I play drums at a larger church. The style of music is rock and with use click and backing tracks extensively. Because of the scheduling rotations it’s not usual for me to play with people each week that I have never played with before.

We have varying degrees of musical talent. I’ve found with playing live to a click track, that I seemed to be thrown off (on occasion) by some of the other musicians (and their timing). While I understand that I should be listening to the band, I also understand that as the drummer, it’s my job to set the tempo, lead the band in that regard, and stay with the click. I’ve found that if I adjust my IEM mix to remove various some of the various instruments in question my timing improves significantly.

However, as I stated before, this may mean (depending on who is playing) that I cannot hear the live bass player, guitars, and keyboard. While they aren’t muted in my IEM, they are quite a bit lower. While live adjustments (ie, an extra chorus) aren’t a problem because I can hear the voices.... In affect I’m not listening to or adjusting/being flexible to the band.

Opinions? I’m I doing the right thing to stay with the click and tracks… or is listen to the band more important than the timing? Do I just need to learn how to prevent others from affecting my playing? How do I go about practicing/learning that?

Bracket.