Drummers: Back in the Day Question

[pearlsnaredrummer77]

My issue wasn't reading, I just couldn't play it very fast (it's still that way). I would play it (very slow) and my partner would repeat it back to me at tempo. He would play it a few times and have it memorized.

Wow, great stuff people!

Ironically, (in spite of the band director's concerns) I never really learned the greatest reading skills in HS anyway-I greatly improved through drum corps, and especially college band, where constant new pieces kept coming and you either read or died.

[Fastone]

In my experience most guys I played with growing up didn't read but we learned quickly and burned the parts into our memory. There was no such thing as coming to the next rehearsal not knowing parts because you stood a good chance of getting cut. A big part of it for me was that I always was very familiar with the melodic content and how what I was playing fit the music which in turn made it real easy to learn stuff.

I learned to read when I got into senior corps (1973) at first just to expand my horizons. I can remember later on marching with guys that were great sight readers but had a hard time without the paper in front of them.

Edited May 17, 2010 by Fastone

[rlrr]

When I first got involved in the activity back in the late 70s, early 80s (still in HS), my HS band director was wary. He claimed that I could join a drum corps and become super fast (speaking of hands), but drum corps drummers mostly could not read music.

One has to wonder, was your band director afraid you would somehow forget how to read music in drum corps?

[The Oz]

My experience is pretty much the same as the others.

When I started in drum corps, I knew how to read orchestral music, but rudimental charts with sticking were new. Took me a year or so to be able to read most of the music on sight. Playing some phrases was a different matter and I often had to break down a complex phrase until I could get some muscle memory working for me.

Other players were a mixed bag. I would say that 80% of the line had reasonable reading skills. Where someone could not read music, they over time developed a facility to read the simpler passages. Then, after a few times through a more difficult phrase, they developed an association between the visual and the playing; not really reading the music, but pattern recognition sufficient to trigger their memory.

Oh, and that fast hands thing? No one ever accused me of having fast hands.

[Cavie74]

I suspect that more tenors, basses, cymbals, etc., did not always read well when they joined, but they did by the time they made it to the snare line.

So the question is: Why can't Johnny read? Is it because he stayed on cymbals for four years? Or did he stay on cymbals for four years because he can't read?

[LSU GRAD 82]

Yall are getting into a sore subject area for me, as reading music just never "Clicked" for me. I was horrible at both music reading and math. Just couldn't get it. That, combined with a HS band director that was a poor teacher and really didn't give a frick, doomed me as far as ever pursuing any kind of music teaching career. Got better in college, but still not good enough to read the read the really difficult snare parts. Can't read snare, can't teach snare, even though your hands can physically play the notes/rudiments. I would have become a lot more involved in high school/college/drum corps if my reading would have been better. Just made me very uncomfortable when I would sit down and actually try to learn the harder stuff. Straight eigth notes, sixteenth notes and basic stuff I'm ok. Start adding dots, bars, 8th/16th rests, diddle marks. Forget it. I'm lost. Play it a few times and I can play it, but forget about trying to sight read it directly from the paper. .........

[Blackstar]

when I marched in 84 the whole tenor line couldn't read. I'm not sure about the bass line. we had two joined late (when I did) so they learned by hear. I beleive the snares could read but Lee (drumlaw) would know better. I didn't pay attention to the snares...to busy chasing after groupies....

[The Other Mike]

Yall are getting into a sore subject area for me, as reading music just never "Clicked" for me. I was horrible at both music reading and math. Just couldn't get it. That, combined with a HS band director that was a poor teacher and really didn't give a frick, doomed me as far as ever pursuing any kind of music teaching career.

Huh ? wait, I taught YOU ? < sarcasm off >

To the OP: When I first started in corps in 70 I was an outsider because I could read music, yet in my high school band I was a dork because I couldn't read music well.

In 70, few of the kidx in the horn line could read so there wasn't much music to hand out. What little music was handed out had V - R or VR under each note.

By 73 most horn players were reading 1/4 the drummers could

To LSU Grad 82: I had tremendous problems reading music and dealing with math also. My brain just doesn't "click" and it's like forcing my head into a paint can to focus and get through it. I struggle everyday with it but as they say, the hardest lessons are the ones you learn well. My reading has become better because I push my students to push me harder. My students know that I have to stop and think about anything involving more than 2 - 16th notes in a measure " because my brain doesn't work that way", but I'm proud to say that I've been able to teach the kids how to read better than I can. Don't let it stop you ! Some of the best teachers are those who had / have the most to overcome.

[JimF-LowBari]

In 70, few of the kidx in the horn line could read so there wasn't much music to hand out. What little music was handed out had V - R or VR under each note.

LOL, started in a Senior corps late 73 when the corps was trying to get back on the field. Had a real mix of "olde tymers" in the horn line who learned to read music by marking 0, 1, 2, X (open, piston, rotor, both) and HSers who could read music. I was a trombone player who never played a valved instrument so marked my music for the first two seasons until I could sight read without it.

Edit: First night in Westshoremen I'm 16 and sitting next to a guy old enough to be my father. I get my music and the guy hands me a pen and grunts "Ya can't play, until you mark the music". I mark the chart we're working on and hand him the pen back. Then he laughs and sez: "That's how most of us (veterans) learned.... welcome to Westshore kid!". Translation: Who cares about reading ability if you can play.

After 19 years without doing corps, I came back and now have a 3 valver and a horn instructor/arranger who likes to use that 3rd valve and a lot of sharps/flats in the key signature. Some of the nastier passages in my music have some fingerings marked so I can concentrate on playing instead of the fingering.

PS - piston was same as 1st valve and rotor was same as 2nd valve, hence 1, 2.

Edited June 28, 2010 by JimF-LowBari

[spirit7698]

I did not learn ( actually my jr. high and high school directors did not teach drummers how to read or technique ) how to read until I got into drum corps. From there I would go back and play what I learned while looking at music and figured it out from there.