Playing Styles

Okay heres the thing. Im 15 and want to be either a rock or funk drummer when im older and they are the only music styles i enjoy both playing and listening to. Is there any point in me learning different styles like jazz or reggae etc ?
 
YES, there absolutely is. The more open minded you are, the better - I remember when I first started playing drums I shunned jazz because I thought it was just hours of going 'ding ding da-ding ding da-ding ding da-ding ding" on the ride cymbal and nothing more to it (and didn't like it as a music style outside of drums either). Then I truely investigated it and realised how horribly wrong my assumption was; that was years ago, now I love jazz and basically every style of music except the top 40 crap you hear in the charts.

Not only will you discover a whole new world of music which you'll love as a listener and a drummer, but learning all the different styles will give you better chops (think metal, gospel.etc), independence (latin) and creativity (jazz) (+every other genre of music for all of them). Funk music is heavily influenced by jazz as well.

Fundamentally, learning different styles will increase your technical ability and creativity and you'll be a better drummer; influences from other genres will creep their way into your drumming.

You say you only like funk and rock now, but give it some time and I reckon you'll realise you like all the other genres too :D
 
YES, there absolutely is. The more open minded you are, the better - I remember when I first started playing drums I shunned jazz because I thought it was just hours of going 'ding ding da-ding ding da-ding ding da-ding ding" on the ride cymbal and nothing more to it (and didn't like it as a music style outside of drums either). Then I truely investigated it and realised how horribly wrong my assumption was; that was years ago, now I love jazz and basically every style of music except the top 40 crap you hear in the charts.

Not only will you discover a whole new world of music which you'll love as a listener and a drummer, but learning all the different styles will give you better chops (think metal, gospel.etc), independence (latin) and creativity (jazz) (+every other genre of music for all of them). Funk music is heavily influenced by jazz as well.

Fundamentally, learning different styles will increase your technical ability and creativity and you'll be a better drummer; influences from other genres will creep their way into your drumming.

You say you only like funk and rock now, but give it some time and I reckon you'll realise you like all the other genres too :D

Enough said, suppose ill start learning all the styles from tomorrow then.
 
It's a long journey, I don't think ANY drummer has truely learnt every style, but Tommy Igoe's Groove Essentials 1.0 & 2.0 are both great books that cover jazz, funk, latin, rock, RnB .etc grooves and teaches you a whole load about chart reading and stuff. There are plenty of great books that further explore individual styles as well, but frankly I don't know everything about every style so I couldn't tell you where to begin :D. I'd really recommend Igoe's books.
 
i understand u bro im trying to find a different style of playing too cuz ive been playing punk for as long as i could remember i went on the internet to look up different styles but my internet wasnt worrking on my fone so i called customer service but they told me some b.s. so i decided to change my network at unlockatt dot com and i found my new style now i play some really good ska
 
You need to learn to appreciate other music. Get out of your comfort zone and learn some stuff you're not good at. Your playing will improve all around, not just in the new genre you're learning.

Be warned, it's likely you'll start to enjoy other forms of music once you start to understand them, and see what others like about them.
 
Yeah, listen to everything. Get an understanding of many different styles and forms of music. You never know where your interests will lie in 15 years. Plus, those other styles will definitely have an influence on you.
 
It's great that you're interested in other styles but don't get ahead of yourself. Don't think about books for now and keep practicing what you enjoy. To get into other styles you first need to LISTEN to other styles. Surf around, check out youtube vids, make notes of what catches your attention and check out the history of genres you're interested in. Keep an open mind, you never know where you'll end up in a few years. Two years ago I was playing in metal bands, now I'm practicing jazz like my life depended on it!
 
If you intend to learn rock, other styles will surely help you, but to learn rock you must do some real syncopation with the bass drum and no other style teaches you that like rock itself does. So to be a rock drummer the influence of other styles is quite smaller.

As for funk, it's based on jazz (afaik) and you must obviously have some basic jazz beats in the pocket, that will help you lot.

If you learn all styles to a point where you can do a few beats for each of them, your sticking will become so awesome, that it wont matter which style you're playing anymore, you'll simply nail them all, but it takes time to get into that position.
 
A really great book to get is Kim Plainfield's "Advanced Concepts"
He touches on a lot of different styles that every drummer should know, and also goes over some great technique areas too - great book.
Also check out Gary Chaffee's "Time Functioning Patterns" - especially the Fat Back exercises - highly highly recommended.
 
Learn it all!
Take every music genre into your system. All of the truly great drummers can play all styles. You don't know what's ahead of you. Turn up at a jam and the guitarist turns round and asks you to play a ska tune? You need to know the lot. Even though you may not master every style, at least have a decent knowledge so you can make the room groove.
 
If you intend to learn rock, other styles will surely help you, but to learn rock you must do some real syncopation with the bass drum and no other style teaches you that like rock itself does. So to be a rock drummer the influence of other styles is quite smaller.

could not disagree more with every word said right here

every style of music played with a drum kit at it's core stems from jazz......the drum kit was created to play American jazz music

syncopation played between limbs on a drum kit was created in jazz

so your statements above hold very little water with me

in my opinion having an understanding of rock drumming....and rock drumming only creates a very shallow drummer with limited vocabulary


learn everything out there....

to maximise coordination around the kit there is nothing better than jazz and latin drumming

these two styles alone will make any style you play regularly flourish

most of the time...anything you take the time to learn that is out of your comfort zone will greatly improve the player you are
 
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The more you study jazz--and all that word entails--the more you'll seems the boundaries made by genre titles fade away. "There are only two types of drummers: Good ones and bad ones. You either play what the music calls for or you don't." - Buddy Rich
 
could not disagree more with every word said right here

every style of music played with a drum kit at it's core stems from jazz......the drum kit was created to play American jazz music

syncopation played between limbs on a drum kit was created in jazz

so your statements above hold very little water with me

in my opinion having an understanding of rock drumming....and rock drumming only creates a very shallow drummer with limited vocabulary


learn everything out there....

to maximise coordination around the kit there is nothing better than jazz and latin drumming

these two styles alone will make any style you play regularly flourish

most of the time...anything you take the time to learn that is out of your comfort zone will greatly improve the player you are
Thanks a lot. I didn't really know this and about the history of drums. Very useful information. Sorry for giving incorrect information OP.
 
Every style you learn builds abilities that will be useful in some other style. For instance Latin: I'm not big on Latin music personally, but learning those styles and the demanding coordination within did miracles for my rock drumming and fill ideas. Once you get going in jazz, all that coordination will feed right into shuffles and swung 16th funk grooves.

So, it's all good and all useful so try and learn a bunch of it!
 
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