Learning drumming takes perseverance and determination – talent may help, but those who work at it will go further.
Hold the stick with an even grip so that the thumb rests opposite of your index finger on its tip (this is known as the fulcrum point). Relax your fingers and don’t hold too tightly.
Stick Technique
How you hold the stick makes an enormous impactful on its sound. A relaxed grip is key for producing smooth and fluid strokes while controlling how much force is put into each hit – otherwise you risk overhitting or under-hitting a drum, leading to damage or simply not providing enough force for it to create good sounding notes.
There are various methods of holding your sticks, but for beginners we suggest the matched grip style as an easy and flexible way of playing different patterns and styles of drumming.
Simply, to play drumstick, one holds it with their dominant hand using their thumb and first finger as well as lightly wrapping their other fingers around it. The butt of the stick should protrude slightly from your hand and should never touch any part of the drum skin as its sound depends on physics of its composition – any excess skin could interfere with this sound-making ability of the instrument.
Matched grip can be altered for improved sound or control, such as by tightening up on your stick and/or holding it lower depending on your technique and genre of music you’re playing. Pro drummers such as Mike Mangini of Dream Theater and Danny Carey from Tool have both utilized such modifications for specific genres of music.
Practice double-stroke rolls as another easy pattern to develop coordination and advance drumming skills. Beginning slowly will give your body time to adapt while helping prevent mistakes that might otherwise be hard to rectify if done at faster speeds.
Timing
Once you’ve mastered holding and playing free strokes on the drums, the next step should be practicing rhythms. To do so, drum notation – which is unique to percussion instruments – will come in handy. Similar to sheet music, drum notation features vertical bar lines separated by spaces called measures; these measures represent one beat in song.
Learning to count and read drum notation will provide a better understanding of playing rhythms. Furthermore, you’ll need to realize there are different tempos and dynamics associated with drumming that could alter the sound you produce.
Soft drum hits have an entirely different sound than hard or “accented” ones, such as playing an accented stroke (known as rim shot ) on the rim of the drum; soft hits on its head do not produce the same dynamic results.
Size and shape of a drum shell can also make a significant impactful statement about its sound output, with larger ones producing deeper tones than their smaller counterparts. Furthermore, drum heads may be made out of materials like leather, plastic or even metal to alter not only how long-lived their sound production will be but also its quality and tone production.
Understanding drum notation takes time, but using associations early can help you remember its symbols. For instance, if you’re learning quarter notes, an effective way to remember them would be tapping your knee on every count (“1-2-3-4”). When listening to songs with this rhythm in it, count along and hit your knee each time the beat passes by.
Repetition will allow you to understand drum notation and improve your timing skills, both essential components for successful drumming – including reading sheet music and performing with bands.
Rhythmic Patterns
Drummers can create an incredible variety of rhythmic patterns using beats and rests. When starting out, it is advisable to start off simple using only one playing surface (usually the snare drum). This will build your coordination and timing skills as you develop. Once this becomes comfortable for you, add more playing surfaces gradually as your abilities develop.
Most drum music is written using musical notation that consists of many of the same elements found in sheet music, including notes and rests separated by vertical bar lines, each measure representing four beats on a drum set, so it is crucial that each measure be counted carefully while playing different notes on your instrument.
Drum notation also contains many symbols to show how notes should be played, such as staccato notes having dots above them and long notes having tie symbols to visually display their duration. Drum notation includes signs to show when accented strokes should be struck harder for more dynamic sound production.
Notation symbol the “slash” indicates when notes should be played longer or shorter than normal; drummers commonly use this mark when changing rhythmic patterns by using one drum for shorter or longer than normal duration.
Once you’ve learned to read basic drum rhythms, it is advisable to practice them aloud before trying them on the drums. This will strengthen the link between your brain and limbs as well as identify any challenging rhythms which need work. In addition, try reading rhythms at slower speed so as to get an understanding of their appropriateness when played on drums.
As part of your drumming practice, it’s beneficial to work alongside other musicians or drum machines. This allows you to hear how the drums fit into a song and ensure that your rhythm matches that of other instruments, while learning how to listen for their phrasing and mimic it on your drumming.
Reading Music
Learning to read drum music is one of the cornerstones of successful drumming. Since drums are rhythm instruments, most drum songs require that drummers keep time with other musicians by reading music in time with others and knowing which beats to hit when and what cymbals to strike. Reading music also makes playing with other musicians possible such as singers or bass players.
While drums and other percussion instruments can produce an array of sounds depending on their size, shape and tuning, most drum beats share similar traits – for instance, larger and deeper-sounding drums tend to produce higher beats per minute (BPM).
As part of learning how to play drums, students should first begin with hand drumming. This can be accomplished by tapping your thighs, pillow or any other surface that does not damage. Once comfortable with hand drumming, novice players should move onto rhythms involving left and right hands on one drum; this will improve accuracy and timing, particularly when counting aloud with a metronome.
Once you are comfortable playing basic rhythms on one drum, add in the kick drum foot to help coordinate all four limbs and improve foot control. As soon as you can successfully play beats that involve both your hands and feet simultaneously, begin working in hi-hat pedal foot techniques for enhanced coordination as well as to play more complex rhythms.
Learning drum music can be a difficult challenge for beginners as you must memorize various symbols and letters at once. Break lessons down into smaller chunks and focus on one at a time until it becomes second nature – this will help you memorize more easily while connecting the various parts together more seamlessly. Early associations should also help remind yourself of specific symbols or letters; you could try associating “pizza” with eighth notes while “cheese” could remind yourself of quarter notes.