Drummers: The Smartest Musician in the Band?

“What do you call a person who hangs out with musicians? A drummer.”

Stereotypically, a drummer is often seen as not the smartest member of the band.

“How can you tell if the stage is level? Drool is coming out of both sides of the drummer’s mouth.”

Steve Smith has owned Seattle Drum School for 28 years.

“You know, we’re often the brunt of a lot of jokes. I think part of it is the fact that we hold sticks and bang on things. Anyone can see themselves doing that, so they think that anybody can do that.”

But a new study from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm says that drummers are often smarter than their bandmates. They found a link between drumming and intelligence, good timing and the part of the brain used for problem-solving.

Steve, who uses subatomic particle physics to teach rhythm and time, couldn’t agree more.

“I like math! It’s a lot of math in drumming. You know, rhythm is basically math. You’re just taking a segment of time and dividing it anyway you can think of and trying to do it accurately and consistently every single time. Things always have to add up, otherwise there’s no groove.”

He tells a story about Dave Hooper, a former student who’s played drums with big acts like Sheryl Crow, Herbie Hancock, Chaka Kahn and Toni Braxton. Dave spent some time working on operating systems at Microsoft, and being a drummer is what got him hired.

“He said that if there were three or four people who were applying for the same position, who were pretty much equal, they would start going into their specific backgrounds. If they found out they were musicians, that was a bonus and, in particular, if they were drummers. It’s the way the mind works and the way we understand sequences and progression that they seem to gravitate towards. I think he said that almost all the operating systems had been designed by musicians, in particular drummers, except Vista. Which was one that apparently tanked.”

Seattle Drum School teacher, Colin McLaurin, says drumming helps with multitasking in other areas of his life.

“It’s really kind of analogous to a computer that we’re able to process many different things at once. So my girlfriend gets upset because I can be reading one thing and listening to what she’s saying [at the same time]. And she’s like, ‘Are you paying attention?!’ and I will repeat back verbatim what she said to me. She’s like, ‘Put down the book!’ You’re kind of able to split your head into at least two different camps.”

Apparently it’s the rhythm that’s good for all of our brains. It creates a sort of drummer’s high for both the player and the listener. Experiencing a steady rhythm actually improves cognitive function. According to the website PolicyMic, a psychology professor at the University of Washington found students grades improved when he used rhythmic light and sound therapy on them. A Texas researcher found rhythm helped lessen symptoms of ADD. University of Oxford researchers found that when drummers play together, both their happiness levels and pain tolerance increase, similar to Olympic runners.

So give the Ringo Stars and Meg Whites in your life a break… “What’s the difference between a drummer and a large pizza? A large pizza can feed a family of four!”

They may just be smarter than you think.