How to help my sis improve on drums..

[Deesack]

It's just me and my sis playing right now, I'm on bass she's on drums.

We're both fairly new at it but I'm the more fluent.. since I played on/off guitar about 10 years. Never in a band though.

I just want her to play a nice steady beat, nothing fancy, similar to turning on a drum loop, maybe throw in some basic fill at the changes.

I realize how hard it is to make someone who has some ego-driven desire to do xyzzxyzyxxyzyzzzzxy to instead just do xy xy, despite not being good enough to do xyzzxyzyxxyzyzzzzxy cleanly..

The annoyance on her face when I say can you just play simple but consistent so I can actually do something here, truth is I don't want to play w/ her. I'm doin cuz family issue... so meanwhile, what is some trick I can do to get her to simply play something playable? (She's 40, and could potentially be good, but I think she has some complex of not being "good at anything")

Thanks

[nutso42]

Give her a song to learn. Try something that is simple enough, but still allows her to enjoy playing. What bands does she like listening to? Have her pick some songs by them and have her learn them.
Of course, you would have to learn them as well, despite whether you like them or not....

[RickenBoogie]

+1 to that, as well as maybe getting her a teacher.

[Deesack]

Well we do play pretty easy songs, and she can get all the parts down.

But I just really hate playing a memorized, bit by bit song over and over... it's boring, annoying, not fun, and feels like we'll be doing this forever.

So I want her to play simple enough that it's like a simple jam.. not some memorized top 40 song, where she's over thinking "okay, hit 2 toms here, then this, then that" I just want her to flow..

She's taken lessons before, good teacher too... but she's a "bad" student (doesn't practice, only really plays when people are around.. doesn't care when alone or during week)

[boogie8008]

Maybe ask this exact same question on a drum forum, they probably have a little more authority when it comes to something like this. However it is an exciting opportunity to teach a drummer to play what you want them to play. Cause I tell you what, they don't like to do that when they get older.

[waynobass]

Give her a crash course in the entire White Stripes catalog.