Teaching yourself drumming can be both thrilling and physically demanding. Proper warm-up exercises and hearing protection before beginning are crucial, as is keeping up with an established practice schedule to stay on top of things.
For maximum control when holding sticks, relax your hand with fingers slightly curled – this will give you greater gripping ability over them.
Getting Started
Launching into drumming can be exciting and fulfilling experience, but before beginning it’s important that you have all of the proper equipment. A drum kit, which can range in price, should contain everything that’s required. In addition, drumsticks and practice pads (quiet pads used for practicing patterns and practicing stick control) will also be required.
Grip is of paramount importance when starting out, as this can often be the source of beginner errors. Aim for a grip with thumb and index fingers on opposite sides of its pivot point (fulcrum) while keeping ring and pinky fingers slightly curled around it for maximum control over your stick – this technique is known as’matched gripping’ and will provide maximum power over it.
Rudiments are hand patterns you can play using your hands, and an essential component of drumming. Beginners should start off learning double stroke and paradiddle patterns before progressing onto single strokes and flams rudiments. Once these have become second nature to you, experiment with other beats on the snare drum or use an app like metronome to help improve timing and develop rhythmic skills.
Note that when playing drums, always wear ear protection as its volumes can be extremely loud! Also make sure that you have a regular practice schedule, to build muscle memory and improve coordination.
While practicing, it’s crucial that you count out loud to help keep the beat in time. Do this until your body naturally counts the beats for you; don’t give up! Practice makes perfect! And don’t forget to take great care with maintaining and protecting your drum kit and accessories so it looks newer for longer! Additionally, consider joining other drummers by forming a band – not only will playing together motivate further practice sessions, but finding like-minded musicians will open up opportunities as well.
Equipment
For playing drums, you will require two sticks (drummers refer to them as mallets) and a drum set. A complete drum set includes all the main components of a drum such as kick, snare, hi-hat, ride cymbals and small splash cymbals as well as bass drum and toms in a sturdy case designed to protect your investment.
Your practice pad must respond to the stick you use and provide enough rebound for controlled rebound. As much as possible, feel the stick reverberate back towards you; the more familiarity your muscles become with controlling it; this technique is known as controlled rebound and should become fundamental to both speed and control in your practice sessions.
As soon as you begin practicing drumming, you should invest in a metronome to keep you on time while practicing. A metronome will ensure you aren’t going too fast or too slow while giving your drumming more rhythm and consistency. There are various free metronome apps that can assist you, and using one early on in your drumming journey is recommended to reap maximum benefit from it.
As a beginner drummer, there are other items that may come in handy, including drum mutes to reduce volume when playing and a drum brush or stick cleaner to maintain your gear in good condition. Finally, drumsticks suited to your hands and playing style will also come in handy – the German grip (shown below) is popularly used by drummers; Joe Morello uses it in the video at the top of this article as Joe uses this style himself; its name refers to how its thumb rests opposite index finger on stick before pinching inward to become pivot point or pivot point for performance!
Lessons
As with anything new, learning to play drums requires taking things slowly and building upon the basics before moving forward. A beginner drummer’s biggest mistake will be trying to do too much too soon – not only will this make learning harder but could even lead to injuries! In order to avoid this happening again, create a regular practice schedule so your muscles become familiar with playing the drums.
Beginners may want to start off with a basic drum beat; this will enable them to build the fundamentals of playing drums while learning along with songs on the radio. Select a basic beat consisting of four quarter notes: for each count hit your hi-hat twice before adding bass drum and snare drum on counts one and three respectively, before practicing until mastery of this basic beat is reached before moving on to more complex patterns.
Learning music reading is another essential aspect of drumming. There are various approaches you can take, with drum notation being one. Drum notation helps identify each drum within its kit as well as which note to hit when, making this an essential skill if your aim is becoming a professional drummer.
Beginners would benefit greatly from learning both drum notation and the rudiments. Doing this will allow them to develop their hand movements more naturally while playing drums with other musicians. There are various books available which teach these fundamentals musically.
When practicing, it is advisable to use a metronome. This will help ensure that your rhythm remains on beat and that your tempo remains constant, as well as helping focus your practice session and enhance the quality of your drumming. Listening to music you enjoy while practicing can also keep motivation levels up!
Practice
Drumming is an engaging physical activity and takes practice to develop muscle memory and play correctly. Like any instrument, starting early and building healthy habits from the get-go are both key for success in drumming – such as making sure that you sit correctly at your kit and practice in an effective manner. Furthermore, taking care of yourself by stretching or exercising prior to sitting at the drums will increase blood flow to limbs while minimizing any chance of overexerting yourself or injuries due to overdoing it can help prevent injuries caused by overdoing it!
Once you’ve established a solid grasp on how to sit at a drums and what the parts are called, it’s time to start learning some beats. A great place to start would be the straight 8th groove; one of the most popular drumbeats used across various music genres and found in thousands of songs across different genres – which also serves as an excellent foundation upon which to build from.
As one of the cornerstones of playing drums is keeping time with other musicians in a band, counting out loud when playing is essential for developing your rhythm and timing when practicing solo. Learning this skill will enable you to build better timing as a drummer when practicing alone and ultimately help to advance your practice skills and enhance performance.
Beginners need to learn the proper way to set up their drum kit and cymbals. While this might initially seem complicated, with practice it becomes a much quicker and simpler task. Loosen the top wingnut on the cymbal stand, pull off and remove plastic’sleeves’ on bottom cymbals (this prevents metal on metal contact).
Step two is to remove the wingnut, pull back off the cymbals, and tighten their screws to adjust pitch. Step three involves placing them back on their stands and tightening again – use soft tools such as rubber mallets to avoid damaging any of them as you tighten. Don’t forget drum sticks and hearing protection! Without them, music cannot reach your ears, potentially damaging it permanently.