[Tommatt]

I played with a couple guys from work today, one on guitar, one on bass, just messing around. Their both pretty good, but to be fair, they wern't even on the same page alot of the time (they had only jammed together a couple of times. And coming up with a song we all knew was non existent.)

But really, I felt like a monkey ****ing a football back there. It just didn't feel natural I felt tense, nothing was smooth, and anything slightly technical that I can do, I just couldn't! And of course I make matters worse cause its pissing me off I can't do a simple quick heel toe (thing songs like creep (I know it can be played without doiing that) or the dudu - du in sweet home alabama) so I keep trying to do it, even though for some reason even missing the heel I'm getting a 16'th off on the hats. And I don't know if all of this was the cause of it or not, I'd find myself speeding up even on simpler beats.

Oh, and goiing iinto a simple 16th note alternating hand, it was like my hands had a stuttering problem.

Oh, the first song we played, AC/DC Back in black, the guitarist kept messing up and blaming it on me. We played it on the ipod later, and I was right, maybe that just set a train wreck, I dunno.

[Church Drummer]

To practice playing with others the easiest way is to play along to recordings. When you do get a chance to play with live people start off easy, and relax, as your cofidence grows and you start to get into it more then you can get more technical. I also play guitar and bass, and I would much rather play with a drummer who is playing a simple beat in good time, than one who is trying to do a lot of technical playing that they can't do in good time.

[bambambam]

so the thing is, straight up, you cant really practice playing with people without actually playing with people in my opinion. To me it seems as though you haven't played w/ people that much but when you do start playing with other musicians you'll become better at it after each time. When you play live more and more you'll gain more experience on being able to read other musicians, being able to feel the muisc off of them if that makes any sense. Its not uncommon for someone to feel tight and tense playing live especially if its around people you're not very comfortable its like doing anything else, unless you're a prodigy and you've already built up enough of that confidence level to do otherwise, its like the the first couple times alot. Just practice and grab as many opportunities as you can to play with other people. Imo you gain more experience playing with other musicians than just practicing on your own.
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