beginner drummer

Organ19650

Junior Member
For a surprise my boyfriend bought a purple drum set to entice me to join his passion of music. I have played tenor sax 2 yrs and 6 yrs of clarinet in middle/ high school and also been in a jazz band. Now my new task is drums. Are there any music books that can teach me how to play. Also solo jazz songs that are at a beginner pace. I was wondering if there was a program/software that mimic the idea of guitar hero in the idea that it shows you a speed of notes and you mimic the notes and its like a game instead of intense learning process of actually learning a new insturment . I hope this forum could give me new ideas and learning stragedy.
 
The best advice I could give would be to listen to a lot of the music you'd like to play. Pick out the individual parts of the drums (bass drum, snare, cymbals etc). Watch every youtube video you can of a drummer preforming. Pay attention to the movements of their hands and feet. Practice, practice, practice. Every day.
 
There are a ton of books out there but I strongly encourage you to find a teacher and take lessons. There is just too much information online to try and learn on your own without getting overwhelmed. Use the forum and search for "practice routines" and you will see what I mean. There are thousands of exercises and thousands of ways to do the thousands of exercises. Guided study is a must.

Good luck!

MM
 
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Hello and welcome. Purple drums, eh ... are you sure they aren't magenta? Oooh I'm so shallow!

There are a ton of books out there but I strongly encourage you to find a teacher and take lessons. There is just too much information online to try and learn on your own without getting overwhelmed. Use the forum and search for "practice routines" and you will see what I mean. There are thousands of exercises and thousands of ways to do the thousands of exercises. Guided study is a must.

^^^ What Mike said. Playing drums is a lot more difficult than it appears: there's much more to it than just hitting things, and you'll probably find that it takes much longer to get the hang of it than you'd like. Be patient and persistent!
 
Drumming starts and ends with the desire to drum. It concerns me that this was not your choice, it was your boyfriend's choice. Drumming is not a task, it is a need. I have to ask, if your BF hadn't pushed the issue, would you have sought to play drums on your own?

If the answer is no, don't let that stop you. They are fun.

Music books show you what to play, they don't teach you how to play. Teachers do that, also burning desire does that.
 
In drumming the "scales" are called "rudiments". Learning some of the basic rudiments will
allow you to "get out" what it is you want to play. Some examples are Long Roll, 5 stroke
Roll, Paradiddle.
 
It's def a good idea to learn the rudiments. You don't have to know them to play simple beats, but... it all depends on how much time you want to invest and how proficient you want to be. Search around YouTube there are some great vids out there. That being said, I still need to perfect my paradiddles.
 
It concerns me that this was not your choice, it was your boyfriend's choice. I have to ask, if your BF hadn't pushed the issue, would you have sought to play drums on your own?

Ah, you say that, Larry, but I had no idea that Mr Madge was going to buy me a kit. Look what he started.
 
There are no shortcuts that I know of. Otherwise, we'd all be drum heroes. And don't know how to address your guitar hero question. Nothing worth having comes easy, that's all I know for certain. lol

Basic books such as Stick Control, Syncopation, Mel Bay's Studio/Jazz Drum Cookbook are a few suggestions; stuff I went through as a beginner and were great building blocks.

Also as mentioned, youtube has a wealth of information including lessons and clinics available. Knowledge that a lot of us paid good money for, twenty years ago.

Good luck!
 
I want to add that simply trying to play along with songs you like will help you to better
understand what it is you can and can't do. All drummers should know how to play a roll...so
get going on working on that right away. To play something fast, you have to be able to play it slow....so work on doing things slowly and then speed them up.
 
As others have said there is no short cut. I also firmly believe that one should gain a foundation of technique before learning more on their own if that is really what they want to do. Bad technique can cause injury. As for the other advice I agree with, learn the rudiments. Here is a good site so you can see what rudiments are.

http://drumrudiments.com/
 
Ah, you say that, Larry, but I had no idea that Mr Madge was going to buy me a kit. Look what he started.

Oh is that how it happened? Cool. Your Glenn is a good guy. Good thing he didn't get you rocket launchers or something, right?
 
Oh is that how it happened? Cool. Your Glenn is a good guy. Good thing he didn't get you rocket launchers or something, right?

Haga, indeed! .....................
 
I'm with Larry on this one. If you have a huge desire to play, then I think you'll answer alot of your own questions. Having already played other musical instruments, I would assume you know going to a teacher at least for the preliminary stuff is the smartest thing to do. If you looked at your time as money, spending it for a couple of lessons with a competent teacher will save you more time and frustration in the long run than wasting time browsing through drum lessons on YouTube.

That said, I love playing and its one of the more fun things I get to do. Try not to get too bogged down in the technical aspects in the beginning as I find that's a big turn-off when you just want to have fun. Start messing around with your drums by mimicking drums on songs you like, and if the fire continues to be there, then seek out teachers in your area.
 
The best advice I could give would be to listen to a lot of the music you'd like to play. Pick out the individual parts of the drums (bass drum, snare, cymbals etc). Watch every youtube video you can of a drummer preforming. Pay attention to the movements of their hands and feet. Practice, practice, practice. Every day.

I second this. I would also find a teacher, Im pretty sure somebody already said that.
 
First of all. Getting a teacher will make you improve faster than anything else.
Now,
Yes there is games like guitar hero for drums and they are awesome!
There is the basic FoFix that is just like the rockband version for drums on playstation/xbox with only 4 lanes+bassdrum. It kinda sucks because a lot of songs use more than only 4 lanes. And what happends is that your crash and snare have the same color which could result that you play your snare when it should have been a crash for example.

DTXmania is awesome though, It got 8-10 lanes.
I've stuck with the old original version with 8 lanes becaues I'm used to it but here
is a new version of the game: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aDYS0fA6HM

there are also rudiments to practice on this application not only songs.
I think it's great if you have a electronic drum-kit to get a USB-MIDI cable for 20$ and use this game. However it's far more effective if you spend your time getting a teacher, practice rudiments, transcribe cover songs, play the cover songs with others. But this "game" is better than nothing.
Your timing and feel for the drums will improve. Your ideas of what you can do will expand as you play over hundreds of songs.
Your chops won't unless you practice the rudiments with it. Your ability to play without it won't be the same either, you will learn to rely on playing with a tool that tells you what to play every second and it's a whole process to take that to real world without that help.
In the beginning I took my laptop with me to the rehearsals and put on the game and played with it on a acoustic kit, it went fine haha but I haven't touched the game for over a year because I finally realized what I should be doing... (Rudiments, Dynamics, Coordination exercises + transcribing and read & play proper sheet music, )
 
All very good suggestions from the members of this forum: Books/DVD's/Teacher/ etc., but no matter what, you have to have fun.

Have you ever stuck with anything which was boring or no fun? Probably not. Pick out some of your favorite songs, keep it to simple stuff, put on the headphones, take hold of the sticks near their fulcrum, hold steady, but make sure you are relaxed (especially your fingers and wrists) and play.

Honestly, this is not Rocket Science. Yes, as you advance over time you will learn there is a whole lot more to drumming than maybe any other instrument (except piano). But you have time.

I wish you the best!
 
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