Wine and Ebay don't mix - I appear to have bought a drumkit
Discussion
garycat said:
So, what is the best way for me to learn drums and also help my 12 year old son to learn. Any online resources?
My main influences are prog rock - Neil Peart, Gavin Harrison, Carl Palmer, Danny Carey.
If you are starting from scratch, ie, don't know anything at all... get a proper music book with a CD. Much easier than watching someone online. My main influences are prog rock - Neil Peart, Gavin Harrison, Carl Palmer, Danny Carey.
Some of life's best purchases are made on the Vino!
Hope you don't mind but i sent you a quick email as I'm a drum tutor and may be able to help with lessons for you and/or your son.
Good choice of drummers too. Some of my favourites and I've been lucky enough to study with Gavin Harrison last year.
Cheers
Martin
Hope you don't mind but i sent you a quick email as I'm a drum tutor and may be able to help with lessons for you and/or your son.
Good choice of drummers too. Some of my favourites and I've been lucky enough to study with Gavin Harrison last year.
Cheers
Martin
rswift said:
Look on the bright side, you can always flog the drums. I'm a pro musician than mixed EBay & Red wine and ended up with a Trabant. I've got loads of mates who know how work a drum kit, not so many who can rebuild £400 worth of Trabant !
Trabby engines have only got a dozen-ish components, so do it yourself; what could possibly go wrong? 
It's been a few years since I've played properly now but used to be "semi-pro" with a few recordings under my belt. Unfortunately, I don't get to play much any more, life got in the way of playing rock star...!
Pick good influences, spend some time on YouTube and in drum forums to figure out the true greats. Jojo Mayer, Travis Barker, Thomas Pridgen, Tony Royster Jr. immediately spring to mind as favourites but there's loads out there. Old school "drum battles" are excellent to watch and really show where modern drumming evolved from. Gospel Chops on YouTube is great too and I'm sure there's many more.
Learn guitar alongside drums. Widens perspective ready for playing with others and teaches "musicality" alongside rhythm. Teaches rhythmic muscle memory over and above movements and positions used when drumming and help with dexterity and delicacy. Besides it's a nice easy instrument to pick up.
Learn to count time - 1 2 3 4, 2 2 3 4, 3 2 3 4 or 1 2, 2 2, 3 2. Beats and bars etc... Absolutely essential. Plenty of resources online for basic music theory I'm sure. Just count time along with all your favourite songs until you do it naturally.
Don't hit the drums too hard. Watch how little most top-tier drummers actually move their body when they're really going for it. I really struggled with this as it's easy to get carried away but it's wasted energy and WILL effect your time if your thrashing around like a wounded octopus.
I never learned to read drum score, only music score through trumpet playing in a military / big band when younger which is fundamentally the same I guess... Maybe someone else could weigh in on that, not sure if necessary unless playing orchestral percussion or military...
Once you've picked up a fundamental, immediately work it into a sequence and move on. Getting stuck into ruts or plateauing is very easy when practicing.
Use a metronome or click track from day one. I didn't and regretted it as soon as I went outside the practice room. Combine with counting time for an easy passage up the difficulty / dedication scale!
Stay away from repetition when practicing. Similar reasons to above. This is where influences are important as often your favourite bands now won't have the most technical or inspiring drum tracks.
Broaden your influences, listen to some Jazz, Bluegrass, Reggae, country, big band, Latin, gospel, hip-hip, swing, military corp. the more of these styles you learn earlier on the easier you will find it and the fewer plateaus you'll hit along the way.
"Groove" (or tiny shifts in timing of accented notes) is where the secret is and is what glues any band together giving a track it's feel. This will evolve naturally with time and practice so don't worry that when you start off, it will sound like a horse falling down the stairs. It could be worse, your son might have wanted a violin... This is where brushes, "moon-goo" and o-rings come in, they'll give a more satisfying sound until familiarity and skill improves.
Use both grips from day one. I didn't and wish I had. See Jojo Mayer.
Check out the variety of sticks on offer, try to vary what your playing with as much as possible. Keeps things interesting and noise levels down.
My hearing is thoroughly damaged from years of abuse, especially high frequencies. Wear ear defenders or decent headphones whenever possible.
Your limbs CAN do all those different things at once, just keep telling yourself that when it's not working out and take a breath, step back a little in complexity, break it down and try again. Isolating hands and feet or taking a drum out will help early on. Rome wasn't build in a day and it will take time and patience to get through the first few sessions. I imagine there's some great stuff on YouTube to get you off the ground.
YouTube is awesome for backing tracks. Get some decent headphones and search for backing track for drums, I use some B&W P5s and an iPad and just jam away in the loft when I can.
Finally, if you haven't already. Get a Mac, an audio interface and a couple of microphones. Open Garageband and create some musical masterpieces. Great fun and some great tools for manipulating recordings!
I hope some of that helps, got a bit carried away as I've just come back from setting mine up for a charity gig tonight at our local. I'm not playing unfortunately but a rather great sudo-Pink Floyd tribute band are.
Best of luck!
Pick good influences, spend some time on YouTube and in drum forums to figure out the true greats. Jojo Mayer, Travis Barker, Thomas Pridgen, Tony Royster Jr. immediately spring to mind as favourites but there's loads out there. Old school "drum battles" are excellent to watch and really show where modern drumming evolved from. Gospel Chops on YouTube is great too and I'm sure there's many more.
Learn guitar alongside drums. Widens perspective ready for playing with others and teaches "musicality" alongside rhythm. Teaches rhythmic muscle memory over and above movements and positions used when drumming and help with dexterity and delicacy. Besides it's a nice easy instrument to pick up.
Learn to count time - 1 2 3 4, 2 2 3 4, 3 2 3 4 or 1 2, 2 2, 3 2. Beats and bars etc... Absolutely essential. Plenty of resources online for basic music theory I'm sure. Just count time along with all your favourite songs until you do it naturally.
Don't hit the drums too hard. Watch how little most top-tier drummers actually move their body when they're really going for it. I really struggled with this as it's easy to get carried away but it's wasted energy and WILL effect your time if your thrashing around like a wounded octopus.
I never learned to read drum score, only music score through trumpet playing in a military / big band when younger which is fundamentally the same I guess... Maybe someone else could weigh in on that, not sure if necessary unless playing orchestral percussion or military...
Once you've picked up a fundamental, immediately work it into a sequence and move on. Getting stuck into ruts or plateauing is very easy when practicing.
Use a metronome or click track from day one. I didn't and regretted it as soon as I went outside the practice room. Combine with counting time for an easy passage up the difficulty / dedication scale!
Stay away from repetition when practicing. Similar reasons to above. This is where influences are important as often your favourite bands now won't have the most technical or inspiring drum tracks.
Broaden your influences, listen to some Jazz, Bluegrass, Reggae, country, big band, Latin, gospel, hip-hip, swing, military corp. the more of these styles you learn earlier on the easier you will find it and the fewer plateaus you'll hit along the way.
"Groove" (or tiny shifts in timing of accented notes) is where the secret is and is what glues any band together giving a track it's feel. This will evolve naturally with time and practice so don't worry that when you start off, it will sound like a horse falling down the stairs. It could be worse, your son might have wanted a violin... This is where brushes, "moon-goo" and o-rings come in, they'll give a more satisfying sound until familiarity and skill improves.
Use both grips from day one. I didn't and wish I had. See Jojo Mayer.
Check out the variety of sticks on offer, try to vary what your playing with as much as possible. Keeps things interesting and noise levels down.
My hearing is thoroughly damaged from years of abuse, especially high frequencies. Wear ear defenders or decent headphones whenever possible.
Your limbs CAN do all those different things at once, just keep telling yourself that when it's not working out and take a breath, step back a little in complexity, break it down and try again. Isolating hands and feet or taking a drum out will help early on. Rome wasn't build in a day and it will take time and patience to get through the first few sessions. I imagine there's some great stuff on YouTube to get you off the ground.
YouTube is awesome for backing tracks. Get some decent headphones and search for backing track for drums, I use some B&W P5s and an iPad and just jam away in the loft when I can.
Finally, if you haven't already. Get a Mac, an audio interface and a couple of microphones. Open Garageband and create some musical masterpieces. Great fun and some great tools for manipulating recordings!
I hope some of that helps, got a bit carried away as I've just come back from setting mine up for a charity gig tonight at our local. I'm not playing unfortunately but a rather great sudo-Pink Floyd tribute band are.
Best of luck!
Forgot posture.
Spend at least a few hours setting the drums up the way you feel comfortable. Everything should be easily reachable. Start with stool height and use a "throne" with a back if possible or you will ache, very important for effective heel and toe action on the kick. Worth researching this a little.
Don't be scared to move drums and cymbals around for easier access to fills or your favourite sounds. There no right or wring way to set them up...
Spend at least a few hours setting the drums up the way you feel comfortable. Everything should be easily reachable. Start with stool height and use a "throne" with a back if possible or you will ache, very important for effective heel and toe action on the kick. Worth researching this a little.
Don't be scared to move drums and cymbals around for easier access to fills or your favourite sounds. There no right or wring way to set them up...
garycat said:
Thanks Firebox - great stuff there 
I already play guitar so I got that bit of your advice covered, and I've started with the online drum lessons at justindrums.com to give me a bit of a start.
Excellent, good luck!I already play guitar so I got that bit of your advice covered, and I've started with the online drum lessons at justindrums.com to give me a bit of a start.
If this had been around when I was learning, it would have been my bible! So much excellent tuition in here to save hours, weeks, even years of bad technique slowing down progress - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Jojo-Mayer-Secret-Weapons-...
(Try not to skip the boring stuff like counting time...
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