I've have controversial views on a few drumming topics. I will add mine, please add yours...
1) Natural talent is virtually 80% of the game...I've seen 10 year old kids smoke me and I've been playing 25 years. These kids have skill, time awareness and coordination that is not possible from "hard work" alone at only 10 to 12 years old. You can be "great if you practice enough" is a sales line used by drum instructors. You can master an instrument technically but you will never have "it"...
2) Snare price points...As long as you buy a quality snare there isnt much difference in a $300 snare and a $1,000 snare (as long as they are the same material size, etc).
3) The vast majority of peoples practice time is wasted. They have no plan and achieve very little. Practice doesnt make perfect...Perfect practice makes perfect.
4)99% of players play too much/over the top and the music suffers because of it. That sick lick you just pulled...No one cares but the other drummer sitting in the back.
5) 99% of drums sound like crap and dont sound like the recordings everyone is striving to achieve. Tuning and heads only matters to the extent you get the tone/attack/sustain you desire but it wont make your kit sound beautiful. In 20 years I've listened to two kits that have sounded "beautiful" live. They were both vintage kits from the 60s. They were lightening in a bottle and everyone that heard them knew they were something special. They were both owned by studios and had been offered major money for them and they wouldnt let them go. The beautiful drum sound we hear on records have been compressed, eq-ed, gated, filtered and sounds nothing like a real live acoustic drum set.
1) Natural talent is virtually 80% of the game...I've seen 10 year old kids smoke me and I've been playing 25 years. These kids have skill, time awareness and coordination that is not possible from "hard work" alone at only 10 to 12 years old. You can be "great if you practice enough" is a sales line used by drum instructors. You can master an instrument technically but you will never have "it"...
2) Snare price points...As long as you buy a quality snare there isnt much difference in a $300 snare and a $1,000 snare (as long as they are the same material size, etc).
3) The vast majority of peoples practice time is wasted. They have no plan and achieve very little. Practice doesnt make perfect...Perfect practice makes perfect.
4)99% of players play too much/over the top and the music suffers because of it. That sick lick you just pulled...No one cares but the other drummer sitting in the back.
5) 99% of drums sound like crap and dont sound like the recordings everyone is striving to achieve. Tuning and heads only matters to the extent you get the tone/attack/sustain you desire but it wont make your kit sound beautiful. In 20 years I've listened to two kits that have sounded "beautiful" live. They were both vintage kits from the 60s. They were lightening in a bottle and everyone that heard them knew they were something special. They were both owned by studios and had been offered major money for them and they wouldnt let them go. The beautiful drum sound we hear on records have been compressed, eq-ed, gated, filtered and sounds nothing like a real live acoustic drum set.