BASED ON MY STUDIES with Dr. Edwin Gordon and my decades spent as a musician and educator, I created Whole Music Learning, a teaching approach requiring drummers to learn all the aspects of the song beyond what they would actually play on drums.
 

Learn the song and the rest will follow.
The song is at the center. We start with developing the listening skills necessary to analyze and learn the entire song. Then we learn to play it on our instruments. As important as it may seem, learning to play an instrument is only part of the process. Without the song there would be no need for the instrument.

Unfortunately we prioritize training students to play their instruments instead of teaching them to understand music and express that understanding through playing their instruments.
This is a subtle but important distinction. Many take up an instrument thinking it’s the way into making music. In reality, we’re much better off focusing on music first. On my own journey I began as a drummer and became a musician along the way. Now, as a teacher, I often ask new students, “Do you want to be a drummer or a musician?” They don’t get that these are two different things. It’s fairly easy to learn to play the drums, but that doesn’t make you a musician. However, when you focus on becoming a musician first, you become both. By virtue of having chosen the drums you’ll be a drummer too.
 

Drummers don’t play a lot of what’s in the song.
It’s not the drummer’s role to play melody (unless they sing). Nor do they play the chord or bass parts. So in order for drummers to know what they’re supposed to play, they need to learn all the other parts — what you don’t play. Obviously nobody expects you to be able to play guitar, keyboards or bass, learn the melody, harmony and bass line in your head. In this regard, drumming is the most abstract instrument, because so much of what is played is in your head.

The most respected drummers are often the best musicians in the band .
This only makes sense considering the drummer has the power to make an otherwise good band sound bad. And while that’s true, the reverse is not. A fine, musical drummer is a facilitator, allowing the band to play as well as they can. But no matter how good you are, you can’t be responsible for everyone else’s shortcomings. The best you can do provide an amazing rhythmical environment for everyone. But you can’t play their instruments for them.

Drummers also need to know when to get out of the way, to play less or perhaps not at all.
 

The greatest compliment a drummer can receive is when a listener says they can hear the song in the drumming.
That’s my goal for my students — to know the song so well that the song and their playing are seamlessly connected. That’s what the best drummers have always done.