Why You Can't Get Very Far Being A Self Taught Drummer

Unless you have superhuman intuition, it’s pretty much impossible to gain any kind of skill set without learning from great teachers. Now, if you are a self taught drummer and you look up educational resources online, yes of course, you can start building your skills from there now that you have a framework for how to proceed.

That being said, if you don’t have a formal instructor teaching you, you are still basically self taught and subsequently handicapping yourself!

So how successful can you possibly be as a self taught drummer? Without an instructor looking at what you are doing and HOW you are doing it, how would you know exactly what is right, what is wrong and what you should be doing to get better?

Is it possible to get good at drums by being self taught?

Sure!

But would you say it’s more difficult being a self taught drummer?

After all, you only have one set of eyes in which to evaluate your playing: your own.

If you’re just a beginner, then I would say that the one set of eyes you are relying on to evaluate your playing, is an extremely inexperienced set of eyes..

Now, if you are going to a school that has a drumline or some type of music program, then you should try to learn as much as you can from your percussion instructor or your music director.

If you don’t have a percussion instructor and your music director has limited percussion knowledge, then look to the internet for assistance.

Perhaps you can join a group that focuses on critiquing each others videos to get BETTER!

Or maybe, you can get PRIVATE DRUM LESSONS so you can have a teacher that is dedicated to helping you reach the next steps in your percussion journey!

If there are older students at your school that have more experience playing percussion compared to you, seek out their help and ask them to give you a few pointers.

Either way, if you currently trying to attack this art form all alone alone, then you are seriously handicapping your development and you need to seek help, somehow, someway, ASAP!

Have you ever found yourself as a self taught drummer for some period of time during your percussion development? What were the advantages and disadvantages?

For more perspective on this particular subject, make sure you check out the video below: