Screw the guitar, I wanna play drums!

NeptuneUK

NeptuneUK

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Any drummers around for advice?
I am going to try and self teach myself (yeah i know... but that's how I learn, it worked for the guitar and the bass!!)

I am going to purchase some electronic drums, so I can begin practicing in a quiet manner (also space is an issue for an acoustic set) I don't want people telling me the advantages of the acoustic over the electronic etc etc etc I've done my research in that respect.
Being able to use them as a MIDI device and practicing quietly is much more suited to my needs at this moment.
I also 'think' I know the basics ie posture, holding the sticks, what each thing sounds like and does... and a couple of basic 4/4 beats.
I've done my research, I already know that I will be buying in the next couple of weeks.... it's just I wouldnt know where to start once they arrive at my door!?!?



tl;dr? -> Drums, practice tips!?!?
 
Bah. I'm in dire need of an electronic drum set. I've been wanting one for a while now, but the funds aren't happening. Or they may... depends on what happens in the next couple weeks. While I wouldn't consider myself a drummer (though I want to take it further), I have played along with my friends with their guitars, just messing around. It's pretty cool to get a little jam session going.

The basic thing is keeping a steady beat. I know of a few people who can do these above-beginner beats but they can't stay on tempo, so what's the point? I'm pretty sure you can already do this, but if not, just play along with a metronome to get the feel.

Other than that, it's just all about limp independence which is a bitch. Start with patterns that have the kick on 2 and 4 then try some eighth note variations. Then switch it up with quarter notes on the hi hat instead of eighths; it's a lot harder.

There are a few good videos on YouTube with little tidbits on drumming and I've spent a few nights watching them (probably just due to me wanting a drumset).
 
Well the best way to learn technique is to concentrate on the snare drum only at first. There's a whole bunch of lessons and tips you can find online, but basically you should concentrate on the snare first (learn tremolo, some more complicated rhythms, syncopation, grace notes, etc). When you learn to play more advanced snare exercises at faster tempos, you eventually may master the snare drum, and that's VERY important for perfecting your technique. Of course, you'r free to use the whole drum set, but pay more attention to that snare.
 
does the electronic set have a kick drum?

I thought I would hop onto a drum set and be able to do it, but It was incredibly difficult. I could not coordinate my foot and hands. It would take a LOT of practice

I consider myself quite coordinated, but this is something that requires perfect timing.


anyway, I've always - for like 20 years, played drum patterns on various surfaces with my hands, so I think I would be fantastic with other types of percussion, especially congas.

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=congas&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi
 
VirusType2 said:
does the electronic set have a kick drum?

I thought I would hop onto a drum set and be able to do it, but It was incredibly difficult. I could not coordinate my foot and hands. It would take a LOT of practice
Click to expand...

Yeah it has a kick drum. It has everything a normal drumset would.
 
lol!

Thanks for the replies guys! Quite helpful!

Basically... I need to practice practice practice until I can do it in my sleep. I guess keeping the beat for a long time is something that needs to perfected before doing ANYTHING else, right? It's not like I'll be ridiculously busy during summer I guess... :D

Strange you should mention that VirusType anyway, as I hopped on drums for the first time a year ago, thinking that it would be really hard and I wouldnt be able to just play something, but without knowing shit, I could do that simple shitty bass drum then snare 4/4 hi-hat thing as soon as I sat down. I know I have great natural timing, but I guess getting using to actually playing the things is gunna be a bitch.
After how much practice would you think it would be possible to have a non-embarrasing, basic jam?






Until then, I will would probably get multitracking and... jam with myself!? Hahah this is an amusing concept! I can think of some great ideas for practicing with MIDI drums!!! MIDI FTW!
 
It just depends man. If you can already do the basics now, then you can just jam along with that right now.

By the way, you don't NEED a drumset to practice.
 
When Im pretending to play the bass drum, hi hats and snare along with my favourite songs it looks weird!

BUT ITS FUN!!! :D
Would it actually help? It seems to.... but it feels so daft!


The only thing my mind is hacing trouble with is when I change the bass drum pattern in my head, my foot starts syncronising with my imaginary snare! Gah!? I hope its something I can practice to not do quickly!
 
My advice would be to start with just your hands, try and get some level of coordination there before you try using the kick. If you try to do it all at once, you'll just frustrate yourself. The key is to keep moving forward at your own pace. Once you're comfortable enough to bring in the kick, the first major step is getting the basic 4/4 rock beat down-pat. Just keep at that until you can do it in your sleep, then bring in some variation and start to build upon it.

Also, like redrum said, mastering the snare is important. It'd be helpful to look up some exercises and rudiments for regular practice, an exercise some drummers are a bit lax about (guilty! :p).

While we're (kind of) on the topic, what would you say is the best way to get a start on playing guitar, coming from someone who's self-taught? I have both an acoustic and an electric at my disposal, but every time I sit down to try something out I draw a total blank. I guess a good place to start would be to learn some chords... all I remember is G and A from when I attempted guitar lessons in high school.

Edit - For the record, I started writing this about 4 posts back. :)

Edit 2 - Aaaaand I just realised there's a learning guitar thread just below this one. Go me.
 
If you have rythme then you are sorted, when its just me and my co-guitarist in my band practising ourselves, he would hop on the drums and I would come up with some riffs, we have only done that a few times while waiting for the others to arrive and he is already becoming pretty decent. Nothing to it really if you have rythme and a good sense of how you want the drumming to proceed.
 
Cool... I want to play now dammit!!!!

As well actually wanting to learn the drums properly, I'm looking forward to mixing the MIDI drums with some electronic drum machine shit instead of using the hi-hats for timing... I'm gunna be experimenting so much!!!
I like using strange rhythms for the hi hats in some of my tracks. I always wished there was an easier way to get the rest of the drums to sound more organic or fluid when the need arises.
But sometimes a choppy, programmed, digital beat is required - but not aallll the time.
 
my best friend drums for a living (teaching, gigging, etc) and he could probably help you out, i hate to say it but you REALLY should get an acoustic set though.
 
I've been playing drums for almost 6 years now, and all I can say is, It's best to stat off playing along with muisc, and work your way up. I started with a band called "Jackyl" and then went to AC/DC, Aerosmith, Metallica, van halen, then some really fast crap, music that I hate, but the experience is good. it's good to play to band when you're starting out, because those drummer's styles rub off onto you, and then if you combine a bunch of styles you can come up with your own really good technique. i hold my sticks between my thumbs and pointer fingers, and then I use my other fingers to keep them from traveling too far away from me.

I suck at twirling sticks though. the only way i know how to do it is between my forefinger and middle finger, twirling my wrist, moving my fingers. If you do it on the middle of the stick it looks okay, but otherwise it's sloppy...

If you want to get good at rolling then you could try coming up with your own marching band type stuff. If you want you could get a practice pad for your knees, sit with your legs far apart, and practice going back & forth as fast as you can till it feels like your arms are going to fall off, but when you're in public, try not to tap. It drives other people nuts... from what i hear.

Good luck. :)

By the way, all this Acoustic vs Electric BS is pointless, acoustic is no different than electric. You hit the drum, it makes a sound, you hit the cymbal, it makes a sound, kick the hihat peddle, it goes up & down, makes a sound, grab a cymbal after you crash it, it mutes, leave your hihat open, sounds loose, leave your hihat tight, sounds tight, rest a stick on the drum, mutes the drum, the only difference is that you don't have to pay $400000000000000000 every year for cymbals and drumheads. (And new drums, if you actually hit that hard.)
 
Note, you usually need to buy a bass pedal for the kick drum pad on electric sets.
 
Vegeta897 said:
Note, you usually need to buy a bass pedal for the kick drum pad on electric sets.
Click to expand...

It doesn't come with one? hmm... Well, I've never bought one, but I've played on several. Besides, the way i hit, if i bought one I'd have to replace all the pads every few days. :/
 
Van_Halen said:
I've been playing drums for almost 6 years now, and all I can say is, It's best to stat off playing along with muisc, and work your way up. I started with a band called "Jackyl" and then went to AC/DC, Aerosmith, Metallica, van halen, then some really fast crap, music that I hate, but the experience is good. it's good to play to band when you're starting out, because those drummer's styles rub off onto you, and then if you combine a bunch of styles you can come up with your own really good technique. i hold my sticks between my thumbs and pointer fingers, and then I use my other fingers to keep them from traveling too far away from me.

I suck at twirling sticks though. the only way i know how to do it is between my forefinger and middle finger, twirling my wrist, moving my fingers. If you do it on the middle of the stick it looks okay, but otherwise it's sloppy...

If you want to get good at rolling then you could try coming up with your own marching band type stuff. If you want you could get a practice pad for your knees, sit with your legs far apart, and practice going back & forth as fast as you can till it feels like your arms are going to fall off, but when you're in public, try not to tap. It drives other people nuts... from what i hear.

Good luck. :)

By the way, all this Acoustic vs Electric BS is pointless, acoustic is no different than electric. You hit the drum, it makes a sound, you hit the cymbal, it makes a sound, kick the hihat peddle, it goes up & down, makes a sound, grab a cymbal after you crash it, it mutes, leave your hihat open, sounds loose, leave your hihat tight, sounds tight, rest a stick on the drum, mutes the drum, the only difference is that you don't have to pay $400000000000000000 every year for cymbals and drumheads. (And new drums, if you actually hit that hard.)
Click to expand...

Tanks! ^_^
 
Van_Halen said:
By the way, all this Acoustic vs Electric BS is pointless, acoustic is no different than electric. You hit the drum, it makes a sound, you hit the cymbal, it makes a sound, kick the hihat peddle, it goes up & down, makes a sound, grab a cymbal after you crash it, it mutes, leave your hihat open, sounds loose, leave your hihat tight, sounds tight, rest a stick on the drum, mutes the drum, the only difference is that you don't have to pay $400000000000000000 every year for cymbals and drumheads. (And new drums, if you actually hit that hard.)
Click to expand...

There is actually a massive difference in sound quality between accustic and electric, when we first started gigging our drummer was thinking of using an electric kit to gig to avoid travelling with his but a lot of bands we knew a lot higher up than us informed us that the accustic is MILES better, especially once you mic it up and blast it through a PA.
 
1. Buy a beginner's book, a practice pad, and a snare drum and start with your rudiments. Learn 8 on hand first (simply play 8 beats, RRRRRRRR LLLLLLLL with a metronome, keeping in perfect time. Increase until you can play really really fast)

Then move on to parididdles (RLRRLRLL and RLRLRRLRLRLL), diddles, (RRLLRRLL), flams (R+L), flam taps (R+L R, L+R, L), flam-adiddles, open rolls, closed rolls, single stroke rolls, etc.

Its extremely important to learn rudiments first. Its like learning scales for guitar or piano, and all drum beats, from rock to jazz to anything really, are based in some form or another off of these rudiments.

2. Get a drum set. I recommend NOT getting an electronic drumset, because unless it is ridiculously expensive, it will not get you very good results. Electronic drumsets suck unless they have real drum-heads and real drum response. Buying the cheapest electronic drumset is the equivalent of setting up a bunch of practice pads. I recommend starting with a simple, acoustic 5 piece drumset, and after you've gotten good, buy an electric one. Trust me, you will learn to appreciate good technique a lot more if you start with an acoustic drumset.

3. Learn to coordinate. Start with simple drumbeats that involve playing different patterns and times with your hands and feet. Its very important that you learn to differentiate between your hands and feet and play in time. Playing drumset is all about coordination.

4. Learn simple beats. 8-beat rock, double time, 3/4, 6/8.. just learn as many beats as you can.

5. learn simple fills.

6. Put these beats and fills together to create your own beats.
 
Shift said:
There is actually a massive difference in sound quality between accustic and electric, when we first started gigging our drummer was thinking of using an electric kit to gig to avoid travelling with his but a lot of bands we knew a lot higher up than us informed us that the accustic is MILES better, especially once you mic it up and blast it through a PA.
Click to expand...

...............
 
- H - H H - H - H - - H H - - H
- - S - - - - - S - - S - - - S
K - - - - K - - - - K - - - K -
 
eletronic drums are deffff not the way to go.
been playingi drums for 8 years now. Electronic drums are fake as balllllz.
easier to roll and easier with stick movements.
be a man and get a real kit.
unless you like playing shitty NIN music.
 
i could destroy any of you bums in a drum off.
so, please dont talk shit unless you know what ur talking bout.
 
Don't make fun of him dude.

He'd destroy you in a drum off. So don't talk shit.
 
Any man who prefers real instruments over electronic synthesizer shit is at least +1.

theotherguy said:
Then move on to parididdles (RLRRLRLL and RLRLRRLRLRLL), diddles, (RRLLRRLL), flams (R+L), flam taps (R+L R, L+R, L), flam-adiddles, open rolls, closed rolls, single stroke rolls, etc.
Click to expand...

Also, I always wondered what the hell our drummer was doing, and now I know, he was playing made up words :S
 
Daggett said:
eletronic drums are deffff not the way to go.
been playingi drums for 8 years now. Electronic drums are fake as balllllz.
easier to roll and easier with stick movements.
be a man and get a real kit.
unless you like playing shitty NIN music.
Click to expand...

Defff! Man! Electronic Drums are so easy! OH WAIT! If I tuned up my snare drum to a marching drum standard, it has the same feel as playing on an electronic drumset/practice pad.
If you played with proper (READ GOOD) technique the difference to play an electronic drumset, and an acoustic drumset (Oh sorry... REAL drumset), is quick literally nothing.

Nothing beats the "real" thing, but electronic drums will do fine if you want to practice on them. (Unless you want the sound from an electronic drumset, then they're perfect!)

Que-Ever said:
Also, I always wondered what the hell our drummer was doing, and now I know, he was playing made up words :S
Click to expand...

A really good tip for playing something is, if you can't play it, make a saying for it, that goes along with the rhythm. It was the secret to learning things really quick in a band class.
 
Que-Ever said:
Any man who prefers real instruments over electronic synthesizer shit is at least +1.
Click to expand...
Don't even go there.

A synthesizer is an entirely different animal than ANY acoustic instrument. (Not using this bullshit 'real' term)
http://www.theatreorgans.com/walnuthill/100m_and_motm.jpg

You can not compare that to a guitar or anything else by saying one can 'prefer' one or the other.

Synthesizers are mostly about sculpting your own sound. You can achieve an infinite variety of sound. The only way to do that with something like a guitar is to use effects pedals and shit, which, guess what, is electronic 'shit'.

Electric guitars are pretty much 'synthesizers' anyway. The pickups convert the string vibrations into an electronic waveform. There's your oscillator. Then your set of effects pedals are like all the knobs and buttons on the synthesizer panel.

You're the second person in the thread to be ignorant, congrats.
 
You're still the only pretentious pompous ass, congrats.
 
Am I dissing anything? Am I saying synthesizers are better? No.

Merely pointing out the flawed logic in hating all synthesizers.
 
Yeah but you're making the mistake of arguing with an idiot
 
Without synths we'd all be living in caves, eating animal parts.
 
woo, I'm an idiot becuase I don't like your shitty keyboard that makes weird noises.
 
Que-Ever said:
Any man who prefers real instruments over electronic synthesizer shit is at least +1.
Click to expand...
"Synthesizers are shit, and anyone who likes 'real instruments' (as if there is some kind of real counterpart to synths) is better."

Que-Ever said:
woo, I'm an idiot becuase I don't like your shitty keyboard that makes weird noises.
Click to expand...
"I don't like weird noises"


There are several large differences here, Que.

I would have thought the guitar analogy would have snapped you out of your terrible logic that you couldn't begin to attempt backing up. You just have some kind of hate toward all synthesizers because you think they all sound like BLEEP BLOOP BLOP and can do nothing else. Truth be told, they can sound pretty much indifferentiable to real instruments, ESPECIALLY an electric guitar. Granted, the method in which you perform or play it is completely different, and that fact alone makes it completely stupid to attempt to decide which is better. You may like playing a guitar rather than playing a keyboard, that's an acceptable opinion to have. But to just hate synthesizers.... I mean I've proven that hating the sound is silly, so if you hate keyboards, well then you hate pianos apparantly.
 
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