Instagram drummers

[dingaling]

I’m not posting this for any negative comments so if you have some, write them down on paper and bury them in your backyard.

I see a lot of Instagram drummers who are getting a lot of followers and then endorsements. Makes business sense from a company standpoint. It also broadens the scope of who plays which I think is great. When I was a kid in the 80’s I could count the amount of female drummers I saw in modern drummer in a year on one hand. Now there’s a whole Instagram page just showing off female drummers and a lot of them have great chops. There’s also Dorthra who’s become a hit.
Some pro drummers don’t seem to use it at all, Bill Stewart for example (I would watch that every day I tell ya).
Some use it for education, some for self gratification, some for getting students to sign up for their program, some for showing off gear, some are really done up professionally and some are shot with an iPhone in a basement, some show little jazz solo clips, so many different pages and applications.
What would you want to see?
Where does social media and drumming best connect for you?

I like jazz drumming so I’d love to see more jazz drummers on there.

 

[Vistalite Black]

Who is "Dorthra"?

 

[dingaling]

Who is "Dortha"?

She goes by Taylor.Dorothea on Instagram. Check her out. Looks like she just get a paiste endorsement.

 

[dtk]

I'd like to see more musical drumming and less physical drumming.
I see Ed Moore(?) (Sabian/Aquarian endourser) and he's smooth and fast and .... it doesn't move me...show me a drummer making music ...not playing drums

 

[Matched Gripper]

I’m taking these!

http://instagr.am/p/CJ6UMiQDDLE/

 

[mebeatee]

I’m not posting this for any negative comments so if you have some, write them down on paper and bury them in your backyard.

I see a lot of Instagram drummers who are getting a lot of followers and then endorsements. Makes business sense from a company standpoint. It also broadens the scope of who plays which I think is great. When I was a kid in the 80’s I could count the amount of female drummers I saw in modern drummer in a year on one hand. Now there’s a whole Instagram page just showing off female drummers and a lot of them have great chops. There’s also Dorthra who’s become a hit.
Some pro drummers don’t seem to use it at all, Bill Stewart for example (I would watch that every day I tell ya).
Some use it for education, some for self gratification, some for getting students to sign up for their program, some for showing off gear, some are really done up professionally and some are shot with an iPhone in a basement, some show little jazz solo clips, so many different pages and applications.
What would you want to see?
Where does social media and drumming best connect for you?

I like jazz drumming so I’d love to see more jazz drummers on there.

Not to start off on the wrong foot....your first comment is sort of inviting "negative comments". Besides some folks back yards are too frozen to dig a hole and bury stuff...
This is not negative but a real world scenario....I can only speak for myself.
Anyway the reason why some "pro" drummers don't use these platforms is because they don't want or need to.....that's why they are pro drummers/musicians.
I'm a no name drummer/sound designer who has made my living for more than 40 yrs plomping away on drums around the world and making funny noises from the comfort of my own home....completely paid for by playing music btw....this long before instagram or whatever.
I have zero interest in any of the social media platforms because I don't need or want to as my musical connections are doing just fine via the phone and email. There is some wonderful stuff on you tube and have only been on those other things if a vid link sends me there.
I fully appreciate these platforms as my partner is on them all the time....she runs websites and administers art organizations so it's part of her job.
There are other threads on this site relating to the popularity/marketability/etc of you tube drummers that have this all covered. I think it's a wonderful thing and in today's "market" and the state of things these daze it is a good thing to a point.
However after spending x amount of hours working the last thing I want to do is peruse whatever sites there are. I'd rather go kite flying or come by and visit here with you lot!!!!
bt

 

[jaymandude]

Jay Bellerose and Shawn Pelton come to mind. No social media presence whatsoever.

 

[bassanddrum84]

I don’t use social media at all this forum is the only thing I use. But it is a great way to reach thousands if not millions of people for products or just to show some chops.

 

[Polska]

I'll occasionally check out drumming vids on YouTube, mostly known players. I dont really watch any on Instagram because they are mostly 30 second Tik Tok videos, and it doesnt really do anything for me. More power to them though. Regardless of whether I like the players or their music, if you can find a way in this day and age to makes a dime in music then have at it I say.

 

[KevinD]

I'm not on IG but watch some stuff on fb and YT.. Lots of great drummers out there who have advanced the technique portion exponentially in some ways. It is fun to watch, but the problem is that I get bored and lot of it starts to sound the same after a while. It is more like sport drumming which is OK but pretty one dimensional.
A lot of it is done out of context, meaning they are not really playing to songs....loops maybe but it isn't really the same as playing or creating with a group of other musicians... Obviously that game has changed, but I am curious how long this phase of things will hold out.

 

[ARGuy]

If you're going to use social media, including this forum, and don't want negative comments, then don't use social media.

Now that that's out of the way . . .
I'm not the target audience that social media is interested in, so there is very little that Instadrummers and the companies that they endorse are going to get from me, so it really doesn't matter what I want to see. Social media is short attention span based, and anything that I want to seek out doesn't have to be in that format. A couple of nights ago I watched John DeChristopher talking to Steve Gadd and Rick Marotta - it was over an hour, and they could have talked for twice that and I would have enjoyed every second. When somebody has done something serious, like all three of those guys have, that's the kind of information I find valuable. Maybe that's what it really comes down to for me - the Instadrummers are trying to prove themselves, so as far as providing me with anything that I'm going to find informative or educational, they're not who I'm going to look to. They can be entertaining, but once again, it's a short attention span format. I want to watch and listen to musicians playing and interacting together in the same room at the same time, for more than 2 minutes at a time.

 

[Whitten]

It's largely a different scene to the music industry.

 

[Trilock_Gurtu]

It's like busking online.

 

[Tornado]

I can't stand browsing Instagram. It's like it's for people with the attention span of a gnat.

 

[& You Dont Stop]

most of my personal vids on IG are drum vids. I might check IG once or twice a week. Two drummers I really like on youtube are Carter Mclean and Nate the 80/20 drummer (Nate Smith?)

 

[John DeChristopher]

If you're going to use social media, including this forum, and don't want negative comments, then don't use social media.

Now that that's out of the way . . .
I'm not the target audience that social media is interested in, so there is very little that Instadrummers and the companies that they endorse are going to get from me, so it really doesn't matter what I want to see. Social media is short attention span based, and anything that I want to seek out doesn't have to be in that format. A couple of nights ago I watched John DeChristopher talking to Steve Gadd and Rick Marotta - it was over an hour, and they could have talked for twice that and I would have enjoyed every second. When somebody has done something serious, like all three of those guys have, that's the kind of information I find valuable. Maybe that's what it really comes down to for me - the Instadrummers are trying to prove themselves, so as far as providing me with anything that I'm going to find informative or educational, they're not who I'm going to look to. They can be entertaining, but once again, it's a short attention span format. I want to watch and listen to musicians playing and interacting together in the same room at the same time, for more than 2 minutes at a time.

Thanks for watching and I’m glad you enjoyed it.

I agree about IG having limited information and appeal. I’m on IG, but devote very little time to it and have a relatively small following (about 2,700 people) compared to Facebook because for me, there’s little to no substance. The vast majority of the playing leaves me cold and I don’t get much from it. That’s the only way I can explain it. I’m more active on Facebook, which has its own demons, but I feel there’s more direct, personal interaction, than the scattered approach of IG. With the prospect of being in lockdown for next few months I’m looking for ways to keep people and myself feeling positive and motivated and social media will play a role in that. But to each his own.

 

[Rock Salad]

I only watch raghavdrummer on Instagram. It's just because I so hope his parents allow him to play music, and don't force accounting or med school on him. I think he graduates this year or next. This guy really has it. On Facebook I watch Johnny Vidacovich, his quarantine videos need to be collected and edited for an incredible teaching video, and he and his gal are so sweet.

 

[thejohnlec]

It’s like any other tool - we use it well or use it poorly, we watch the stuff that hits us and ignore the stuff that doesn’t. I find enough that I can use personally and musically, and I scroll past the sport drummers that don’t offer much past a spectacle. To each his/her own.

 

[jaymandude]

One of my friends, I wouldn’t call him a good friend but I will call him a friend, who has played with dozens of high-level jazz and pop artists. He has the longest and best résumé of anyone I know said to me “ people aren’t supposed to see or hear you practicing “

I agree with that.

 

[old_K_ride]

Greyson Nekrutman...unreal skill...all of 18,too