When I drum, I don't follow any sort of tabs at all, just do it by ear and "make the song my own", often by dumbing it down. I then claim that I'm just playing to the song and modifying the drum beat to better suit it. :wink:

I am Phail Collins. :yes:

I'm a lyricist first and foremost, my guitar playing is very meh, but if I want to get in a band, I need to bring more than lyrics and vocals.

Unless you change your name to Bono. Then you're set for life :up:

Drummings a bit different considering there's on of maybe 10 things he could be doing. I mean, there's four or five drums plus the bass drum, and then several symbals, but he's hitting one of those.

On guitar there's thousands of things he could be doing: single notes (hundreds), chords (hundreds), double-stops, etc.

I'm actually just like him: bad guitarist who will use guitar playing as excuse to join a band.

:lol: i'm picturing you donning a phil collins wig whenever you drum and i don't even know what you look like!

don't feel bad, there's plenty of guys who don't play guitar and front a band...look at bono! :wink:

I know that feeling, I can read tabs, but that's about it.

I think the best thing you can do is create through what you know. What I mean is find what comes easy to you and build from there. I think then you are bringing a lot in.

Don't count out the lyricist. Most people have nothing to say, you do. That means you are bringing a lot. :)

Fair enough. I tried to teach myself to play guitar once. I gave up after about 30 minutes, it was just too confusing.

i kinda did that too. i went to one guitar lesson and i was like "wtf this is hard!! fuck this" and gave the guitar to a friend.

Quoted for absolute truth!

Gotta love making art for art's sake - it seems like a waste of time, but when you've finished, you just sit back and go "yeah".

I've written about 150 partial songs, of which maybe 5-10 are somewhat decent/usable.

My advice and I admit I know little but try combining ideas. Partial ideas are meant to be stacked on top of each other. Focus on creating songs instead of ideas. That might help. Are you planning to record any time soon?

Exactly. You might not be great at something but if you are saying something, people will listen.

It's being held back by my lack of progress as of late. I don't want to make plans before I'm ready to do something.