drumming secrets

Hi Juan!

Great that we can ask you questions through your site! I feel honoured if you would find time to have a look at this one.

I consider myself to be a semi professional drummer, not a hobbyist. I study for least 2 hours on a daily base. Done that for many years, but now getting tired of running through the same exercises for years. Although I know that there are so many books and inspiring teachers, I like to be a self taught drummer, so I invent all of my own training stuff, simply because I don't want to loose my style of playing. If I would play exercises that others have invented, I am afraid to adapt more of their way of playing, you know what I'm saying?

Have you got any advise; is there any possible way to keep me focussed on my own stuff and make progress? Or do I really have to go and find a teacher and explore more? Getting stuck here, so please help me find some answers. Thanks!

Bobby Fandaro, Benicia (CA)

Hello Bobby,

First of all thanks for asking this interesting question and also thanks for being so open; I find that brave allready.

Now let me get this right: you are a self-taught student (autodidact we call that in Dutch) and you never had any lesson before? Because that is something special anyway. Reading your statements I can tell that you are familiar with teachers and the big variation of lesson material that is out there for you to reach at.....

Wouldn't it be great to just pick up ideas by learning from others? No seriously, I really think that in the progress of learning, adaptation is the key word; babies and children, (even in the animal world where we descent from, never forget that!) learn by copying the behaviour from their parents, brothers and sisters! After a while they start to develop themselves in a autonome way, creating their own lifes.

It is true that it's great to be able to create your own way of playing drums, but there's a lot to be learned from others. Even myself, I'm learning from teachers, colleague drummers, other musicians, students (yes, I even learn from my students that I teach!). There is always something you didn't know before or something you forgot to pay attention to, trust me!

You tell me that you get stuck on studying....maybe you should start using the stuff you're studying in a band....do you play in a band at all? I hope you do, because then you can easily find out if the stuff you are studying helps you to become a better drummer / musician!

If you do have a band, get some books and learn from others (New Breed, Jazz Cook Book, Advanced Funk Studies, Stick Control, just to name a few), or try to get some ideas from this website....it's there for everybody...I love to share ideas with guys like yourself. See what you can do with it; learn it and don't fight it because it will do you no harm.

There's a quote of a guy in history who once claimed: "To become a wise person you have to taste the world. Only after having experienced that you can invite people and cook for them...."

Enjoy playing drums and please do check out the workshops and even the blogs on this website!

Grtz,

Juan