Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner - Non Classical rhythm aids

Well today I signed up for drum lessons!!! I decided to take the plunge. Hopefully this will really help me get a better grasp of what I'm trying to do rhythmically at the piano.

Thanks for the suggestion Mr. Mullins...I'll keep everyone posted on how things go.

Hi Thomosh

Can you advise if learning drums really help in the rhythm as I also got counting problems. However, playing drums are using both hands but piano are using 10 fingers so I really dun know if it has any effect.

Interesting topic.

I have been a lousy pianist and a lousy drummer for years. I am not so bad playing a single drum (well, still pretty bad) but am hopeless with a trap set when doing different stuff with each hand (and forget about the pedal stuff).

Same thing true on the piano. If the rhythm in the left and right hands differ, I am going to struggle. Like playing triplets in one hand and straight in the other.

anyone ever give you insight into what may be causing your struggle phil? drumming does sound extremely difficult. I'm sure I will probably struggle too but hopefully there will be some benefit. If not then I guess I'll just stop the lessons. It can't hurt.

Most common diagnosis:

Didn't practice enough!

I played drums for some years. As a beginner piano player, while I have many problems to work out, rhythm is pretty much toward the bottom of my list. My teacher has also commented that I don't seem to have problems playing certain rhythms, especially syncopated, that other beginning students do.

By reading the music, I know how a piece is supposed to sound rhythmically. Playing it well is another story, but at least I know how it *should* sound.

so your point markb is that your drums really helped right? do you see a parallel?

Yes, I believe that my drumming experience helps figure out rhythms fairly quickly. Phyisically coordinating the rhythms can still be difficult, as drumming and pianoing have their obvious differences, but at least I'm not spending a lot of time counting out beats or trying to determine how something should sound.

cool that sounds like what i need. how hard is drumming by the way? I mean it's all precussion but I know there is a lot of technique involved. i'm not so sure i want to be a full fledged drummer but i do want to solidify my rhythmic feel and grasp. how long you think it will take to notice some results?

How hard is drumming? Hmmmm...that's hard to answer. It depends on what you'd like to learn to play. If you just want to learn how to bang out a fairly typical rock/pop backbeat (snare drum on beats two and four, some type of typical "ride" pattern on the hi-hat or ride cymbal, and a couple easy variations of bass drum parts), you could easily learn that in weeks to a few months. This would cover a whole lot of pop/rock.

However, start getting into more complex rhythms, e.g., jazz, big band, or latin, uncommon time signatures, harder fills, etc., and you're looking at years, just as with any instrument. You'll probably go through snare drum rudiments (e.g., paradiddles--single, double, and triple, rolls--open and buzz, single stroke, 5, 7, 9, and more strokes, flams, and plenty of other stuff) as part of your lessons. Gaining proficiency in the rudiments on snare drum alone takes a whole lot of practice, and then try applying them around the kit. Plus, there's that whole coordination thing going on.

I believe it's much harder than most people realize, as they commonly see what I described initially--simple pop or rock stuff. I'm not saying it's harder than other instruments, as they all have their easy parts and hard parts, but, as with other instruments, it takes a lot of time and practice.