How to Learn Songs on the Drums by Ear
Quite often, people begin taking drum lessons to gain the ability to play along with their favorite music. In addition to learning about technique, coordination, and a bit of music theory, drummers also need to train their ears to listen to music more analytically. Learning grooves and songs by ear takes practice, but there are particular elements to focus on, which ultimately make learning music much faster and easier.
First and foremost, it’s not necessary (or even practical in many cases) to replicate every exact detail in a song when learning music by ear, especially if you’re just starting out. As drummers, our priority is to establish the feel and time. Other details are secondary. Since the drums aren’t bound by the shackles of tonality, we don’t really need to worry about playing “wrong notes,” which gives us much more flexibility.
While there isn’t one single “correct” way to learn songs by ear on the drums, it’s possible to learn many songs in popular styles of music with the following process. We can take three general steps to learn a song by ear: learn the structure of the song, learn the instrumentation and arrangement, and then learn the specific drum parts.
Structure
Most popular songs follow a similar layout, something that’s roughly like: intro, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, verse, chorus, outro. There could be a solo section in there, too, depending on the style of music. That may seem like a lot at first, but it’s pretty simple once you begin recognizing the differences between each section. The sections have the following characteristics:
Introduction - More commonly referred to as the intro, an introduction is an often unique section with no lyrics at the very beginning of a song. The intro provides space for the music to establish the mood and build momentum into the first verse.
Verse - Typically contains lyrics over a steady drum groove and chord progression. The lyrics in each verse vary from one to the next, even though the underlying music remains the same. Verses contain most of the “story” within the lyrics.
Pre-chorus - Not present in every song (but common enough to warrant a mention), a pre-chorus is a short transitional phrase that connects a verse to a chorus. Pre-choruses are much shorter than main sections of a song, typically only 2 to 4 measures long.
Chorus - Also known as the refrain, the chorus contains the main idea, or “hook,” of the song (the part everyone can sing along to). The name of the song often appears in the lyrics of the chorus. Unlike verses, the lyrics in the chorus remain consistent each time the section appears.
Bridge - A unique musical idea that contrasts with the verses and chorus, used to break up the repetitive verse/chorus pattern. The bridge only happens once and typically occurs just before the final verse and chorus of a song.
Solo - Also not present in every song, a solo section usually follows the same music as either a verse or chorus, but with a leading instrumental part (often improvised) in place of lyrics.
Outro - Also known as the conclusion, the outro is typically a truncated or modified version of a chorus or bridge used to bring the song to an end. A fadeout is commonly used as an outro on recordings, but that’s not practical in a live music setting!
Now that we have some specific traits to listen for, let’s see if we can dissect the structure of a song. We’ll use Queen’s “Another One Bites the Dust” as an example. Sections of songs are frequently built in multiples of 4 measures, but that’s not a rule; there are MANY exceptions! Verses and choruses are commonly 8 measures long, a pre-chorus or pre-verse might only be 2 to 4 measures long, and a bridge may be 16 measures long. Try counting the number of measures in each section of the song. Do you notice any patterns or similarities between sections?
When learning the form of the song, it’s important to listen to all of the other instruments surrounding the drums and be able to identify when the other musicians switch between their parts. We can start taking cues from the other instruments and the lyrics and create little checkpoints throughout the song, making it much easier to keep track of where we are in the form.
The song begins with a steady drum beat and the main riff played on just bass. The bass recites the main riff, which is a 2-measure phrase, twice through before the guitar enters. As the bass and guitar repeat the main riff, an effected synth sound appears very quietly at first, but quickly crescendos, which builds momentum into the first verse. The entrance of the lyrics (0:22) marks the beginning of the first verse, but the bass, drums, and guitar keep playing the same parts.
After a couple more repetitions of the bass and guitar riff, their parts suddenly change for the first time since the beginning of the song (0:31). This shorter transitional section with the new riff is the pre-chorus, which leads directly into the first chorus. Another heavily effected volume swell helps build more tension leading into the chorus, as well as a small drum fill. During the chorus (0:40), the bass, drums, and guitar return to playing the same groove from the verse, but the lyrics recite the “hook,” which happens to be the name of the song in this case. There’s a short post-chorus (or pre-verse) section (0:57), consisting of the main bass riff repeated a couple more times before the lyrics enter for the second verse.
The second verse (1:06) is the same duration as the first and leads into another pre-chorus and chorus. Structure-wise, it’s essentially a copy and paste of the first chunk of the song, except with different lyrics in each verse. The bridge occurs after the second chorus (1:41) and stands out from all the other sections due to all the instruments dropping out except for the drums. Even the drums drop out toward the end of the bridge! There’s one more verse, pre-chorus, and chorus after the bridge - same exact form as we’ve now seen twice in the song. The music from the pre-chorus gets repurposed as the outro, where a drum fill with an extremely long reverb tail brings the song to a close.
After familiarizing ourselves with the overall structure, let’s examine how the instruments and their parts are arranged throughout the song.
Arrangement
Studying a song’s arrangement and focusing on all the parts surrounding the drums make it much easier to learn a song by ear. We can ultimately use the other instruments’ parts to keep ourselves oriented in a song, ensuring we don’t get lost in the structure.
There aren’t many instruments present, which makes it easier to establish anchor points to listen for throughout the song. The drums and the bass are the most out-front and consistent, followed closely by the vocals. The electric guitar sometimes doubles the bass line, and other times plays a scratchy, rhythmic part. Heavily effected sound effects and clapping samples are woven into the arrangement.
“Another One Bites the Dust” takes influence from funk and disco music, especially the drums and bass. The drum groove remains the same for practically the entire song. A short drum fill takes place at the very end of each pre-chorus, which helps transition into the chorus. The drums cut out only for the last few measures of the bridge before reentering with the same groove as before.
The melody, the part you’d instinctively hum along to, is played on the bass instead of guitar (you can listen to the isolated part to the right). The bass line is a 2-measure phrase, where the first measure rhythmically aligns with the drums, but becomes a bit more syncopated during the second measure. The bass part also remains quite consistent throughout the song, changing only briefly during each pre-chorus, and dropping out entirely during the bridge. When people think of this song, they typically think primarily about the bass line.
The guitar part has more variety to it, providing some contrast against the steady drum and bass groove (the isolated part is just below on the left). The guitar doubles the bass part (plays the same notes and rhythms, but in a higher register) all the way from the intro until the second verse. At the second verse, the guitar changes to playing a rhythmic strumming pattern, which is characteristic of 70s dance music. Unlike many rock songs, the guitar in this song takes on much more of a supporting role.
The vocals are one of the easiest ways to figure out where in the song structure you are. Each verse has a unique set of lyrics, but the chorus uses the same set of lyrics each recurrence. If you’ve ever heard this song before, you’d immediately recognize the iconic chorus based off of the lyrics. Freddie Mercury’s rhythmic delivery of the song title helped this tune become one of the most easily identifiable songs of all time. If you’re playing to the song and hear the words, “Another one bites the dust,” then you know you’re in the middle of a chorus.
Every person listens to and interprets music differently so there aren’t objective elements in the music that you NEED to listen for. The more you familiarize yourself with the overall form and the role of each instrument, you’ll start establishing your own checkpoints, granting you the ability to determine which section you’re currently in, and predict which section comes next.
Decoding the Drum Parts
In “Another One Bites the Dust,” we already know that the drum beat remains the same throughout almost the entire song. But what specifically is the drummer playing?
The overwhelming majority of drumming in popular music is centered around the bass drum, snare drum, and either hihats or ride cymbal. Instead of listening to the drums as a whole, start by picking out the individual sounds. What’s the snare drum playing? Where does the bass drum land? What’s the hihat pattern? Analyzing the part of each individual component makes it much easier to reconstruct the groove while focusing on the most important elements. But in an even broader sense, understanding the core concepts of different styles of music will most quickly get you on the right path to learning parts by ear.
Most popular forms of music, especially music derived from rock and hiphop, make use of backbeat drumming, where the snare accents beats 2 and 4. The bass drum may get a bit more complex and syncopated, but almost always lands square on beat 1. Cymbal patterns are often relatively simple and repetitive, such as steady 8th or 16th notes. With these three simple concepts, we already know exactly what to listen for in most songs. If we can establish certain commonalities, such as the snare playing on beats 2 and 4, we can shift focus to the subtler details in the groove.
In the instance of “Another One Bites the Dust,” the drums essentially play a basic dance beat, consisting of steady 8th notes on the hihats, snare drum on beats 2 and 4, and bass drum on all 4 beats (known as “4 to the floor”). While listening to the isolated drum track (to the right) through headphones, are you able to distinguish the individual components of the drum set? Since this exact groove appears in thousands of dance and rock songs, you may already know how to play this beat, but recognizing it by ear is a separate skill in itself. The more your drumming vocabulary expands, the easier it is to reconstruct grooves by ear.
Roger Taylor, the drummer for Queen
Aside from the main drum groove, the only other details to analyze are the fills throughout the song. Drum fills are often improvised in a live performance setting, but they play an important compositional role in smoothing transitions between sections. In this particular song, every drum fill is identical. Each fill is based on a 16th note rhythm and occurs during the very last measure of each pre-chorus (identifiable by the alternate bass line). More specifically, the fills begin on the ‘e’ of beat 3 and end on the ‘e’ of beat 4. While it sounds like the fill is played on only the snare drum, you have the freedom to orchestrate the pattern on different drums if you so desire. The rhythmic placement is more important!
Beyond This Song…
While the instrument arrangement of “Another One Bites the Dust” leaves the drums relatively exposed, it’s not quite as easy to pick out the drum parts from songs that have more instruments, denser arrangements, and sound effects layered throughout.
Modern music production allows for the layering and blending of dozens of different sounds and effects (known as “Studio Magic”). Drums that have been professionally recorded and engineered sound quite different compared to standing in the same room as the drums or when sitting behind the kit. They’re frequently compressed, EQ’d, and usually appear with some reverb to make them sound like they’re in a bigger space. Many recordings also make use of auxiliary percussion, such as shakers or hand drums, to blend with the drum set parts. It’s quite easy to mistake the sound of a shaker for the sound of closed hihats, or the timbre of hand percussion for tom toms. If a drum or cymbal pattern sounds like it’s impossible to play while performing the other parts, chances are it’s auxiliary percussion or another drum take that was recorded separately and dubbed in later.
Learning songs by ear takes a lot of practice, patience, and trial and error. Try recording yourself playing through a part you learned by ear and compare it to the original recording. How do they line up to one another? Do you notice any differences between the original part and what you played? As you learn more songs (by ear or by sheet music), you’ll begin recognizing common threads in structure and even specific parts, which will further refine your ear and help to develop your “drummer brain.”
Want to further develop your ability to learn songs by ear? Schedule a trial lesson to develop an individualized practice plan!