I'm pretty much of the opinion that there are pre-digital/internet/youtube drummers and there are post-digital/internet/youtube drummers.
The pre-internet musicians had to slow down albums and reverse engineer parts. Musicians had less overall diversity but were highly original within their genre. Teachers were often mentors, and you could hear a teacher's influence in a students playing.
The post-internet musicians have a remarkable degree of virtuosity. They can play anything they want, and if they cannot, they can hit youtube and have it mastered in short order. Aspiring musicians now have a personal instructor, and access to several dozen virtual-instructors on the internet. You want to learn how to play the prude shuffle? BAM! Bernard Purdie will magically/instantly appear on your screen and teach you how to do it! This was almost unheard of pre-internet.
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I agree with everything you say here
but I would not trade my pre internet learning for anything in the world.....
it forced me to listen to music .... which believe it or not barely happens anymore with young students
a very large percentage of my students... when I ask them what they listen to and what music they enjoy they shrug and look at me as if I just asked them an extremely complex question that they have no answer for
the love for music is gone.
the love and excitement of digging through your parents or older siblings record collection and finding that record that changes your life is gone.
the nights of staying up all night flipping the record or cassette over endlessly while you read every word of the liner notes are gone.
the studying of the music you listen to out of pure love is pretty much gone for the most part.
those years if sitting in my bedroom with my sisters Police records, her Billy Squire records, her Clash records, her KISS records, her Supertramp records, her Zeppelin records, her Billy Joel records.
.... or stealing my moms Slim Whitman albums, her George Jones albums, her Miles Davis albums , her Platters albums , her Temptations albums, her Dave Brubeck albums, all her Disco albums
.... and sitting there with my headphones on just loving and studying what these cats were doing and only knowing what they looked like if there was a picture on the jacket.
I would not trade those times for anything
that is how I learned how to listen to music
that is how I learned to play with other musicians and listen to other musicians
that is how I learned how to use dynamics
that is how I learned to groove, how to make the music feel good
that is where the love and passion came from
I would sit on the drums and try to figure out the drum parts
I would grab the old acoustic guitar and try to figure out the guitar parts
there was an old Fender bass that was always laying around and I would try to pick what the bass player played .
hell.... I would even try to sing these songs I heard and I would make little multi track recordings of myself bouncing from cassette to cassette
all of that is gone and appreciation is at an all time low and is not raising anytime soon