DRUMMER CAFE

This thread takes me back to when I started playing guitar ~30years ago. Very similar situation.

When I started playing drums 5 years ago, I took that experience and learned from it with more realistic goals, excellent teachers, and (what probably helped me the most) a larger variety of styles. I'm not limiting myself to one style now and it's great!

Good luck! Keep us posted.  

If I can add anything it would be to make sure that you PLAY WITH OTHER MUSICIANS.  I don't care if they're good or not, music is like a language--you communicate!  What happens when you're talking to someone in a real life situation and they're not very articulate when speaking?  You have to learn how to communicate in other ways.  Having said that, I find that when I'm practicing by myself I'm pretty stagnant and not very *good*  However, when I'm playing with other musicians...WOW!!!  Since I get to "communicate" with other musicians, the dialogue never gets boring like it does when I play alone...  Something that's really funny is that I've never really liked any drummer, meaning I never tried to replicate anyone.  I always had a natural talent when it came to drums and thus from the get-go I wanted to be my own type of drummer.  What makes this ironic is that once I started getting into drums, THAT'S when I wanted to be like other drummers.  I kinda worked at things backwards all my life, and now after 11 years I kinda like where I'm at, but only when I'm playing with someone else... I hate practicing alone, it's boring.  I also love to perform in front of people!  Nothing beats the look on people's faces when they're into the music.  

Drum4JC, just wondering, what is a class act?

I do, as I have said many times before, have a teacher, and she has been teaching me for 3.5 years(as long as I have been playing).

Also, today I played with my church band in front of my whole high school, and I barely got nervous at all! It truly DOES help to play in front of people in a church band. I also get complements on my playing. Lots of them.  

Yeah, I second (third?) the idea of playing with as many people as possible.  Some of my most valusble learning experiences have been playing with bands or players who I won't gig with again!  But it was still a valuable lesson.

Also, a bit off topic but I've always told my shred monster friends that while it is really cool that they can cop all the Dream The-a-ter (thanks Felix ) licks, what I find most impressive is the fact that Portnoy or Peart, etc. actually sat down and created these parts.  Anyone can reproduce them, with a bit of practice, but the talent is in the creation of some monster in context to a song and making it work.

Another thing -
If you ever get to the level Portnoy is at now, you'll still be discouraged because he'll have improved a lot as well, and you'll still be blown away by the stuff he plays.

I guess the point of this post is to reiterate the idea of concentrating on your achievemetns, without necessarily comparing yourself to the pros all the time.

Will I ever get to that level? I sure do hope so.

Also, I am going to also start working on some Led Zeppelin. I learned one of their songs in one day, and am planning to learn more. My teacher brought over a tape with Dazed and Confused on it. Now THAT is some complex drumming right there.

There are so many good ones:

Love that "In my time of dying" myself- good ol' "Black Dog", "Kashmir", "When the Levee Breaks", "Rock 'n Roll"

When I hear that stuff now, as good as a drummer I am- I'm totally humbled by  John Bonham's genius and talent.

Something else you may want to invest some time in is to go out to see local drummers.  Pick apart what they do good and what they do badly.  Learn from them.  Some of my best fills and grooves came from watching my peers.  I can't stress enough the ammount of great info I get from watching others play in a live situation - even to this day.  Once you've put some time in onstage, you'll be able to put yourself in thier shoes and understand the pressure they're under in a live situation.  Take your learning seriously, take it slow, and have a lot of fun doing it.
This is the most fun I could ever have, and I can still say that after almost 30 years of playing!  

I totally agree, it is kind of like cars & motorcycles, when I was in my 20s I wanted the fastest rice rocket out there and couldn't see why all those "old guys" just liked their cruisers. Now that I'm up near "old guy" territory myself I find less of a need to risk winding up in a ditch and find much more pleasure in the touring aspect of things.

As far as chops,  I like a good fireworks display once in a while. When used in the right context as Dave Weckl typically does, it is great.  What a lot of drummers fail to recognize however, is that there is a lot more to him than only his chops. He, Gadd, Cobham, Simon Phillips and guys of that ilk are full dimensional players.

The problem I see today is that too many drummer put so much emphasis on the chops part of it that the other, meat & potatos side of their playing doesn't develop.

To tie this back into the original topic, I would say that playing with other musicians in a live or even rehearsal setting did far more for my chops than sitting around with a practice pad ever did.