# What is the drummer listening to on the headphones when bands play on TV?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-drummer-listening-to-on-the-headphones-when-bands-play-on-tv/275678
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [November 19, 2004, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-drummer-listening-to-on-the-headphones-when-bands-play-on-tv/275678 "2004-11-19T16:54:36Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2004, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-drummer-listening-to-on-the-headphones-when-bands-play-on-tv/275678/1 "2004-11-19T16:54:36Z")
This is kind of triggered by the Ashlee Simpson SNL debacle, when the drummer started playing the wrong song (no, it wasn’t _just_ a poor excuse by Ashlee - he really did; not that itt excuses the lip-syncing)
Usually when a band plays on a talk show or wherever, the drummer had headphones on. What is he actually listening to? Is it a monitor feed, or a click track?
I kind of assumed it was a click, but then many songs start with the guitar or whatever, with the drums coming in later, so (as the guitarist doesn’t have headphones) he wouldn’t be coming in exactly on the click.
I play the drums myself, but my gigging experience has been limited to dingy pubs and student unions, so I have never felt the need to wear cans 🙂
Any more professional drummers give me the Straight Dope?
---
### Author:  [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2004, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-drummer-listening-to-on-the-headphones-when-bands-play-on-tv/275678/2 "2004-11-19T18:44:24Z")
I don’t know but he may be listening to the show director and getting orders to wrap up a song or something like that.
---
### Author:  [@RumMunkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RumMunkey)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2004, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-drummer-listening-to-on-the-headphones-when-bands-play-on-tv/275678/3 "2004-11-19T18:54:20Z")
I’m fairly certain it’s his/her monitor, just the same as the singer wears, or the guitarist wears.
Its jst that with the drums giving off such a loud noise right there at the kit they need a monitor to be able to hear the mix correctly.
[Info](http://www.westone.com/music/drummers.html)…
---
### Author:  [@I\_can\_t\_believe\_that\_s\_butter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_can_t_believe_that_s_butter)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2004, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-drummer-listening-to-on-the-headphones-when-bands-play-on-tv/275678/4 "2004-11-19T19:49:36Z")
Oftentimes it might be a click track. It could also be monitor mix in one ear, click in the other, and monitor mix in both ears with a click playing along. It’s basically up to the individual drummer. I’d wager that at the volume he was playing, he had some sort of monitor mix. 🙂
(For those who don’t know: A click track is basically a metronomic tempo comprised of whatever sound you please: perhaps a shaker, a cowbell, a woodblock/cross-stick sound, etc. The sounds are either in sucession or alternating. Some drummers like the click sound to be distinct from other instruments being used (e.g. not using a shaker if a percussionist is playing a busy pattern with one), whereas as I understand, musicians in Nashville use a muffled-guitar-strum effect so that it blends with the track, should it leak.)