30 y/o wanting to pick up the drums again

Hey everyone,

So here's the deal. When I was in fifth grade, I took up playing the drums. I took lessons up until 10th grade. I had gone through the whole book of 'Advanced Funk Studies', and was in symphonic band for 7 years, first chair every year. Drums was my thing and I was pretty good at it. Well, when high school ended I focused on money and for the last 12 years I have barely played my set.

Now I'm realizing that sitting at an office all day staring at a computer screen is not for me, and I find myself focusing more time playing a make believe drum set at my desk rather than doing my actual work. I want to get back into playing the drums again, but as of right now I have no idea where to start. I don't remember much from my lessons, but was wondering if anyone could recommend some good warm up/practicing books that could help me brush up on my skills.

Also, I do want to join a cover band or something to just make some money on the side, but would like to possibly make playing drums a career. I'm not worried about the money, I'm single and have no strings attached. I was wondering what kinds of career paths for drummers were available and also what some entry level jobs would be, if any. I know there are forums on here for that, but I'm not that good with technology so navigating is still new to me.

Thanks for the help.

First of all, being a musician is harder than ever. Most likely you'll need something else, at least part time. You have to move where the action is and get out and meet people.


Material:

Nothing has really changed. Stick Control is still what it is and very useful.

For play-a-longs Tommy Igoe's Groove Essentials is a nice collection of the more common styles, but there's a lot. The Turn It Up Lay It Down series are great, too.

For typical independence work, Gary Chester's New Breed pretty much does the job. Then you use someting else for jazz stuff.

The other complete set of material would be Gary Chaffee's Patterns series. They cover a lot of ground. Used to their full potential they almost cover everything from a basic skill, non-ethnic stylistic, point of view.

For basic rudimental work it's hard to beat Charley Wilcoxon's books. All American Drummer is a good place to start.

There's a wealth of online resources today and it's hard to beat Drumeo's price and amount of quality content. They have inspiration from pro's in a lot of areas. Then, there are other online resources if you're into someting specific.

Now, depending on how "rusty" you are, and maybe even still regardless, it might be wise to get some help in person. Money not being an issue, don't worry about going through a few instructors to find the right one(s). Some teachers aren't that good and some live in a very narrow world.

Thanks, I appreciate your input.

I'm thinking lessons would be the best bet to kind of keep me up to speed. I want to learn to play mostly rock/alternative and although I was able to read and play funk, I never really focused on fills or being creative, always just reading music. I can play a basic rock rhythms but would like to be more proficient with a double bass and learning to play fills and to be creative with them (I remember when I used to do fills I'd tense up and get overwhelmed by the decisions) so in addition to lessons maybe get some of the rudimental books and make sure I'm still getting the basics down.

Is there a book that you know of that can help me specifically with fills?

There are plenty of fill books.

Working on stick Control, accents and the Linear Chaffee stuff takes care of the concepts and facility for improvising. It's about interpretation and going slow enough with the concepts that you are in control. A fill has to be practiced just as much as a groove to be solid and we should always work on them in context to be able to keep the groove going.

To work on inmproviastion you have to limit yourself to a concept , a basic idea, and then work on it in a tempo that you can control and then just slowly build on it.

Again. If you sign up on Drumeo they'll have lessons for getting started with any type of typical drumming.

As for books I have a book called Drum Fills-the basics and beyond by D. Scott Williams which goes through a lot. Starts basic, goes though subdivisions, accets, basic orchestrations and then linear stuff.

Books?

I don't think books are a good starting point. Get a drum set and start playing.

Get some drumless tracks, and just play and play, hours a day.

I think you're getting ahead of yourself in wanting to make drumming a career or even a money making opportunity at this point. After all, gigging drummers your age have a dozen years up on you.

Play for hours a day, get an instructor. Play with other people. Have fun.

I don't think you can start to think about becoming professional until you've spent a few months (or years) playing. Of course, a crazy opportunity might come along, but if I read this right you're still banging on your desk, not actual drums.

Good luck.

Another great answer on page 12, left side of this months Drum! Magazine, "How should students prepare before enrolling in drum lessons" 5 great answers there that may help you re-start.

Hey, there are a lot of people on this forum whom have re-started drumming after long breaks. Including myself, as I took a 17 year break, then started again last year at the age of 41. And now after a little more than a year, I have just started taking lessons, all in the name of improving, keeping it challenging and fun. Plus, theirs also the sense of accomplishment too, which I do get, as I begin to notice improvement. Which is coming, slowly but surely.

Drumming (at an older age) is also a great social thing too, as one has an excuse to "go out and play" with others. Which is much needed, in this day and age of computer based social networks.

Infamous Beater, I hear you and maybe I did get ahead of myself by saying that. Yeah I would like to find some people and start playing, just for fun for now. But I do want to learn how to be more creative I guess and play fills because I never really learned that I really just read sheet music. Like I said I'm just trying to get some ideas from people who have more experience doing this.

kkamp227 said:

I would like to find some people and start playing, just for fun for now. But I do want to learn how to be more creative I guess and play fills because I never really learned that I really just read sheet music. Like I said I'm just trying to get some ideas from people who have more experience doing this.

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A great way to develop ideas (especially fills) is to develop your ability to play by ear. Choose some music you like with drums in it, Listen for the beats and fills, try to figure out what they're playing, and play along. It's a whole different skill set to playing from music (which is important too, of course), and lots of us learnt that way.

I'd get some drums, play along with records, jam with people.

Then go out and try to make money by drumming in some way. The idea is not so much to make money, but to develop the skill of identifying business opportunities.