First Drum Book (s)

JoeVermont said:
I also started on a practice pad. I did not have an Acro back in the day but always loved the sound - we had them in the band room at school and used them for orchestra. I got one a few years ago (for 200 bucks) out of desperation. I had a (rare) catastrophic failure with my go to snare and due to the pandemic, there were no parts (Yamaha sent me a whole new snare so they definitely made it right). Found a 1970 vintage Acro on Craig's List. Yes, these snares are overpriced but worth it IMO, it's an excellent drum. The Acrolite was intended to be the backup, but it's been the main snare for almost 3 years, now.
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Not the man himself :) just that syncopation book :)
 
I started lessons when I was 10 years old in 1976 with a hippie dude I thought was going to be cool, but he was a total hard ass. The only book we used was modern reading text. He insisted I count everything out loud, playing alternating strokes with my hands while both feet playing in unison quarter notes with the metro on at 40 bpm. I had a notebook in which he would write out further exercises and rudiments. He Insisted I did not look at other books and try to get ahead with the rudiments because he said there was a certain order that we had to go through and we couldn’t move on until he said I was ready and I would only hurt myself trying to get ahead . Oh, how life was so different before the Internet! He said all the drum set books were corny, and the only way to learn the drum set was to listen and imitate what was on the albums and play with other people. We only worked on a drum pad, but he did turn me onto all the great jazz, rock and funk and Latin drummers too. Lucky there was a pretty good library where I grew up, otherwise there would be no way to listen that stuff back then.
He was super strict about grip, posture, wrist and arm motions, and made damn sure I counted out loud and understood rhythmic notation. No fun instant gratification stuff at all back then! LOL
 

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Paul Blood said:
I started lessons when I was 10 years old in 1976 with a hippie dude I thought was going to be cool, but he was a total hard ass. The only book we used was modern reading text. He insisted I count everything out loud, playing alternating strokes with my hands while both feet playing in unison quarter notes with the metro on at 40 bpm. I had a notebook in which he would write out further exercises and rudiments. He Insisted I did not look at other books and try to get ahead with the rudiments because he said there was a certain order that we had to go through and we couldn’t move on until he said I was ready and I would only hurt myself trying to get ahead . Oh, how life was so different before the Internet! He said all the drum set books were corny, and the only way to learn the drum set was to listen and imitate what was on the albums and play with other people. We only worked on a drum pad, but he did turn me onto all the great jazz, rock and funk and Latin drummers too. Lucky there was a pretty good library where I grew up, otherwise there would be no way to listen that stuff back then.
He was super strict about grip, posture, wrist and arm motions, and made damn sure I counted out loud and understood rhythmic notation. No fun instant gratification stuff at all back then! LOL
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So looking back on those lessons with today's lens.... worth it?
 
JoeVermont said:
So looking back on those lessons with today's lens.... worth it?
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Back then there weren’t many options, so you studied with the local teacher, whoever that may be.
I didn’t come from a musical family at all, so I feel very fortunate to start lessons early on. That teacher gave me a pretty strong foundation on hand technique and rhythmic notation reading. He turned me on to a lot of good music that was completely off my radar. He got me reading, modern drummer magazine and would tell my parents when great drummers like Buddy Rich were performing in the area, so I got to see a lot really good concerts as a kid.
He opened my eyes and ears to a lot of things that I would’ve never been exposed to otherwise.,

It would’ve been nice if we actually worked on a real drum set rather than pads, and if he could have demonstrated for me some drum set related things rather than just talking about it. We did go onto work through a lot of other snare drum books, and I was able figure out the basics of drum set on my own and later with many other teachers, but basically he was right, all the answers are on the recordings, and you learn by playing with others. He used to tell me get your technique and reading together when you’re young so you don’t have to worry about it when you’re old.
 
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