Why is it so hard to find good drummers?

[SonicTonic]

Because a mediocre drummer will have more gigs than an excellent guitarist.

[Old Steve]

Originally posted by rca Seems whenever there is timekeeping problem, the drummer gets the blame. Sometimes I am sure its deserved. Since I have been an auditioning drummer that didn't get the gig, I thought I would give the other side. About three years ago, I auditioned for a blues band looking for a drummer. The bandleader played guitar (one of two guitar players!). I locked with the bass player and thought I did pretty good. The band leader was all over the place. It was just some standard stuff. I just played plain and simple, which is me. The band leader passed on me ("We still have some more auditions . . . I'll call you . . . "). The bass player argued with the band leader in front of me saying that I should get the gig. The next week the band was looking for a bass player and a drummer. Not saying anything about guitar players, just giving the "lousy" drummers point of view. My current band has complained about my timekeeping too, but since it was at a recording session and they played back my tracks they don't complain anymore about me being the one rushing and dragging.

Great point. Drummers get the heat when the band isn't tight, but often it's another musician (or musicians) that are pulling or pushing things off tempo. In a live situation, the drummer is then forced into 1 of 2 choices (both bad):

1.) Keep the beat where it's supposed to be, bashing out those 2's and 4's in the hope that the rushing/dragging band will get the message. Meanwhile, the music is sounding off beat and disjointed, even if the drummer is a metronome.

2.) Compensate and speed up/slow down WITH the offending musicians so that even if the tempo starts moving around, the band stays together. The downside here is that you start the song at 80bpm and end it at 140bpm, and everyone in the club hears how stupid a ballad sounds at thrash speed.

If you don't have the luxury of a recording studio (as RCA did) to figure out who's guilty or innocent, it can be VERY benefial to rehearse the whole band with a metronome. By my non-scientific reckoning, 97.8% of guitarists have never attempted to play to a metronome, and if you pump one through the PA they're likely to have a meltdown...which can be fun to watch as they accuse the machine of speeding up or slowing down, and then just insist on turning it off.

Anyway, why are good drummers hard to find? Because there aren't anywhere near as many drummers out there as there are guitarists.