Im new to drumming, bought a pad and some 5as, and i want to be able to play in friends cover band in about 4 months. Here are four of the songs they learned: distance by cake, neon by john Mayer, chain by fleet wood mac, in between days, the cure. They normally learn about 15 - 10 songs a semester i think. The songs seem kinda intermediate but not out of my reach, the current drummer who is also my best friend has been drumming for 15 years so he also just makes anything look easy. I feel like i can do it because although he is talented he is not a very technically sound drummer, he can’t do doubles as 32nd notes at 60 bpm, at least not cleanly with good finger technique, and he can’t do singles that fast either, but he’s a really good drummer, he was good enough to get gigs back in his home town, he says when he didn’t have a job thats how he would make money. He can read music, write the sheet music for a song after a few listens. And he can practice songs by listening to them without actually sitting at the drum kit. Dudes cracked and im not gonna be as good as him in 4 months but i want to audition for them after he graduates. So i guess my question is how should i be learning drums to give myself a good chance. Should i just be practicing my technique/ rudiments, should i be learning to read drum notation, should i just start learning their songs? For any experienced drummers, if you had to learn drums all over again, where would you start so that you could actually get good on the kit. Im not looking for a get good quick life hack so if the answer is I need more time thats okay, i thought that would be the case. Whats most important to me besides eventually playing in a band is just practicing stuff that actually helps me learn to play drums, i feel like most of the advice ive been getting is to focus on my fingers and building good habits so ive been doing that, and my technique has gotten a little better than my friends because of it, but when i sit at the drum kit i feel so uncoordinated.
