Best way to learn a song?

Amen brother sheet music for drums is crap. What I do to learn a song is I don't listen to the song, I absorb the song. My brain has like been wired to listen intently to the drums on any song I hear, and if the song doesn't have any I make my own beats in my head. Just play it by ear, drumming shouldn't be about sheet music, its all about playing what you feel.

Come again? Even if you don't realize it's helpfulness you can't say it's crap.
 
Amen brother sheet music for drums is crap. What I do to learn a song is I don't listen to the song, I absorb the song. My brain has like been wired to listen intently to the drums on any song I hear, and if the song doesn't have any I make my own beats in my head. Just play it by ear, drumming shouldn't be about sheet music, its all about playing what you feel.

So should I give back all the money I've made playing written charts all these years? Am I, and a host of other paid professionals doing musical theatre, cruise ships, Vegas shows, studio work, etc., just not getting it? Should we bin all that and just feel it from now on? Who knew?

I'll try your advice, but only if you explain it to my wife when the paycheques stop coming. I'm getting the heck out of Dodge for that conversation...
 
O ya definatly. Usually if I can't understand the drum part completely I will look at other drummers to see how its done or look at some drum tabs, course I haven't looked at drum music for a good while.

So since you don't read well you've decided it's unimportant:

I don't really concern myself with bars or phrasing outside of band though, I honestly don't see much of a need for it.

I don't know who you work with, but the musicians, songwriters, conductors, Musical Directors, engineers, producers, Directors, Dance Captains, and others who I work with like me to be concerned about "bars and phrasing". It helps when - oh I don't know - we all want to start and finish in the same place, play unison or counterpuntal figures, or when I need to think about when/where to place a fill, change the dynamics or up the intensity level. It seems to also come in really handy when I have to learn an entire hour-long concert worth of material in an hour or two and to make sure I don't play a big cymbal crash while the female lead is giving her big soliloquay, even if I'm feeling it. But yeah, other than that, totally unimportant.
 
the best way to learn a song is to listen to it a couple times, then put on headphones and play along to it.

That's what I do. And if you have no clue how they do it in the song, ask some one that you know who has played it or look up the drum tab.

But I usually do what drumguy does.
 
I don't know if there is a right or wrong, good or bad about any of this, but after a while you'll pick up on the format of songs and when you learn one, you've learned hundred.
 
Personally I like to listen to the song and try and learn the drums note for note.

I air drum along to the music and if I find a part like a fill or something that I can't play, I'll slow it down in windows media player and listen to that one little section and air drum till I can memorize it, then I sit on the kit and try and play it.

I feel that learning to play what other drummers are playing is important as I notice that if I always interpret the song, I end up playing the same stuff over and over again.

Of course I do recommend interpreting songs as well, strike a balance.
 
I've always been a ear drummer; I can read simple music if I have all night, which I generally don't. That's the luxury of not playing for a living. The songs I play are generally pretty simple anyway (they ain't exactly Larks Tongue in Aspic) so my main memory aids are just short notes like "Colin intro two bars", "guitar solo 16 bars", "Glenn sings I can't stand the rain x 4 then out" etc. Verrry basic :D ... but it helps.

Apart from noting arrangements I try to work on smooth transitions, e.g. moving smoothly into a verse after a fill at the end of the middle 8. Sometimes I can get worked up when playing a "hero fill", play it like a demon, and then take the best part of a bar to settle again. The mug punters will be impressed, but it's those little things that can change a performance from being "just ok" to smokin' :)

I also work on the middle 8s and the support of solos at home with a metronome because they are the "danger spots" when musos get excited and want to speed up. I want to know how the beats and transitions feel when played in clean time. Again, it's not tragic if you speed up a little in the heat of battle in a band with friends, but it's a bummer if the band or producer are going to judge you.

I also like to practice the basic beats of the song and try to work out how it can sound special, even if it's a really simple beat. I've heard anough brilliant drummers to know that even the simplest lines can sound magical if you just get it the right way - with accurate timing, dynamics that give it a real pulse and hitting the drums/hats/cymbal in a sweet spot.

Of course, as a hobbyist, my magical moments tend to be interspersed with moments of clumsiness, but it's something to shoot for :)
 
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