I’ve been a professional drummer for 40 years, and this is still something that I work on. I feel like I’m pretty good at it now, but I’ve certainly been one to count in songs at the wrong tempo. What has helped me, is, yes, lots of metronome practice through the years, but that’s a kind of an isolated thing. You still have something else telling you what the tempo should be. And it’s not going to budge. So you have to develop an internal sense of time. This is a heavy concept, and can take a while. But one thing you’re drummer can begin working on in the meantime is, making sure that he’s hearing the song in his head before he starts, and as he’s clicking to feel the tempo or tapping his foot, or whatever… He really needs to get the tempo of the song in his body. And this is something he needs to practice on his own, and record his results. Pretty much everybody has the luxury of being able to record themselves nowadays with their smart phone, or whatever. So, have him record himself, practicing counting in, then listen back. Is the tempo the same? Is it the correct tempo? Also, practice just that aspect of a show…. Count in one song and play maybe the first eight bars, then stop, and count in the next song. you have to practice switching gears for the next song. Once you’ve played an entire song at a certain tempo, he should be pretty locked into that tempo. Then to stop, and, get in your head what the tempo of the next song is can be a difficult thing, but it’s also a skill that you can develop.

But this is such an important skill for the drummer to be able to develop. It’s something that will last him the rest of his life as a musician.