Quintin Vece, a Morgan student, almost watched his dream fall apart with the final beat of his rock band’s drum.
He had already sacrificed his love of acoustic guitar to play electric in Morgan’s rock band. Losing that privilege too would have been a disaster—which is the exact reason why the sudden disappearance of their only drummer was such a big deal.
“He just graduated last year, and he was ridiculously good at drums,” said Quintin, describing the situation. “There was no one else who could have taken up the mantle.”
The loss of their drummer had a far greater impact on the band than someone might first think. “If the drummer is too fast, then the band is too fast,” Quintin explained. “They set the beat.”
A band without a beat would easily turn into a cacophony. Quintin needed to think of something—and fast. The rock band was scheduled to start in a mere week. Without a new drummer, he wouldn’t be able to play. And playing was everything to him.
The word “guitar” was not just an instrument to Quintin. It was a lifelong hobby, a field in which all of his friends and dreams were held. Playing was not only enjoyable but necessary, his ticket to starting a rock band of his very own in college. A year without onstage practice would set him behind and create a gap he might not be able to make up for.
Determined not to lose the hobby he loved, Quintin searched high and low for a replacement drummer.
“We were asking anyone we knew who could play a percussion instrument to play drums,” he recalled.
Even as he looked, Quintin felt his morale dropping. Without a steady background tempo, rehearsals produced music that was either too fast or too slow. He knew it would take a miracle to save the Morgan rock band.
And in that moment, the miracle came to him in the form of a realization. “We found that our base could play drums,” said Quintin. “I kind of just figured it out.”
With the base on the drums, rehearsals began to improve. Sounds were produced in harmony, and each member was able to follow the beat set by their new drummer. Quintin was incredibly relieved and eager to begin playing guitar again.
He realized that he had been looking too far ahead of himself. All the answers he needed laid within his own band, and thanks to his quick thinking, his band—and with it his dream—was saved.
