All the great drummers played for....

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blink44

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all the great drummers played hours behind the kit daily right?
just wondering if it is possible making it up to that level without hours behind the kit every day, like some of you my goal is to be well known in the music industry.
 
i don't think you need to spend hours behind the kit every day to be great. and even if you did i don't see how i could do it when i have school and homework i also have to take care of.
 
blink44 said:
all the great drummers played hours behind the kit daily right?
just wondering if it is possible making it up to that level without hours behind the kit every day, like some of you my goal is to be well known in the music industry.
Click to expand...

If you mean not playing very much but still getting to be as good as the great drummers, then no. No way.
You don't get good without playing all the time, forget about great. Just to be a competent musician you have to play all the time.
As far as being well known in the music industry is concerned, I'd say that if that's what you want then think about becoming a producer.
 
well it all comes down to opinion i'd say.

cause i think you could start drums when your 5 years old and only practice say an hour and a half each day. in other words i think getting an early jump on drumming could help.
 
I think to be a 'great' drummer takes a little extra.

Maybe it's talent, maybe it's just pure dedication. If you want to be a good drummer, then yeah, spend hours behind the kit.

Read what jay said again, I think he's got it right.

But then there's Buddy Rich, who claimed to not practice...
 
i wanna be one of the greatest, but i only have so little time to play due to life.
i play around an hour a day, and sometimes even more.
 
how long have "the great" drummers practiced for daily?
 
i think that there is a point where a drummer gets as good as they can get at what they do best and then there is no need to spend hours practicing behind the kit everyday. Just my opinion.
 
blink44 said:
how long have "the great" drummers practiced for daily?
Click to expand...

The thing about the "great drummers," and I'm not sure who you're talking about here, but the thing is that they played all the time, from when they were young. I'm thinking of my jazz guys now, who started working in the clubs as kids, as I did (and I'm pretty damn far from being great) and played with anyone anywhere and were always playing.
See, I don't think just sitting around playing by yourself really does it. But if that's all you can do then an hour here and there isn't going to be sufficient.
Being a musician is a life, see, it's a choice you make to live a certain way, a life that is all about playing music. Dedication, commitment, blah blah blah. But that's how it is. It's all or nothing.

Edit: I don't mean to take anything away from the guys who play for their own personal enjoyment, who play in bands and hold down day jobs and all that, not at all.
 
remember that most practice is done in your head...
just because you cant physically play all day doesnt mean you cant learn.

i do at least 20x more studying of music than actual playing.
critical listening and the analysis of music is IMO the most important part of expanding your musical knowledge and understanding.
 
No two are alike, IMO, and there are no or 'How To' books or a formula that you simply dial in towards being a great drummer.

To be the best drummer YOU can be, yes hard work and hours behind the kit, on the pad, listening and thinking about music, and are givens
 
blink44 said:
all the great drummers played hours behind the kit daily right?
just wondering if it is possible making it up to that level without hours behind the kit every day, like some of you my goal is to be well known in the music industry.
Click to expand...

my opinion is that drummming is a language. in order to speak well you dont necessarily have to speak every day, or ramble on at length. just know that when you speak, you have something to say and that you say it well.
 
i believe that everyone doesnt have a "limit".
and im sure others agree with me.
 
I often make comparisons to sports. For those of you who in school may have played/lettered in a sport; been pretty good at it. Maybe even gotten a schollarship into a college. Or perhaps had friends in this position. So now to get a shot at playing a sport in college.... what college? maybe a small college? How do you rate against an athlete that maybe made it to a top ten college, i.e. Ohio State, U.S.C.? So let's say you made it to a top ten college team? What did it take to get you this far? How many other possible athletes may be up for the Heisman Trophy? How do you make it to the "Pros"? I hope you can at least see some comparison here. To be a pro drummer, your very good. To be one of the "best ever".... What do you think it takes?
 
blink44 said:
all the great drummers played hours behind the kit daily right?
just wondering if it is possible making it up to that level without hours behind the kit every day, like some of you my goal is to be well known in the music industry.
Click to expand...

Do you want to be "great" or well known? You don't have to be a great drummer to be well known, look at that Green Day guy. To be a great drummer you have to practice a lot; to be a well known drummer you have to network, kiss ass, and have really good luck.
 
I think absolutely yes. Buddy Rich is one of those anomalies where there is unexplained talent, but I believe that the real talent that works only comes from hours and hours of dedicated work. There's no way around it as far as I'm concerned.
 
After watching what Gene Krupa could do, and Buddy... Come on, he had to have had more practice/training than he claimed? After all.. He was how old when he started performing? This guy was a drummer prodigy, I'm sure.... But he had to have spen centuries behind the "Traps".
 
well, just because he didnt practice doesnt mean he didnt play all the time.
people have very different definitions of practice.

to me, practice implies work. if im having fun, im not working.
 
I'm weird, I guess.

I honestly am so busy lately that I seldom actually practice behind a kit, most of my practice concerns me figuring out exercises on the bus and then patting them out on my thighs. Lately, my education has more or less been almost entirely theory-based. Of course, I apply the concepts I gather to the drum set, but there is a whole lot going on in the dome. I really despise learning things completely by rote memorization/repetition, and I try to foster an ergonomic style that makes sense, but can also be dynamic across a wide range of styles. When I'm thinking hard about the construction and execution of a rhythm, that's practicing to me. Hitting the drum is just hearing all the math come together.
 
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