Long rant I just need to brain-dump and get some feedback.
timeline: My audition + 2 rehearsals so far.
Man I really want to like this new band, great singer, great guitarist, I enjoy the music (late 70s early 80s rock & pop covers) and good attitudes. They want to bring in a keyboardist and backup singer and it sounds like it will be a good group to gig with.
The thing is, the drummer… Nice guy but he appears to be brand new on the drums and has absolutely no natural feel for groove or timing. Overplays, no dynamics all hits are *PLAM PLAM POP BANG*. The meter is in constant rush & drag I mean like within each measure. It’s so hard to concentrate and just get a groove going. Fills are rushed & misplaced, sometimes looses the 1 or flips the 3 and the 1 and doesn’t realize it sounds off. Sometimes I just pause and correct for it which throws everyone off & other times I try to motion or establish some gestures when this happens to little avail. Any rhythm with a shuffle is way out of grasp.
I am no drummer but I think that he’s trying to dance before he has learned to walk. He does take critique pretty well and I am really trying to not be an jerk or a bully about it. I will mention “hey on this next one is it cool if I throw on a click? I think it will help us all tighten up.” “Cool no problem!” so I put it on, LOUD, and we are playing and he’s still rushing the click, like, lapping it and just happily plowing through as if it’s spot on and it’s even more confusing so I drop that idea. Or I’ll mention “hey how about a very simple backbeat to keep this simple & clean, we don’t have to try to reproduce all of the complex things going on with the record we just need to lay down a good steady beat that’s the #1 job everything else is secondary.” I do this as subtly as I can, like lean over and discuss as a rhythm section; But his reply usually seems to go toward “yeah I think I’ve almost got it I just need to get this song down. It’s kind of like a boom ba cha tap tap thing” like no man develop a steady basic 4/4 or 2/4 for now, forget the song.
I am pretty sure that everyone in the band is aware that the drummer is not great, but the problem is it’s a new band that the singer and drummer founded. I’m not sure how far the two go back or how good of friends they are. I’m the newest member so I don’t really have much of a say at this point. The guitarist has been in a project or two with the singer before so I think he’s just riding with this to see where it goes. Also the drummer has secured & is paying for the rehearsal space, which is great but also really kind of entrenches himself in the whole thing.
Here’s the other thing: I’m no pro myself, I am pretty solid and I think that I am good with staying in the pocket and playing to the song but also I’m late 30s and have only been playing a few years. I have played with a few bands for a couple years up until this point and my personal goal is to work with a gigging band (when/if that is ever possible considering the pandemic) but none of these bands actually ended up gigging for one reason or another (pandemic, lack of clear goal to do-so, been-there-done-that, etc). For this reason I don’t have a ton of music connections or opportunities and a lot of working bands understandably see this as a red flag that I don’t have any gigging experience and there are not a lot of 30/40 year old groups that haven’t been playing/gigging for 20 years already. So my only source of connections is hitting up CL & FB musicians-wanted groups.
Is there hope with this project / drummer? Should I cut and run? Can a drummer that is new and has a good attitude but seemingly has no natural rhythm come around in a few months? What would you do in this situation?
When i was young and starting in music(7th grade... 1970) I was a drummer who knew nothing about music theory and had a teacher hired by my parents who was a general music instructor, not a drummer. He played accordion with my drumming during lessons but because he knew so little, my progress was extremely slow. Results.... I did not master the rudiments early on and it limited my ability to play.
i got a break in HS and was invited to join a band with some good musicians. I was basically the drummer you are talking about, and I knew it.
I loved playing though so I worked really hard, playing 4 to 5 hours a day for a few years. That band never did gigs (unless you call 1 junior high school dance a gig). But the guys tolerated me and my work paid off.
After high school a guy I knew (who later became my brother in law. Damn his sister was hot) invited me to join his band which had been an established gigging band for about 4 years.
I found myself in that same situation, as even though i had improved, these guys were light years ahead of me. I decide to give up trying to play an exact cover of the songs, (we were mostly a "Chicago" cover band, complete with horns.) and let myself get moved by the music, playing what I did know well with a sharp focus on the rhythm. I actually played most of the time with my eyes closed, I was playing in my own little sharply focused world. within a year, I was not only still playing with the band, but i actually deserved to be there. A couple years later i was playing with a prog rock band. playing 9/8, 7/8, 7/4, times and extreme syncopation, with very sophisticated music. (elp, yes, asia, Pink floyd styles)
There is hope.
But it will take real dedication on the part of the drummer.
My advice..... Try to get him to stop worrying about playing exactly what the original played(or what he thinks he "should" play) but to focus on feeling the rhythm and playing to that, within the limits of what he is capable of. The rest will follow... before long the stuff he could not do while keeping the time accurately will become second nature. He has to learn to feel the rhythm, not just hear it. Even with no natural talent this can be done. But it takes serious work.
Ringo could not do anything well on drums except keep the rhythm. But he did that so well that he is a legend now.
Advice to you about you. You had not been in a gigging band before, yet you are critical. I understand that you are ready for it. But if that is more important to you than the music is, you don't deserve to make it. Allow yourself to enjoy the music for its own value. Maybe close your eyes sometimes yourself and get lost in the music. If you are talented, and skilled the gigs will come. And if you are instrumental in helping this drummer turn the corner in his playing, you might find a loyal friend for life who loves the music as much as you. After all if he doesn't love it he will never make it and you will eventually move on.
