Drums easier than other instruments?

Deathmetalconga said:
HA! Very true and funny you should mention that. Singers have a huge chip on their shoulder because other musicians will say, "You should learn to play an instrument."
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Our singer describes himself as a non-musician because he can't play any instruments but he is a very good singer with an excellent ear and pitch. I think of him as a much better musician than many others who can play instruments and know theory.


lowdowner said:
I play flute - very well as it happens - and have years of training in music theory, flute technique and performance.

I can honestly say that getting 'music' from a drum kit is a complex and involved skill.
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No one will disagree that playing drums is a complex and involved skill, as you said. But you didn't make a comparison of relative difficulty. Can you make that comparison, at least from your own experience?

Also, I take it that you learnt flute as a child. My understanding is that children learn skills more easily than adults (I imagine that's because their heads are not already full of stuff).

Your thoughts?
 
It Really all depends on the style of drumming. If your doing a rock drumming style, then i would say that drumming is probably the harder thing to do. You have to realize that using a double bass pedal is a complicated skill and very few can master it. Drumming takes a different mindset then the other instruments. Singing isnt easy, but drumming isn't easier.
 
Anon La Ply said:
Our singer describes himself as a non-musician because he can't play any instruments but he is a very good singer with an excellent ear and pitch. I think of him as a much better musician than many others who can play instruments and know theory.




No one will disagree that playing drums is a complex and involved skill, as you said. But you didn't make a comparison of relative difficulty. Can you make that comparison, at least from your own experience?

Also, I take it that you learnt flute as a child. My understanding is that children learn skills more easily than adults (I imagine that's because their heads are not already full of stuff).

Your thoughts?
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I learned to play flute in my mid 30's.

Comparatively I'd say they are about as hard as each other. I'm taking Trinity grades in drumming at the moment and, as makes sense, the early grades at least seem to be comparable in complexity. I don't know if the comparative complexity diverges at the higher grades: I suspect not (i've taken a sneaky - and scary - peek at the grade 8 syllabus!).
 
No one mentions the physical side of things.

Our band do a four hour rehearsal once a week and our gigs are 40 mins to an hour long.

There is only one person who comes off that stage/out of that rehearsal covered in sweat, drained of ever last particle of energy, having given 110%.

And it isn't the bass player.

Having said that...yes I believe drums are easier to play to a competent level, than most other instruments. But, having said that, I've seen people who are musically very competent sit at my kit and not actually have the slightest inkling as to what to THEN do.
 
This is just a theory, but I'd imagine entry level drumming is easier for many than string instruments, but that's partially because I hit a wall (my pinky) with starting to learn guitar and could have rudimentary patterns on drums since day one. I've known others to do the same and others who could do basic quad fills perfectly on their first attempt. It seems like when you're trying to juggle rhythms, do odd accent placements and all that together you have just as much going on as everyone else if not moreso.
 
Whats easier brain surgery or starting quarterback in the NFL?

They don't compare, neither does drum kit vs melodic instruments. Technically we don't play one instrument, we play a variety of simple instruments put together. The skills we use don't translate over to other instruments apart from tempo and basic rhythm. However many ignorant people off the street think we just hit stuff which is where all this insecurity comes from. Ignore those people, they're usually boring anyways.
 
Growing up in a musical family I have dabbled in the dark arts of piano, guitar, bass, harp, vocals, sax, and clarinet, as well as my drums. Dabbled being the key word! I can coax sounds out of all of these instruments, even pleasant ones after a little warming up...they aren't easier or harder to learn than anything else IMO.

I have just recently began my journey toward personal satisfaction in my "level" of drumming, and am enjoying it thoroughly, and for me, it's been just as difficult/easy/natural as any of those other instruments.
 
lowdowner said:
nope - i completely disagree with this (with respect :) )

I play flute - very well as it happens - and have years of training in music theory, flute technique and performance.

I can honestly say that getting 'music' from a drum kit is a complex and involved skill. If you are finding it easy in comparison then you have a natural affinity for it. Despite my rapidly growing obsession with drums, I can tell you that drums are as hard as any other instrument. Your love of it may make it 'easier' for you, but that's a personal thing and not an absolute.
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I have always maintained that drumming is complex and involved. Playing any instrument well is very hard. It's just that nearly every other instrument is even more difficult. The knowledge about theory, scales, chords, melody and other stuff just isn't there with drumming and many instruments make you struggle just to get a decent sound out of it, then you may advance to actually playing it. I struggled for weeks with flute embrochure and gave it up - that instrument is fiendishly hard.

Like I said before, there is a continuum of "very hard to play" to "extremely agonizingly godawful steep learning/technique curve hard to play." Drums are merely over on the "very hard to play" side.
 
Anon La Ply said:
Our singer describes himself as a non-musician because he can't play any instruments but he is a very good singer with an excellent ear and pitch. I think of him as a much better musician than many others who can play instruments and know theory.
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When asked what he plays, your singer should say, "I play a wind instrument that can't make chords, but is really good at bending notes, glissandos and communicating mood and feeling. It takes a great deal of control to hit notes precisely, but never needs tuning. And I carry it around with me all the time."
 
AndyMC said:
Whats easier brain surgery or starting quarterback in the NFL?

.
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Quarterback.

He only works about 16 hours a year and all he has to do is throw the football or give it to someone else. :)

The surgeon actually had to pay attention in school and every day at work, someone's life is literally in his hands.
 
Does anyone know what the most populated guitar player forum is these days? I want to roll in there and immediately start my first post with "Why is playing the drums so much harder than playing guitar?"
 
FutureDWDrummer,

You want to be a great drummer that great musicians want to play with? Then go learn the piano or how to play the marimba. You need to learn how to play music. How to phrase and shape a line. Exc, exc,,exc. Truly understanding music will shape your drumming in ways the average Joe will never reach.

You talked about attending a school in a few years. Well, if you don't understand these things the best programs will never be an option for you.

Good luck and become a musician who plays drums not a drummer who plays music.


Big D
 
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I hate it when people say things like ' all drums is is hitting something with sticks". Really? You can say the same about a violin. "It's just something you drag a bow over." Drums may be easier, and that's fine, but i wonder. Plenty of times at gigs, my guitarists play a note or two and have it resonate. Just holding down the chord against the guitar and music springs forth. It looks pretty simple. Drummers don't get the benefit of this. every note I play only last a half second. And like Luke said, drummers play notes that stick out. Any mistake gets noticed. I've heard guitarists half ass their way through chiords and hide in the muddied sound. Maybe some research is in order: try to learn the bass and see how ell you progress. Hell, you may find your better at that...
 
Fastfeet111 said:
It Really all depends on the style of drumming. If your doing a rock drumming style, then i would say that drumming is probably the harder thing to do. You have to realize that using a double bass pedal is a complicated skill and very few can master it. Drumming takes a different mindset then the other instruments. Singing isnt easy, but drumming isn't easier.
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Re your point on double bass drumming. I think double bass is one of the more generic and often less interesting aspects of drumming.

There is a feel, unpredictability and touch that the great drummers (Weckl, Vinnie etc) have that would take a long long time to gain in ones playing.
 
People are wired differently from each other. Some people have a natural affinity to the piano like Mozart. Some people are born drummers like John Bonham. I believe it's easier for these kinds of people to do what they do because they were born, for whatever reason, with a natural ability, and love for, that exact thing.

Then you have the people who make up for that with sheer hard work and will power. In other words most of us. I never considered any other instrument, drums are what intrigued me the most. If I was born with an obsession with the guitar, well, I wouldn't be me anymore.

The moral of the story is you can't compare anyone to anyone. You can however compare yourself to yourself.

So there's no high horses. Quite the opposite, there are more drummer jokes than all other musicians combined I betcha. I once had a girlfriend ask me in a condescending tone...Why did you pick the drums?

I said I didn't pick them, they picked me.

She didn't say anything else. The exact effect I was going for, bam! We were doomed from the start lol.
 
I have good news, and bad news:

Drumming is as hard as you want to make it. Also, the same is true of guitar. And bass. I can speak with some "authority" because I spread myself too thin among the three!

I would like to offer this: It is far simpler to tune a guitar than it is a drum set. Guitars can simply be tuned to a given reference pitch (A440, for instance). Tuning drums is hardly so readily defined. Somehow one has to choose what they feel is right for them and the music they play, and do so within the performance envelopes of several different tubs.

Once one learns to tune the drum itself, then begins the similar quest to that of a guitar player searching for their "sound". "Tuning the kit" as it were ends up being a process of experimentation with heads, hoops, beaters, sticks. duct tape, and god knows what all. This is what a guitar player goes through with pedals, string guages, amp selection, even cords. This process can really drag out, even if your tastes don't change along the way.

Sometimes the journey is far more significant that the destination. Sometimes not. For me, there are always these discoveries along the way. Living is learning for this cowboy. And, I learn things about myself, as well as the music, the gear, the people, the universe, etc.

Yup. I hit things with sticks.

;^)
 
larryace said:
She was way out of my league. Plus her upper ladyparts were spectacular. Hey a guy can try, right?
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I see... how disappointing Larry, I was expecting you to say "I didn't pick her, she picked me" :)

Hey a guy can look awesome, right?
 
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