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It’s good to have a certain amount of ego (heavy emphasis on “a certain amount”). A healthy ego can give you confidence to take on new songs on the fly. It can give you a certain freedom from stage fright. It can also push you to a certain level of proficiency in your drumming. My ego, for example, won’t let me slack off, take certain things for granted, or play below a certain self-imposed mental bar, because I’m too proud to play badly! I don’t want the embarrassment of a bad performance! The thing to watch out for is to have too much ego; too much pride. Not only does a big ego turn people off, making it very difficult for them to want to work with you, it can stop you from trying to improve. Also, you’re never, ever going to be so good that you’re the be-all end-all of drumming. There’s ALWAYS going to be someone better/faster/more coordinated than you. That doesn’t mean that you can’t ever feel good about your playing if you’re not Marco Minnemann. The thing to keep in mind should be: what is unique about you, and your approach to music? What do you have to offer the music that no one else, even Marco, doesn’t? That’s a healthy aspect, and usage of, ego. Now, let’s say that you DO posses a high degree of skill. The caution needs to be that you must keep it all in perspective, and not think too highly of yourself. Let’s say you’re playing in a wedding band. Do you think that the bride gives a rat’s rump if you can play left foot clave while your left hand plays melodies around the kit while your right foot plays in 7 and your right hand plays in 5? Always remember that with music, even technically demanding music, it’s NOT all about you and your mad skills. It’s fantastic to have them, and they can take you to some pretty cool musical places sometimes, but you must wield them with taste and restraint. It’s been said a million times by musicians far greater than myself that technique is not an end to itself, only a means to an end. The net result should always be that there is an attempt at some kind of artistic/emotional statement coming from your playing. Very often you have to sublimate your ego to someone else’s wishes, be it the person who hired the band, or the bandleader. That can mean doing something you really don’t want to for the sake of entertaining the audience, which is sometimes a bigger part of a musician’s job than actually playing music. When I was in high school, I hated “Wipe-Out,” with every fiber of my being. I also hated disco, and I vowed never to play either one of them. I now play disco with my wedding band all the time, and I don’t hate it. It has its own challenges (the biggest being picking accurate tempos in the midst of on-the-fly segues, and keeping them steady as a metronome) including some challenges that I make for myself (such as playing time on two surfaces, multi-layering of sounds, and beat placement). And I will even play “Wipe-Out” on the rare occasion that the person who hired the band begs. I still hate it. But sometimes, it isn’t up to me. I think about the people in the audience having fun with that tune, and I survive the gig nicely with that thought.
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