On Drummers

Every musician should learn the drums.

In my experience, good drummers tend to understand music better than other musicians. Drumming inherently avoids many natural pitfalls and misunderstandings that plague musicians who approach music with other instruments. I’m going to attempt to explain my position.

I believe the key reason why drummers often gain a rich a holistic understanding of music is because the drums don’t primarily play notes. It’s not expected that drummers tune to a certain pitch, play within a key, or utilize scales and harmonies. This is not to say that drummers can’t or don’t ever play with pitches and melody, but it’s not necessary for the job. Instead, drummers are expected to make MUSIC without utilizing NOTES.

Notes are a tiny element of music, and they sound lame and uninspiring on their own. In order to make music, notes need to be placed in a context of groove, dynamics, articulation, phrasing, and listening. Since drummers are never even expected to worry about notes, they get to work immediately on other elements. Once we understand that music is language, it becomes obvious why timing and cadence are so much more important and effective at portraying a message than mere words "(the equivalent to notes). What would be easier to understand if it was spoken- Shakespeare’s greatest poem read with the words spaced at random intervals over the course of an hour, or your friend saying a soft “oooops” right after you drop your ice cream. Since drummers don’t fall into the pit of worrying wondering and guessing what note they ought to play, they stand a much greater chance of saying anything at all at the right time, which is more likely to communicate.

I have met many musicians who have played melody instruments like the guitar, piano, or saxophone for YEARS and don’t understand why they “don’t sound good.” Almost without fail it is because they think of songs as memorized lists of notes in order, rather than a sound involving color, shape, and timing. Players of melody instruments often make their worst music after hitting just one wrong note, allowing it to kill the flow of every other part of their performance. Drummers avoid this easy misunderstanding by the nature of their instrument.

Drummers can become distract by other microcosms of music, like timing or technique, but I think there’s something else about the drums themselves that also helps to mitigate this problem. The drums are really loud, and playing them at even a conversational level is hard and takes developed technique. This makes it nearly impossible to fake sounding good.

In order for the drums to sound good, they MUST have good time. This doesn’t always mean a mechanical sounding, static tempo, but it definitely means great agreement and consistency from beat to beat and between the drummers limbs. If a kick, cymbal, and snare all strike on the same beat, it will sound great and powerful when synchronized, but very loud and flubby when out of sync. Other instruments can hide from these little imperfections by playing soft and scared and avoiding being heard, and many musicians do just that. Drummers don’t really have that privilege, since their instrument is loud by nature, so if they mean to be good they have to actually practice until it sounds good playing at a confident, powerful dynamic. When the drums are really in time, they don’t seem to be so painfully loud since so much more space becomes available within the beat.

As soon as a drummer starts playing with others, they will learn about kit control if they have not discovered it on their own. Some musicians want to hear more backbeat on the snare, some want more kick, some want you to be softer than “a rat pissing on cotton”. Many drummers discover on their own the ways in which rebalancing a beat between kick, snare, and cymbals subtly changes the feel of a song, but if they do not, they surely will as soon as they start working with bands.

I’m realizing I’ve kind of drifted to the drum set, so I want to draw back to my original point as I conclude my request that you learn to drum. Drummers love the game of music, they know they can make music with anything. They don’t need a fancy tool with keys, strings, and knobs- a pencil and a desktop will do for them, or perhaps the steering wheel and turn signal, maybe even an empty tin can. Drummers don’t need specific instruments because they play music. They know how to take a sandy shaker, snappy snare, and booming kick and put all three to their best musical effect. Drummers consider each sound for its potential uses rather than its standard practice. This makes them learn the game of music much faster.

I think I’m on to something, maybe I’m not, but why don’t you try learning some drums and see what it does for you?

Happy to hear your opinions below.