Finding a Role and Being Okay With It

Heart of Glass is totally under control. Starman too.

New band practice went well. It is a kinder, gentler kind of rock and roll. They are easy to follow/lead. Hopefully I meet their needs.

Spent alot of time last night during practice thinking about how I keep getting told that the drummer's role is to keep time, keep the groove going, and to serve the needs of the music/rest of musicians. I think I did an okay job of that last night (especially considering I had no idea what songs we were playing, didn't have charts, etc)...though I didn't do much more.

I've always known these things about the drummer's role, but it is hard to really believe when you read all the Craig's List ads looking for people with "pro chops" or who "hit hard" or whatever. And when people haven't been kind about your lack of chops in the past. And when all of the pro drummers say "I wish I would have known to play less when I was younger" and yet they got where they are today by not playing less.

I do want to build better chops...to be able to play faster and more consistently and more complicated parts. To impress people with my skills. But the thing I really want is to understand feel and to have a good internal clock. I want to be steady...to never drop the beat. And to be musical. I want to understand what is appropriate to play and what is not and to make good choices. I want to be able to do four different things with four different limbs without thinking about it much. And those are really the things that are most important for the drummer's role in a band.

There's a lot of ways to nuance your playing...to be musical...but at the end of the day, most pop/rock/country songs don't require a whole lot of crazy chops. Things end up being more simple that you'd expect...and leaving open space becomes as important as filling the space up. Maybe more so.

These things I know to be true.

But it's kind of like how we all know that it is more important to be a good person than to be pretty. More important to be smart than thin. More important to be happy than to make alot of money. We know these things to be true...and yet the world revolves around pretty, thin people with lots of money.

And I still feel lame playing simple drum parts.

Maybe someday I'll grow up and get over that.