.....
Anyway, though, I think that technical proficiency really has nothing to do with being a good drummer. It's like the whole speed thing -speed isn't good or bad ...it's just speed. Being technically proficient on the drums doesn't make you a good drummer or a bad drummer ...it just makes you technically proficient. It's like determining how good a fiction writer is by how many words they know or how many grammar rules they can recite, or how good a painter is by how photo-realistic their paintings are....
man...no matter how much many people may disagree,and even tho i love drums more than most things in life,drums arent(unless in the hands of Terry Bozzio),and never will be Musical instruments...and that doesnt mean you cant have that certain 'Musicality' to your playing...theyre not about chords,or melodies,or harmonies,or notes...theyre percussion...
to be a good druummer, technique is what its all about....you can have simple technique if it works with what you want it to work with,but you cant be a good drummer with a bad or non-existent technique.....
writing and painting are different arts...but as i say a writer with little or no technique to his writing is not a good writer....an artist who cant paint is not a painter...the impressionists may seem to go against this whole way of thinking but the impressionists were actually highly,incredibly proficient painters,who decided to "Simplify",(but by doing so made their work more wonderfully difficult)...
but one thing i do think is that if you have the technical proficienccy and you dont have the feeling,then your not a good drummer....and visa-versa...you need to find that balance where you combine both feeling and skill in one,and so therefore become a greater drummer...Meg White has feeling,but no skill, and therefore her drumming falls down...The White Stripes worked because Jack White held up wonderful riffs,great vocals etc(all debatable of course)...it was interesting at first,but her drumming does wear other drummers down to the point where they have to switch off...
technical proficiency has a lot to do with drums....
my opinion!
Sean