How many of you are self-taught?

NickSchles

Junior Member
I actually started my drumming journey on my own, without any guidance. I started playing along to songs on my own... I learned by listening to music, and watching people play on TV or live, and just experimenting. Lessons and structured learning, oddly enough, came much later. That said, my first instrument isn't even the drums; it's the guitar, and I taught myself how to play too, never having any lessons. I guess, what it boils down to is that I have an ear for this type of thing, as I can pick up instruments fairly quickly. Not a brag (or humble brag), but it is what it is.

So, some years ago I wrote an article for Drummer Magazine (a UK publication that folded some years ago) trying to distill my mental process of learning by ear for people (and drummers) who were curious about it.

Now, the article was a feature piece in the magazine, which is cool, but because it was printed, there was no two-way conversation about it. So I'm curious as to what your process is in learning by ear. I'd love to hear people's experience with this.

If you're curious / interested in reading the article, I published it on my blog here some years ago. Check it out here:
 
I studied for five years under the tutelage of an excellent instructor, but we're all, in a sense, self-taught when you get right down to it. A teacher merely guides. He or she can't dictate productivity or progress. Ultimately, the student has to do the work, which involves, by necessity, a high degree of self-motivation and a healthy dose of creativity. Going through the motions just because you're paying for lessons will do little to promote development. On the other hand, telling yourself you can get by without instruction might prove to be a deprivation in the long run. Lessons can offer a wealth of advantages to those willing to submit themselves to a formal and rigorous program.

I don't think the topic comes down to two extremes: being trained through instruction or being self-taught. It's not as though those who seek instruction lack talent and can't learn independently, whereas those who shun instruction don't need it and would derive no benefit from it. For instance, I can read music effectively but prefer to learn pieces by ear, which is how I always go about things unless I'm given a drum chart to follow. Being able to do both is important in my opinion, and I never would have committed myself to the task of reading music without a teacher who emphasized its value. At the same time, most of my "ear training" resulted from listening to music independently and dissecting its parts. Still, the foundations my instructor helped me build very much supported that process. Thus, I see learning as an amalgamation of related resources, not as an isolation of distinct influences.
 
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I'm self taught, I started playing along with the radio with 2 dowels on the arm of a chair. I just knew how to hold the sticks and 'got' 1/4 notes counting along with the theme song from 77 Sunset strip. I got the first 13 rudiments in a beginning band class. All my technique on the kit I learned covering tunes and watching drummers play.
Once I learned to read drum charts, I enhanced what I knew and still, 60 + years later, I'm learning more.
 
I learned from a book as a kid and then just tried to will myself to play what I heard later on. As a result I never got past the most basic stage and have always had really terrible technique. Regular lessons from a high quality teacher are absolutely necessary for all but the most naturally talented imo.
 
One of the nicest comments I've received is when a road band dropped in to catch our set. The vocalist asked where I'd went to school (music) and I was like really?...not schooled at all. Believe me any pro would obviously know.
 
Started with the pots & pans plan as a youngster. My dad got me my first practice pad at age 10, Air drummed to KISS for years & then flipped massive burgers at McDeez until I could buy my first kit at 16.
Self taught until 1990 when I hooked up with a high school buddy who was now a teacher with a degree in percussion. That lasted for about 7 months until he moved away.
No lessons other than stage ones until COVID. Then I signed up with 2 online guys: Rob Brown & Stephen Clark.
Changed my game 180 and all is really well now.
 
I may have had some bad experiences with instructors but the ones I had only seemed concerned with filling my lesson time to get paid.
That's a true tragedy, Ronzo, though not a rare report. Not all instructors are created equal, and finding a valid one can be a challenge. I might have been the luckiest student in the world. My teacher invested in me personally. We'd often exceed the agreed-upon duration of a lesson at no additional charge, and he took me to drum clinics and related events without expecting the slightest compensation. Never once did I consider finding a different teacher, and we remained in touch for years after I moved beyond lessons. The wrong teacher can be a liability, but the right one is an asset beyond compare.
 
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Basically .... self-taught. (Just like piano, bass and flute). I had many years of classic guitar lessons and I had a some drum lessons after taking a longer break from drumming (Mostly for knowing from an expert how much I had to work on my skills again here and there). It was round about half a year of drum lessons for getting into shape again, that's all.
 
For Jazz, personally I think it needs theory as well as learning by ear. I can learn how to read the pages by myself and asking question here, especially for the boring stuff like how to count 6/8 or 3/8. :) (Boring not really true.. it is still interesting)

It nearly caused a brawl of professors. :ROFLMAO:

--> I understand that my process of self education is much slower then paying for a teacher.. there is no denying that. But learning by ear only.. not for me.
 
I initially learned/played by ear, I did the same with keyboards. I don’t think that’s a skill you can ever lose. It was pure chance/luck that my family happened to move house when I was 16 so I went to a college in another county where my drum teacher Eric just so happened to teach drums on a Tuesday morning! I originally signed up for music class as a keyboard player but ended up taking my exams as a drummer!! To explain what my late teacher Eric taught me would take paragraphs...Eric was one of my best friends and changed my life! (y) :D
 
I've always been good a mimicry-can imitate all kind of animal sounds or artificial sounds, use to be good at imitating people too-so just like learning to talk I leaned to play drums at 8 years of age. It just came natural emulating all I had been exposed-which was a lot since my Mom was a very musical sort and played piano and organ everyday. Music was a big part of life. I hear the music my limbs take off without a thought-I still do it noodling at home playing to songs. But I think that is limiting because you don't really grow beyond that without some prompting-which I spent decades satisfied with doing the same but now , because of influences here, more eager to learn and change. I'd like to take some lessons from a really good experienced teacher who can help me. I'm not a beginner, not pro, not rock drummer, not a jazz cat, a fusion analogous to vomit. Hey looks like I had corn last night LOL.
 
I am self taught - or at least self started - on bass. Learned by playing along to all of the 80's metal and punk I was listening to. Applied reading and theory stuff from piano, but I played for about 5 years before taking some lessons to learn walking and jazz bass stuff specifically

drums was always instructed though...
 
I'm self-taught. No one to blame for this mess but me :)

I learned basic music theory stuff, and a little jazz, in middle school and high school, while playing brass instruments. I picked up drums to play in a rock band with my best buddy at the time.
 
Self taught simple garage rock after one lesson from my roommate. Without that one lesson I would have never figured out basic coordination. I just didn't know what and when you hit stuff to get a basic beat happening. After he showed me, I ran with it. Obsessively. Eventually I wanted to learn more so I found a halfway decent instructor. I stayed with the instructor until he had nothing left to offer me (his words). I self taught again for years, stalled again, found a more advanced, jazz oriented instructor. I now check in with him more as if he's a clinician as opposed to ongoing regular instruction.

I think it takes at least that one lesson to get off the ground. My kids have sat down at my kit and I see the same thing I experienced. They just start hitting all the wrong stuff. I give them one 10 minute lesson and they immediately understand what was previously a complete mystery.
 
I will continue to be a basement drummer. :D
You and me both. My wife plays guitar but she's super self conscious about her playing and won't play with me in the room. Hopefully she gets over it and we can jam.

To paraphrase George: "I play aloneee, yeahhhh, with nobody else"
 
I spent my first year self taught. Was gifted lessons by my grandma. After 8 months I moved and it was on my own again. In all fairness my teacher knew I was moving so he modified my lessons to include as much as I could digest for an hour each week. Once I moved to Arkansas, there were no teachers here, so I was on my own again and tried to learn something from every drummer I could.
 
Self taught mostly. 3 months of rudiments when I was 13 yo. That set me up for reading drumset notation from instructional books. But most of my early drumset play, post-rudiments, was RnR stuff I learned by ear. I was always writing out Neil Peart's drum solos and fills and could visualize the notation while playing. Chart reading is from high-school symphonic band, and then jazz charts later from OJT and a book or two.

Self taught with all the styles, from books and from listening. That said, I've taken a couple of weeks of lessons here and there. The clinics that pop up around the US have helped, Steve Orkin's Fantasy Camp included. Bissonette's clinic at the Chicago Drum Show a few years ago, with the RLLKKRLKK fill, was great for the toolkit.

If I had to do it all over again, I would have loved to have gone to Berklee to get spoon fed all the delicious stuff the pros can do.
 
Taught myself for a while just playing with the boys in garages, then eventually went in for lessons with a bunch of different teachers. I think there's value in both.
 
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