I don't study anyone

And that's the point of all of this. You do it because you love it and because you're interested in it. Sometimes you have to go beyond your comfort zone as far as what you listen to, and how closely you listen, because that's what you do when you're serious about something, but mostly you just do it because you want to.

Not really. I said I loved the music, not the drumming.
 
Having seen real art, I find it now quite nauseating to go into these local "art cafes" that tend to feature local artists' work, most of whom could not define the differences between Picasso and Rembrandt.

Don't confuse education with intelligence. Similarly, don't confuse "classical training" with artistic talent or vision.

Knowing anything about any historical artist, or art history for that matter means absolutely nothing for your ability to be creative and express yourself. It's quite possible for a painting on a cafe wall to have more emotion and effort into it than Rambrandt put into any of his pieces. In fact, I think the closest Rembrandt himself came to "classical training" is a few apprenticeships with other artists before he opened his own studio... I could be wrong here, though, because I realized long ago that information like that is nearly entirely irrelevant to creativity and art in general.
 
Not really. I said I loved the music, not the drumming.

Probably my fault. The guy said that if you listen to a piece of music lots, ergo you are studying, meaning the drumming. I was arguing that I have lots of music that I have listened to for years, because I love the songs, not for the drumming.

Still not sure if I am being clear. I believe, even as a drummer,you can love a piece of music but still have no interest in the drum part, so you are not "studying" the drummer.
 
I'm actually not sure if I can do that. It seems to me that I'm automatically studying the
drumpart, and the whole piece of music, when listening.

Posted in reply to MikeL's post: Still not sure if I am being clear. I believe, even as a drummer,you can love a piece of music but still have no interest in the drum part, so you are not "studying" the drummer.


I think this illustrates the point I tried to make earlier in the thread: Drumming isn't a one-size-fits-all adventure. Everyone has their own little preferences and habits. That seems like basic human nature to me, so I don't think it's a big deal.

The only caution I have with that is in limiting oneself because of those preferences. Band corps and symphonic players are more associated with a heavy use of rudiments and the ability to read music than blues or punk drummers. Does that mean that a blues or punk drummer wouldn't benefit from working on rudiments or learning to read? A lot of players don't read and learn everything by ear. Does that mean that if you do read you don't need to develop your ear?

I think anything you can do to improve is going to help you, even if indirectly. Working on rudiments helps my coordination between my left and right hands. That will transfer to set playing even if I never play anything but single strokes on the set. And learning to read drum notation and charts opens up the chance to learn from pro drummers who write books, like Zoro's "Commandments of R&B Drumming" or Mike Clark's "Funk Drumming". We can all probably think of ways we learn that anyone else would benefit from, so it only makes sense to be open to ways other people learn that we might benefit from.
 
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