​Playing drums alone has its joys, but eventually you likely want to try it with a group. I've been playing over 45 years with groups great and small: Forty-five years of joy, excitement, disappointments, embarrassments, and more than a few triumphs. I've a few miles left in me yet too. So, let me offer some general suggestions for those looking for their first group. 

Prepare to play: A review of critical skills to play in a band or orchestra

• Work daily on your time sense with the pad, metronome, and rudiments. It really makes a difference.
• Know exactly what kind of music you want to play.
• Learn to read drum music well. This really opens your options. 
• Be sure your gear is in order. You don't need fancy gear, just well tuned and in working order. 
• Repertoire development. Those who know the most tunes win. That has been one of my secret weapons. I had played professionally for decades across the music business before I took up the drums. I knew thousands of tunes and had acquired professional skills that I could use.  So, I found myself early in my drumming career welcomed to play with musicians much more skilled than myself. 
• Understand what musicians are looking for in a drummer, regardless of what level you are playing at. From garage band thumpers to stadium heroes, it's pretty much the same. 
  1. time sense
  2. fun to be with
  3. dynamic control
  4. plays the song.
  5. doesn't showboat.
  6. practices at home
  7. punctual 
  8. cooperative attitude
  9. sober
  10. looks the part.

Conclusion: Be ready to play, be confident, know some tunes. Do you need to have professional skills to play? No, there is a group for everyone. 

The Hunt: Where beginners can start.

For school age musicians.

1. Join the school music program.
2. Introduce yourself to the music teacher.
3. Talk to your drum teacher.
4. Join an afterschool music club.
5. Join a community drum line.
6. Have your parents contact guitar/keyboard/bass teachers in your area and ask them for the names of students looking for a drummer. Yes, start your own band. 

For Adults: Have or fake some confidence. You will have to put yourself out there. 

1. Join a community band, offer to play triangle if you must. Just get yourself in and build from there.
2. Go to community jams in pubs. Just hang out for a month or two and get the lay of the land. Become a recognizable figure in the crowd.  
3. Call music teachers of other instruments and introduce yourself. They all have adult guitar/keyboard/bass students looking for the same thing.
4. Online might work. I've never tried it myself though. Search, "seeking musicians in my area".  Online etiquette and safety rules apply.  
5. Become a fixture at the local music store. The staff know everyone. 
6. Put your name up on the "seeking musicians board" found in every music store I've ever been in. Something like" Adult drummer with a great attitude looking for others to jam with. I like rock, and blues. Available on weekends to jam Text me 000-000-0000"
7. Go visit the local rehearsal rooms, there will be ways to communicate with musicians there. Just ask the proprietor. 
8. Let all your friends know.
9. Talk it up on Facebook and your other social media posts. Something like a “seeking musicians” to jam with thread. Keep it lighthearted, and keep it going with regular updates on your quests. People will love it. 
10. Go to a adult music camp. Really, I've been to them in 3 different countries. Studied and played in some really great venues: under the stars in Rome, in Polish jazz clubs, and American concert halls. Really!

​David

A young musician goes to an audition. She is keen, she has practiced, mastered her time, learned the repertoire, paid her dues. She is ready she thinks. 

The band members quiz her." Can you play 32nd note paradiddles with your feet?"
She eagerly responds, "Of course, now do I have the gig?"
"No"
"Why,  I actually won a drum contest doing that."
"That's why we fired the last drummer. Guy put them everywhere"

Moral of the story. Play the song. We drummers are accompanists. Remember Buddy Rich had to start his own band. 

If you'd like me to help you on your journey, call me. 

​David

250 Classic Rock charts: Learn this, play forever. 

​David

​​

A decade of playing the drums I've learned a thing or two about finding other musicians to play with. 

1st some prerequisites

1. Lose your shyness. The faint of heart never won the fair maiden.
   
2. Know your worth. If you're not quite sure where you sit in the drum pantheon, ask your teacher. They'll give you some honest assessment and a few ideas.
3. My ability to read music and follow a conductor from my activities as a pianist really helped me out.

Now let's go hunting.

1. I played for a year in private, in the practice studio before I ventured out into the world. 
   
2. First stop was the Burlington community concert band. This was a band that didn't require auditions, wink wink. I heard they needed another percussionist. I was prepared to play triangle. The night I arrived there was no drummer behind the drum set. So they ask me, "you play drums?" I said yes,  I sat in and sight read for the next two hours, they said you got the spot. Next week I was playing an outdoor concert bashing my way through Hawaii 50 TV theme.  I was terrified. But I made it through with my dignity more or less intact. I stayed for the next couple years. It was really really fun. I miss that bunch.
   
3. Up next I started a jazz band that met a few times a month in a community center in Oakville.  One of my adult jazz students played piano. The conductor of the Hamilton concert band played upright bass. My student, the pianist, was a guitar teacher, he invited one of his adults students to play guitar. We were a band. 
   
4. Along the way I joined the Hamilton concert band, which was another community band They did want to hear me before I joined. That was fun too. Then I moved to Toronto and started all over.

up next: Off to the big smoke

​David