sight reading<\/a>, he often has to figure out the drum part before he sits down on the kit. He assigns a different vocal noise to each drum or cymbal and sings out the patterns. A long crash might get a ‘pssshhhhh’ sound, and a short hi-hat hit might sound like ‘tsst’. Even just remembering a series of sounds – for example, short short long – can cement it in your memory.<\/p>\nThe rhythmic pattern is just as important as the sounds you assign. How would you play the phrase ‘follow the yellow brick road’ on the drums?<\/p>\n
You’d follow the syllables, and maybe assign different sounds to full or partial words. Like the food-themed rhythmic exercises some drum teachers use to teach young students, vocalizing rhythms can help us internalize drum parts.<\/p>\n
So whether you’re in the car, in an apartment or in an airplane, sing the bass drum, the snare, the cymbals and the toms – even if it’s just in your head – and then translate it on the kit when you can.<\/p>\n
In this video, Gregg explains how vocalizing parts helps us learn and internalize them long before we actually get to try them on the drums. We aren’t just drummers who hit things – we’re musicians, too!<\/p>\n