Gregg Bissonette Hears A Drumless Song Once And Plays It Perfectly

Faster Hands & Feet (in 10 days) ► If someone throws a new song at you, how quickly can you learn it? If you want to be a recording or touring session drummer – especially if you don’t have a superhuman memory – being able to read and chart songs could be the difference between getting the gig or being told ‘no thanks’. In this video, Gregg Bissonette shows us the power of sight reading and transcribing with a song that was chosen for him to learn off the cuff. He’s able to identify sections and get the gist of the track before adding detailed notes. First, Gregg listens to the song and roughly transcribes a form chart of the structure and identifies key accents and sections (you can write it on paper instead of your floor tom). He listens again and maps out the number and length of the bars. Then Gregg was given the actual chart as a reference, where he added phrase markings. As a session drummer, it’s important to be able to read