So You Want to Learn How to Play Drums
So, you want to learn how to play drums. Beat the skins. Hit the wooden circles with sticks in pursuit of that sweet, sweet beat. In this endeavor, I salute you, especially if you are a child living at home with parents (they will learn to deal with noise).
Drummers are a strange breed. We sit in the back and most of our efforts go unnoticed and underestimated, especially by people who don’t play musical instruments and don’t understand how good drumming complements any musical style. When I took lessons at a local record store as a kid, my drum teacher likened drumming to flying in a helicopter: both skills require you to sync multiple body parts at once, and anything less would spell disaster.
It should be noted that learning to play drums takes time, but once you get a feel for how to play the simple beats and rudiments diligently, little is more fun.
Start with golf clubs and a training pad.
Drumming is an investment that takes time, energy and money. It can also test the patience of those around you due to the cacophony of sound produced by hitting drums without much skill or practice. If this is your child looking to learn – and even if it is you, presumably an adult – I would suggest starting small by purchasing a plastic training pad and several pairs of shins.
They won’t sound particularly good (they are plastic after all), but they will help you get a feel for the basic, rudimentary skills, which are the building blocks of better drumming. From there, refer to YouTube guides. There aretons of them , and they will show you what you need to know: paradids, single and double shots, flames, one-shot fours, one-shot fives, buzzing rollers and so on and so forth.
These basic instructions will provide you with at least something to take with you to your drumming lesson as soon as you feel ready to start.
Maybe buy a snare drum first
You will notice that I do not advise anyone to buy a complete set right away. Drum kits – well, decent anyway – are expensive and require a lot of maintenance. First you need to learn how to tune it: you need to know how to arrange your hi-hats, tombs, floor tombs, bass drum, and any cymbals and accessories you might like. Lots of tedious pens and pieces of felt are also involved.
With that in mind, buy a snare drum first. You can practice on the snare drum the same beginnings as on the plastic pads, only it will be more like what you actually play. My parents did this for me when I first started out and it was a good step for them; they wanted to know if I was really interested in drumming, just the idea of drumming – and my daily snare drum presence was a good sign that I was ready to move on to a real drum kit.
Start lessons
If you don’t have some kind of virtuoso talent, you will need lessons – at least for a while. In this age of pandemic and social distancing, it may take a little longer for you to be in the same room as a teacher, but finding drumming lessons online should be easy enough. If you are anxious to strike up a drumming relationship with Sensei, there are many online resources at your disposal . I would recommend reading the instructor’s reviews (if any) and making an informed decision from there. If none of the larger digital-centric lesson plans seem to work, check with your local music store as they might offer lessons online anyway.
Once you find a good teacher, you will definitely be given a book with basic drum tabs. Drum sheet music will show you how the drum rhythms are articulated in writing, so you can learn to read the basics of music. It’s like speaking another language, so you start small and start building from there.
Buy drum kit
Congratulations, you’ve earned the right to spend money on a great old drum kit that John Bonham and Buddy Rich could be proud of. Talk to your teacher or the drummer guys about which setup best suits your ambition. I think it’s kind of minimalist: I play a four-piece drum kit with one crash cymbal and a ride cymbal (not that you’ll ever need more than one ride cymbal).
If you can cut and poke a smaller set, you don’t need anything special. At the very least, you should definitely start playing with other people (when you can do it safely, in the middle of a pandemic) and just have fun. And if you want to introduce yourself as Neil Peart and buy a 30-piece set, go for it. I would love to talk to you.