Ear Training With Drums?

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This topic contains 4 replies, has 3 voices, and was last updated by Profile photo of britanica britanica 9 years ago.

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  • #19836
    Profile photo of britanica
    britanica
    Participant

    I am curious about this…
    How hard is it to learn to play the drums via ear training? I have a cousin who plays the drums and from what he said, as well as others, it is very hard to get good at. I would imagine this is because of the upper body movements involved and use of the hands, arms, feet, and legs all at once.

    #19849

    I think to answer this question you need to separate it out into two parts:

    1. Learning to play drums
    2. Learning to play drums by ear

    The first part is about physically teaching your arms and legs to do the right things. In the “beginner” phase of learning an instrument this doesn’t have much to do with ear training. However, once you have the basics down, you need to become more accurate and reliable with your movements, and that is contingent on being able to hear clearly how well you are doing it.

    The second part is about figuring out how to play drum parts you hear. This is very much a matter of ear training, though drummers will tend to get pretty good at it just through passive development of their aural skills as they practice playing drums. Doing transcription ear training exercises can help you pinpoint difficulties and improve your skills faster though.

    So ear training does help you learn to play the drums well – but it doesn’t solve the problem of having to use your arms, hands, legs and feet all at once! :)

    #19924
    Profile photo of britanica
    britanica
    Participant

    I always thought it was difficult to play the drums. I never actually sat down behind a drum set and tried. I would imagine I would be awful at it. I have a hard enough time playing video games and that is holding one object in place. haha That makes sense though, can’t do much with learning by ear if your arms, legs, and hands don’t know what they are doing. lol

    #27036
    Profile photo of pomeroy
    pomeroy
    Participant

    I played drums and took lessons for a couple of years (unfortunately, I had to give it up when I moved into a dorm). One of the best pieces of advice I received from my drum teacher was to do one limb at a time. So start with the bass drum. Once you have that down, add in the hi-hat, and then another, until you are able to coordinate all of your limbs at once.

    Another great piece of advice was learning to write out music for the drum kit. Here is a great link for notations:
    http://www.freedrumlessons.com/drum-lessons/reading-drum-notation.php

    Basically, you pick a song and write out the music. Start with a song that has easy drums. Since you have to listen to the song over and over in order to write down the correct notes, you are training your ear to pick up all of the drum components. It can be time consuming, but very worthwhile!

    #27048
    Profile photo of britanica
    britanica
    Participant

    I played drums and took lessons for a couple of years (unfortunately, I had to give it up when I moved into a dorm). One of the best pieces of advice I received from my drum teacher was to do one limb at a time. So start with the bass drum. Once you have that down, add in the hi-hat, and then another, until you are able to coordinate all of your limbs at once.

    Another great piece of advice was learning to write out music for the drum kit. Here is a great link for notations:

    http://www.freedrumlessons.com/drum-lessons/reading-drum-notation.php

    Basically, you pick a song and write out the music. Start with a song that has easy drums. Since you have to listen to the song over and over in order to write down the correct notes, you are training your ear to pick up all of the drum components. It can be time consuming, but very worthwhile!

    I think I recall my cousin saying he learned it this way. He self taught himself from when he was very young so he has been playing for around 20 years now.

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