Hi all,
I'm working on a school project and have to discuss the various drumming skills and techniques, both beginner and advanced. What are some of the different skills and techniques a drummer should master? By nature I'm a guitarist, so, for those guitarists out there, I'm looking for things comparable to playing basic chord like major and minor chords, playing more advanced chords, alternate picking, tapping, hammer-ons, sweeps, etc.
Thanks very much to all for helping me get my first insight into drumming!
--R.B.
It really depends on what the drummer's pursuit is. There are techniques so specific to styles that there's more than a lifetime worth of learning out there. I would say if your goal is to the best rock drummer on the planet, mastering the tabla -- a lifetime of learning by itself -- is not at the top of the list of things a drummer needs to be concerned about. It would certainly be
helpful, but not
essential.
Basic techniques that apply in general to all modern drum set styles:
- Basic rudiments: At least the old 26, if not the additional 24 that have been added by Percussive Arts Society.
- Basic independence: Independence is a big word for drummers that can mean a lot of things. You need to have at least a rudimentary facility towards limb independence to function on a basic, stable level of playing. I'm going to take a leap here and define "rudimentary facility" as being able to break the right foot from the right hand and the right hand from the left hand out to sixteenth notes. Everyone's mileage will, in fact, vary on that definition.
- Internal grasp of the quarter-note pulse: This essential for modern "First World" music. You can't play and subdivide what you hear if you are not first able to locate the pulse of the music. Most modern music is based on a quarter-note pulse in 4/4 time. This is dance music. Sometimes the pulse is in eighths, but it's not as common. You don't necessarily need to understand time signatures to understand this.
Advanced concepts:
There are so many to list we'd need to write several books on the subject, but I'll take a shot ...
- Time signature vs. pulse: When you have an intimate understanding of the time signature math, you understand the rhythmic passage does not have to resolve every bar, every two bars, or possibly at all. You can force your own time signature over another creating rhythmic dissonance if you understand how to play "over the bar." You can modulate between meter without changing signatures.
- Four-limb independence: Again, independence is a sketchy word that we use to define freedom from limbs being tied together in rhythmic thought. It's a natural function of the brain to unify limbs, and drummers spend the rest of their lives retraining the brain to untie them ... but in a way that the drummer is still in total control of the complex polyrhythms each limb is playing. No one is every completely "free," but many have advanced to the point to create that very illusion. Can I play triplets with the right hand while playing eighth notes with the right foot or vice versa? Yes, but only because I've worked out the mathematical distinctions in my head and trained my brain to hear where the notes should be place.
