The Etiquette of Sitting In
By Rick Van Horn, October 1984
On 31st Aug 2021
The Considerate Guest Let’s assume you are going to sit in with a group—either at your request or their invitation. There are definitely some things you should do before you actually come up on stage to play. The first and most important is to come up on a break, along with the host drummer, and examine the drum set. I don’t care how talented a player you are, the old saw that “a good drummer can sound good on any kit” is just not true. The drum set is the most personal of all musical instruments, being tailored to the physical attributes of the individual player. Drummers set up in such a wide variety of ways that it is not uncommon for one drummer to be terribly uncomfortable on another drummer’s kit, and often unable to play at all. The first and most important is to come up on a […]