to be like that then I just learned to trust my playing. I might have one or two snare hits that aren't PERFECTLY in time but so what. No drummer can be that precise and still feel good. I feel a lot of people these days are so concerned with being metronomically perfect they forger to make the music feel good

Sent from my Incredible using Gearslutz.com App

[Jax]

I'll be printing a copy of this. It is a well-devised approach.

Originally Posted by joeq

I have felt the pain of perfectionism, for sure.

drums are tough because every single note is completely exposed
recording yourself is tough because you are the artist AND the producer as well as the engineer.

but remember: that also means you are the boss of yourself


you need to put on your Producer hat and make the drummer stop wasting time
then you need to put your drummer hat back on, and NOT JUDGE the takes while you are playing. That would be the Producer's job.


Stopping the take when you think something is imperfect is a Producer thing to to. When you are listening to your own take in real time and trying to judge whether or not it is good, you are taking attention away from actually playing the drums. Wear one hat at a time.




Make sure this is true. That is, make sure you are really practicing the right things and are practicing playing to the same standards as you will be using to evaluate the Real Recording. Sometimes when practicing, we 'look the other way' at small errors that will actually not pass muster.



make whatever rules you need to simplify your process
how about:

- full takes only - you're not allowed to do any part again until the next full take...then you just comp the best parts together.

- a limit on total takes... whatever you need, but no more. Don't make it so many that listening back to them becomes a chore in itself. Want 'just one more'? Then you have to choose one to delete! Sorry, rules is rules.

-or go the other way- punch your way through the song. Play the intro until you have it good, then back up over the transition and get the first verse. Be 'businesslike'. Build your drum track the way a painter paints a wall. Start at one end, work your way to the other, touch up occasionally.

-write out a chart.

-invite a hot girl over to watch you lay down the drum track. Amazing how little time you will waste getting a good take if you think she is getting bored watching you do it over and over.

-before you play, do some pad work. For a drummer, having your chops loose is more important even than knowing the song, IMO!

one thing I try to do whenever possible is to do all the setup one day -including mics, cables, DAW tracks, headphone levels etc etc and then shut down, kill the power and NOT TRACK any keepers until the next day. Or a least a several-hour break.

Going straight from using a computer, to hitting hollow skin-covered tubes with sticks is a big mental leap. Think about it: you are going from Spaceman to Caveman. Give yourself time to settle into that transition.

It will also help in shutting up your Inner Producer.

[Dean Roddey]

One trick is to get out of the modern belief that perfection is more important than emotion. Play with emotion. If you make mistakes, make BIG mistakes, but let it flow. If you aren't worried about making mistakes, you'll probably make fewer of them, at least of the bad sort. Getting emotion down is what making music is about, not getting notes down. If someone tells you your stuff isn't worthy because it's not perfect, then I say they aren't the people you need to be involved with to begin with, as long as the emotion is there.

[joeq]

Originally Posted by Dean Roddey

One trick is to get out of the modern belief that perfection is more important than emotion. Play with emotion. If you make mistakes, make BIG mistakes, but let it flow. ...

play it wrong, but play it strong!

[biggator6]

Originally Posted by joeq

play it wrong, but play it strong!

I like that.. it's like 'go big or go home'.. but more musical.
"-)

[surfspank]

One thing we've been doing in our band that helps everyone is that we rehearse our live set before hitting record. At that point everybody is warmed up enough to get their takes down. If you don't have a band, throw on something that you are comfortable drumming with and can drum in your sleep....everybody has a couple.
Another thing I did last session, since we had a new bassist who was a little tense, is let them play and not tell them when I was hitting record....for some reason sometimes there's something about that red button that adds a little focus to perfection.
Lastly, and it was mentioned on here already, something everybody has a little trouble with, let the mistakes sit until you hear them within the context of the song and mix. You'd be surprised how many work. There are many times in our band during mixing where I want to scrap something because of a missed hit, but when it's plugged into the mix it works...or somebody says to leave it because I'm the only one hearing it.
Most importantly, find something that helps you relax, and let the hard work you put into practicing flow. A mug of Green Tea and a stretch works for me.

Hope this helps, have fun....it's a great blessing to be a Drummer with the ability to be recorded.

[Jax]

I think one reason for people's game changing when tracking is that a subconscious trigger goes off, telling them that they are not up to the task of being scrutinized by the rest of the world. IOW, it is a confidence issue.

It's much easier to be comfortable playing with a group of friends, or at least those who accept your musical contributions without too much question (hopefully), than it is being comfortable with what everyone else would think. It's a feeling of requirement for professional skill levels to a set of imagined peers, unless they really are in the building, directing you (like a producer). Instead of playing for yourself and your band, you become self-conscious and whatever you were doing before that worked, changes. For me, that eventually worked out positively. By being forced to listen to what I was doing, it became obvious to me when I was doing things that didn't work and when they did. It made me a better player and it gave me the ability to produce myself.

[Dr. Mordo]

A lot of good advice.

Another idea - 'you fight like you train'.

You should spend a fair amount of time practicing in the exact manner that you record. Same headphones, same click, same setup, same everything. Make yourself feel comfortable in that environment. Then when you record, run through it without recording until you are comfortable, then hit record and do it again.

[surfspank]

Good point Jax, every time I sit behind a kit I'm trying to trigger the subconscious. I seldom see other Drummer's at gigs taking steps to ensure they are in the proper relaxed state with mind and body to take the stage...and more often then not they take a few songs to find it. And yes the music suffers greatly.
I'd like to elaborate why I hold the pre-performance stretch as sacred routine because it has to do with any sort of performance.
After I warm up my hands and feet the muscles are pretty tight and gorged with blood. What stretching my body afterward does is elongates these muscles and allows the blood to flow through them, increasing circulation and oxygen flow throughout. If I don't it just sits there and doesn't clear out the lactic acid (which tightens muscles). This is important because not only do your muscles require the blood and oxygen, so does your brain. When you are pushing your heart rate as Drumming does and relying on things like muscle memory, it's best to do anything at your disposal to optimize. Tight muscles restrict this plain and simple, and it takes more effort to get up to speed. At which point you have to hope your mind hasn't has a chance to enter your subconscious and wonder why the body isn't performing.
Crap I think I confused myself with this one.

[Piranhadrum]

Thank you very much everyone, for taking the time to reply and share your opinions! It means a lot to me.....now here's to a new chapter!

[firby]

Get your sound. That means drums tuned cymbals picked everything mic'ed and everything ready to go in record ready.

Go away. Eat lunch, do whatever. Go outside. Free up your thoughts.

come back hit record and do about 3-6 takes with about 20 seconds between each one.

Go away. Walk around outside. Take calls on your cell.

Then come back and mix what you have done or listen to the engineer mix. Pick takes. Edit.

If it is a session, get your money, otherwise get busy.

[mikethedrummer]

Couple shots of whiskey always calms the nerves

[Liquid360]

The more I 'get into' the song and stop thinking about it

Yup, don't over analyze when you actually record, just play the hell out of the kit like you're onstage in front of thousands of people. Rehearsals are for analyzing.

[MyOnlineDrummer]

One thing that helps me is to duplicate the backing track 3 or 4 times in the DAW so you have the whole song 4 times, back to back with about 15 seconds in between.
Then you can do a take, rest for a second, then hit it again without having to stop the recording or worrying about doing playlists and loop record, etc. Then just comp together the best sections, and all the transitions are intact without punch-ins.

[Piranhadrum]

Looking forward to getting this book as well:

Amazon.com: Mind Matters: Overcoming Common Mental Barriers In Drumming - A User's Manual for the Mind (9781458406996): Bernie Schallehn: Books

[Vapour Trails]

It could have been me starting this thread!

Just this year I have started recording songs with a friend for fun (myself on the drums, while he plays guitar, bass and does vocals).

Lately, I've spent countless hours trying to record the same 3 min song. I'm sure I've recorded (and deleted) almost 30 takes already. I make mistakes I wouldn't normally just because that red light is on. I also feel I play more mechanically when recording, less dynamics, less emotion. Truthfully, likely many of those tracks are fine for use, but I seem to listen intently and dwell of even the smallest error (that flam was too wide, missed the center of the snare on that hit).

One thing that has helped lately is telling myself I don't have to nail the track today, it reduces the pressure to perform on the spot.

One question I have is, are you guys regularily pasting together the best parts of multiple takes? I've never tried it and I'm somewhat leary of doing it because I feel I really should be able to record a 3 min song without interventions. If it were a 9 minute epic I may feel differently.

Another question, are you always using backing tracks? I am not, just a click and running through the song in my mind. I would like to use a backing track, but honestly my guitar/bass player friend has bad timing and the backing track would be littered with errors that could throw me off. He relies on me to get his time straight.

[joeq]

Originally Posted by Vapour Trails

I

One question I have is, are you guys regularily pasting together the best parts of multiple takes? I've never tried it and I'm somewhat leary of doing it because I feel I really should be able to record a 3 min song without interventions. If it were a 9 minute epic I may feel differently.

However many punches and edits you need, that's exactly how 'good' you are. tutt Everybody comps or punches or whatever. Some a lot, some very little. If you want to challenge your ego, see how few takes or punches you need, but don't play a game with yourself about what you "should" be able to do. Not every choice in a comping situation is because the other one is 'bad' - sometimes it's just that this one is 'smokin'!

Another question, are you always using backing tracks? I am not, just a click and running through the song in my mind.

Wow, no wonder you are having a hard time! Remember, no one listening to your song will give you extra points for 'degree of difficulty'; even if they know how hard you are making on yourself, they don't care. They just want to hear it rock.

How can you relax and rock out the song if there is no song there?

I would like to use a backing track, but honestly my guitar/bass player friend has bad timing and the backing track would be littered with errors that could throw me off. He relies on me to get his time straight.

this is a difficult situation, but one thing you can do is have the guitarist plug in direct and play live with you so you can hear him in your cans, but not necessarily record him. Then record him later.

Another option is to 'bootstrap' it. Nobody wants to go "first" , but you can do a 'first' that gets thrown away.

Start with a drum machine beat instead of a click. record, punch, comp, paste, wiggle and Beat Detective a rhythm guitar part until it is decent. Do whatever you have to do to assemble a reasonable guitar part to go with the click. Regardless of the guitarist's timing "issues", there's no reason for this be impossible for him if he can play along to you. Do a scratch vocal too.

Then when you add your real drums, you don't have to mentally count measures or sing lyrics. Your backing track won't be perfect but at least you have a sketch that can free your brain from having mentally run through the song in your mind.

You could go back and do the guitar part 'for real' and 'for feel' if you need to.

One friend I know uses Band-In-The-Box to generate a rhythm section. You just type in the chords. I think almost anything is preferable to trying to "imagine" a whole song from nothing but a click.

[Jax]

Originally Posted by joeq

Remember, no one listening to your song will give you extra points for 'degree of difficulty'; even if they know how hard you are making on yourself, they don't care. They just want to hear it rock.

Sometimes at gigs when a song is ending, I half expect the musicians in the crowd to hold up score cards like we're at the Olympics (7.5, 8.0, 6.3...). You can tell the musicians in the crowd. They're usually poker faced and stingy with the applause. The ones who aren't like that tend to be friendly and open-minded and ironically, their music tends to be better.

this is a difficult situation, but one thing you can do is have the guitarist plug in direct and play live with you so you can hear him in your cans, but not necessarily record him. Then record him later.

I've done this. It often works out well once I get the guitar player to stop complaining about his headphone mix and understand what we're trying to accomplish. The bonus is that the 'scratch' guitar takes can be as good or better than the 'over-focused' takes later on. If you have a reamp on hand, just record a clean guitar track and send it out to the amp later. I usually don't use the reamp track for the main guitar track, but it sounds good as a double sitting lower in the mix.

[joeq]

Originally Posted by Jax

You can tell the musicians in the crowd. They're usually poker faced and stingy with the applause.

I often find myself guilty of this. It's not like I am even disappointed in the music. I can dig it, but forget to applaud. It's like I forget that I am a 'member of the audience'. Who me? No, I shouldn't applaud, I am in the band... oh wait, I am in a different band!

I have to often make an effort to remind myself to applaud.

[MandyC]

This happened to me recently....it's scary when you all of a sudden lose your confidence and there are 6 other folks counting on you...I just looked the two other players in the eye and said "im losing it"..they didn;t flinch...just said..take a break...which I did...and it passed...scary though...just try to keep it fun and trust the other folks around you....they want you there for a reason.

[Jax]

Originally Posted by MandyC

just try to keep it fun and trust the other folks around you....they want you there for a reason.

And hopefully that reason isn't just because you're friends. I know it sounds cruel, but I've seen several bands and been in a few where at least one person sucked as a musician, and no one ever told him or her because they didn't want to risk their friendship. I say a friend is someone who can be completely honest with you.

[12ax7]

.

It may be that what you are up against has less to do with playing drums and more to do with playing the roles of both musician and recordist at the same time:

The mindset required for each of those roles are NOT the same (and are frequently even at cross-purposes).

Very few are capable of filling both of these roles at the same time (and do a really good job of either).

...And most of the folks I know of who do it well tend not to work so much in real time (ie: They are using samples and computers a lot).

.

[Jax]

Wanted to mention another thing I do that has really helped when it's time to do real takes. I've recorded and kept about 95% of my band practices for the last 11 years. For about 9 of those years, I used my old Pro Tools HD rig (no longer a PT slave here!) with usually 6-12 mics (not just drums) per practice. In 2009 I got a Zoom stereo recorder that does an admirable job at letting you clearly hear everything that everyone is playing, so no need for multi-mics.

What this does is free you up from the feeling of scrutiny. The red light being on all the time becomes second nature after awhile, like you have another set of ears listening all the time and you get used to their presence. In reality, those ears are your ears... not everyone's expectations, hopes and beliefs in you (which is too much pressure), just your ears. Listening back, I can hear that I learned to perform for the mic as if it was an audience member.

I've gotten better and better at playing something I'd want to listen to, because generally I'm the only one who's listening later on. And when it's time to do some 'real' tracking, I'm WAY better prepared than I would be without having the EYE on all the time, because I'm not self-conscious of the EYE and I already know what I want to play and how I want to play it. That frees me up from a good 50-60% of the insecurity that comes when laying down tracks that are meant for a real recording.

[Jax]

Originally Posted by 12ax7

.[INDENT] It may be that what you are up against has less to do with playing drums and more to do with playing the roles of both musician and recordist at the same time:

Very much agreed, here. It took me a long time to separate the two. Many of my band practices didn't sound that great because I didn't want to focus on the engineering side as much as I did on the playing. But when I focused on either one individually, and / or gave myself a day or a half day of setting up the recording side before coming in to play, I got better results from each.

The same approach works well when you have paying clients. Set up the recording side the first second you have a chance. Get them to setup a day early (especially the drums) if possible.

[MandyC]

Originally Posted by Jax

And hopefully that reason isn't just because you're friends. I know it sounds cruel, but I've seen several bands and been in a few where at least one person sucked as a musician, and no one ever told him or her because they didn't want to risk their friendship. I say a friend is someone who can be completely honest with you.

well aren't you just a peach...well no they actually aren't friends there chuckles. They are a couple of players from two other acts that I've worked with in the past. They just happen to be very good at what they do and understand that bed tracks is high pressure time for drummy. Now ...what is it that you are suggesting again...that I'm garbage and the people that ask me to work with them do it out of pity?



The OP is just gettng some stories shared...it happens to all of us