Learning to play drums

41
I started practicing the drum set seriously about a year ago and I can say there is no substitute for practicing rudiments. I'm a classically trained pianist but practicing snare rudiments has been the most tedious practice I've ever encountered. It will make you better faster. Another thing that will accelerate that even more is counting ALOUD while you're practicing. A few months of this combined with actual jamming/gigging and I guarantee you'll be better than most drummers out there. Add a metronome and there's no stopping you.

Learning to play drums

43
fedaykin13 wrote:I really appreciate all the responses so far

Unfortunately I've been unable to practice on the actual drumset, but did try the whole "air drumming"

all i can say is i'm really looking forward to the moment when the snare/hi-hat/kick epiphany happens

I feel like i'm playing a video game and i've gotten in trouble in a tough spot and resort to hitting all the buttons

one odd thing i've noticed though is in the past when i do air drumming i seem to want to use my left foot for the kick drum despite being a righty and feel i should be drumming righty.

this might come from tapping my foot to the beat when playing guitar and because my right foot is under the body of the guitar i use my left instead

does that make sense?


That makes total sense, actually. It's a good thing if you tap your left foot rather than your right.

Something you don't actually have to ever learn how to do to play rock is to use your left foot to do stuff on the hihat pedal. You can get by just letting it sit there if you want the hihat closed, and holding it up in the air or taking it off the pedal and resting it on th floor if you want the hihat open, and you can leave it at that***.

But there's also the trick of tapping your foot on the hihat pedal along with the downbeat, while playing the ride cymbal instead of the hihat, or the toms instead of the hihat, and the left leg just keeps the downbeat on the hihat. Tapping your foot along with the downbeat while playing guitar is doing exactly that. In fact, something that you might wanna mess around with (or don't) is to sit behind a drumkit and play your guitar while tapping your left foot on the hihat pedal like you might normally tap it on the floor.

If you get the hang of that, and wanna step it up a notch, try hitting the kick with your right foot, then the hihat with your left foot, then the kick, the hihat, right, left, just going back and forth. And then while you're doing that, play the Pixies song Vamos on the guitar or bass or whatever. The actual song maybe gets too fast as it goes along, but the tempo at the beginning might be just right for you. R L R L R L with the feet, E E G on the guitar or bass, and you've got yourself a great song.

Then instead of using the left foot, use the left hand, and you're playing kick snare kick snare kick snare. Then if you can hit the hihat along with each of those, so it's kick+hat, snare+hat, K+H, S+H, K+H, S+H you will be playing all three limbs.

Then, learn how to play the drums for the Pixies song "Cactus". Don't even need the hihat for that one, mostly. foot foot both-hands (pause) on repeat. You can do it with both hands on the snare hit, or just the left hand. Both ways are good practice. There's little stuff going on with the floor tom and hihat and whatever, but ignore it for now. Worry about that later on when you're bored of doing just the kick and snare.

Then, put on the Pixies song "Gouge Away" and figure out how to play along with the riff that he plays during the bulk of the song. It's a fricken groove and a half, and it's a very basic beat. It's the "1 2 3 4" thing that people were describing above, but you don't have to count it, you can just listen to it and do it.

K+H, H, S+H, H, over and over and over.

You don't need a drumkit to do this, btw. Right foot on the floor, right hand on your left tit playing the hihat, left hand on your belly playing the snare. There's the flippy thing that he does right around the middle of each verse bit, and when it comes up, just keep playing the beat you were playing for the rest of the song and see if it lines up. It should. If it doesn't, don't sweat it. Just find that kick drum, which is on the 1, and jump back on as best you can.

Basically the Pixies is a great place to start. He's a great drummer, and a lot of the time he's playing very, very straightforward beats that just serve the song. Great stuff.




*** you will never play "My Black Ass" if you leave it at that, though. :)
"The bastards have landed"

www.myspace.com/thechromerobes - now has a couple songs from the new album

Learning to play drums

44
scott wrote: In fact, something that you might wanna mess around with (or don't) is to sit behind a drumkit and play your guitar while tapping your left foot on the hihat pedal like you might normally tap it on the floor.






*** you will never play "My Black Ass" if you leave it at that, though. :)



Great idea and I'm going to try it. Along with your tit practice.

Todd is one of my favorite drummers so hopefully i won't leave it at that.

Again Thanks Scott for taking the time to give me advice.
scott wrote:It was fun. We laughed, we cried, most of us shit ourselves as far as I know. What a world.

Learning to play drums

46
fedaykin13 wrote:I really appreciate all the responses so far

Unfortunately I've been unable to practice on the actual drumset, but did try the whole "air drumming"

all i can say is i'm really looking forward to the moment when the snare/hi-hat/kick epiphany happens



I learned to play my first beat tapping on my friend's kitchen table. He told me more or less what I told you earlier in the thread.

Then I went home, grabbed a couple of wooden spoons and played air drums but with my left knee as the snare. I think I just tapped along to whatever was on MTV.

Another way is to take a kitchen chair and face it toward your armchair and imagine that's a kit. Use the cushion as the snare and the right and left arms as high-hat and ride and for fills just attack the whole damn thing.


All the other advice in this thread is good but you really need to nail that basic beat. A mate of mine bought a cheapo kit the other day and I taught him his first beat last night. He was shaky and kept getting frustrated at himself when he would hesitate after two bars and miss the beat but it's really just practice. Do it for an hour straight and you'll have it, I'm sure.
simmo wrote:Someone make my carrot and grapefruits smoke. Please.

Learning to play drums

47
that damned fly wrote:just play them. everyday.

play them with people whenever you can.

the rest of the shit will fill itself in. for any big questions, just ask ringo.

This is correct. It's all about practice for any instrument, and always, always read don'tfeartheringo's posts. The guy has a wealth of knowledge. When he's not sure or has references to cite, his citations (links) are excellent.

Having said that, here's my two cents:
I'd suggest playing to AC/DC and Ramones records for starters. Simple ways to keep rhythm in time. Eventually (as in two days later) you're going to want something a bit more complex. From there I would recommend playing to some Gang of Four. Hugo Burnham's work is wonderfully stripped down and sparse, but it is by no means simple. Lots of syncopation and orchestration going on in his parts. His parts are not a pain in the ass to figure out or keep up with, but they are more drumming than beat keeping.

Other than that, read don'tfeartheringo's posts. Can't stress that enough.
This is going to get worse before it gets any better.

Learning to play drums

48
good stuff on the left foot. probably too advanced for just starting out, but a good practice is to get a straight beat going then as you move to your fill take over the hat part with your foot so there's a constant thing going.

one thing that a lot of southern drummers do that i hardly ever see up here is a jazz influenced thing where the left hat foot isn't on the downbeats, but ups. i've got the straight 4 ingrained pretty hardcore, but it sounds great if you can manage to pull it off - ride a straight beat on the floor w/1/8th notes, and step on your hats on the 'ands" of the beat.

basically this, but double time it.

http://www.expertvillage.com/video/5743 ... t-left.htm

a good bridging of that into indie rock is chase from esque in game i always lose. a memphis/now new york band. http://www.myspace.com/esqueband

really there seem to be 2 major schools - rock: dominant empahsis on the kick, and 1 & 3, or jazz: emphasis on snare, 2 & 4. check out different records and listen to the mixes and listen to the relationships of kick and snare. sometimes it's all kick. sometimes all snare. sometimes they so compressed it's even kick and snare.
Last edited by nick92675_Archive on Tue Aug 19, 2008 12:38 am, edited 1 time in total.
post honeymoon | bang! bang! | new black

Learning to play drums

50
i'm also learning drums so i prefer to just bump this thread.

i have this problem. during playing, specially in ( relatively ) fast songs, my right hand (the one i use for the cymbals ) starts to sweat way too much and at the end it becomes very difficult to hold the drumstick and makes my playing really sloppy.
obviously i'm doing something very wrong. suggestions?
so yeah, i'm a pussy.

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 0 guests