75 Drummer Quotes

There are many famous drummer quotes written by different drummers.

There are many motivational quotes said by famous and other drummers and musicians. Most are about drumming, but others have a more metaphorical meaning. We hope the drumming quotes below will make you want to become a great drummer and play music in a great band of your own someday.

"Life is about rhythm. We vibrate, our hearts are pumping blood, we are a rhythm machine, that's what we are."

-Mickey Hart.

"When you approach this instrument for the first time, what comes out of you is simply what you feel."

-Dennis Chambers.

"A good groove releases adrenaline in your body. You feel uplifted, you feel centered, you feel calm, you feel powerful. You feel that energy. That's what good drumming is all about."

-Mickey Hart.

"I'm not a singer who plays a bit of drums. I'm a drummer that sings a bit."

-Phil Collins.

"Just because you're not a drummer doesn't mean you don't have to keep time."

-Thelonious Monk.

"I think female drummers are great. I think there should more of them."

-Sean Kinney.

"But I think that any young drummer starting out today should get himself a great teacher and learn all there is to know about the instrument that he wants to play."

-Buddy Rich.

"When I listened to Elvin Jones, man, for the first time I heard a drummer that had all the technique plus emotion, passion, feel, and just – good God!"

-Butch Trucks.

"I've always liked to be the kind of drummer and musician who likes to go outside of what's expected of me."

-Matt Cameron.

"If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away."

-Henry David Thoreau.

"Do you know why they call a drummer's seat a throne? Because drummers are kings and queens."

-Ed Thigpen.

"I would like to think that the singer is the butterfly, and the drummer was just the little grub in the ground, working to become a caterpillar"

-Robert Wyatt.

"Drummers are conductors - we set the pace for the music - so if you're not relaxed and feeling right, the whole thing goes out the window."

-Steven Adler.

"Drummers shouldn't just think of themselves as drummers. If you're going to be a musician, you should expand your horizons, compose things, and work with other instruments."

– Stewart Copeland.

"I create my own lyrics. I have a great band. I have a drummer from East Berlin."

-Nina Hagen.

"I used to write songs and I'd present it to the boys, and they would be rolling on the floor laughing, because I'd just rewritten another song and hadn't noticed it!"

-'Rolling Stone', 2019, Ringo Starr.

"Michael Giles the first drummer of King Crimson, never agreed to the name King Crimson. But then, if you'd knew Michael, you would know he didn't agree to the album cover either. So maybe Michael didn't agree to the point of definition with many things."

-Robert Fripp.

"I love drag, and I love people who gravitate toward it. Because the people who do drag are people who dance to the beat of a different drummer."

-RuPaul.

"I was a drummer, and I did a little singing too."

-Lou Gramm.

"I try to keep my ear to the streets without sacrificing who I am as an artist. If a song needs a drum machine I'll use a drum machine. If it needs a drummer, I'll use a real drummer."

-Teena Marie.

"There is no roles. No one is keeping any roles. The drummer is also answering everybody and everything. So it is a constant conversation and communication between musicians on an extremely high level with extremely valuable material, motifs, and melodies."

-Miroslav Vitouš.

"When I was thirteen I only wanted to be a drummer."

-Ringo Starr.

"I can't get anything out of an orchestra if I have the 10 best guitarists, but I don't have a pianist or a drummer."

-Manuel Pellegrini.

(Don't break your head over what to put as a caption, just read our drumming quotes and choose your favorite.)

If you are out at night listening to a great rock band and want to post a picture on your Instagram page of the drummer you heard but don't have good drummer captions, then don't worry! We've put together just the perfect list of drumming quotes and drummer proverbs for you. Choose a caption and get creative with many hashtags. These drummer quotes for Instagram captions are the best!

"My soul is that of a drummer... I didn't play drums to make money. I played drums because I loved them."

-The Big Beat: Conversations with Rock's Great Drummers', 1984, Ringo Starr.

"Anytime you strike the drums, you have to be aware that you're creating a musical event."

-Vinnie Colaiuta.

"Any sound, if it's in time, has some value."

-Benny Greb.

"There is no music unless the drum and the drummer are one."

-E. E. Cummings.

"It takes a pretty good drummer to be better than no drummer at all."

-Chet Baker.

"A drummer is usually like the backbone."

-Brody Dalle.

"March to the beat of your own drummer."

-Henry David Thoreau.

"A good drummer listens as much as he plays."

-Unknown.

"To be a drummer you also have to be a musician."

-Ian Paice.

"Most great records really start with the drums."

-Billy Corgan.

"Stamina is the force that drives the drumming; it's not really a sprint."

-Neil Peart.

"Buddy Rich was one of the most incredible technicians in the world, on this planet, but the only people he could really impress, who knew what he was doing was another musician or another drummer."

-Dick Dale.

"Before you can follow your own drummer, you have to hear the drummer."

-Srikumar Rao.

They say music today is nothing like jazz from those days. It may be true. Jazz is a whole other genre. There have been some very famous jazz drummers, and if you are looking to read a few of their drumming quotes or about jazz drumming, you have landed in the perfect place. Buddy Rich and Tony Williams are among the greatest drummers in jazz, and Art Blakey was one of the best jazz drummers. Hope you enjoy reading these quotes.

"Even though I'm a jazz-trained drummer, I cut my teeth playing rock."

-Jimmy Chamberlin.

"I was a jazz drummer, and it was my life for a while: what I lived and breathed every day."

-Damien Chazelle.

"People like Art Blakey and Buddy Rich, you look at them playing music, and it's just like looking at a heavy metal drummer. I mean, they're playing with the same amount of ferocity. It's not to say all jazz is like that."

-Damien Chazelle.

"I love more percussions more than anything. I always wanted to be a drummer."

-Pharoah Sanders.

"If you mess around with jazz, you better have a good drummer and a good bass player."

-Gunther Schuller.

"Average band with a great drummer sounds great, great band with an average drummer sounds average."

-Buddy Rich.

"I'll never play a drum solo you can't dance to."

-Gene Krupa.

"Every drummer that had a name, had a name because of his individual playing. He didn't sound like anybody else, So everybody that I ever listened to, in some form, influenced my taste."

-Buddy Rich.

"A great musician is just a thief who doesn't get caught"

-Buddy Rich.

"So go on and play, and if you make a mistake, make it loud so you won't make it next time."

-Art Blakey.

"When I speak of natural drummers I'm talking about guys that are playing with the talent God gave 'em."

-Gene Krupa.

"Jazz washes away the dust of every day life."

-Art Blakey.

"That's what the drummer is supposed to do. Keep the time. If you can do something else besides that, fine. But the time is essential and non-negotiable."

-Elvin Jones.

"But primarily, the drummer's supposed to sit back there and swing the band."

-Buddy Rich.

"The drum is the heart of music. The saxophone can play and then rest, as can all of them except the drums; the drummer keeps going – he can't afford to stop."

-Jo Jones.

"As a drummer, you're always fighting for a level that you never quite attain."

-Damien Chazelle.

"I think that the rhythm sections, drummers in particular, are the unsuing heroes of the music. It's the rhythm section that has changed the styles from one period to the other."

-Max Roach.

"It's the honesty you apply to your playing that makes music enjoyable. The style of the music has little to do with it. It's only honesty makes it beautiful."

-Elvin Jones.

"In jazz, you listen to what the bass player is doing and what the drummer is doing, what the pianist and the guitarist is doing, and then you play something that compliments that, so you are thinking simultaneously and thinking ahead."

-David Amram.

"But, I don't think any arranger should ever write a drum part for a drummer because if a drummer can't create his own Interpretation of the chart and he plays everything that's written, he becomes mechanical; he has no freedom."

-Buddy Rich.

"Playing fast around the drums is one thing. But to play music, to play with people for others to listen to, that's something else. That's a whole other world."

-Tony Williams.

"You don't have to be a great drummer to be the most important guy in the band."

-Mike Portnoy.

Musicians are sometimes funny people with a great sense of humor. If you are looking to read some of those funny quotes, then continue scrolling. We've put together some funny drummer quotes.

"Drumming is my middle name."

-'Drumming Is My Madness', 1981, Ringo Starr.

"I told people I was a drummer before I even had a set, I was a mental drummer."

-Keith Moon.

"Eat drums! Eat cymbals!"

-Animal.

"I found that to really make money, you had to give up music. So I gave up money."

-Mel Lewis.

"Thank God that I had the ability to understand that I had a different beat and that I was a drummer."

-James Brown.

"I think every band is a little cautious when the drummer starts to write tunes."

-Matt Cameron.

"I'm a terrible drummer. I can tune 'em pretty good, but I'm a pretty bad drummer."

-J. Robbins.

"I wanted to be Jimi Hendrix's drummer when I was in high school, but I graduated in 1970, the year he died."

-Narada Michael Walden.

"At this point, I think I would garner a lot of hate mail if I was now on the cover of Modern Drummer seeing as I'm not a modern drummer anymore."

-Jason Schwartzman.

"Drummers don't write - or at least, that's what everybody believes."

-Tony Williams.

"I'd just play 'til my hands fell off. My parents would yell at me to stop because they couldn't stand the noise any more! I was terrible! It must have been hard for them to listen to me as a beginning drummer."

-Randy Castillo.

"I've gotten hernias from drummers when they drop tempo."

-Miles Davis.

"What's the last thing a drummer says in a band? 'Hey guys, why don't we try one of my songs?'"

-Dave Grohl.

"I am not a technical drummer at all. I'm more from the Keith Moon/Lars Ulrich school of, 'Hey, look at me!' I just get up there and bash."

-Mike Portnoy.

"I just play drums, mate."

-Phil Rudd.

"If you drum open handed, you automatically look like a better/cooler drummer than every other drummer."

- Christopher Mintz.

"As a drummer, I'm rhythmically so disabled that it's hilarious."

-Devin Townsend.