Self-taught drummers better/worse than drummers that have taken lessons?!
Question: self-taught drummers better/worse than drummers that have taken lessons?
my boyfriend has been actively playing drums for 2-3 years or so (he played drums as a child too, but he played mostly guitar and bass; now, he plays drums in his band) do you think he would be better if he took lessons? he says that he can backtrack and re-learn what he knows, and lessons arent necessary
ps. he has been somewhat taught by his father, who is an active drummer, but has not had lesson either.
i'm just curious if you think he should take lessons, why or why not?
Answers: self-taught drummers better/worse than drummers that have taken lessons?
my boyfriend has been actively playing drums for 2-3 years or so (he played drums as a child too, but he played mostly guitar and bass; now, he plays drums in his band) do you think he would be better if he took lessons? he says that he can backtrack and re-learn what he knows, and lessons arent necessary
ps. he has been somewhat taught by his father, who is an active drummer, but has not had lesson either.
i'm just curious if you think he should take lessons, why or why not?
It depends if he is just into his band or has aspirations to be a percussionist with other musical organizations.
Lessons from an expert instructor are helpful, but you can learn on your own as well. Since he's been playing in a band a couple years he knows music and probably wouldn't need lessons. The big reason to take lessons anyway would be to improve faster, eliminate bad habits or mistakes he has picked up, and more than anything else, to have someone providing him with a plan for improvement (and a little motivation--teacher coming tomorrow makes you practice more today) so that his practice is more practical and useful--someone will be making him work on weaknesses rather than just doing what he's good at already (because it's more fun to play good, it's hard to work on things you are bad with). Also, a good instructor won't back-track him too far unless he has flawed fundamentals, and if he does, he should back track. A good teacher may start slowly to find out what level he is at, but he's not going to give him beginners lessons for six months.
Finally, take a good look at what the first poster said. Does he care about being good, or is he just having some fun with this. 90% of musicians don't try to play paying gigs--they just do it for the fun of it--if that's him, he may not care to do the work it takes to really improve. Getting lessons is a commitment from the student. While teachers don't usually lock you into gym-club type contracts, you should recognize that, like the gym, if you don't keep up with your lessons for an extended period of time, they were a waste of time and money. You can't really take four lessons and then quit for a while--it won't do much good at all.