Budding drummers who are serious about improving their drumming may find it’s difficult to determine which aspect of their playing to focus on – such as rudiments, music theory, or reading music. Even then, there are alternatives to applying these such as using a practice pad, a snare drum, or a drum kit. Of course, your neighbors will appreciate you choosing the practice pad!
But I digress.
It doesn’t stop there, however. There are a multitude of options on how you choose to learn the drums. As in, who or what is going to teach you?
You can combine the above in any combination to suit your taste, or your wallet (or your parents’ wallet) – so many choices!
There’s no shortage of high-quality instruction here on Drumeo.com, which combines many of the different methods of teaching. But there may be one method that is often overlooked in drum instruction, that not only helps you improve your drumming considerably, but may even be the most fun: playing drum covers.
There are many benefits you can derive from playing drum covers, (which we’ll get into in a bit), but let’s consider one blaring example of someone who benefited greatly from playing them – Cobus Potgieter. Who can say that playing drum covers didn’t play a role in Cobus’ development as a drummer? In fact, that’s what made him most famous. It kind of happened backwards, actually. He wasn’t in it for the fame, but he played because he enjoyed it. As he got better and better at playing the songs, the fame came later. And instead of approaching the drums from a strictly academic standpoint, he chose drum covers as his educational outlet (at least it played a big role). Suffice it to say that he owes a lot to those covers.
Yet another example of someone who benefited greatly from playing drum covers is Meytal Cohen. Did she ever dream that playing drum covers would propel her career to where it is today, with over half a million YouTube subscribers, composing original music for public consumption, and her own instructional drum course? Probably not. Again, playing drum covers may not have been the only reason for her success, but it played a big role. (By the way, Cobus Potgieter also has his own drum course, The Cobus Method, and also has about half a million YouTube subscribers – sheesh).
So what’s the deal? Can drum covers make you play that good? Well, yes, they can, and should be part of your educational tool kit. Let’s go over some reasons why drum covers are such a great tool for improving your drumming.
We’ve all seen them. Those drum covers on YouTube where you watch for about a minute and wonder, “Dang, did this guy even hear the song first?” If you want to look like it’s you playing the drums instead of the original drummer, then you’ll need to pay attention. That means developing a keen ear, and being an astute observer. We have the benefit of live (and sometimes studio) footage of the original drummers, plus you most likely are not the first person covering the song. Don’t feel guilty – use YouTube to see how other drummers have covered the song. Do this enough times and you’ll learn to ‘see’ what your ears ‘hear’ (or ‘hear’ what your eyes ‘see’ – works out the same). Now when you practice the song, you’ll have a good understanding of how to play it. If you set your standards high, and practice the song enough times, you’ll end up with a performance you’ll be proud of.
To get the song right, you may have to play it over, and over, and over again. This forces you to discipline yourself. Do this enough times and this learned discipline will spill over into other aspects of your drumming, be it practicing or performing. Good drumming has a lot to do with control, focus, and even restraint – if you’re just beating the drums haphazardly you may get tired of them quickly, since you’re not achieving tangible results. But playing a drum cover enough times until you get it right, well, that’s a tangible result – one that is measurable, and one that you can build on.
Let’s face it: in the end, it’s all about playing songs, right? Sure drum solos are cool, but not everyone can play them. But anyone can play at least one song they like (by ‘anyone’ I mean an aspiring drummer). Sure rudiments are important, and so is reading music. But you don’t necessarily need to know these to play the drums. If you learn to play drums by learning to play the songs you like, you’re learning some rudiments already without even knowing it. Afterwards, as you actually focus more on rudiments, for example, you will recognize rudiments you may have already been playing because you learned the song. This will reinforce what you already know and help solidify those skills.
Playing songs on a drum kit is almost always more fun than playing rudiments on a practice pad. Now don’t get me wrong – playing rudiments on a practice pad is essential to improving your fundamental drumming skills, and it is certainly a worthwhile endeavor. Again, I’m not advocating replacing practicing rudiments or improving your music reading skills with playing drum covers. I’m saying that adding drum covers to your tools for learning to play is also a worthwhile endeavor.
All of the above may be moot, however, if you don’t record everything (preferably video). Yes, get into the habit of recording as much of your practices, as much of your drum covers as possible. There’s nothing like having a documented timeline of your improvement. You’ll be shocked at how well you cover songs after a year of recording yourself. Seeing yourself play gives you immediate feedback. You can see and hear timing issues that need improvement, and you’ll be able to notice technique issues that need to be addressed that you won’t otherwise notice if you don’t see it.
In the beginning, when I started to record myself playing, during the performance I thought I was hitting the drums hard. But when I looked back at the video – wow, what a weakling! I didn’t realize how reserved I played. I was holding back the power that the songs required, and this in turn affected how I implemented dynamics in the songs. Watching these videos back helped me determine what was the fundamental cause of my ‘reserved’ playing (although lack of drumming experience certainly was part of it, for me the gist of my problem stemmed from what I dubbed the ‘neighbor syndrome’).
So the bottom line: record everything! Which brings us to a fourth reason why drum covers are a great tool…
Remember Cobus and Meytal? They didn’t just play drum covers – they recorded them. They posted them to a public platform (YouTube). Lots of people saw them, and the rest is history. Did they do it for the fame? Probably not, but visibility would not be possible without the recorded drum cover. Getting our covers recorded and posted creates a portfolio – a showcase – of our talents and skills. If your goal is to play in a band, having some videos online will facilitate showing one’s wares to interested parties. You’ll be a step ahead of those who don’t regularly record and post their covers. Having a portfolio of drum covers on hand shows potential band mates at least three things:
Many bands just play covers. If you have proof that you can learn and play songs, you’re in! So you can use your YouTube channel, full of your drum covers, to advertise yourself to bands looking for a drummer.
So, for a fully educational and enriching drumming experience, go ahead and incorporate as many of the different methods of instruction as possible. This will help you become a well-rounded drummer because you’ll be better able to address and focus on what you want (and need) to work on. But don’t forget to add to your educational tool kit what might be the most fun part of learning the drums – the drum cover!
Omar Alvarado runs the drumming blog TheParadiddler.com, "the blog for all things drumming."
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