1.Sensitive to the Holy Spirit

2.Play in time with the metronome

3.Good understanding of time signatures

4.Dynamics is key

5.Lock in with bass player

6.Attentive to song leader during praise

7.A firm understanding of the 100% rule

8. The dynamics of a song is often led by the drums.

The drums are definitely the backbone of any good band. A solid drummer will hold other tempo challenged musicians into a locked pattern, providing them with a sense of security and freedom to play with abandon, knowing the tempo will be held. Let’s look at two things that can really help to hold a band together.

1. Snare placement (in time) has a big impact on the perceived tempo. All other things being equal, an early hit snare will cause other musicians to reset the tempo in their mind a little faster to match the “new” tempo. Somehow a late hit snare doesn’t tend to slow the band down (it can if taken to extremes), it usually sounds very good.
2. The drummer has the final word on dynamics for any song. If the drummer and the bass player decide that a particular chorus is going to be big, then it’s going to be big. Likewise if they don’t kick in, that chorus is going nowhere.