Why switch from Drum to Guitar??

sina

Member
Hi Folks,

I've been practicing Drum since 6 month ago. I'm good at it and feel some improvement as well. However I like Guitar sound as well and most of the music I listing to is about great guitarists like Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton and son on.

These days I feel I'm losing my enthusiasm to Drum witch I don't know exactly why and I feel would be better I switch to Electric guitar and practice Rock, or Blues or whatever.

If you ever had this feeling that for any reason you wanted to leave your instrument and play other one and focus on another instrument let me know your experience.
It may helps me to keep going on the same track or really rethink and change my instrument.

Thank you all my musician friends
 
Hello and great topic!
I recently started playing bass guitar and Man, what an eye opener! I am such a better drummer for it. I'm not sure as to my own future as a drummer lays(sudden tinnitus) but I know that I could always find another instrument if I needed too.
 
I switched from drums to guitar about 5 years ago, but not because I had this burning desire to ditch drums and take up guitar.

I basically had to stop playing drums due to logistical and time constraints. But, being a musician, I had to have some sort of creative outlet. So I picked up guitar and actually made a decent blues guitarist out of myself in those few short years. But when the opportunity to get back behind a kit presented itself, I jumped at it and haven't even touched a guitar in almost 6 months.

I don't think there's any downside to learning as many instruments as possible. If that's what you want to do then go for it. Just don't make the mistake I did and sell off almost all of your drum gear because you never know if you'll have another change-of-heart.
 
I don't know why someone should _switch_ from drum to guitar.
Maybe because drums completely don't work out for that specific person.

I can only encourage picking up any additional instrument but switching. I'm coming from the guitar and picked up drums 3 years ago, neglecting the guitar quite a bit but not dropping it altogether (that would be dumb, I think I'm not too bad at it). Plus, playing more instruments provides a far better understanding of music as a whole and of the function each instrument has and how it contributes to the big picture. With drums being quite an important factor for tempo and feel - which I learned just when I started drums so that aspect was escaping me all the time!

I also started playing the bass guitar some more recently (with small gigs from time to time). That was a great experience, too - and playing the bass is way more fun than many guitarists think.
 
I've always had this notion of wanting to learn guitar so I can make the music in my head. I have owned 5 guitars (over a period of about 15 years), and always get discouraged and end up selling the guitars because I am a drummer first and foremost, and have a very hard time thinking melodically. Would I switch? NEVER!!!!

I didn't give up per se, and I have many many guitarist friends who are excellent players and always willing to teach me, but my drive to learn the instrument doesn't burn like the drums do. Guitars are pretty and sound cool, but you can't hit them with a stick. I'll be all into the guitar for about a month, then it just goes away and the guitar sits for months or years at a time just collecting dust.
 
If you have the desire to play guitar, do it. I stuck with drums because I felt I couldn't play guitar. My arms and legs worked better than my fingers.

In retrospect, I wished I would have learned to play guitar, piano or some kind of instrument with "notes"


Also, I am assuming you are young and, hearing you mention Jeff Beck makes me all warm and fuzzy. The musical youth is alive and well.
 
I started playing guitar at the age of 13 in 1986. I quickly made the move to lead guitar and gigged in bands for many years either as the only guitar player in the band or at least the guy doing all/most of the lead work. Tons and tons of gigs, both in crappy dive bars and even an arena once and large theaters a few times.

During the last 26 years, I've also made the move to bass guitar 3 times, each time over a year. I don't just mean buying a bass rig and playing at home. I mean actually gigging alot in bands on bass. My guitar player friends thought I was silly to make such a move, but man, I sure did enjoy approaching the music from a totally different angle. I wasn't a 'guitar player on bass.' I actually transformed myself to think and play like a bassist. During those bass times, I rarely ever picked up my 6 string guitars.

Around 2 years ago, I made a serious switch to drums. Now I'm gigging in two bands on drums and loving every second of it.

Please don't take this as being cocky, but I seem to do well with learning new instruments. It takes LOTS of practice and I'm not just satisfied half-assed learning things. So yeah, I spend ALOT of time reading on this forum, watching videos on YouTube, rehearsing every week, and practicing at home almost daily. All self-taught (on every instrument.)

I've worked my butt off at it and have achieve what I wanted (to gig on the instrument in a good band.) But I seem to be hooked! I have picked up a guitar 2 times in the past 2 years and both times were only for minutes.

What am I trying to say here? I'm not sure. LOL... I will say it's very cool to be THE ONE guy in bands that can view the song from the guitar, bass, drum angle. I like learning and I like driving myself to be better. Since music seems to come natural to me, I like changing instruments.

I've been complimented more than once about how I "accent" what the guitar or bass is doing. I'm not sure a drummer without experience on other instruments would do much of that?

So... GO FOR IT! LIFE IS SHORT!
 
I play them both and each one helps the other. Most guitarists don't have "great time" and
I am always complimented on that, especially in duo settings. It helps my drumming in that
I understand the inner workings of songs better than I might have.
 
I've always had this notion of wanting to learn guitar so I can make the music in my head. I have owned 5 guitars (over a period of about 15 years), and always get discouraged and end up selling the guitars because I am a drummer first and foremost, and have a very hard time thinking melodically.

Same prob here. I have the melodies in my head but I don't want to express them through my fingers. Probably should be taking singing lessons, only that I fear what I would be subjected to an unsuspecting world (or at least neighbours).


But I seem to be hooked! I have picked up a guitar 2 times in the past 2 years and both times were only for minutes.

What am I trying to say here? I'm not sure.

You seem pretty sure to me, Sgt. Sounds very much like drumming rocks and guitar sucks, right? :)


I play them both and each one helps the other. Most guitarists don't have "great time" and I am always complimented on that, especially in duo settings. It helps my drumming in that I understand the inner workings of songs better than I might have.

I played simple keys in a band for a year after a long layoff from drums. When I got back to drums afterwards I did find myself thinking more melodically. Unfortunately the "effect wore off" after a while and I started playing about the same way as I did before the break. Old habits die hard, I guess.
 
Play whatever you want. I have a bunch of different instruments I can play at various levels, but I'm most competent with drums.
 
In the last 12 months, I made the resolute decision to "finally" stop saying I'm going to do it, and finally start doing these two things:

Learn to back flip.
Start playing piano again.

I now practise piano as often as I play drums (sometimes more often), and I can do back flips. I'm 29. Not old, but I'm not just some crazy teenager with a death wish and too much energy, I'm well established in the workforce, a dad, and still have a death wish and too much energy :)

(Just FYI, back flips are way easier than front flips, and more awesome).
 
I practiced both guitar and drums when I was a teenager and took lessons with a great guitar and drum teacher. Drums won. However, I still play guitar and bass when I get a melodic idea and actually really enjoy noodling when I'm in the mood. For me, it makes me more empathetic to the guitar and the bass and more well-rounded musician. I highly recommend people learn more than one instrument. I still regret not taking piano lessons as a kid.
 
My dad gave me a ukelele when I was about 6 or 7. I got really frustrated that I couldn't play it. So he told me that I should just go outside and smash it. Bad advice. I did. Never got a ukelele or guitar again until I was 19 or 20.

It wasn't until I went off to college that I started playing guitar. I couldn't bring my drums with me to Arizona. My roommate had an acoustic guitar and I started playing that thing a lot while I was there. When I got back home in California, I got a guitar or two and started practicing all the time. I never really made it past just being a good rhythm player though. I can do a little finger picking and some delta blues, but I was just never a good lead player.

I soon realized that I am a better drummer than guitar player, but I was also comfortable with the fact that that I can produce my own music without the need for other musicians. That's a liberating feeling, but I never utilized my skills to their full extent because it turns out that I'm not the greatest songwriter either. Haha!

Nowadays, I hardly touch my guitars (the poor, neglected things). I've been intensely oriented towards drumming for the last couple of years. I'm torn. I do still love playing guitar and having the ability to strum a few songs, but on stage, as a performer, I am a drummer. That's where my talents lie and my skills excel, I'm totally comfortable behind a drum set. Not so much with a guitar.
 
In the last 12 months, I made the resolute decision to "finally" stop saying I'm going to do it, and finally start doing these two things:

Learn to back flip.
Start playing piano again.

I now practise piano as often as I play drums (sometimes more often), and I can do back flips. I'm 29. Not old, but I'm not just some crazy teenager with a death wish and too much energy, I'm well established in the workforce, a dad, and still have a death wish and too much energy :)

(Just FYI, back flips are way easier than front flips, and more awesome).

This post made me laugh for some reason. ha ha
 
I play them both and each one helps the other. Most guitarists don't have "great time" and
I am always complimented on that, especially in duo settings. It helps my drumming in that
I understand the inner workings of songs better than I might have.

+1.................learning additional instruments will help you to see the "Big Picture"................the hard part for me is finding the time to play multiple instruments.

But, drums have been, and will always be my "main" instrument
 
I haven't made a clean switch from one instrument to another, but I have picked up several instruments along the way. I get passionate about new instruments, and spend a lot of time learning them, practicing what I feel I need to in order to become proficient enough to add it to my bag of tricks. My most recent acquisition that I've spent a lot of time with is a trumpet I got about a year and a half ago. I always wanted to play trumpet, and a good deal came along ("You want to trade your $1600 Holton Maynard Fergusen trumpet for my set of 13" New Beats? Okay!"). I'm just now at the point where I feel I can offer myself up as a trumpet player for hire, and I've had a heck of a lot of fun learning the ins and outs of a new instrument to boot!

I never abandon instruments. I find that the more instruments you can play, the better your overall understanding of music becomes. It's easier to play guitar in a band if you understand how a drummer operates and what the bass player is most likely thinking. You understand what everyone's roles are, you're better able to communicate ideas, and you know what everyone "needs" to feel comfortable in the music. It helps tremendously with being a band leader.

I'm scoping out the horizon for the next instrument, by the way. I think it's tabla...
 
This post made me laugh for some reason. ha ha

I am glad to hear it :D I had hoped someone would get a laugh, or even inspiration out of it :)
 
I sort of did the opposite.

I've played guitar for 25 years and now mostly drums.

I still get hired to play guitar, but I mostly practice drums. It's something different and to be honest, I believe it hs made me a better guitar player as I have brought more focus on things that drummers tend to focus more on. I've identified my favourite subdivisions/polyrhythms and become a lot more conscious about that.

As a side note I think I always had interest in drums, but because of family and general exposure it didn't come up for real until now that I have my own drumset and a place I can practice whenever I want.

It started with me having to teach some drums at a music school I worked at. Horrified by the previous teacher's efforts I decided I was going to do better by my students than that. Since I never do anything half way that slowly grew into a real passion for the drums.

I'm not really like a kid picking up the drums, though. I bring all of my musical experience with me as a musician who just happens to play several instruments. However the drums is the instrument I currently want to to develop high level of skill on.

It's also fun for me to have challenges on a basic level with something without leaving the realm of music. Most musicians I know tend to go for the piano, but although I enjoy sitting behind a piano and sing a song now and then, it's never really been my thing. I feel I can't control the right parameters to express myself.

I've always enjoyed a funky, greasy groove, always been very focused on everything time/pulse/groove related as a musician anyway and always looked up to my favourite drummers like Paolo, Toss and Vinnie as much as guitar players and players of other instruments.

My current setup is sort of a big version of Vinnie's latest Gretsch incarnation. It's a good instrument to start out on as it fits in with the sameall-round philosophy I have on guitar, but I'm sure there will be many variations as different needs arise.
 
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