{"id":946,"date":"2020-05-25T19:17:49","date_gmt":"2020-05-26T00:17:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/soundadventurer.com\/?p=946"},"modified":"2020-05-25T19:18:00","modified_gmt":"2020-05-26T00:18:00","slug":"should-i-learn-guitar-or-drums","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/soundadventurer.com\/should-i-learn-guitar-or-drums\/","title":{"rendered":"Should I Learn Guitar Or Drums? How To Decide Your Future Path"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

You are about to embark on a long journey–I think you’re awesome for thinking a bit before deciding what journey (guitar or drums) to take. Both guitar and drums are difficult instruments but are extremely fulfilling. How do you know which one is right for you?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The best way to determine whether you should choose guitar or drums is to determine which aspect of music excites you more–rhythm or melody. Determining which aspect of music is exciting to you can be easily done by listening to examples and experimenting with melody and rhythms, yourself. If you enjoy rhythm more, choose drums. If you enjoy melody more, choose guitar. If you enjoy both equally, then guitar is still the best option. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is not an easy question<\/strong> to decide because sometimes both instruments can appeal to you. That’s probably why you’re here. However, I’m going to try and help you go through the different aspects of each instrument to help you feel confident in your decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How To Decide Between Guitar and Drums<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I feel your pain, I love the guitar and I also love the drums and so it’s difficult for me to decide which one I would rather spend hours and hours practicing. Fortunately I have the amazing opportunity in that I have tried both. From my experience, I’ve learned about both instruments advantages and disadvantages and also what can spark interest in one person and what might not spark interest in another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’m going to go step-by-step to try and go through each attribute of the instrument to help you make a decision that you’ll be satisfied with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Step 1: Does Melody Or Rhythm Appeal More Than the Other?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

If you don’t know the answer to this question… great! You’re in the right place. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you feel you intuitively know already whether you are more interested in melody or rhythm but you aren’t sure, then this step may help you push you over the edge. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you get excited when you hear an amazing guitar solo that’s going up and down the fretboard? Or is it during an a killer drum solo where you really feel the music?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You might be thinking “well… I enjoy both very much!”<\/strong> Which I can of definitely empathize with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In that case it’s time for some homework<\/span><\/strong>. Get onto YouTube and do some watching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Researching Guitarists<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

You have a lot of genres to look at– Classical, Folk, Rock, Classic Rock, Blues, Metal, etc–whatever is your cup of tea really. To make it easier for you, I made a couple YouTube playlists:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Classical Guitar YouTube Playlist<\/a> (out of all of these I’ve only seen Estas Tonne live–it was amazing)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rock Guitar YouTube Playlist (blues, metal, etc)<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some ideas: Jimi Hendrix, John Petrucci, Steve Vai, John Mayer<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don’t stop there, though. If you have a favorite guitarist or a band already, check them out. It’s worth spending a couple days listening to various guitarists and really paying attention to the melodies and what the guitar is capable of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Something to remember–these are some of the best guitarists the world knows about–you can still play and enjoy the guitar with 1\/10,000ths of skill that these players have. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Researching Drummers<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

John Bonham, Buddy Rich, Mike Portnoy, and hundreds of other drummers are inspirational with their almost unachievable level of talent. You can check out the YouTube playlist I put together here:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Best Drummers YouTube Playlist<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

One caveat, many of the YouTube videos you’ll see are going to focus on drumming solos, which are fun but make sure you listen to the songs that these drummers play in. The most important job<\/strong> of a drummer is not the solo but rather keeping a beat and locking the song together.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is It Worth Doing All This Homework?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

It is absolutely worth your time to think this through–many people underestimate how difficult the drums or the guitar can be, and how much time it takes to improve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Psst.. if you are wondering just how much time<\/strong>, check out this article <\/a>where I talk about how much time you should practice to become good at the guitar).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Learning an instrument is always <\/strong>a long road–but it’s particularly long for drummers and guitarists where both<\/strong> instruments are complex and multifaceted and require significant physical coordination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, if you’re going to put in the time and effort to learn the guitar or the drums it’s best to know what you’re getting into so you can have be confident in your decision of which instrument to focus on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Step 2: Making Music, Yourself<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

You need to try to make some music and experiment <\/strong>whether you like making melodies or rhythm more<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, part of the part of the problem here is that in order to be fully informed, you have to know what it’s like to play the instrument.<\/strong> Not just a day or two, but months of practice may be necessary to get to a point where you know what the experience is like playing the guitar or playing the drums.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, you can get a basic idea of what to do with a couple tricks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can do this too even if you don’t have a guitar or drums or any other instrument.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Making Melodies<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Quick definition: A melody is almost always the part of the song that you remember. The main singer of most songs is singing the melody<\/strong> if that helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The point of this exercise<\/strong> is to help you figure out whether you enjoy making melodies more than rhythm:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Try and play a melody of a song you like (if you know how to read music, you can even try finding some sheet music for a song)<\/li>
  2. Try making up melodies on your own. Nothing fancy, just simple melodies. <\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Don’t have a guitar to try that with? You have some options here:<\/p>\n\n\n\n