How do you play the drums without learning drum notes/tabs?
You have a lot of good answers! I have played and taught drum set for many years. I started out with just one old cymbal a drummer had given me and a cardboard box! It didn’t much matter to me, I just wanted to play rhythm so I did. I started by imitating the rhythms I remembered hearing on songs I liked. Things progressed and I learned by talking to drummers. I asked a lot of questions and I watched them work. This was an easy process in New Orleans many years ago. I did a lot of learning on the job. I played professionally for several years before I reached a plateau of learning. I soon realized that I didn’t know all that much about drumming because I had taken too many short cuts. It took learning to read drum music (don’t believe the other posters that say there is no such thing) and a lot of work to get beyond that plateau. I still attend drum workshops and seminars and ask a lot of questions. But I was able to teach myself a lot with my knowledge of reading music. The main thing
