Learn Billy Cobham's Drum Magic Through Video Exchange^TM  Online Drum Lessons

Billy Cobham was recently at the Academy of Contemporary Music where he was asked about the importance of "ear training". 

"The thing about music theory is that it's for everybody.  And drummers are musicians too, if you haven't noticed... It's about not just keeping time, it's about the dynamics of music. The word "dynamic" is a very broad term.  It can mean velocity, sensitivity, which is loud and soft.  It can also mean body language and how you play loud or soft.  So it's left to your own interpretation.  If you want to play musically, you have to be a musician.  And that means you have to know the rhythms, you have to know how to hear the notes and identify them and play them when the time is right.  Harmonically, you have to be interested in every aspect of music.  To do that, you have to go to school and study, music.  You have to… get familiar with it enough to do what you want to do with it "musically".  The better you are at it, the more musical you will be.  And then you won't be a human metronome alone.  You will be that, and more.  Because that's what it's all about; all encompassing is music as a lifestyle.  It has to be your life, which means you have to be more than obsessed with it." - Billy Cobham