What was the single most thing that improved your drumming?

[bigbonzo]

Playing with a small band.

 

[Twakeshima]

Learning guitar- no seriously. It didn’t help me improve my technical skills at all, but what it did do is help me stop thinking like a drummer and start thinking like a musician. I have a home studio and I record fairly often, and my creativity and writing skills improved drastically after stepping away from drums as my only instrument. I stopped thinking about complicated parts and films for the sake of them and starting thinking more about the song and what I could do make it sound the best.

 

[richardh253]

I started playing in 1966, and pretty soon, by '67, was trying to play like Keith Moon, Ginger Baker, Mitch Mitchell...crash-thrash-more-is-more.

The I heard Levon Helm on "Music From Big Pink" and that was a game-changer.

 

[Big Ken]

I had one lesson at the University of Miami, and the grad student teacher recommended that I study Advanced Techniques for the Modern Drummer.
No one could touch me in jazz band after that. In fact, the music director changed the style of music from mostly top 40 to mostly big band. Do that to me one more time: Out.
Rotten Kid, Pressure Cooker: In!

 

[Deafmoon]

Aside from the obvious of practicing, what was the greatest thing that improved your drumming. Was it a book? A video? A youtuber? A teacher?

SINGING while I was playing. Quarter notes, upbeats, bass line, melody as designed by Gary Chester and used in his systems.

 

[simedgoose]

The late teacher Bob Armstrong in the UK. So much became clear and I understood what I was actually doing.

 

[bigbonzo]

Playing with a big band.

 

[fusseltier]

Having my own set rather than practice on my friends set.

 

[Burps]

Probably the best thing for me was listening back to recordings and analyzing my strengths and weaknesses. Playing with better than me musicians at church was also a huge help to me. Another plus was having to play well in front of people when only hearing a new song that very day. There was a long period of time at church when we couldn't practice during the week. We would just show up on Sunday morning and most of us would discover right then which songs we would be playing that day. Sometimes a brand new song would be thrown into the mix. I always hated that, but it helped me to really focus and to try to capture the overall mood and feel of a song as quickly as possible.

 

[1988fxlr]

Playing for crowds that expect to dance to fairly set music with an irish/country band. Theres nowhere to hide mistakes in a jive or waltz and your time has to be dead on

 

[RIDDIM]

Realizing that it's far more important to play the music well than it is to play the instrument well. The instrument exists to serve the music, not vice versa. Understanding this made me think about giving the music what it needs, no more and no less, which obviates the oft heard groove vs. chops trope.

 

[Croatian Man]

Sorry, but I have to give two.

First, my first drum set teacher, who taught me the importance of the bass drum as the foundation of the groove. On a car radio or portable music device it is easy to hear the snare and top end sounds going on in the music but miss what is going on on the bottom. When he showed me that under a simple backbeat there can be a huge variety of funky stuff going on with the feet, drumming all of a sudden became very creative and musical.

Second, practicing to pop radio in the 1970s. Back then you had a wide variety of high quality music that would appear on any one station. The broadcasts weren't as homogenized as they are now. So I could put on headphones and practice along, learning to quickly adapt my playing to whatever style of song came up next. I didn't necessarily know the "correct" groove for each song, but I learned to listen and pick up on what the band was doing, and make my playing fit musically into the context. That skill has payed off over and over again.

DrumPhil, this is fascinating to me. I'm 71, and I resurrected playing Drums after 50 Years [1969] as a HS Senior - Ahhhhh The Summer of 69. In 2018, as I was approaching the End Of The Line (thank you Travelling Wilburys), nearing work retirement, I mentioned to my wife of 44 years (now 48 years), that I had the "urge" to go play drums at a local Music Studio. Never did it, BUT she gifted me a Cheapo Gammon Kit for that Xmas. Bless Her Soul!! Had to knock off buckets of Rust (playing Air Drums and on Car Dashboards doesn't cut it) and played along to my Boom Box in the Finished Basement, usually about an hour a day. Funny about Drumming and probably any Musical Instrument, like riding a Bike, it Comes back to you. Not to Ginger Baker, , Keith Moon, Steve Copeland or Dino Dinelli caliber, but Charlie Watts yes. First complete tune that I played was : Long Cool Woman In A Black Dress. I have since upgraded to a PDP Concept Maple kit and created an entire sound Room / Man Cave [Hate that Term but it fits now in retirement], during COVID Hibernation. New Stereo equipment that I play MY MUSIC on - Streaming, CDs, LPs, Tapes... Ditto to what you do, I play those familiar Sounds of the 60s, 70s, and 80s, (but generally stops there) each day during my 1 Hour sessions. As I improved I would go Too Crazy doing Fills - taking the Tune out of Context. After watching You Tube videos - which for me have been an immense Help, leaning about Drumheads, Tuning, Hacks, etc. Reading Kenny Aronoff's Book, Sex, Drums, and Rock and Roll was insightful. Kenny describes how after meeting Mellencamp who emphasized that Mellencamp Hated all those cymbal crashing Overfills in his music - contrary to what Aronoff wanted to do. Kenny learned that Less Can Be More !!

 

[DrumPhil]

Hey, @Croatian Man, want to know someone else who preaches that playing along with recordings is the best way to learn drums? Quincy Davis, drum set professor at North Texas. Here you go:

 

[Croatian Man]

THX DrumPhil.... I've seen a few others on YT who profess the same thing. It's certainly better than sitting there on a Remo Drum Pad for a few Hours .... Ya Know I still have my Remo Drum Practice pad from 1967!!

 

[Patrick]

Aside from the obvious of practicing, what was the greatest thing that improved your drumming. Was it a book? A video? A youtuber? A teacher?

Playing with older cats. Even the grumpy ones.

 

[bigbonzo]

Realizing that it's far more important to play the music well than it is to play the instrument well. The instrument exists to serve the music, not vice versa. Understanding this made me think about giving the music what it needs, no more and no less, which obviates the oft heard groove vs. chops trope.

One needs to play the instrument and the music well. You cannot have one without the other.

 

[RIDDIM]

One needs to play the instrument and the music well. You cannot have one without the other.

Um, maybe not. A lot of pop music does not necessarily need a lot of complicated playing or advanced technique from us to sound good. As a 12 year old I had minimal facility, yet I could sit down and play along with most AM radio tunes of the 1960's with little difficulty. I wasn't a great drummer, but I could play well enough to nail most of the parts to what was popular then. I was blissfully unaware of Tony Williams, Roy Haynes or Jack DeJohnette at the time; there was no way I'd've been able to hang with the Live at Carnegie Hall album.

 

[bigbonzo]

Um, maybe not. A lot of pop music does not necessarily need a lot of complicated playing or advanced technique from us to sound good. As a 12 year old I had minimal facility, yet I could sit down and play along with most AM radio tunes of the 1960's with little difficulty. I wasn't a great drummer, but I could play well enough to nail most of the parts to what was popular then. I was blissfully unaware of Tony Williams, Roy Haynes or Jack DeJohnette at the time; there was no way I'd've been able to hang with the Live at Carnegie Hall album.

I'm not talking about playing along the radio or to records.

 

[Ludwigboy]

Age...... I stopped at 21 years of age and came back to it at 55 years of age...I approach it with more maturity, patience and interest in learning. I play more varied types of music now that I did then.

 

[LukeS]

Helpful: Playing with people I like as friends and people. If there is respect, support, and friendship, I feel relaxed and inspired, and can play to my full potential.