Drum Lessons

Hey guys! What's up.

So I've never taken any drums lessons before. Not even the basics.

Was wondering if you guys took any lessons and if you did, was it worth it?
Or what about those who haven't taken drum lessons before, what's your input on this?

I feel like taking some lessons, what do you guys think?


Thanks.

Like most folks on here, I have taken lessons for quite a while.

Having a qualified teacher to guide you through this process of learning drums is absolutely priceless.

He or she will be able to examine your technique and prescribe things to help you accomplish your goals. For example, you probably started this thread because you don't know where to start. A good teacher can help you answer that question.

I'm sure there will soon be many others on here saying the same thing. Get a teacher ASAP.

brady said:

Like most folks on here, I have taken lessons for quite a while.

Having a qualified teacher to guide you through this process of learning drums is absolutely priceless.

He or she will be able to examine your technique and prescribe things to help you accomplish your goals. For example, you probably started this thread because you don't know where to start. A good teacher can help you answer that question.

I'm sure there will soon be many others on here saying the same thing. Get a teacher ASAP.

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Haha yeah, you're probably right.
Hmm, I wonder what kind of teachers are available near by my local area.
Seems fun!

Thanks for the reply.

I've spent over 30 years trying to teach myself drums and I'm just good enough to be in a band. It has taken a long, long time to get even halfway decent playing drums. Now, if I had started with a good teacher, it would have taken only a quarter to a third of the time to get to the level of playing I'm at now.

I don't know any good teachers around here, but there are some other local guys on the forum who can steer you in the right direction. What kind of music do you play anyway, or are interested in playing? If you play jazz and study latin rhythms, you can pretty much eventually play anything, I'd imagine

I started taking lessons 6 months ago after being a year and a half self taught...

It's been very much worth it - starting to learn good technique, different sticking patterns, things I did not know I did not know. Also getting objective feedback about current level and what to improve.

Not to mention a different way of thinking about time!

Totally worth it. It will speed up your learning.

Also, I'm in a band and it's great to be able to discuss stuff that comes up during playing live with other people.

A (good) live teacher is priceless, in that they can explain things to you in a way that you won't easily understand from a video, or trying to read a book. Learning to read music will be helpful if considering music as a career, and you definitely need a teacher to guide you through that in an interactive manner.

Lessons may or may not be forever, but learning is. Even the pros were still taking lessons from master teachers like Freddie Gruber and Sam Ulano, both of whom unfortunately passed away in the last few years.

The good thing about learning to read is, you can then explore the almost endless variety of books available, at your own pace and without paying for a teacher to guide you through those books. But initially, you need someone to explain and show you how to employ techniques, and let you know what you're doing right or wrong. You won't get that from a book or DVD or video podcast.

Bermuda

I am 100% self taught and this is what I always say..I'm good enough to impress non drummers, not good enough to impress a real drummer (like Bermuda). I wish more than anything I took lessons as a kid instead of teaching myself. At 34 I have neither the time nor the $40-60 a lesson to get a teacher. Do yourself a favor and learn the correct way.

Southpaw99 said:

At 34 I have neither the time nor the (money) to get a teacher. Do yourself a favor and learn the correct way.

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Hmmm.

At 48 I have neither the time nor money to teach myself!

My experience is that taking lessons gets me further ahead faster than trying to learn on my own. I have a very busy schedule, which means that I get to play once or maybe twice on the weekend and once (for an hour if I'm lucky) during the week. Taking lessons forces me to be very focused because I want to make real progress on the previous week's lesson material ahead of the next one.

More important than lessons though, learning to read is crucial.

I think it matters where you are.

Larger areas have loads of great teachers.

If you live in my small < 20K pop. town...not so much.

Remember that the internet is a great way to gain access to great teachers that are not local.


My extent of music education(other than self directed - which should NEVER be minimized) is k-12 Public School Band(very poor instruction) and college level music theory.

Took me a while to find some of the things I wish I would have had in grade school(finger technique/moeller and heel toe specifically)

the positives of this have been that I do not sound like other drummers.

JustJames said:

Hmmm.

At 48 I have neither the time nor money to teach myself!

My experience is that taking lessons gets me further ahead faster than trying to learn on my own. I have a very busy schedule, which means that I get to play once or maybe twice on the weekend and once (for an hour if I'm lucky) during the week. Taking lessons forces me to be very focused because I want to make real progress on the previous week's lesson material ahead of the next one.

More important than lessons though, learning to read is crucial.

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+1

I'm 48 too and have been learning for about 18 months - weekly drum lessons, quite focussed, with about an hour a day (max) practicing. I would be nowhere near where I am now without lessons (and that's not far!)

Of course get lessons from a good teacher - priceless!

Otto said:

I do not sound like other drummers.

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you always claim this

I would love to hear you play

how about posting something ?

my guess is that you think you don't sound like other drummers.... again just a guess

but I would probably put my house on it

WaitForItDrummer said:

I started taking lessons 6 months ago after being a year and a half self taught...

It's been very much worth it - starting to learn good technique, different sticking patterns, things I did not know I did not know. Also getting objective feedback about current level and what to improve.

Not to mention a different way of thinking about time!

Totally worth it. It will speed up your learning.

Also, I'm in a band and it's great to be able to discuss stuff that comes up during playing live with other people.

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Truer words were never spoken

I even think a live teacher in the room is better than any live web lesson. I'm not so sure whether sound through the web is good enough for the teacher to be able to accurately tell e.g. whether your flams are evenly spaced.

The mere fact that my teacher will be here Friday 6 pm makes me exercise and man he gives me the most radioactive stare if I suck

Dog piling here - but yeah I am 46 and have been taking lessons for about 6 months. In addition to learning to read and other core skills my teacher also provides guided study, which I feel is important considering the huge amount of both good and bad information available online.

MM

JairoLozano said:

I feel like taking some lessons.

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You answered your own question. I've taken lessons on a variety of instruments from several different teachers. The biggest benefit is having a knowledgeable partner supporting your development.

Say I'm pushing my limits and trying to play something new and tricky. I can approach it very differently at my lesson than on my own. At my lesson, I dedicate 100% of my concentration to playing. On my own, I have to reserve, say, 10% of my focus to assessing myself. At a lesson, I trust my teacher with that part. That little bit is the difference between being able to play it and not being able to play it. Once I know how it feels, I can do it on my own with a little bit less concentration than before.

A similar benefit is that it eliminates a great deal of effort planning practice sessions. How much time to you spend deciding what to practice or how to practice it? It seems there's a "Is this a good practice routine?" thread on here every week. Lessons let you put that time and energy into actual practice.

While there are lots of benefits, I do enjoy a hiatus from formal training now and then. Sometimes, I've just learned so much that I need to catch up on practicing all of it. Other times, I might have my own fun project to apply recently acquired skill. And that's really what it comes down to. I have an idea of something that would be fun to play that's beyond my ability. So, I take lessons to get there. It's not always a direct path, but it always gets me closer and exposes me to all sorts of other ideas along the way.

I suggest lessons, but the question is whether or not, for ex:, $3000 over three years is worth being (generally) a slightly better drummer. There's so much free information and avenues for learning outside of private lessons compared to when most of us began drumming, totally changed the game.

Brian said:

There's so much free information and avenues for learning outside of private lessons compared to when most of us began drumming, totally changed the game.

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Totally agree with you here. But for as good as that is, it is also a minefield. The sheer amount of threads filled with confusion caused by people trying to go it alone but have not yet aquired the skills or practical knowledge to do so, attest to it.

If nothing else a teacher helps newer and less experienced players to focus and prioritise what is important for their stage of development.......exactly what is needed given the vast amount of free info available. It's great for people who know what they want to learn and know how to seek what's applicable and what isn't. But to many, it causes more confusion that it provides answers. A good teacher doesn't just reguritate info.....they teach you how to learn of your own accord too.

Semi-advanced players who learn on their own tend to focus on the wrong things, often in the wrong ways. Even in today's world where there is a ton of information at places like DW or YT, information tends to be picked through for whatever buzz word or topic the learner is currently interested or fixated on. If I had a dollar for every time I've seen the internet get people excited about something like "Moeller strokes"... I'd have a lot of dollars. Thing is, most of the people in that situation are on the quest for the holy moeller stroke, yet they don't know what a rudiment is, or even how to fully make a correct single stroke in any other grip or technique.

Having a (good) teacher focuses the studies. It gives true objective feedback and usually goes back a step to build a better foundation.

I learned for a long time on my own, even playing in bands, but it wasn't till I started seeing teachers that I realized how much I wasn't aware of. I'm not sure how well all that would translate to "online lessons". I think the limitations of the little camera, mic, and lag would be an issue, though.

I apologize for the late reply or response. Which ever is right...

This whole week that just past by was pretty intense.
Some story I suppose.

But I'm writing to you guys with an update.
I was at the studio this weekend with my band. And boy what a day it was! I had major technical difficulties with my pedals. Usually I play with this huge Snoopy blush inside my bass drum. But for studio purposes it had to be removed for better sound in over all. And that threw the feeling off for me because I was used to having some sort of leverage with the rebound of the beaters. You know... like removing a huge pillow and all of sudden you have this floppy feeling to the kick drum. That threw me off. And also, I couldn't find the proper adjustment on my Dw 9000 pedals which threw me off even more! I even messed with the setting of the pedals but even that didn't help. They were just too smooth maybe? Like I needed more weight on pedals. Maybe seat height? Studio time was ticking... and we were limited.
Haha, It's kind of hard to explain on this thing.

And hey... I'm really one to not give such excuses. Gave it my best.

Keep in mind that I don't use a metronome for practice or any kind of clicker to keep me one time. Just realized how important it is when it comes down to studio time.
So I'll also be looking into that stuff.

I will however take my first drum lessons this Thursday! 30 bucks($) for half an hour(30mins). So excited for that! Plus when you're through watching these videos you'll probably agree that I need some basic fundamental roots.
If you watch them...


Sound Asylum
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HC6EgEq1WNE

The Slow One
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYYmobqm0Bk

Midnite Zephyr said:

What kind of music do you play anyway, or are interested in playing? If you play jazz and study latin rhythms, you can pretty much eventually play anything, I'd imagine

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I'd like to learn more styles to play different types of genres, you know. But I just like playing in overall. No specific style or music, just whatever comes out. Sometimes it seems like I try too hard to fit in all kind of styles in one track. But it's just the way I learned on my own without guidance. Or maybe it's just the way my guitarist and I write music.

WaitForItDrummer said:

It's been very much worth it - starting to learn good technique, different sticking patterns, things I did not know I did not know. Also getting objective feedback about current level and what to improve.

Not to mention a different way of thinking about time!

Totally worth it. It will speed up your learning.

Also, I'm in a band and it's great to be able to discuss stuff that comes up during playing live with other people.

Click to expand...

Good reasons to take some lessons!

Southpaw99 said:

I am 100% self taught and this is what I always say..I'm good enough to impress non drummers, not good enough to impress a real drummer (like Bermuda). I wish more than anything I took lessons as a kid instead of teaching myself. At 34 I have neither the time nor the $40-60 a lesson to get a teacher. Do yourself a favor and learn the correct way.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice!

There's a definite natural-ness to your playing dude and some nice open handed bits. Some nice touch and feel in there.

I think with a teacher sharpening your time keeping and technique up you could end up being one hell of a drummer!