Nick Cannon did not have prior experience playing the drums before his role in Drumline. However, he did undergo training and preparation to learn the basics of drumming for his role as Devon Miles, the talented snare drummer in a university marching band.
Cannon’s lack of drumming experience was a challenge that he had to overcome in order to convincingly portray a skilled drummer on screen. To prepare for the role, he worked closely with a drum instructor named Keith Price. They trained together for about a month, during which Cannon learned the fundamentals of playing the snare drum and practiced various stick tricks commonly performed by drummers.
During this training period, Cannon dedicated himself to learning the necessary techniques and building his drumming skills. He put in the time and effort to grasp the basics of drumming, but unfortunately, a month is a relatively short period to become proficient in an instrument as complex as the snare drum.
While Cannon did learn enough to perform some basic drumming sequences and stick tricks, he ultimately relied on the expertise of his stunt double or body double for the more intricate and challenging drumming scenes in the film. This is a common practice in the film industry, where actors often work with skilled doubles to ensure the best possible outcome for the final product.
It is worth noting that learning to play the drums proficiently takes years of practice and dedication. Even professional drummers who have been playing for a long time continue to hone their skills and learn new techniques. Therefore, it would have been unrealistic to expect Cannon to achieve a high level of drumming proficiency within such a limited timeframe.
While Nick Cannon did not have previous drumming experience, he did receive training and put in effort to learn the basics of playing the snare drum for his role in Drumline. However, due to the relatively short training period, he was unable to reach the level of skill required to perform all the drumming scenes himself, leading to the use of a stunt double for certain sequences.