Studying recordings is one of the most important things we can do to become better drummers. By studying the way other drummers have approached various styles of music, we can learn what typically is expected in the different musical situations we might find ourselves in. This keeps us from having to reinvent the wheel. We also then have the possibility of creating something new with our drumming, because we know what has already been done before.
Personally, when I first became aware of the need to study recordings to become a better drummer, I had lots of questions in my mind. Should I listen to the same recordings over and over, or was it more important to listen to hundreds or thousands of recordings? What was I supposed to be listening for exactly? The answers I got from various teachers were sometimes contrary and kind of vague.
After many years of playing, studying, teaching and listening, I have several tips about studying recordings to become a better drummer that I’d like to share with you.
Listening Tips
1. Plan your listening around your musical goals. It is a fact that you have limited time to study recordings. It’s impossible to become intimately familiar with every single CD or album that has ever been made. Therefore, you have to choose which ones you’re going to listen to.
My goal was to be very versatile. My teachers told me that if I wanted to make a living as a professional drummer, I needed to be able to play everything. Therefore, I studied everything from bebop drumming on Charlie Parker CD’s, to the drumming on Reggae recordings. I’m still listening and studying. I’m never really done. This keeps drumming interesting and challenging for me, even after all these years.
If that’s your goal, then pick 1-2 CD’s from each genre, and study those until you know them very well. Then expand from there. You can always spend more time later studying a specific genre in more depth.
2. Vary the ways you study recordings. Sometimes it’s good to put a microscope on the music, and really dissect it. Other times it’s good to get a broad picture of what’s going on with the music, and the drumming in particular.
Detailed Study
Learning to play through drum transcriptions is one way of putting a microscope on the the music. In a transcription, the drumming is actually written down, note for note. These can be either transcriptions you do personally, or copies of transcriptions other drummers have done. There is a benefit to both. Doing transcriptions yourself is a great way to train your ears. Studying and learning to play transcriptions that other drummers have done is also beneficial, because first of all, you save yourself lots of time. In addition, you sometimes learn to play things through other drummers transcriptions that you might not be able to understand listening to the recording on your own, without the transcription to guide you.
One thing I’d like to say about transcribing is that it isn’t absolutely necessary for every player to transcribe in order to become a good drummer. I know that there are teachers who would probably argue with me emphatically about this statement. However, personally I met several drummers while I was in the Army band who played very well, and had never transcribed anything in their lives. The only explanation I have for this, is that they probably had a lot of natural talent. I am quite sure however, that they spent a lot of time listening to music. They understood the music, and they understood what those drummers that they heard were doing with the music, even though they hadn’t actually taking the time to write it all down.
So transcribing is evidently somewhat optional when trying to become a really good drummer. But listening to lots of music is not! It could also probably be argued that these good players I mentioned, who didn’t do any transcribing might become even better players if they actually spent some time doing drum transcriptions.
It’s important to see the forest and the trees – Peter Erskine
Broad Picture
One broad method of learning is to listen to a song, and imagine you need to be able to play that song with a band tomorrow night. This forces you to think fast, and come up with something to play along with track quickly, something that you don’t have 2 weeks to practice.
This is a very realistic and practical way to practice, because many times, this is exactly the way things work as a professional drummer. Recently I was called to fill in for another drummer on a top 40 rock and country group. I was given a list of over 40 songs. I had one week to learn them, and very little time available to practice each song. I made some quick notes as I listened to each song, as to whether it was straight 8th rock, a shuffle, etc. I narrowed the list down to the songs that had stops in them, or were a bit trickier. These were the songs I spent the most time practicing along with.
Another broad approach is to listen to music with the goal of understanding the style and how the drums contribute to that style of music. In this method, you focus more on what the other instruments are doing in each musical genre, and what the drums are doing to add to or compliment that. For instance, in most rock music you’ll notice that the snare and bass drum play something that either compliments, or follows a similar rhythm to what the bass player, and/or rhythm guitarist is playing. Every genre has general guidelines that the instruments tend to follow. You can usually figure these things out by just listening to the tunes, rather than having to actually write it all down.
The same approach can be applied to improving your drum soloing.While it’s good to learn drum solos note for note, it’s also very beneficial to just try and understand what is actually going on in the solo. Is the drummer following a tune, which is quite common in jazz? If it’s a free form rock solo, what’s basically going on? Is the drummer keeping 16th notes and his bass drum going through the whole solo? This type of approach to listening to drum solos can sometimes be more useful to developing your own solos than practicing an actual drum transcription. When it’s time to solo, it’s ultimately up to you to create something anyway. So, sometimes it’s good to just use other drummer’s solos for ideas and inspiration to create your own.
No matter how long you’ve been playing the drums, there is always more to be learned from listening to other players. Even if you play every style very well, it’s always interesting and beneficial to learn how other drummer approach different genres of music. I hope you found these tips on studying recordings to become a better drummer helpful. As always, I welcome your feedback.
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