Begin Drumming
Want to learn the drums, but don't have a kit to play on? This is a great way to start practicing now, even without actual drums - Remember, of all the world's greatest drummers, not one has become so successful without hours upon hours of practice and dedication!
Contents
Steps
- Count "one and two and three and four and." This is how most basic rock grooves are counted, and how you'll count in the groove taught here.
- Tap your right foot on beats 1 and 3. In other words, **hit, rest, hit, rest...**
- Keep tapping your foot on 1 and 3, now pat your left leg with your left hand on beats 2 and 4. It should go foot, hand, foot, hand.
- While still keeping the foot hand beat, pat your right leg with your right hand doing eighth notes (twice as fast as the previous quarter note, rest, repeat) to represent hi-hats. This should give you the basic beat used in many popular songs.
Tips
- Buy a Drum Kit!
- Learn to read drum music. You will be a much more valuable musician, as well as gaining the ability to teach yourself from books.
- Become familiar with some basic terminology. Know what the snare, bass, and tom-tom drums are. Become familiar with the different types of cymbals, like hi-hats, ride, crash, and china cymbal.
- Remember that drums take, perhaps, the most coordination of any musical instrument. Keep practicing!
- Find a good instructor or some other way to properly learn how to play the drums - Learning from an experienced professional will help you develop good technique early on.
- Listen to music - One of the easiest and natural ways to help understand drumming is to simply listen to it! Find a song with a good amount of complexity in the drumming or even look up professional drummers and listen to their solos constantly. Just hearing structures and rudiments will help you gather more knowledge into the mechanics of drumming.
Warnings
- TAKE IT SLOW! You won't be blasting out rhythms like Tony Royster Jr. when you first start drumming. When you try to play fast while you're still learning, you will develop not only bad technique, but bad practicing habits and poor tempo control. Pace yourself and play with a metronome. Remember: It's better to practice properly for 10 minutes than it is to practice poorly for 100.
