Reading Music - Is It Necessary For Drummers?
- Larry Cox
- Mar 25, 2024
- 7 min read
Updated: Jul 2
"Is it necessary to read music to be a pro working drummer?" I get asked this question all the time. I have to say that it's a bit of a loaded question, with an even more in-depth series of answers.
The simple immediate one-word response is no. It is not "necessary". However, "pro working drummer" is a multifaceted term that can quickly turn "no" into "yes" depending on the "type" of pro drumming situation we are talking about.
If you want to be a "band guy" and get together with fellow musicians to become the next Blink 182, then reading music is not required. If you want to be a studio musician that drums on everything from a home depot commercial to an orchestral soundtrack for a Hollywood movie, then absolutely you need to read music.
However, there are pro drumming situations that fall in between those two examples, as well as many other thoughts on this subject, so let's get started!
Learning to read music, also known as sight-reading, has been a staple in drum
Instruction since drum instruction began. There are zero downsides in learning to read music for drums, but the benefits are many. The relative importance of reading depends on the type of drummer you want to be — it's not at all important for some, but critical for others.
There are many famous drummers that couldn't, or can't, read a lick of music. If you are a famous drummer in a band, you learn the drum parts that you created through sheer repetition during rehearsals. You memorize your parts over time, and then you can play them flawlessly from that point forward. No music theory or reading is required.
However, in many musical situations such as session work, or live ensembles, you
don't have that luxury. They need you to play your part on the spot from drum
notation that has been written for the musical arrangement. Or, even if they don't write out all of the specific drum notation, and give you the luxury of improvising, you still need to be able to follow the sheet music for the musical arrangement.
Outside of a band situation (where your odds of making a living are about as good
as getting struck by lightening while scratching off your winning lottery ticket), if you want to be a full-time working drummer who pays the bills in a career that affords you a comfortable lifestyle, then you need to become proficient at sight-reading music — even if you only end up using that skill 50% of the time. End of story.
I have classified reading music into two categories that i like to refer to as:
Dynamic Reading and Fixed Reading. Let me explain.
For dynamic reading I am referring to drum charts and music scores where the
notes and playing style are changing as the musical arrangement progresses. For
example, a two-minute section of music for a movie soundtrack. There may be quiet bars with little or no notes for drums, followed by a build with more notes, and culminating with a passionate kick-ass build with a sinister beat and a chunky drum fill.
Or it could be a complete four-minute song with a vocalist. For this type of reading, it’s very important to be able to chunk together bars or sections of music in your mind. You want to try to get your head out of the chart so that you’re not reading absolute beat-for-beat or measure-to-measure. You need to be able to look at the chart and find ways to connect larger sections in the music, and listen closely to identify musical phrases and the overall structure of the arrangement.
Also, in such cases, many drum charts are written as rough guides, leaving it up to the drummer to interpret what is best to play in order to fit the arrangement. There's a lot to it, and your reading and interpretation skills need to be strong.
For fixed reading I am referring to the types of drum notation that you see in
instructional media. My drum instructional system and books are chock-full of
fixed reading. Fixed reading drum notation is in the form of one or two-bar
patterns for the sole purpose of presenting bits of new material that can then be
integrated into your drumming.
This type of reading develops a deep and comprehensive understanding of beats, fills and rhythms in general. I think this is the most exciting and important reason to be able to read music, because it's what allows you to grow and expand your library of chops as a drummer. What could take you a year to pick up from learning by ear from listening to other drummers could be learned in one week by having access to fixed reading materials.
Fixed reading helps your hands, eyes, brain, and ears stay connected and coordinated. The process of understanding, examining and exploring such material is essential to our continued progress as drummers. Then you can take such ideas and turn them upside-down and inside out, thus creating new possibilities of your own. It's what allows us to remain lifelong learners.
I also feel that writing drum notation is as essential as reading it. Many people struggle with learning to read, get frustrated, and give up. Before you give up, let me tell you I have found that the best way to learn how to read music is to also write music. You should be writing out drum beats and charts as much as you are reading them. Imagine a child in school learning how to read without ever writing letters and words. That would be really hard to do.
Writing enhances your reading ability, whether it's words or music notation. When learning new beats and fills, take blank sheet music and write them out yourself. Then write your own. Take your favorite songs and write the main beat and your favorite fills. When you feel comfortable, then write the entire drum chart for the song. Start with simple stuff and gradually challenge your skills with more and more complex stuff.
The other benefit to being proficient at writing is that you can write out drum charts, or abbreviated cheat sheets, for songs that you'll be playing for a gig. This way you don't have to completely memorize 20 or more songs. If you make the charts or cheat sheets, then you have them to refer to at the gig.
There can be numerous downsides to not learning how to read music. But there are nothing but upsides to knowing how to read. Let me provide you with five benefits of being able to read music:
1. Reading music enhances your ability for self-learning. You can work through
any drum method book without a teacher. Instead of only learning by ear, you now have another tool by which the learning becomes endless. This in turn increase your versatility on the drums by continually expanding your chops and playing vocabulary.
2. Reading music accelerates your growth as a drummer and greatly expedites the learning process. You can learn as much as you want, as fast as you want. Imagine what it would be like if you wanted to learn how to fix things on your car, but you couldn’t read words. You would have to wait around for someone to spoon-feed you all of the information every time you wanted to learn something new. That would get old really fast, not only for you, but for those holding the spoon.
So, let's say you want to learn how to play jazz beats and fills. If you know how to read music, you simply pick up a good instructional book that's chock-full of jazz beats and fills and go to town on it all by yourself.
3. Reading music enhances communication between musicians. For example, maybe you are filling in for another drummer at a recording session for his band. The guitar player says to you, "in the intro section, it's just a straight four-on-the-floor with eighth notes on the hi-hat, with quarter note snare on two and four. The verses are sixteenth notes on the hat, quarter note snare on two and four, with quarter note kick on one and eighth notes on three. In the bridge, it changes to a half time feel, but you're playing the ride instead of the hat.” If you know nothing about reading music, or music theory in general, that scenario is going to become really uncomfortable for you really fast.
4. Reading music greatly increases your opportunities for getting work. The
bottom line is that unless you are playing in a band that has rehearsed its songs over and over until perfection, most professional gigs consist of pretty much on-the-spot playing by following sheet music that you are seeing for the first time, with very little to no rehearsal - whether it be studio sessions or live gigs. At best, the musicians will be afforded the opportunity to run through the music once together before the recording or show, but many times this is not the case.
However, even in situations where rehearsal is possible, you are still presented with the sheet music for your parts that you will be playing, so if you can't read that, then the rehearsal becomes a meaningless and embarrassing situation for you, and a frustrating one for the other musicians.
5. Reading music (and writing it) helps you from having to memorize everything. An example of this is, let's say you are hired to fill in for a drummer in a band for
Several gigs. The show consists of 15 songs that you have never heard or played before. You have two days to learn the songs and then there will be one rehearsal before the first show. That's a lot to remember on short notice.
So, while you are listening to and learning the songs, you can write out the drum charts and then use them at the rehearsal and gigs. Also, you don't have to write out the complete charts once you become accomplished at reading and writing, you can simply write out music cheat sheets, as I mentioned earlier, which are abbreviated forms of drum notation.
What do I mean by "cheat sheets"? Instead of writing out everything note for note, you can simply write things such as:
OR
So, to sum things up, if your only goal is to play in a band, then reading music doesn't need to be a priority. If you want to be a full-time professional working drummer, then I highly recommend becoming proficient at reading music.
