How do you prepare for the GC drum off?

completely improv, semi worked out, completely worked out or neurotically fine tuned down to noting almost the entire solo?

also any tips tricks and mental prep for it? please share your past experiences!!!

As always, I am perfectly prepared. To ignore it.

Yeah, I just find out when it's being held... and avoid the store those days.

One of the things I've learned about competition - any kind, not just performance - is, subtle dramatic pause, only the winner will win.

And in promotional drum offs, who knows what they look for. Corporate brat on the express elevator? Miracle alien hybrid who reeks PLATINUM? Some super average showoff who can stir the retarded horde? I think, well maybe not in those terms, but probably.

More important, if this is not you, then you'll be wasting valuable time trying. So, attack your craft with career intentions. If you're a tourney cherry and just GOTTA have it, then forget about winning and work up your best presentation. When it's your turn, play your heart out. If you're good enough, the right people will make note of it.

Otherwise, like they said, ignore.

I've never participated but here's my thoughts. I would get a nice groove going that you can play well and then play some variations of that theme by using dynamics, different drums/cymbals, displacement, accents, ghost notes, cross sticking etc. Make it groove with a great feel, try to use some space, don't fill up every bit of the space with notes. Play the rhythm using just your toms, the tribal feel always gets to the soul of others drummers. Build the intensity from the beginning to a crescendo at the ending and whatever you do don't forget to use the cowbell!

Work on your showmanship skills.

Play something with a groove, stop, stand up, moon them, then walk off stage, screaming, YEAH - I KNOW WHAT IT TAKES TO BE A REAAAL RAWK STAR - NOT SOME F'NG DRUM COMPETITION. NOW, WHO HAS MY SMACK...

ahaha very creative methods we have here. and for those of you that are all "like oh my gawd im like totally not going near the store like that day" i just moved to vegas and the drum off is a good way to meet other members of the drumming community and my performance would hopefully be good publicity. and also i dont understand why some people around here are so anti-soloing. if you have practiced hundreds or thousands of hours to become the drummer you are today why not sho it off - no matter what level you are currently at you should be proud to be able to play an intsrument at all.

A buddy of mine plans to enter and just play 1/4 notes on the Ride for 3 minutes , I will be cheering him on if he has the balls to do it.

As a drummer, one should know that there is a time and a place for everything.

and a drum off is a good time and place to play ur butt off!

Play as busy and flashy as possibly, with lots of double bass and cymbals. I tried to play with lots of dynamics and a variety of styles, and was scored pretty low. But the two winners were terribly flashy with no dynamics. The #1 scorer didn't even have any structure, he just played as busy as possible until they told him to stop.

I knew a drummer who won a store competition (and got a free double pedal). Terrible time, no formal training, really sloppy, but he could play lots of double bass.

After that, I spoke with my drum teacher, and he told me the same thing. Another student prepared a solo, went in, and got scored poorly under some kids that just played double bass and were flashy.

and a drum off is a good time and place to play ur butt off!

+1

i join just for fun. not for intentions of winning or anything, but just to get out there, play, and have a good time. if people like it, fine. if not, who cares.

Well that is a problem. I actually won 1500 bucks from the sabian larrie london drum set scholarship. I was a freshman in college and wrote the solo with my teacher. It had jazz, latin, funk and all that and every section was stitched together carefully with a metric modulation or something else that formed a smooth transition. I also used a lot of dynamics. This won me the money that payed for a lot of my '89 dw maple customs. Then later that year my teacher (who was head of our percussion dept) judged the drum off at a local store. She placed players who did all that same kind of stuff above people who just played tons of double bass and flashy fills. They gave her {censored} about it and she told them next year they can find another judge. So its pretty easy to see what GC wants, flashy stuff. But so what, that stuff can be just as fun. It's kind of like taking a car up to its max speed. You don't usually drive it that fast and it's not safe to do around others but every once in a while it can be a lot of fun to see how fast it can go!

We have a winner!

I practice.

It's kind of like taking a car up to its max speed. You don't usually drive it that fast and it's not safe to do around others but every once in a while it can be a lot of fun to see how fast it can go!

I'm sorry... what do these two things have in common again?

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I don't get it either. I'm guessing these are people from the Ringo Starr school of drumming. I've played in the GC drum off 3 times. I never advanced. It's fun though. You get to meet a lot of other drummers and experience the brotherhood of drummer thing. You see some good stuff and some not so good stuff. It's also a great chance for you to work on something, perfect, and perform for people and get some feedback on it. You might even learn something new.

I haven't had the experience of loud double bass winning. In fact, the guys like that always lost. Last year after the contest, I spoke to one of the judges and said how I thought maybe one of those guys with the fast soubel stuff would win. He said, no, that's the stuff he teaches. He wants creativity, chops, and putting on a good show. The ones that won in the ones I've been in have all had excellent independence, good hands, and some structure to their solo. In 2 of them, the winner had to have their Mommy drive them to the store for the contest because they weren't old enough to drive yet!

As far as how I prepare, I play around with ideas and come up with several ideas I like. I develop them a little. Then I put them in some order and kindof improv some in between them. I don't have the whole thing mapped out, but I have a good ideas of where I'm going.

I may or may not be in it this year. I haven't decided yet.

Good luck to you and have fun.

w/e man the metaphor made enough sense whats ur problem with this whole thing. go youtube some of the previous years winners and ask yourself "am i as good as these guys? am i maybe jealous and therefore pretend like im above the whole thing"

boomboom, its nice to hear that some of the stores have good judges! you should go for it because like you said its all a ton of fun and great for meeting new peeps.

I was in Costa Mesa, CA on business in 2001 and entered at the Fountain Valley store. There was guy there named Bob who you could tell was a total hack hobbyist guy. He did some cool stuff though. I talked to him during and after the contest. I still go back to Costa Mesa a couple of times a year, and more times than not, when I'm there, I run into him at a local blues jam. In typical So Cal style, he works at Disneyland for his day job!

This was one of the contests where the winner's Mommy and Daddy had to drive him to the store because he was not old enough to drive! He was good though.

Oh, and my comments about what you call good judges, they were at 3 different stores. The one in CA, one in Dallas, TX, and one in Seattle, WA.

Good luck and have fun. Don't worry about what these anti-drum solo wankers say! :):)

I don't have a problem with it. I just don't like it. And when I hear those guys playing music with a band, and hear them keep good time, and play appropriate fills... Then I'll determine if they're better than me. A crowd pleasing drum solo does not a good drummer make.

And no, the metaphor makes no sense to me. A car that can go fast was built for that purpose, and that usually doesn't translate into being good all around transportation. Wait, maybe it was a good metaphor.

Yeah, I guess I am a little anti-solo. The main reason is because it's hard to hear a solo that is not redundant or original. IMO, some drum solo's just aren't good and WAY too long. In my experience with the GC drum soloists, I just haven't heard to much originality. I saw one kid even set himself like Carter Beauford and played all his licks. Yikes. I guess I'm not a fan of stand-alone drum solo's. I like a drum feature in a song context, or some kind of musical vamp underneath a "solo". That way, there is some context to the solo, and a chance to play off of the music and make the drum feature more musical. The only good stand alone drum solo's that I like are guys like Louis Bellson, Buddy Rich etc etc and that era's drummers. They seem to be more musically inclined.....plus the speed that we all like to hear...but at least it wasn't ALL flash and dash. Btw, generally speaking I am a rock guy, before you say Im a jazz snob! Good drums is just good drums, no matter what genre or style.

Just because you have fast twitch muscles doesn't make a solo good or musical. Yes, I respect the time and dedication it takes to develope speed, and lord knows it takes a lot of time. But to hear a drummer go, "BbbbbbbbbbbbbbRRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr" for even 20 seconds is terrible.

As far as the original poster question, "what can I do or practice?" Put some context in the solo and build from there. If you want to show speed, keep the passages short.....and keep the whole solo short. Just because you have five minutes don't mean you need to use all of them. Leave them with some kind of impression rather than everybody wishing the damn solo was over. Leave with them wanting more. To me, this means restraint from the drummer and not just blowing the whole load.

I have a question. On the lower level, regional competition, do you get to play on your own set? Or is there just a "house set"?

House set. You get a few minutes to set it up how you like.

Well I guess that levels the playing field, but damn that would be a beeyotch IMO.