Julián Fernández wrote:matthughen wrote:That said, DCI style drumming is often OVER-RATED in terms of it's usefulness within the real world of making a living playing drums, imho of course
Interesting you said that... Would you care to elaborate about it? Thanks!
Let me say this first. DCI style rudimental snare drumming has done much for me personally and many other folks a well. I do not mean to discount anyone's personal experiences. That said, here we go...
Most importantly to me, that DCI style drumming can be over-rated in the real world comes from the simple fact that there are far FEWER gigs for the specialty than for solid, traditional drum set players. If you plan on making a living as a drummer, you would be well advised to NOT overly specialize in such an esoteric version of the drumming art form. The band leaders that hire you do not care if you can burn paradiddles at 350 or can play double inverted flammy cheese dogs off the left. Further, there are lots of skills necessary to be successful in DCI that have little to do with musical expression. Many of the techniques taught in the DCI world are about looking uniform with the players around you, not what is the best physical approach for a drummer. For example, I spent a short time in the Cavaliers organization and can say that the hand positions and stroke technique taught there in 1990/1991 were impractical in the real world; hands as low as the rim, sticks basically flat, strict finger positions, only rotating wrists... WTF!?! Well, they did look amazing as a drumline and placed very well that season. I have personally experienced and have run into many who have the same experience of spending much time "unlearning" later in the drumming career some of what was taught in DCI.
Understanding rudiments and variations is very useful. I learned to be an exceptional listener from DCI. I can hear and identify who made a mistake even if they are 6 snare drummers away from me. I still have friends from the activity. It was valuable as a personal growth experience. I am able to understand some of the most nuanced and esoteric expressions of snare drumming. I value my experiences in DCI. That said, nobody who has ever hired me for a non-rudiment specific gig gave a shit about my execution of double inverted flammy cheese dogs off the left.
Good teachers go a long way. Pete Sapadin (vic firth), for instance, teaches a method that stresses some fundamental concepts that often get overlooked by many in the activity. He actually teaches good time and a sense of groove as being important. He teaches a relaxed physical approach. This goes a LONG way to making the activity much more rewarding to ones drumming future.
To bring it around to this thread, spending a large amount of time practicing something so useless as "drag and strokes" or practicing keeping ones middle finger straight and stiff in the left hand traditional grip to achieve visual uniformity is not only useless, but may even be a setback when considering how one could spend their time actually becoming a better, more rounded musician.