As said, slow it down until you can get it to a speed that you can play along with, and speed it up maybe 4 bpm at a time. Do not continue playing it sloppy, as it will engrain bad habits and bad muscle memory. It may takes weeks or perhaps even months to get up to full tempo, but give it time. Also, learn to play the notes in a relaxed manner and evenly (or perhaps with groups of notes accented–depends on what the lesson is.) And switch off with doing the excercises leading with your right hand and leading with your left hand so you’re equally comfortable to play groupings as RLRLRLRL and LRLRLRLR. Don’t get ahead of yourself. You don’t need to be doing blazing fast sextuplets yet.
Good luck dude. I lack the ability to push good sounds out of musical instruments. But I appreciate the people who can. From time to time I get hung up on you tube drumming videos that I can’t stop watching like this one,
it's like magic to me.And I probably would also start incorporating more of my limbs into early lessons as well, but it’s hard for me to remember how I started. Maybe something like first doing hi-hat eighth notes at 60 bpm; then once I’m comfortable with that, adding kick on one and three; and once I’m comfortable with that, adding the left hand snare. Just an idea, but that will get you the backbone of a basic rock beat.
Thanks for all the advice everyone, I really appreciate it. I want to ask about Lamoral’s advice though:
So I’m a bit puzzled by this. First, it seems to contradict Sicks Ate’s advice in #12 to NOT just “thrash around”. Second, I’m a bit concerned that Lamoral and Guest-starring: Id! think that this is even possible for me. Should a completely inexperienced drummer be able to pick up a pair of sticks and start playing along to a song? That seems way beyond my abilities at this point.
I did learn the “money beat”. (Not sure if that’s standard terminology; it’s 1/8 notes on the closed hi-hat with kick on 1 and 3, and snare on 2 and 4.) And I’ve tried playing that along to When the Levee Breaks which is kind of fun, but doesn’t feel like I’m developing new skills like it does when I learn beats. If I were to deviate from the money beat, I feel like I’d quickly get lost and have to stop and catch up to the beat again. And I’d just be using ad hoc beats and fills that I invent myself and (I guess) won’t actually use once I learn the real methodology.
I mean, no one would tell someone to start learning piano or guitar by just fooling around with the instrument and try to play along with a song. So I feel like I may be misunderstanding this advice.
Very nice. That’s a good start. I would then maybe move on to adding one more note to the kick drum. Keeping the pattern you already have above, one beat is is to add the kick drum right before the 3 (on the “2 and” beat. It should sound a little bit like a “heartbeat” now.) and the other beat is to add a kick on the eighth note after the 3 (a simple, “driving” rock beat.) Those two are what I would characterize as the quintessential rock beats, even more so than the “money beat.”
And then there’s also the “four to the floor” beat where the kick is on all fours. Pay attention so you’re hitting the notes cleanly together when they coincide and that you’re not “flamming” them (playing them slightly apart.) You want it sounding pretty tight and clean when you’re learning (you can learn to drag or push certain aspects of the beat later, if you want to.)
Fair enough - might as well not pursue that end quite yet if it doesn’t feel right for you.
(Eventually, though, you will start to hear easy beats in songs that you will be able to replicate.)
In the meantime Pulykamell’s advice has been excellent for getting started. (heh and that video I linked!)
You mean if you can’t drum up enough enthusiasm to continue? 
Yeah I’m telling you dude… If you’ve never hit a drum before, you need to be spending a significant amount of your practice time at this point playing eighth notes and sixteenth notes on one drum*. You’ll learn much more about how drums and drumsticks act starting that way and it will serve you well when you start moving around the drums.
- With a metronome / click track.
Maybe you can chime in as well, but I found the most useful exercises beginning was practicing single stroke rolls, double stroke rolls, and paradiddles (and variants of these).
I’m going to have to be careful not to get in to instructor mode and write an essay…
K after trying to think about how to say what I want succubus, I’m going to have to get on a keyboard because this is going to take too long on a phone!
Back with you guys later.
The best way to start practicing any instrument is to play along with songs. Most of the best musicians started out that way. I would actually suggest playing along with songs rather than just a metronome or click track, because that way you have the original drummer’s drum part in the background to guide you, and because playing in isolation of other instruments just isn’t as much fun, and practicing should be fun.
Again, you should start out with a SLOW song with a SIMPLE drumbeat.
:eek:
…succinctly. Stupid phone apparently doesn’t know that word.:smack:
Yes, you ideally should do a bit of both, and you want to keep it fun, but you do have to also be able to practice in isolation. I mean, I didn’t learn the Bonham shuffle by just playing along to “Fool In the Rain.” That took weeks of playing it very slowly to a metronome and building up the correct muscle memory. (And it still don’t “swing” as effortlessly as JB, of course.) Simply just playing along to a track, I feel, while fun and something I do all the time, that I don’t really find myself developing new drum skills until I isolate parts I want to learn and build up to them through repetition and practice.
I agree, but I think at this point the best way for him to develop a basic understanding of simply how to hit the snare, how to hit the hi-hat, how to hit the kick, and how to do them all in the same measure to create a consistent drum pattern, is to play along with a handful of simple songs. That’s IMO the best way to build up the muscle memory. After that, more complex beats can be worked on without a song in the background.
Must disagree on that point. The best way to start practicing any instrument is to learn the fundamentals of the instrument and build on that. Starting out by playing along might work if you’re a 12-year old kid, maybe by the time you’re 18 or 20 you’ve figured it out by trial and error. Or maybe you’re missing out because you never learned fundamentals that you can build on and apply.
All very good, and translate to a kit nicely.
I’ll go ahead and be the sole voice of this opinion apparently, but I was being perfectly serious about playing 8th notes. In fact, that’s really step 2. Or 1.8. Or step 2.3, but not step 1.
Step 1: Grip and hand position. The stick should be held firmly between the pad of the thumb, and the crook/pad of the first knuckle of the index finger. Got that? Ok, now optimally there should be little or no gap between the thumb and finger behind the stick. Your other fingers should wrap securely around the butt of the stick, with the stick resting in the crease/pad between the first and second knuckle. There is some leeway here, but by getting close to this you’re optimizing your stick control and power. Your pinkie stays on the stick. Always.
For your application, your sticks can be at less than a 90 degree angle but shouldn’t be approaching parallel.
Your hands can vary from a flat grip with the palms down to a “French” grip with the thumbs up, and will adjust depending on what you’re doing on the kit. For one-drum practice, make your palms flat and then let your wrists relax a bit so that they feel natural.
Step 1.5: Hitting the drum once. Raise the stick vertically with your wrist, and slightly loosen your fingers but not your fulcrum fingers (thumb and index). Now strike the drum once using your wrist while using your fingers to grip back to the stick, adding power.
Did you aim AT the drum head? Don’t do that, you should be aiming through the drum head. Rule of thumb is that you should be directing the arc of the tip of the stick as far though the drum as your stroke starts above it. That does two things: give your a fuller sound, and makes the drum do work for you by sending the stick back up on the rebound.
Ok hit the drum again, but this time I’ll make the allowance that you can remove your back fingers mostly off the stick just this once. Raise the stick and strike the drum but move your rear fingers out of the way so that the stick rebounds all the way back up by itself. Do it a couple of times to get a feeling for how the stick wants to return to it original ‘up’ position.
Step 2: Using the rebound to play…you guessed it, 8th notes. Now we’re going to play 8 notes on 1 hand, using the rebound from the head, the wrist, and back fingers. After the first stroke, let the stick rebound up by flexing your wrist up with the stick. Your back fingers are going to be just loose enough immediately after the strike (and still in contact with the stick the entire time) to allow the stick to return on its own to the ‘up’ position. Note here that at this point, YOU are not raising the stick back to the ‘up’ position; you are merely keeping control of it in preparation for the next stroke.
This sounds easy so far, but it’s extremely non-intuitive so be patient.
Now, play 8 notes on one hand using the rebound. It should feel kind of like bouncing a basketball. And ya don’t have to grab the basketball at the floor and pick it up again for the second bounce, right?
Then do 8 on one hand, 8 on the other, for hours and hours. 
Totally kidding. Kind of. Make sure that each note is equally spaced (this is where click track comes in), is played with the same dynamic and that your hands are consistently doing the same thing.
Step 2.558: Alternating 16th notes, or ‘single stroke’ roll: Ok now we have fun. 8, 8th notes on each hand, followed by 16, 16th notes alternating hands. Then straight back in to the 8/8/16 pattern.
Anyway, that was a pretty quick-and-dirty overview. Then after you are fairly consistent and comfortable with this exercise, we can use the technique for double-stroke rolls, diddles, and other rudiments you can throw on a kit.
Then we have to talk about accents and taps and all kinds of other things.
Now I’m not saying it’s bad to go ahead and jam to “When the Levee Breaks”, by all means go have fun with that! But it is not be personal and formerly semiprofessional opinion that that is where the bulk of your time should be used at this point.
This is a good video to show exactly what 8-on-a-hand should look like. You don’t have to watch the whole video, but I thought it was funny that it sounds like I ripped off the guy giving the explanation. That’s just pretty universally how drum teacher explain the concept.
Thanks very much Sicks Ate, this is awesomely helpful. I’ve noticed that a lot of the Youtube videos that claim to be “your first drum lesson” start out with beat patterns. As you note, there are some important things I need to know before that point, like how to hold the stick, how to strike, etc.
Oh, a grip question. I’ve been using matched grip, which seems to be what you are suggesting above. Is there any reason to consider traditional grip? (You can assume I will never be marching while playing.)
You’re absolutely welcome! It’s been a (long) while since I needed to flex those muscles, so that was fun. All my boys were stoked to discover my box of drumming misc. just recently, so I’m also looking forward to teaching at least one of them.
Technically, there is absolutely zero advantage to traditional grip.
Stylistically…well, it’s called ‘traditional’ grip. It looks cooler, more classic. And if that becomes something that you want to make part of your style, then do. But learn match first.
As far as marching, traditional grip doesn’t make any sense there either. It’s just the way it’s always been done, and yes it does look cooler. There have been small movements to just say hell with traditional and switch to match for the snare drums, but they always dwindle out.