2nd Instrument Most Important for a Drummer?

nocTurnal

Senior Member
Which second instrument would be most valuable to a drummer? I often see some folks on here saying that a drummer will be much more useful to a band if he can play another instrument. Like what? And in what kind of situation would it be useful to the band?
 
Which second instrument would be most valuable to a drummer? I often see some folks on here saying that a drummer will be much more useful to a band if he can play another instrument. Like what? And in what kind of situation would it be useful to the band?

Knowing how your bass player thinks and what they like/dislike is pretty damned useful. I learned my way around the keyboard and I'm pretty glad I did and now I'm picking up bass. I don't really know if one is going to be that much more useful to you than another. Just about any instrument is going to be helpful so I would pick the one that is most interesting to you. You'll get more out of it that way.
 
Knowing how your bass player thinks and what they like/dislike is pretty damned useful. I learned my way around the keyboard and I'm pretty glad I did and now I'm picking up bass. I don't really know if one is going to be that much more useful to you than another. Just about any instrument is going to be helpful so I would pick the one that is most interesting to you. You'll get more out of it that way.

Yeah I echo what Brundlefly says here, in a band context (with you on drums) knowing how the bass player works definitely has its advantages after all you are both the rhythm section. As for learning an instrument to benefit your playing I'm not really sure, you might get more out of knowing theory of another instrument for example guitar and this will improve your ability to write and structure songs but won't necessarily help you play any better on drums.
 
I think piano would be the most important for a musician to learn as a second instrument. A lot of professional musicians have told me that any serious musician should know at least some piano. I think that a lot of it has to do with piano being the only instrument that has every note in laid out in straight order as far as fingerings. This probably helps a lot with understanding chord structures.

Maybe bass would be more helpful for drummers, but I think that for other musicians piano would probably be the best choice for a second instrument (as far as most helpful anyway).
 
Think I'd go with Piano / Keyboards especially if you're looking to do session work or anything and also useful if your band wanted to do some recording and you don't already have a keyboardist.
Certainly every band I've been in we've always struggled to find a decent keysboardist so they're in short supply and yet high demands ....... Good to be considered as a commodity :)
 
All of them!

Bass and keys spring to mind first. I know a lot of old-school blues pianists used to be drummers but got tired of lugging a kit around when there was a piano already at the venue!
 
Piano and guitar give you the most education into music theory (chord structure especially), but I strongly suggest learning to read music if you pick up another instrument and you don't know how yet.

+1 on the keyboards thing. A good keyboard player, someone who knows what they're doing, is hard to find.
 
For me, it's piano. After all, it's still percussive.
 
Piano so that you can write music. You'll be very very valuable if you can do things like write horn parts to add to charts etc. For me, the easiest instrument to write on is the piano.

Another instrument that will make you very in demand is your voice.
 
I was thinking bass just since you can somewhat renew your sense of groove from the bass player's perspective. Also piano simply because it's an overall good instrument for anyone to learn.
 
And what about singing?

Damn, I'd love to be able to do that. So many times I've had a cool "riff" in my head, or some kind of idea, and when I try to express it to the other members I can't, 'cause I can't tune sh*t. :S

Also, if you can sing, doing backup voices is always cool.

Cheers.
 
If you're serious about studying music, you're going to have to learn piano/keyboards in school anyway. And mallet percussion is laid out like a piano.

From a band perspective, anything will help but bass is probably the best candidate. Actually, most decent bass players know more chords and theory than most intermediate guitarists I've run into. You can fake your way though guitar without really knowing what you're doing (I've been doing it for 45 years) but to play bass well, you have to know where you are.

Think of the Steve Jordan/Charlie Drayton duo. You never know which of them is going to play what.
 
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