A crazy solution to make my drummer memorize his drum parts (need advice)!!

Ok, his problem is that he's a new noob, and whatever we come up with in our jam sessions, he can't repeat in a couple of days, cause he keeps forgetting stuff. Thus, everytime he plays our songs, it all sounds different and totally rubbish.

He recently purchased a roland electronic drum kit that has a midi out jack. So I thought perhaps there's a way that I could convert his drumming into MIDI files and drum tabs. That way he could print out the tabs and learn them when he's not playing.

I do have a Focusrite Saffire audio card with midi in and a notebook loaded with fruity loops. Can I do this in fruity loops? If so, please explain how.

Thanks!

Or, you could keep it simple and record the rehearsal for him to listen after the fact.

One of the best practice techniques I know is to listen. Listen to your mistakes and learn what you don't want to do. Listen to the song in your head over and over, write the song in your head.

The more clearly you can hear what's in your mind, the more clearly you will articulate it. Still is a battle for me after 20+ years of writing and recording.

In my first band as a teen we'd record every rehearsal on cassette and I'd listen to it over and over. I found it an excellent way to practice when I physically couldn't practice.

Practice your mind.

Yes, that way he can listen to it while driving or whatever.

And if still persists, tell 'im to lay off the pot.

If that doesn't work, get a new drummer.

I do a song thats fifteen years old and folkes come up to me and say: you played it exactly like you did fifteen years ago.

they are happy that the song sounds exactly as they remembered it.

I am able to do this with most musics because i do ARRANGEMENTS.

any given drum ARRANGEMENT is arranged and ordered.

If the drummer ain't doing arrangements then he just jammin.

I had a drummer that jammed and could'nt remember an arrangement to save his life.

he no longer jams with me.

awwwww.

thanks for lettin me share.

What style of music do you guys play? If you are playing some mindblowingly complex music and a lot of it I could see this possibly happening, but I've jammed with many different drummers of all different styles and all different skill levels and I have never come across this problem. To me it seems that if he can't remember his parts, listening to them probably won't help much, as it seems he suffers from severe short term memory loss.

as a guitarist, I have to focus on ques. Lots of times the vocals/bass will hit a different note that lets me know. Lots of times someone will just give me a nod or a scream

The key to writing great parts is to take what you do naturally... and organize it into some sort of structure. What the guys are saying about recording, I agree with. Tape yourselves and look for the gold. Now, pare it down to its essence. In other words, make a part out of it. That part should/could repeat itself in the next like section. So once you've got your verse, no need to re-invent the wheel, or worse, be unaware of what you did previous verse, learn your form and work it.

Thanks for your responses guys..

I have yet to identify the source of the problem of my drummer. He doesn't smoke pot and he's a pretty successful social guy (well paid job, family, etc). But he has like 2 years of not very effective experience in drumming.. and that was like 5 years ago or so.

My music is complex in terms of sound, not in terms of composition. We play post-metal/atmospheric sludge/ambient. The drums are really easy, if I were to play the drums, I could probably learn everything in a couple of months.

I am stuck with him for several reasons. Here in Russia nobody knows what post-metal is. It's really hard to find people who listen to this music, let alone play it (esp. drummers). And I really have some kind of a magic connection with him. He listens to everything I listen to and reacts to what I play when we jam perfectly. If only he could play better and memorize his parts.

We actually record all our jams on video. It's always good to cut pieces from random music and make them evolve into full blown songs. But for some reason that doesn't work for my drummer. I'm really at loss here. I mean.. I am a guitarist.. what would happen to my music if I played every riff differently? That's crazy.

But my question stands.. what software am I to use to record his drum parts and convert them to tabs automatically?

You can't quite record them into TAB for drums as far as I know.

but in Fruity Loops detect the MIDI drums, and right when you're about to jam hit the record button (record SCORE) and everything he plays will be recorded into it for you guys to dissect later on.

Cool, thanks, we'll do that.

Does it record in multichannel? For example, if he hits the hihat and the kick at the same time, will it record both?

Also, I'm thinking there should be something to convert drum midi files into tabs.. hmm..

incourage him to go to lessons, the teacher will do his bit, he will get better with practice, i had this with a singer years ago, she had a decent voice but hadnt a clue about keys etc. the guys wouldnt suggest it to her as it might upset her, i said no way ,she goes to lessons or tahts it, so i left their band.

He sorta has a teacher. One of my friends, a pro musician regularly visits our jams and instructs my drummer. He also told him to start from the basics, for example the Derek Roddy's lessons. But that doesn't help the remembering-the-drum-parts problem.

::fred: I know you are looking for something to record the drum parts, especially as a midi file. I don't know if this will be of any use to you or not, but I quite frequently play drums on the black and whites of my keyboard...I know in Reason 4.0 you can convert what ever you play to a midi file...