should you learn to read drum music ? (Drums & Percussion in general)

Member Name: jpjarratt

Product:	Drums & Percussion in general
Date:	17/04/01 (1881 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: broadens the horizons

Disadvantages: takes a while

In an answer, YES.

Learning to read drum music at all is a drag. Learning to read it well so that you can sight-read is nigh on impossible. Why bother I hear you ask.

Learning to read the music has without doubt helped by drumming in a highly significant way. I was taught to read the music by my drum teacher when I was young and had absolutely no ability on the drum kit. I did not particularly enjoy playing at this point and barely practised. I hated the fact that whereas drumming was supposed to be cool and spontaneous, I was reading dull snare drum marches with stupid names. This is not going to catapult me into the stone roses I thought.

Years went by and I carried on in my rut. Suddenly however, I had a bit more time on my hands and began to practise more and more (without music) so that I actually became pretty good.

Now, it is difficult to pick up new drum techniques. Knowing how to read drum music proved to be a fantastic help for me with this. Whereas by listening to a record I might roughly be able to imitate the drummer on it, I could never do it with any accuracy or get the sticking right. By looking at the music score and see what they were playing I could dissect what someone was doing and practice it until I could play it with speed. I could then incorporate this style of drumming into my repertoire. By doing this with many different drummers I then was able to get my own style.

Music books that helped me especially were the Manhattan Music series. These have covered a variety of emminent drummers including Steve Gadd, Omar Hakim etc. They incorporate either a CD, cassette or video to help as well.

If you practice this music reading enough, the ability to develop session musician skills arises. Unfortunately I have not had the time or the talent to be able to just pick up music scores and play exactly what is written, but I am sure that this is the nest progression.

Although I did not en
joy it initially, I am incredibly grateful that I learnt this skill.

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