Drumline Hero?
We've got a few gigs coming up that our lead drummer can't make, so I'll have to play lead tip for those gigs. I'm sort of not sure what to think about it, or even if it's appropriate to think anything about it at all.
I mean, I guess I'm good enough of a drummer to pull it off, or else they wouldn't have asked. But they didn't ask. That's the thing. So far, it seems that I'm going to be doing this by the simple fact that I'm the one who knows the lead parts AND will be in attendance. Not "Hey, we'd like it if you could play lead tip at these gigs, since Jim can't be there."
I'm fine with that, and it's led me to be more critical of my playing while practicing at home, and that's a great thing. Part of me wants to be proud of the opportunity, and part of me realizes that it's not really an opportunity as a default situation. It's not a promotion, it's not a recognition, it's just a band-aid (no pun). I'm confident that I'll be ok, I'm filling in the holes in the music so that I can play all of it, on top of learning the tunes I didn't know to begin with.
*Background on Scottish drumming: Generally there is a lead part and a unison part. Often this was done because the music wasn't written, and the tunes only had a few discrete parts to them. What would happen is the Lead tip plays a part and then the rest of the line repeats that part, call and response style. The Unison parts were like "caps" to the phrases, common endpoints that were played with all the parts. The lead vs. unison parts are more intricate in some songs than others, and in some cases it's not call-and-response, it's just that the lead plays more stuff than the rest of the line does. My task in learning the lead parts is going back and filling in the "gaps" in what I learned as a "rest of line" player.
I mean, I guess I'm good enough of a drummer to pull it off, or else they wouldn't have asked. But they didn't ask. That's the thing. So far, it seems that I'm going to be doing this by the simple fact that I'm the one who knows the lead parts AND will be in attendance. Not "Hey, we'd like it if you could play lead tip at these gigs, since Jim can't be there."
I'm fine with that, and it's led me to be more critical of my playing while practicing at home, and that's a great thing. Part of me wants to be proud of the opportunity, and part of me realizes that it's not really an opportunity as a default situation. It's not a promotion, it's not a recognition, it's just a band-aid (no pun). I'm confident that I'll be ok, I'm filling in the holes in the music so that I can play all of it, on top of learning the tunes I didn't know to begin with.
*Background on Scottish drumming: Generally there is a lead part and a unison part. Often this was done because the music wasn't written, and the tunes only had a few discrete parts to them. What would happen is the Lead tip plays a part and then the rest of the line repeats that part, call and response style. The Unison parts were like "caps" to the phrases, common endpoints that were played with all the parts. The lead vs. unison parts are more intricate in some songs than others, and in some cases it's not call-and-response, it's just that the lead plays more stuff than the rest of the line does. My task in learning the lead parts is going back and filling in the "gaps" in what I learned as a "rest of line" player.