Hi,

Saw a group play recently, and I'm a bit bothered by what I heard on drums, and I was hoping maybe you more experienced types could help. so the show was rock, funk blues, 1/3 originals, 2/3 covers, some great musicians, and everything played fine but...

The drummer did quite basic stuff. The beats were always fine and appropriate, but it was all rather simplistic. I've been playing for 3 years, I'd say I'd be able to manage all of that in the next 18 months (I need to be a little bit faster, mostly about improving keeping time, not a question of coordination however). This drummer apparently has been playing for more than 2 decades. MY guitarist, who played a bit of drums, said he thought the guy had been playing 5-6 years.

Anyway, my real issue is that there was no spice, nothing sexy. No ghost notes, no cool fills, I don't think the guy touched the toms at all on 1/3 of the songs, and didn't do much with them when he did.

Yes, it's true I sometimes do a bit too much (that's more true of practice than live however). It's also true that some of the types of music played typically have very simple drums. What perhaps surprised me the most was that there wasn't any change from covers to originals, the same basic stuff.

So should I take this as a lesson in doing less is more or as a lesson that you got to be continually out improving the sound?