A number of young drummers regularly take lessons and pour through drum books. However, these same drummers, in spite of lessons and hard work, feel apprehensive when asked to sight read. Why is this such a problem even for well trained young drummers? First of all, young drummers, when practicing reading exercises, tend to stop playing whenever they make a mistake. Although this is a natural reaction, you cannot stop when playing a TV show or a live concert. The drummer must keep playing, in spite of mistakes, if the band is to stay together. One method to help overcome the tendency to stop is to do the following: Practice with a metronome. Set a reasonable tempo, look over the page to be sight read, then start playing from the upper left-hand corner. Do not stop playing, no matter how many mistakes you make, until you have completed the page. […]

July 1982 Issue