Learning to play the drums: where do I begin?

[Dr. Phil]

I bought a drum set and I need some advice. What's the best way to learn? Do I need to purchase some sort of lesson book or cd? Should I try to play along with cds I already have, or is this a bad way to learn?

Thanks!

[Rockin' Cherub]

find someone to show you some basic beats, listen to music, proceed from there

if that's what you want to do. i assume you do not want to play at an opera house

[talk show host]

Get some notes on basic technique, both with the sticks and with the feet, because it makes a huge difference if you learn this stuff. I've had to go back on focus on this more in order to make the kind of progress I wanted to. You're in for a lot of fun, learning to play the drums is good times

[Sonic Johnny]

ignore what everyone says regarding 'correct' grip/setup/etc. and stick with what feels comfortable and right to you.

start off with the basic rock beat and expand from there. listen to your favourite drummers and emulate their parts. even if you dont completely nail what they do, its a great way to learn new grooves and fills.

also, buy a metronome and play to that. if you can learn with a metronome it will stop you from having a moment of frustration in several years when you have to play to a click track and find you cant. i'm having that at the moment.

[Sonic Johnny]

oh yeah - learn to play with your heels raised (off the pedals). It will come in useful in the future.

[talk show host]

Originally Posted by Sonic Johnny

also, buy a metronome and play to that. if you can learn with a metronome it will stop you from having a moment of frustration in several years when you have to play to a click track and find you cant. i'm having that at the moment.

this is really really really good advice.

How long have you been playing for Johnny?

[Sonic Johnny]

7 years self taught. here's a vid of me from a few months ago but i wasnt really in top form or focusing that much:

[talk show host]

There's some cool shit going on in the vid man. Do you have a double-kick or is that just one foot going? Sorry I don't have a vid I can post in return.

[Sonic Johnny]

i have a double kick but i mostly use the heel-toe technique to hit my doubles. i'm really frustrated with my double-kick: i've come to realise that my left leg has spent all this time on the hi-hat and is really weak compared to the other limbs as a result.

[PkPhuoko]

Find a basic beat to cover just to get 4/4 beat into your skull

maybe try and do a few breakbeats to learn how to "cover" your basics

[InfinityNow]

Originally Posted by Sonic Johnny

i have a double kick but i mostly use the heel-toe technique to hit my doubles. i'm really frustrated with my double-kick: i've come to realise that my left leg has spent all this time on the hi-hat and is really weak compared to the other limbs as a result.

Run. Man. Run for your life, rather - running is the best thing a drummer can do to tune his/her body to the drums. I'm 21, I've been playing drums since 6th grade. Never played a sport in high school, drove around and got stoned half the time.

2 years ago I started running. The first time, I could only go 2 blocks, I swear. The first week, I could go around the block, easy. By the end of that summer I could run for 10 miles a day, split into runs of 4, 4, and 2. This summer, I found out I can now run practically forever. I've gone on 10-12 mile runs, up the steepest hills I can find, all in one go with no "breather", 2 to 3 days a week, every week. It's safe to say no one in my band can keep up with me, as the drummer in a progressive/jam band, where I'm playing odd time signatures with a fistful of 16th note hits going on for hours at a time. They guitar guys and singer get out of breath and want to call it quits before I even break a sweat (...depending on the temperature...).

So, if you run as often as you drum, let's say an hour or running for every 2 hours playing, you'll exponentially grow in strength/endurance, and your ability to hold a steadily complex rhythm will be almost unbelievable. Just be sure to KEEP HYDRATED! or you run the risk of developing temporary exercise induced asthma, as I did for a couple of weeks.

[InfinityNow]

Well, here's my one and only YouTube drum video - my one and only, because when I uploaded it, it got out of synch somehow - so the audio doesn't come close to the video, which really pissed me off.

I was very stoned, and had this funny idea of playing a drum beat and simultaneously mixing it like a DJ in real time, so it's kinda wild and all over the place, but I wasn't using the whole kit (some of which is out of frame) because I was focusing on just "remixing" the main rhythm:



That was 3 years ago. Since then I stopped smoking pot and doing the mushroom thing. My timing has improved - which IS an understatement. But somehow, when I play that beat now, it just doesn't "feel" the same as it did then, when I was really high. Oh well.

[Sonic Johnny]

nice beats dude.

and yeah, that makes sense. thanks for the advice. i might give it a shot.

[Rockin' Cherub]

both of you guys sound kind of "messy" at times

you're still awesome though

i'm pretty disillusioned with drumming at the moment. technical proficiency doesn't interest me that much anymore. i'm more interested in specific sounds and hypnotic qualities and drumming in the context of other instruments. but i don't have a band so that bugs me

[Sonic Johnny]

yeah not having a band when you have great ideas is the worst.

[InfinityNow]

Originally Posted by Rockin' Cherub

both of you guys sound kind of "messy" at times

you're still awesome though

i'm pretty disillusioned with drumming at the moment. technical proficiency doesn't interest me that much anymore. i'm more interested in specific sounds and hypnotic qualities and drumming in the context of other instruments. but i don't have a band so that bugs me

haha - technical drumming will interest you A LOT more when you're in a band. It's kinda hard for it not to, until you've played one song for who knows, maybe hundreds of times, *ahem* CHERUB ROCK - then you can generally know that you're in the groove or not, without having to pay too much attention, (ie. consciously counting every measure, or at least being aware of how many measures go in each verse/chorus)

There's been a lot of good advice in this thread.

#1 tip for learning the drums - know what a measure is, and how to count or at least be conscious how many beats go in it - all of drumming just spirals out from there.

I keep saying "at least be conscious," because after a few years, I've noticed the sort of automatic rhythm that I've developed comes into play occasionally, that is, where my body just snaps into the next fill or chorus or breakdown without my "head" being remotely aware of what's going on. Again, that's only occasional - just be aware of beats and measures and you'll be fine.

[InfinityNow]

Also - I kinda want to try making a new video of me trying to play the same thing, beat for beat, while sober 3 years later. That might be fun.

[Thaniel Buckner]

books amazing drummers swear by:

stick control by george stone
accents and rebounds also by george stone
advanced techniques for the modern drummer by jim chapin

these are extremely boring books but they contain probably everything you'll need to know about drumming. most of the exercises in them are two measures long. play them all at a very slow tempo with a metronome (50bpm) until you can do them flawlessly 20 times consecutively. then go up to the next click on the metronome.

like i said, extremely boring. i'm not a great drummer myself, but i've gone through long period of practicing every and saw my skill improve quite measurably.

also don't take what sonic johnny said about technique too literally. there are a multitude of different ways you can hold a stick, but the one things that all great drummers have in common is that they are relaxed. let the sticks float in your hands while maintaining absolute control. the trick is to work on letting the momentum of the stick work for you.

also, you won't get any better if you don't practice. practice practice practice. then practice some more.

[Thaniel Buckner]

also, infinitynow is pretty hot.

[Thaniel Buckner]

Originally Posted by InfinityNow

Run. Man. Run for your life, rather - running is the best thing a drummer can do to tune his/her body to the drums. I'm 21, I've been playing drums since 6th grade. Never played a sport in high school, drove around and got stoned half the time.

2 years ago I started running. The first time, I could only go 2 blocks, I swear. The first week, I could go around the block, easy. By the end of that summer I could run for 10 miles a day, split into runs of 4, 4, and 2. This summer, I found out I can now run practically forever. I've gone on 10-12 mile runs, up the steepest hills I can find, all in one go with no "breather", 2 to 3 days a week, every week. It's safe to say no one in my band can keep up with me, as the drummer in a progressive/jam band, where I'm playing odd time signatures with a fistful of 16th note hits going on for hours at a time. They guitar guys and singer get out of breath and want to call it quits before I even break a sweat (...depending on the temperature...).

So, if you run as often as you drum, let's say an hour or running for every 2 hours playing, you'll exponentially grow in strength/endurance, and your ability to hold a steadily complex rhythm will be almost unbelievable. Just be sure to KEEP HYDRATED! or you run the risk of developing temporary exercise induced asthma, as I did for a couple of weeks.

yes, i briefly took up running but gave it up for getting stoned every day. nice to hear a success story. i should do that.

[Rockin' Cherub]

Originally Posted by Thaniel Buckner

also don't take what sonic johnny said about technique too literally. there are a multitude of different ways you can hold a stick, but the one things that all great drummers have in common is that they are relaxed. let the sticks float in your hands while maintaining absolute control. the trick is to work on letting the momentum of the stick work for you.

you don't know what you're talking about. there are a few classic ways of holding sticks and pointing them out to new drummers is a very common criticism. that is what tom referred to

[Thaniel Buckner]

simply sticking with "what feels comfortable to you" is not very conducive to progress. there are very bad habits that you can develop that could seriously impede your progress no matter how "comfortable" they feel. it's just a matter of human anatomy.

[Rockin' Cherub]

i agree. at least if you want to play by the rules and learn drumming the way everybody's supposed to drum

[monkeyfritters]

any of you guys live around dc...?

[Thaniel Buckner]

Originally Posted by Rockin' Cherub

i agree. at least if you want to play by the rules and learn drumming the way everybody's supposed to drum

ok, john cage.

[InfinityNow]

Well I had another thing to say, a piece of brilliant advice - but I got distracted not only by Sir Thaniel Buckner's comment, but also his eerie/creepy avatar.

Hmn, on second thought, I think it was...

Dr. Phil, if that is your real name... Do you have some favorite drummers? Surely you must. I'd imagine Jimmy Chamberlin is kinda high up there for you. Try jamming to 1979 or some simple Smashing Pumpkins song, that's the best way to GET the feel right, by practicing the beat for a song you ALREADY feel good about. But be careful, some might say that how you learn to start to play becomed imbedded in your later style - of course this is possible to change, of course - but I remember Dave Grohl being my favorite drummer when I first picked up the drums, and I must admit my early style, for the first few years really did reflect that. I didn't start to get into more complex drummers or classics like Bonham and Pert, and so on until way later. I was freaking amazed when I found out that I could play a different pulse on the hi-hats! (Instead of the usual eigth-note pulse, the 1and 2and 3and 4and.) It took me years to figure out I could change that up, once I did, everything else about "kit" playng opened up, fills were easier to understand because they didn't have to rely on mirroring the steady beat so much, time signatures became apparent in a big way. So I might suggest after strength training your wrists and umn - (what are the "calves" of the arms....) forearms with RUDIMENTS of snare drum playing, which you can then apply to different sections of your kit, try alternating between eigth note and quarter note hi-hat play, that may improve your playing drastically.

Or, all of this might seem rather obvious if you take lessons from somebody. In fact, it certaintly feels awkward having to reveal and remember this kind of rudimentary stuff. As I was trained by a pretty good drummer, a fellow lover of Jimmy Chamberlin and the Smashing Pumpkins, only on the snare. Like two weeks after he started introducing me to set play, he hurt his back or something and couldn't teach. So I taught myself from there.

[InfinityNow]

Oh yeah dude - the fact that you can find amazing "teach yourself drums" videos on YouTube goes without saying.

[reprise85]

Uh, I had a drum teacher that broke his back after a while and had to re-teach himself everything after he healed. You don't live in S FL do you? I don't remember his name... John maybe... would have been about 10 years ago
And he fucking loved SP

I talked to my friend who also knew him and learned he moved to some midwestern state and became a cop

[celluloid_love]

Originally Posted by Rockin' Cherub

i agree. at least if you want to play by the rules and learn drumming the way everybody's supposed to drum

not that there's a need to come to his defense or anythign but refills 79 cents listens to lightning bolt

[InfinityNow]

Originally Posted by reprise85

Uh, I had a drum teacher that broke his back after a while and had to re-teach himself everything after he healed. You don't live in S FL do you? I don't remember his name... John maybe... would have been about 10 years ago
And he fucking loved SP

I talked to my friend who also knew him and learned he moved to some midwestern state and became a cop

Nope, I'm in Western NY.