Your biggest mistakes as a beginner drummer

I was gifted a pos kit in my 20’s and took seriously fixing it up and tuning it, and I’ve almost always had a kit since then. But it took twenty-five years till it occurred to me I might try my hand at drumming
 
bermuda said:
Overplaying.

Not by a lot, I never went out of my way to show-off or stand out. I always attempted to play tastefully and reserved. But my concept of taste was a little outside of where experience later brought me. I listen to recordings of rehearsals and gigs from the '70s, and cringe a little at some of the fills in particular that I did.
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that is probably the best way I have ever seen to describe what a lot of us went through in our salad days

the cringe is part of the Karma coming back!!
 
ZDrumMan said:
Reflecting back, I would say once I got confident with the lesson the teacher gave me I would not put my effort into learning and practicing. Then go to the lesson, demo what he/she wanted, and get my new assignment. Then repeat. I should have fully grasped the experience and pushed myself to excel rather than just do what was required.
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often times, that can also be partly fault of the teacher not explaining "why", but just explaining "how". I know many guys who instruct like this - they are not bad at teaching, bvut sometimes bad at making application awareness happen
 
petrez said:
Not using ear protection. I don't know if that is normal to use in a marching band setting (that's where I started out), but it took some years until I couldn't bear to handle the volume any more, in a rockband setting. I have hearing loss today, especially on my left ear. Not to the point that I need hearing aid, but still quite severe.

As far as the drumming goes, I'm not too sure. I started out with all the "right" things, rudiments, learning notes (which I have no use for today, however), practicing a lot. I guess I lacked confidence in myself with the instrument a lot though, wasn't that assertive, feeling it out a lot during my playing instead of being certain. I guess I could have worked on that earlier, but it seem to come naturally years later.
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man, not using hearing protection was just a thing back in the 80's when I was growing up. We did not use it marching band, and you would never be "such a wuss" to need hearing protection as a metalhead!!!

my current students all use ear protection now inside. Outside, it is a little different because it makes the listenign enviornment a bit harder, but some still even do outside

personally, I can not put things in my ears, or I throw up, so hearing protection for me is the Vic Firth headphones at practice. I still don't use it live b/c of the barfing thing, but my ears have nice callous' on them, so I am used to it. I am to the point with my "tin ear" that it is sometimes hard to be in large group conversations and pay attention
 
Thank you everyone so far. I’ll read through all of the comments and reply to as much as I can. I made a video about drumming mistakes and it was released 17 mins ago, if you are curious what topics I was talking about (and you all made so important points, that it was very hard to choose which ones made it into my video), just go to the section where I shared my channel and tune in.


Sorry to all the natives here for my spoken English by the way, in my country we learn English but we rarely speak it in day to day life. :)
 
Jasta 11 said:
hahaha i bought ( and still have) a 9 piece double bass kit because that was the look i wanted. i should have bought a really good 4 piece with top of the line cymbals instead.
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Isn't the correct answer, "both"?
 
I was 6 when I started so I don’t know if I made any critical mistakes or not. I know one mistake I’m making now is getting a little complacent and not practicing like I did when I restarted a couple years ago. But on the bright side, I’m pretty good again.
 
When I first started one of my biggest mistakes was coming in on the offbeat. And I remember when I was in church years ago I would actually clap on the offbeat.

But because my late husband was a multi-talented musician and thank God that he would be standing next to me during worship he would give me a nudge and get me back on track again.

So what I've realized when I'm actually playing a song I have to be listening closely. The more I practice the more it becomes very natural now.
 
996 said:
Not working harder in h.s. I didn’t decide on being professional until senior year. Big mistake. I did lots of work up to then but it should’ve been Big Lots. It put me on the bench the few years after h.s. trying to catch up. Swimming with the big fish. Man.. you need good flippers.
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Just cryptic enough to be very intriguing.
;)
 
Two things I’ve learned later in life that I wish I’d done early on in my drumming experience. First is to record myself often and listen to what I sounded like. I’m talking about recording myself practicing alone and also when playing with others. When I started recording myself, I was amazed at how much better I became, simply because I could pinpoint what sounded good and what sounded wrong. Also, I learned to “dance” while playing my drums, in order to get the feel and groove down. Literally dancing in my seat on the drum kit, rather than just sitting there stiffly, makes a big difference in how I perform songs and what I look like doing it. I look like I’m enjoying myself and people take notice of that. It also makes the chicks notice me more too!
 
Regrets/mistakes:
Not taking advantage of every musical opportunity offered in school and outside drum corps, etc.
Not having a teacher at all times.
Not running into someone who in my young life would have said "Hey kid, you could do this for a living."

So if you're a young person reading this, listen:
Hey kid, you could do this for a living.
 
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