New perspectives

Duck Tape

Duck Tape

Platinum Member
Lately it feels like everything I know about playing drums is assumed knowledge, like I've only just begun - It strikes me as some sort of milestone of experience. There is no longer much that's mystifying about the pop rock beat, fills, song structures - playing drums seems to be more of a technique and timing challenge than the wonderland of rhythmic possibilities it used to be.

I am just an average drummer but I have been playing long enough to know what's what. I wonder if this is the platform for the next stage in development or early onset of boredom.
 
Duck Tape said:
Lately it feels like everything I know about playing drums is assumed knowledge, like I've only just begun - It strikes me as some sort of milestone of experience. There is no longer much that's mystifying about the pop rock beat, fills, song structures - playing drums seems to be more of a technique and timing challenge than the wonderland of rhythmic possibilities it used to be.

I am just an average drummer but I have been playing long enough to know what's what. I wonder if this is the platform for the next stage in development or early onset of boredom.
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you've hit a note with me here. I feel the same to some extent, but there's a ton more I can shoot for within my very limited musical field of competence.

I've been lucky enough to experience working alongside a range of players recently, & although they're mostly in very different genres, there's much that's transportable into my world. The inspiration side is also helped because they're way better players than me too.

I'm guessing my long time away from playing put me behind the curve compared to you, so maybe I'm "smelling" your outlook looming, rather than being at that point myself.
 
You're thinking about it wrong.

Now that you have a good knowledge foundation and understand the majority of the base concepts, you have a much broader palate with which to paint in all your rhythmic possibilities.

There's a lot of things in drumming that we can't even start to look at until some of the base stuff is so ingrained that we literally don't have to think about it.

Also, here's a mind-flip. Now is the time to pick up a guitar or bass or piano and go study with an instructor. Go in with a goal of better understanding music overall, and it will open whole new doorways into drumming that make you feel like a kid learning something new again. Another good way to get that feeling is learning a totally new world style. Study indian counting and rhythm, really dive into jazz and transcribe some crazy solos, figure out a good clave and start diving deep into latin stuff....
 
Hmmm, "onset of boredom"? That sounds troubling (especially with all that nice equip you have , lol). Hopefully more a platform.
Maybe think of it more artistically than something to figure out or de-mystify. You now have a canvas, some tools and some paints. You know all about colours and shapes.
Now the painting. Endless possibilities, and its all a continuum, how good you can get, and what you can paint.
I will never ever have it all figured out, and am glad for that.
 
Go buy a Fender Fender Jazz or Precision bass. Or heck, maybe a Strat as well and jerk around with those for a while along with your drumming. Not required to spend a ton of cash, go with their Squier lines....basically just as good. I own several along with $$$ USA Fender's so I know. Yeah, you'll never be Stevie Ray Vaughn or John Entwhistle although will add some mix and diversity to the daily grind of banging away.
 
I'm going to suggest that it's the platform for a mind set change.

Instead of working towards being an awesome sounding drummer, I'm going to suggest that you have awesomeness (technique) under control.

Now the challenge is to make the band and the music sound good, which is the ephemeral, indefinable magic sauce...the zen of drumming. It's what makes Billie Jean sound so good when the drummer is "only" playing a money beat for the whole song.

I'm not saying you should play everything as basically as you can, I'm saying that the next challenge is to find the secret ingredient in the secret ingredient soup.
 
Duck Tape said:
I am just an average drummer but I have been playing long enough to know what's what. I wonder if this is the platform for the next stage in development or early onset of boredom.
Click to expand...
Next stage, likely. I had it all figured out playing more than 12 years when I was a kid, then I stopped playing for more than 25 years as life happened. I wasn't drumming all those years, but looking back now, I was gathering a real appreciation for music, so many styles, other genres. Listening and appreciating music. My hiatus turned out to be a great thing for me...

I know from other posts you play with a few bands, perhaps its the band or the music you're playing that makes it less mystifying and feeling like the onset of boredom.
 
Something I have been pondering is starting a band. Also picking up a new instrument. Maybe one of those options can break you out of that funk, Dre?
 
Duck Tape said:
Lately it feels like everything I know about playing drums is assumed knowledge, like I've only just begun - It strikes me as some sort of milestone of experience. There is no longer much that's mystifying about the pop rock beat, fills, song structures - playing drums seems to be more of a technique and timing challenge than the wonderland of rhythmic possibilities it used to be.

I am just an average drummer but I have been playing long enough to know what's what. I wonder if this is the platform for the next stage in development or early onset of boredom.
Click to expand...

Never felt like this. Its the music I am involved in that excites me. If I am bored it is the music that is boring me, not the drumming. I was once advised "Dont play the drums, play the music" and thats what I do. As long as I enjoy the band/music everything is good.
 
Sounds like you're in a rut, and it happens to everyone!

I don't know if you are taking lessons, but if you aren't, a teacher might be able to challenge you, and get you feeling inspired again.


You can also explore new material yourself. Try some new time signatures! You've probably mastered simple (3/4 and 4/4), but there are also compound signatures (9/8, 12/8) that might be a little trickier, then there are complex time signatures (5/4, 7/8). A few years ago, I was in a rut and started playing with some more "out there" jazz guys who seem to love playing in 7/8, which was a weakness of mine. Playing a few gigs where I had to sight read an/or improvise in 7 really snapped me back to reality.


I'm not sure what your reading and writing skills are, but learning to read and write is really important, and will help your overall understanding of music. Same with beefing up on music theory. If you can read/write, and your music theory knowledge is decent, then you could always try transcribing some parts from a record you have. Once you've transcribed it, then you can learn to play it.


Another thing that can help is not playing the drums for a few days. Usually by New Years Day, I'm so burnt out from playing so many gigs, that I just take a week or so off without playing or practicing. Whenever I get back to playing I feel refreshed and inspired again.

Hopefully some of these ideas help, we've all gotten into a rut with drums (or anything really), and it's always a good idea to find a different/new perspective to help get you inspired again.
 
To some extent, I've gone through the same thing. In some ways, I think I was "better" when I was a teenager. Most of the techniques I still use are the ones I learned back then and I haven't worked on nuts and bolts stuff in over 20 years.

The joy for me is in finding the best drum parts for a given piece. It's nice because most of the time I don't have to think about where my skills are to physically pull it off. It's the decision making process that's the never ending source of wonder.

mikel said:
Never felt like this. Its the music I am involved in that excites me. If I am bored it is the music that is boring me, not the drumming. I was once advised "Dont play the drums, play the music" and thats what I do. As long as I enjoy the band/music everything is good.
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This is kinda it right here. I don't play covers mostly because the thought of not composing my own parts defeats my prime motivator.

I also agree with branching out to other instruments. I've done this, too, and it works well since you can make the music whatever you want it to be instead of someone else telling you what it is, and that opens the floodgates to what your compositions can be, both with the music and with the drums.
 
Duck Tape said:
Lately it feels like everything I know about playing drums is assumed knowledge, like I've only just begun - It strikes me as some sort of milestone of experience. There is no longer much that's mystifying about the pop rock beat, fills, song structures - playing drums seems to be more of a technique and timing challenge than the wonderland of rhythmic possibilities it used to be.

I am just an average drummer but I have been playing long enough to know what's what. I wonder if this is the platform for the next stage in development or early onset of boredom.
Click to expand...

I don't really think there is a pop rock genre, there may have been in the distant past or in some isolated corners of the universe, but I think I know what you mean. If you listen to modern pop music it's not rock and it is loaded with rhythmic intrigue, though mostly programmed. So, really it's all up from here for you.
 
Duck Tape said:
Lately it feels like everything I know about playing drums is assumed knowledge, like I've only just begun - It strikes me as some sort of milestone of experience.
Click to expand...
I know how you feel. I sometimes feel that as I learn more, I realise how much there is out there to learn, and how little I really know. Today I am a better drummer than I was last year, and the year before that. But often it feels like I'm just chipping away at it. Certainly keeps my ego in check! Nevertheless I like to keep chipping away...

Duck Tape said:
I am just an average drummer but I have been playing long enough to know what's what. I wonder if this is the platform for the next stage in development or early onset of boredom.
Click to expand...

Based on videos you have posted I think you are much more than an average drummer, Dre. But like Wildbill said, I think it's up to you.
Maybe you need some time, maybe you just need the right inspiration. When I feel like this it usually doesn't last long - I usually come across something on the web that makes me want to get back to work - it might be some new phrasing, it might be a new style, etc.

Hopefully you'll find something that motivates you soon.
 
I look at it as a positive thing, but I tend to do that. My impression is like you're climbing a ladder and you got to a rung that gives you a view that you didn't have prior. Hence the milestone experience, and also feeling like you've only just begun, because of your new perspective. Like maybe you were a big fish in a small pond and now you are realizing that you are a small fish in a big pond?

I'm trying to read into what you wrote because it's not all the way clear to me what you are feeling. Like you say you feel that everything you know is assumed knowledge. I'm not sure what you mean by that. I could take it like it sounds like you feel that you have only a basic understanding of drumming, maybe that's true, but it doesn't ring true with me. You're a damn fine player. So I'm confused. Are you looking at this as positive, negative, or neutral?
 
I guess it could be either positive or negative, that's why I ask you guys. You usually help me see the light.

If it's boredom setting in then that's a bit negative, if it's like I've taken ownership of what I know so far, it's positive.

I don't want to reach a stage of development in an area and then abandon it for another - I think there is more to pop/rock/funk/rnb drumming than meets the eye, and I certainly have not mastered it, so I'm not going to start wearing golf hats and studying jazz yet.

I think what Mike is saying rings a bell... I think now that I have more of a handle on the technical side or the "nuts and bolts" as he called it, the new challenge is perhaps playing the right parts. I think that knowing the right place to play a fill, how long that fill should be, whether a bass drum pattern works, going to the ride in a bridge section etc are all areas where I would like to be smarter.
 
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