How to Play Drums (for Guitarists)!

Hey everyone! I love music and I hope you’re loving music, too!

I definitely have been feeling frustrated about tons of stuff related to music recently.  But I am also very grateful to play and listen music – so it’s always good to remind one’s self to count one’s blessings.

Drumming (& Multi-Instrumentalism) for Guitarists (Podcast #4)

Learn Drums for Fun and to Improve Groove and Musicality

I always think about how one of my musician friends (a violinist), mentioned how he thought certain guitarists had great intonation (Steve Vai and Carlos Santana).  Carlos Santana grew up playing violin. 

So, it got me thinking – maybe different instruments help you learn different things about music?

With that idea in mind, if I wanted to improve my groove, maybe I should learn to play drums?!?

• Drumming (& Multi-Instrumentalism) for Guitarists (Podcast #4)
• Improve Jazz Guitar Groove (Right Hand Swing/Triplet Etude)
• Better Groove – Six Fun Practice Ideas!

Bernard Purdie

Please check out these videos with Bernard Purdie – he’s got such a great vibe and groove.  I feel blessed to hear this man share his musical stylings.  Certainly one of the great drummers of the 20th/21st century.

While everyone has their own thing going musically – I think Bernard Purdie is a great example of a high level of personality and musical expression.

What does drumming have to with guitar?

Well, it has to do with life and music.

For me – it’s multifold:

1. I always want to play drums. They’re fun to play! Don’t get me wrong, I love guitar, too!
2. I want to improve my groove, rhythm and time.
3. To understand lots of music, it helps me to understand drums – and I am a kinetic learner (I need to do the thing to understand it), so therefore to learn, I must do!
4. So I can record/produce my own music.  I love playing with other people, but I like creating my own tracks, too.

Improve groove, rhythm and time by playing drums and bass

So, in general bass players and drummers/percussionists usually have the best groove. It’s a larger part of what they focus on musically, so therefore they’ve probably spent more time/energy working on groove and time.

Tons of musicians have great groove, but bass players, drummers and percussionists usually have the best groove overall. Maybe I can learn what they’ve learned to improve my playing and musicality?

Does playing drums help your groove and musicality?

So I figured I should work on my drumming and bass playing to improve my groove.

Sure, there’s tons of groove to learn when playing guitar.  But, maybe there’s something about bass and drums that helps people focus on their groove.

Since this article is about drums, I’ll talk about bass at some other point. (But, yeah, I’ve learned tons from trying to play bass. Electric bass is technically similar to guitar, but the mindset and musicality is very different. It’s a great way to expand your musical horizons)

I’ve been trying to play drums for about 30 years.  I just rediscovered the kit I had from high school! It’s a beautiful Gretsch Broadcaster II from the 70s with a 24″ bass drum!

Wow – amazing and beautiful (the Broadcaster II).  Also, slightly intimidating.  I feel like I’m not worthy haha.  Speaking of blessings, I feel very blessed to get the opportunity to play this beautiful set of instruments.

And to finally learn how to replace drum heads, and tune them.

What I’ve learned from playing drums

All the great drummers make it look easy, so I thought it would be easy, since I play guitar

So, when one of my drummer friends said he’d sell me his old Yamaha kit (because he was moving), I thought I’d be playing like a pro in no time hahah.  I always wondered why a bass player friend always gave me a weird look whenever I basically said I’d be playing Giant Steps on drums in like a year haha.

That was 10+ years ago. And I’m still just sorting out the basics (because I was hard-headed about not taking lessons – I wanted to be “self-taught) – though there have been some moments of light at the end of the tunnel!

If you’re learning a new instrument, you’ve still got to pay your dues on the new instrument (even if you’ve paid those dues on your main instrument)

Yeah there are lots of carryovers if you already know about music, etc.  But some stuff you need to learn from scratch.  And you can’t really skip ahead.

For example, hand/foot co-ordination.  Since I play different stuff on guitar, I thought I could play it on drums because I could hear it in my head.  But, even if the brain can hear it, the body may not be able to play it right away.

Or, you may think you hear drum part.  But when you get down to the nitty-gritty you realize you don’t really know the drum part that well, with time and groove.

Or, you may think that the drums are playing on thing, when in fact they are playing something else.  Maybe there’s actually a percussion part on the record you didn’t notice – which makes the drum part seem more complicated. Usually the drums are more simple than you thought, and other instruments are filling in the other rhythmic parts (think James Brown’s tunes).

Learn basic rudiments and play them well

Single-stroke roll (RLRLRLRL or LRLRLRLR), Double-stroke roll (RRLLRRLL or LLRRLLRR) and paradiddles (RLRRLRLL or LRLLRLRR).  With a metronome. With good technique. Check out the video above.

Play simple beats, slow, with a metronome

Record your simple beats and then play bass and guitar

You’ll soon figure out what works and what doesn’t!

This is very important.

So here’s what I’ve learned:

• Sink the bass drum! (Everything is based on the bass!)
• Play the back beat (the golden 2&4)
• Glue it together with the hihat
• Get rid of flams in your beat

Play along with your favorite tracks

This is a great way to have fun, relax and practice at the same time. You can do the same thing on guitar, just playing the strumming hand while you figure out the melodies harmonies of a song.

You can check out where you’re at by recording yourself playing along to your favorite track, too.

Simple, tight playing is where it’s at

Simple isn’t the same thing as easy!

Guitarists (musicians, people) can sometime over-complicate things. It’s easy to get distracted by the fretboard, melodies, harmonies and lose track of the arrangement, overall message, part playing, and of course groove and structure.

Playing the drums (especially when you don’t have much technique) as part of a song makes you realize what makes a song glue together.  It may seem easy to play like that, but it’s actually the deep challenge.

Check out Jonathan Moffett playing the live parts to classic Michael Jackson tunes.  His bass drum patterns are amazing.  But his hands are playing pretty much a “simple” groove.  It’s an amazing pocket.

I would say this is a great performances to enjoy and also to use to improve one’s musicality.  For guitar playing, locking in your strumming hand with his hihats and snare would a great way to expand your playing.

Drumming helps you produce your own music

I’d either have to find drummers whenever I want to record something, use a sample or midi beat, or record myself. I figured in the long run, learning drums would be the most fun/rewarding, in terms of producing my own stuff.  I still love playing with drummers, of course!  But they might not be available at 2am on a Tuesday when I’m trying to record something at the spur of the moment …

Here’s some examples of my drumming:

It’s mostly to show where I am at drum- and production-wise, and to show how I used my own drumming skills to create a full groove with bass, drums and guitar.

I’ve basically been playing really “simple” beats, with little variations. I’ve found when I try to play something more complicated, the time and groove have issues.  Plus, it usually interferes with the song.

It’s about all what I can do with a simple groove. Obviously, I have a long ways to go compared to the pros, but I’m definitely grateful to hear their playing.

Recording songs and musical ideas (I call them “musical doodles”) have definitely helped my playing (drums and guitar) in a lot of ways.  Ya, there’s lots I still want to do, but it’s definitely helped me learn tons of stuff.

One drop on kit (kick, high hat and snare)

“Rumba flamenca” – cajon and shaker:

Salsa – congas – I think I recorded some other parts like bell, but they had some serious issues.

Drummers have thought a lot about time and groove

I would say starting from an advanced-beginner level, most drummer have though a lot about groove and time.

Just replace everything that people are saying about drummers with “musicians” and/or “guitarist” and you can use all these ideas to improve your playing on any instrument.

Guitarist usually don’t really spend as much time in the beginning with groove/rhythm stuff.  They’re usually trying to get fingerings down, learn chords, melodies, songs etc.  Drummers are probably practicing beats and metronomes within the first couple weeks of picking up sticks.  A guitarist may not even be able to play the fundamental chords in decent groove/time for the first few months.

Anyways, the point is that drummers have lots of cool ways to practice/work on groove and time.  You can work on this stuff with drums.  And you can apply those same practice methods to guitar, or really any other instrument.

“you definitely can’t rely on guitarists to keep time.”

I’ve definitely been a guitarist that’s guilty of that. And so I figured I’d like to improve my musicality.

Ironically, this isn’t always true about drummers and guitarists. Neil Peart (amazing musician, gentleman and scholar, RIP), for example, said that in a band he played with before Rush, the guitar player was sometimes actually the one who was keeping him from rushing (no pun intended haha).

Also, Freddie Green was a “human metronome”.  Time in the Basie band was built around “Freddie’s time“.

So guitarists – don’t always feel bad about your time.  Just be honest with your playing and use that honesty to create even more beautiful music in the future.

Play aux percussion better!

If you’ve been focusing on time/groove on percussion and drums, you’ll probably have intrinsically improved you aux percussion (read cowbell and tambourine). Your hands will be better coordinated. And you’ll be able to hear better how to lock in with the drummer(s)/percussionist(s).

Best wishes and have fun and enjoy grooving!

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