Musicians: what does it take to become a good drummer?

Cafe Society
1

In my estimation, the drums are the coolest musical instrument around. I’d love the buy a set and start playing, but I’m intimidated as hell at the prospect.

I’m not talking about becoming the next Buddy Rich, Max Roach, or Neil Pert (sp?), just a guy who can have some fun at home. Problem is, I see these drummers doin’ their thang, and I’m awed–each appendage is doing something different and I’m not sure I’m up to the task.

Do good (not great) drummers need extraordinary coordination or rhythm? What sets good drummers, skillwise, apart from the rest of us wannabes?

IOW, what are the requisite fundamentals, other than damn hard practice?

BONUS Question: Why do drummers refer to a drum set as a “kit”? Where the devil did that term come from?

2

If you can hit your hand on your knee in time with the music you’re hearing, you can become a decent drummer. Try this: slap right hand down, then slap left hand down, then right foot, then left foot. Do them nice and even–see? Each appendage doing something!

3

As a former hobby drummer (long since jettisoned my drums) I can only say that the ability to rub a circle on your belly while patting your head with the other hand and tapping your foot to a different rhythm (or both feet if you’re sitting) is a good way to determine if you have the basic requirements.

That’s for sitting behind a full complement of drums/cymbals/traps. If you can do the two hands okay (but not the feet) maybe just a single drum or set of bongos would be better.

I started on bongos in high school (when that was the cool thing to do) and eventually got a set of drums for Christmas. Played along with records until I felt comfortable enough to play with others. Never got good enough to try anything more difficult.

It’s damn cathartic, though, no matter how lousy you play. Good exercise, if nothing else.

4

You probably won’t like this answer, but I suggest before you invest in a drumset (“kit” came from British drummers and worked its way over here) get your self a practice pad, the book of rudiments, some sticks, and learn to play those rudiments.

I never did, and it caused me to be only a mediocre drummer instead of a good or great one.

That’s not to say you won’t be able to learn to play time without the basic rudiments, I’m just saying if you learn those everything else will fall into place.

I hope this helps you. Good luck.

Quasi

5

Well, at least one arm…

6

Yeah, what Quasi said.

Rudiments are the basis for percussion; the language you speak with. I have a friend who can tear it up on drums but can’t play a double-stroke to save his life. If you listened to him for two minutes you’d say he was good. Listen to him for ten and his limitations just jump out at you.

If you learn these rudiments, you can actually make pratice something you ENJOY, rather than a dirge. And from what you’ve said, it seems like you would enjoy practicing, and the process of discovery. People that go into it saying “I wanna be a rock star” either don’t get very far technically, or fail and sell their gear to people like me a year later.

Here are some things that have worked for me.

  1. LESSONS! The best ten or fifteen dollars you can spend. Skip buying the next fancy tamamulticlampajustorsprocket and get yourself a lesson. Or two. Or a years worth. This is absolutely the best money you can spend. If your heart’s in it, you’ll find a way to make the rest work. I made a kit out of cardboard boxes and mouse pads. It’ll open your eyes and keep you interested. It will also teach you the right technique. Make no mistake, playing drums “wrong” can cause slow, significant injury to your wrists and hands.

Don’t worry about being too old to start, either. I started when I was 27, an old fart.

  1. METRONOME. The second greatest investment. Learn to play in time. That’s your job. However, a metronome can be tedious at best, and downright annoying. I bought a Korg drum machine and I use it to program drum patterns into, which I then play along with, or over. This also helps with the hardest part of practicing, that feeling that you’re in your basement, all alone, stinking. A drum machine makes me feel like I’m playing along with someone else. This is a whole different art, though.

  2. Do you have a space to practice? I have a nice, shiney, expensive kit, that is currently collecting dust because I can’t bring myself to wake my neighbors and my kid whenever the mood strikes me. Drums are loud, and seem louder when you’re not very good. Solution? Consider an electronic kit. Unless you have deep pockets, most electronic kits are a steep investment, costing upwards of $2000 to $3000. That’s too much for someone just getting their feet wet. I’d stay away from practice kits that use rubber pads, as these can eventually cause injuries. You can buy a set of pads from a company like Pintech and pair it with a drum brain. Logistix is a great website that tells you how to build your own drum triggers for cheap, which you could stick on a remo practice pad kit you could buy brand new for $200. I won’t go on and on about this; if you want to know more, just shout.

  3. Avoid G.A.S. Gear Aquisition Syndrome. It’s fun to go out and get new gizmos, but try to focus on your playing. My first kit was a $200 Apollo and it worked just fine. Gear won’t make you better. Just get a good seat, good sticks, and a good pedal. The rest is gravy.
    Let us know how you do!

7

Okay, I’ve reread this, and I completely ignored the OP. Sorry.

I guess I’d stand with my first piece of advice. Go pay for a half hour lesson, let them know what you’re looking for (weekend warrior? quit your day job?), and see how it goes. More than likely, you’ll walk out with a stupid grin, buy a pair of sticks and a practice pad, and go home to annoy everyone around you.

I’ve got anywhere from two or three kits in my basement at one time, and I frequently have friends come over and play with me. If you’ve got any drumming friends, ask them if this is an option. Most of us have more gear than we can use at once. It’s a sickness.

8

Do you have any idea how long this vocalist/keyboard player/programmer has been waiting to hear that from a drummer??

I have always insisted that drummers are sick - always!

:smiley:

9

Gah! I spent so long on this Ich Bin’s beat me to it (but I’ll post it anyway).

Quasimodem has excellent advice - start with the rudiments. That will develop your technique and get you started on the road to independence. It will be the foundation of your drumming.

A good drummer keeps steady time. For instance if the song gets loud or otherwise intense people have a tendancy to speed up. Before you know it you’re all looking at each other wondering how you all got to this crazy tempo. Part of a drummer’s job is top keep this from happening. Practice with a metronome or drum machine. You are the bedrock.

A good drummer should not play more than is necessary. Jim Keltner, before he became a studio legend, got a piece of advice from an old pro - it was something like “don’t play like you’re a mouse skittering all over the drums”. I read it maybe 20 years so I’m sure I’ve mangled what the guy said, but that’s the basic idea. A well placed THWACK is a lot better than a lot of little noodlings.

A good drummer LISTENS. If you can’t hear what’s going on you’re playing too loud. Listen to how a song flows, how it builds and how it quiets down (otherwise called dynamics).

Have a drummer show you some basic stuff. I’m not necessarily saying go out and sign up for a year of expensive private lessons (although that is the quickest path to goodness) but if you don’t have any friends that are drummers maybe take some lessons at the local music store. It’s very inspiring when somebody unravels the mysteries. After a while you’ll be able to unravel them.

10

Omigod! Ich Bin’s has heard me play! :smiley:

I’m joking of course, but I want to share with you what drumming was all about with me: I had the Gene Krupa syndrome. Now Gene was a great drummer and he knew his rudiments, but he had one other thing going for him: He looked good behind his drums. He was a handsome man with a brilliant smile, and when he played you could tell he was enjoying it, and that is what made the crowd love him so much.

So hell, I wanted to look that way too, so I learned a few things from Gene’s playing and then just let the rest go, and I turned into Ich Bin’s buddy. But boy, I sure had 'em fooled. Trouble was, I short-changed myself and other drummers (this was the 60’s , 70’s and early 80’s) saw me as the poser I was. I stopped being flashy, and just played Charlie Watts’s tyle drums from there on out. I don’t want that to happen to another drummer just starting out, and that isn’t to say it will happen to you OP, just that if you’re serious than take IB’s advice and take your time.

Now, Buddy Rich was the other side of the coin. He didn’t have Gene’s looks, but even Gene would have told you BR was the better drummer, and Gene was famous before Buddy came on the scene.

One of my other heroes was Joe Morello late of the Dave Brubeck Quartet (sometimes Quintet). That man had some fine hand/ pedal control, lemme tell ya’. Listen to his solo on Take Five and you’ll see what I mean. I once attended a drum clinic with him and he played “Mary Had a Little Lamb” on his snare drum by placing his fingers strategically around the head of the drum. He was legally blind at the end of his days but he was a beautiful cat, yes he was.

Okay, end of story. Now you two young whippersnappers bring me my slippers and pipe and fix me a Jack and Coke! :smiley:

Joe Morello to a nervous young student: “Just play me some time son.”

Q

11

In order to be a really successful drummer, you’ll first need a really hot product line.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

Oh shit I just spewed my sandwich all over the keyboard…christ, but I crack myself up.

12

Oh, and you’ll need some drummer jokes:

A band director was having a lot of trouble with one drummer. He talked and talked and talked with the drummer, and performance simply didn’t improve.

Finally, before the whole orchestra, he said, “When a musician just can’t handle his instrument and doesn’t improve when given help, they take away the instrument, and give him two sticks, and make him a drummer.”

A stage whisper was heard from the percussion section: “And if he can’t handle even that, they take away one of his sticks and make him a conductor.”

Q: What do you call a guy who hangs out with musicians?
A: A drummer.

Q: How do you know it’s your drummer at the door?
A: The knocking speeds up.

A researcher arrives in Borneo to gather data for his thesis. Accompanied by his trusty guide, he seeks out a very remote locale for researching the mating behaviour of the giant rat of Sumatra.

Around dusk of the first day, he’s sitting by the campfire with his guide when in the distance, he hears tribal drums. They get louder. The guide announces, “I don’t like the sound of those drums.”

The dusk turns evening. The drums get louder. The guide says, “I really don’t like the sound of those drums.”

Evening turns to dead of night. The drums get louder and louder, until it is obvious that the drummers must be quite close. The guide says again, “I really don’t like the sound of those drums.”

Suddenly the drums stop, and a voice from the darkness cries out, “Hey man, he’s not our regular drummer!”

And my personal, all-time favorite (this is the one that many of you thought the previous one was):

A biology graduate student went to Borneo to take some samples for his thesis work. He flew there, found a guide with a canoe to take him up the river to the remote site he where he would make his collections. About noon on the second day of travel up the river they began to hear drums. Being a city boy by nature, the biologist was disturbed by this. He asked the guide, “What are those drums?” The guide turned to him and said, “Drums OK, but VERY BAD when they stop.”

Well the biologist settled down a little at this, and things went reasonably well for about two weeks. Then, just as they were packing up the camp to leave, the drums suddenly stopped! This hit the biologist like a ton of bricks (to coin a phrase), and he yelled at the guide,

“The Drums have stopped! What happens now?”

The guide crouched down, covered his head with his hands and said:

“Bass Solo”

13

::brings Quisimodem his medication, pats him gently on the head::

There there, don’t get all worked up! You know what it does to your blood pressure!

All kidding aside, I’ll say “yeah, what Quasi said” again. Thanks for the great Morello story!

I have a tape, can’t remember who it is for the life of me, but the guy plays the whole album using only one cymbal. Tony Williams would do this on occasion too, just to prove it could be done. Buddy Rich could kick your butt around the block using a tamborine. As an interesting addition, I’ve read an interview where they asked Buddy Rich who the world’s greatest drummer was, and he said, without hesitating “Gene Krupa. No question”. Their admiration was mutual.

Regardless of what you think of him and his music / politics, I read an interesting interview with Lars Ulrich, of Metalica. When he started out, he said that he thought Charlie Watts was the world’s worst drummer. Now, twenty-some years later, he has come to view him as one of his favorites. Drumming can be so much more than just the old two and four. Just when you think you have it all figured out, you grab a CD of some tabla drumming and realize you’ve only scratched the surface.

I’ve currently put all my toms and cymbals away and am stuggling to tear it up using only a hi-hat, snare and bass.
And to UnwrittenNocturne… You’re welcome! Now, could you help me carry my hardware ba…hey, where are you going?!

14

Q: What do you call a drummer without a girlfriend?

A: Homeless!

Thank you.

15

Drummers to hear:

In addition to those mentioned:

Shelly Manne
Billy Cobham
Steve Gadd
Olatunji
Art Blakey
Jack DeJohnette
Omar Hakim
Tito Puente

Older greats:

Cozy Cole
Philly Joe Jones
Jo Jones
Sabu
Candido
Chano Pozo

16

A totally different kind of drummer, the late and great John Bonham did some amazing stuff too. I just bought the DVD ‘How the West was won’. The footage from circa 1969~70 show these young guys, doing things live that I always thought was done with a lot of studio work. Seeing Bonzo with only a base, a snare, and a hi-hat is amazing. Think of all those great songs from the early albums. They sounded better live and there were only the four of them on stage. Plant didn’t play any instrument, just singing and prancing about. The drum intro from ‘When the levee breaks’ might be the most sampled drums loops ever. And he was only 22 or 23 at the time and had this itty-bitty drum kit.

This is only to affirm what other posters have said: greatness doesn’t come from great gear.

17

Vic Firth’s web page has a great section on rudiments that I’m trying to work through:

http://www.vicfirth.com/education/rudiments.html

A question for the veterans: for someone just starting out (or starting again after several years, in my case), is it worth learning the “traditional” grip? It just doesn’t seem very natural to me.

Dr. J

18

And steadfastly refused to muffle his bass drum! :smiley: I remember one story about a producer who brought a pillow to set inside Bonzo’s bass, and how he was lucky to escape with his skin intact. Must have been a producer’s nightmare, man!

Q

19

I switched to “matched grip” in the 70’s when I started Charlie Watts’ing, but if I were to start over and learn my rudiments I’d go to traditional grip and stay there. That how the rudiments were designed to be played and I’d want to pay tribute to that.

My brother who played for The Spirit of Atlanta Drum and Bugle Corps was a matched grip rudimentary drummer and he was awesome. He was everything I never tried to be. So Doc, you’re going to get two different schools of thought on this. Do what’s comfortable.

Q

20

Dave Tough. You won’t find much written about him but Gene Krupa loved the guy, even though he had some very heavy issues.

Sorry, y’all! I seem to be hogging this thread, but I just appreciate so much being able to talk about the drums and what they mean to me. My old man was a drummer too and he got me out of stuttering with his snare, teaching. me. to. talk. on. the. beat.

If I could find a band that would stay together for the sake of the music, with no ego, and no red-assing, I’d buy another set in a heartbeat, and I would take those lessons IB’s talking about. Even at 53. Hell, I can do my paradiddles, doubles, double strokes, flams, flamadiddles and ratamacues! I just gotta build up some steam again! :smiley:

But where you gonna find even 4 guys like that? I’ll just stay with my guitars and envy you guys who are doing it right!

Q