hey all,
   i'm about to start taking drum lessons as a means of "cross training" for piano.  how many of you guys plays drums and piano?  have you seen it helping you? how so?

thanks,
james
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i took two years of drum lessons, and i'll probably start back up again next year.

how does/did it help? my time is more solid and the rh/lh interplay with the sticks gave me some interesting ideas for comping.

most of the drummers i've talked to did about four years of lessons before starting into gigging. so i'm still a couple of years away ...

it also convinced me that i ought to be able to juggle, but i still keep dropping balls (in spite of the great joy i have playing with them).
taking up any second instrument should always help expand your skills and creativity on the first. i don't play drums, but learning bass and a few odd woodwinds has helped improve my piano. even learning to play the bagpipes has led me to new ideas on piano, believe it or not.
drums are my fisrt intrument. i've been playing drums and other percussion instruments 30 years. i took up piano 7 years ago and practice and gig alot. i hardly practice the drums any more but when i play drums i feel all the technique and cordination are still there for  the most part are still there. so i think piano keeps my drumming chops together.  

to answer your question, drums have helped my piano playing  ryhmically and also cordintion wise. for example i can do a latin piano montuno in the rh and maintain and a steady tumbau in the lh. some of my piano buddies that have been playing years longer than me find that kind of stuff really hard.  

also when i lead a group as a pianist, i can speak the drummers language and give very spefic ideas/parts that i want. so many times when i work as a drummer, the leader will not be able communicate what they want.
i guess i'm looking for improvement of my timing/groove.  i work with a metronome (and have for years) but sometimes there are still subtle time shifts when i listen back to gig performances.  i'm hoping it helps this.  my goal is to get my feel so beautiful it hurts in a good way all the time for my audience members.  
  also, i'm hoping it helps my independence and i approach the piano a little differently as a result of it.
  i'm also hoping i get all kinds of new groove and fill ideas and they'll just come out of my hands without interference.
  do you see this happening paul?
well it seems to work for chic corea. i have heard drumming great steve gadd say that chic is a fantastic drummer. also i read a chic corea interview in modern drummer that dealt with the drumming/piano connection. maybe you could look up that issue. it came out sometime in the last four years...
i have heard that jack dejohnette is also a piano player.  
has anyone heard him on keys?
randy asked me this week if i had a drum kit.  no, but i will try to work on the main four parts of jazz drumming and hands and feet in order to improve my feel -- primarily for the +s of 2 and 4.  the four parts being high hat (left foot – 2 and 4), kick (right foot - beat), ride cymbal (right hand - 1, 2,+, 3, 4, +), and snare (here’s the 2+ and 4+ in the left hand – for red garland comp style).  i think i have that right -- not at my notes.
yeah, i heard an album years ago that jack dejohnette did on piano. at the time i was really impressed but i was ten years old when heard it.  

refus reed (the bass player) told me that philly joe jones played piano too.

there's a couple of other drummers that also do piano. as far as pianist that play drums chic corea is the only that i'm aware of.
a few other mult-instrumentalists-
keith jarrett-drums/sax
jerry bergonzi-above plus bass
i heard the late great bob berg on piano once..........
terence blanchard is a nice pianist......
art blakey played piano in a "speakeasy".
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