DRUMMER CAFE - Community

Hello gentlemen!
I hope that I am welcome on your terrific site! Do you accept foreigners .. as I live in Holland? You sure have a tremendous forum. All subjects are of interest and I will spend a lot of time reading about them.

May I say something about reading music? I started reading music with a teacher about 40 (!) years ago. Do not ask about my age, I am probably the oldest guy on the forum. A couple of years I have worked as free lance drummer but the nightly hours and the early rising the next day proved to be too commanding. Moreover, not having the opportunity at home to exercise on the drumset and full time occupied with a job and kids, I lost interest in drumming. So, I dropped the music. By music I mean what was ordinarily played during parties, celebrations and the like (foxtrots, waltzes, latin) being the "paying" part and jazz whenever there was time and opportunity for it, being the "rewarding" part.

Quite recently i found out that "V-drumming" is (although not everybody's opinion!) a valuable surrogate for the real stuff. So I bought myself a Roland and am quite happy with it.

I had a look at the old study books. Rich, Chaplin, Colins, Abrahams, Page, etc. Compared to modern books I can only say that the stuff has hardly changed. However, exercises that I have played currently a long time ago nowadays proved to be very tough. Coordination and stickcontrol had gone down the drain.

But, fortunately, - and this is the point I would like to stress - the art of reading music proved to be, like swimming, bicycling, etc., something one acquires for life! Very quickly music reading is becoming quite comfortable again and with that, coordination and stickcontrol are rapidly improving. I found out that what your 4 limbs have learned but your brain has forgotten, will quickly restore itself.
Therefore, I will underscribe the advice of all the forummembers to young drummers: Start reading music. And do not forget: slower is better!
Speed will come with reading experience and stickcontrol.
When playing exercises from the drum books remember that a 16th note is a 16th note and should be played as such. But, when you can play the excercise with just a glance at the book, hit the cymbals, set yourself for a swinging tune and swing the notes on your snare, toms and bassdrum.
Many exercises, however dull they may be when studying them, with experience and technique can be turned out into swinging rhytmes. Believe me! mastering music reading is something that will stay with you for your whole life.

I apologise for my poor command of the english language!