Chuck Taft Asheville | How to Become a Drummer - In Three Easy Steps
Are you interested to be a drummer? Then read on for the one-two-three on how to get to where you want to go.
Step One: Find a Teacher
Chuck Taft Asheville | Although you can teach yourself how to play drums, a better way to learn is with a qualified drum teacher. As painful as it might be to get criticized from time to time, a drum teacher can show you the right (and wrong) ways to stand (or sit), hold your sticks, breathe, and hit the drums. While an instruction book can show you what to do, a teacher can demonstrate how to do it.
If you are serious about playing drums, go to your local music (or to your teacher or band director at school) and find a compatible teacher. Spend an hour a week at a drum lesson, and pay attention to what your teacher tells and shows you.
As your playing matures - or if you want to learn different things - you will probably find yourself switching teachers. While there is nothing wrong with keeping the same teacher for several years, different teachers have different strengths and weaknesses. You might find one teacher who's terrific at snare drum and drum corps stuff, but you might need to switch to a different teacher when it's time to move to the full set. Most drummers I know have had several teachers throughout their careers - and have learned something important from each and every one of them.
Step Two: Practice, Practice, Practice
In the life of a drummer, actually playing live is only a small part of the playing you do. The vast majority of notes you play will be during practice - either practicing with your band or practicing your own instrument, by yourself. To learn your instrument, you need to practice. To get better on your instrument, you need to practice. To discover new licks and styles, you need to practice. To stay in shape, you need to practice. In short, get ready to spend a lot of time practicing.
If you are just starting out, practicing probably sounds boring. I won't lie to you - sometimes it is. But a good teacher can help to make practicing fun. It is especially enjoyable when you are playing along with your favorite CD, applying all the new beats you've learned. I need to tell you, if it wasn't fun I wouldn't do it - and I practice my drums every day.
That's because practicing is necessary if you want to grow your skills as a drummer. You have to train your hands (and your feet) to play specific things, and you have to train your mind to react and interact in specific situations. Practicing helps you prepare for anything that comes up in a live playing situation, and it ensures that you have the chops necessary to get the job done.
There are many different ways to practice. When you first start out, you will want to set up a snare drum or a practice pad, a music stand, and a metronome. At first, you will not only be practicing specific music exercises, but you will also be practicing how to hold your sticks, how to hit the drum, and how to keep a steady beat.
Once you get a little more experienced, you will be practicing behind a full drum set. You will still be practicing patterns and exercises, but you will also pop in a CD from time to time and practice by playing along with various songs. Not that you want to mindlessly copy the beats recorded by the pros; rather, you need to learn how to play with other instruments, and you want to learn from what the pros played. (Too many drummers just play along in their own style, without ever listening to the terrific grooves laid down by legendary drummers - what a waste of practice time!)
You will eventually get to the point where you are practicing with other musicians, either in your school band or orchestra or with a group of your friends. While this feels very different from practicing alone in your room, until you are playing in front of a paying audience, you are still practicing - and learning.
After all, that is what practice is all about: learning how to play your instrument and learning how to play in band. Just as you'd never try to fly a commercial aircraft without a lot of hours in a flight simulator, you can't sit down and expect to play the drums without practicing first. As the old adage says, practice makes perfect - there's something to that.
Step Three: Learn to Read
Yeah, I know that you know how to read words - now you have to learn how to read music.
I can already hear some of you saying, "I don't have to read music to play" or "So-and-so was a great drummer and he didn't know how to read music." Both of those statements may be true, but I still contend that you will get farther in your musical life - and have more opportunities open to you - if you know how to read music.
Imagine this scenario: A big-time producer calls you up and asks you to play drums for an important recording session (or TV show or Broadway musical). You get there, set up your kit, and introduce yourself to the other musicians. The producer hands you a sheet of music and tells you that the session starts in five minutes. You have no time to listen to the music before you play, you have probably never even heard this stuff before,, and you are expected to start playing - for real! - without a lick of practice. All you have is a piece of paper with lots of little black dots on it.
Chuck Taft Asheville | This may sound intimidating, but it's precisely how real musicians work. Unless you play in one band for your entire life, you will be "the new guy" on a gig sometime in your career. The way "new guys" learn the music is by reading it. In fact, most big-time gigs have no rehearsal - you just sit down and start reading.
Chuck Taft Asheville | Although you can teach yourself how to play drums, a better way to learn is with a qualified drum teacher. As painful as it might be to get criticized from time to time, a drum teacher can show you the right (and wrong) ways to stand (or sit), hold your sticks, breathe, and hit the drums. While an instruction book can show you what to do, a teacher can demonstrate how to do it.
If you are serious about playing drums, go to your local music (or to your teacher or band director at school) and find a compatible teacher. Spend an hour a week at a drum lesson, and pay attention to what your teacher tells and shows you.
As your playing matures - or if you want to learn different things - you will probably find yourself switching teachers. While there is nothing wrong with keeping the same teacher for several years, different teachers have different strengths and weaknesses. You might find one teacher who's terrific at snare drum and drum corps stuff, but you might need to switch to a different teacher when it's time to move to the full set. Most drummers I know have had several teachers throughout their careers - and have learned something important from each and every one of them.
Step Two: Practice, Practice, Practice
In the life of a drummer, actually playing live is only a small part of the playing you do. The vast majority of notes you play will be during practice - either practicing with your band or practicing your own instrument, by yourself. To learn your instrument, you need to practice. To get better on your instrument, you need to practice. To discover new licks and styles, you need to practice. To stay in shape, you need to practice. In short, get ready to spend a lot of time practicing.
If you are just starting out, practicing probably sounds boring. I won't lie to you - sometimes it is. But a good teacher can help to make practicing fun. It is especially enjoyable when you are playing along with your favorite CD, applying all the new beats you've learned. I need to tell you, if it wasn't fun I wouldn't do it - and I practice my drums every day.
That's because practicing is necessary if you want to grow your skills as a drummer. You have to train your hands (and your feet) to play specific things, and you have to train your mind to react and interact in specific situations. Practicing helps you prepare for anything that comes up in a live playing situation, and it ensures that you have the chops necessary to get the job done.
There are many different ways to practice. When you first start out, you will want to set up a snare drum or a practice pad, a music stand, and a metronome. At first, you will not only be practicing specific music exercises, but you will also be practicing how to hold your sticks, how to hit the drum, and how to keep a steady beat.
Once you get a little more experienced, you will be practicing behind a full drum set. You will still be practicing patterns and exercises, but you will also pop in a CD from time to time and practice by playing along with various songs. Not that you want to mindlessly copy the beats recorded by the pros; rather, you need to learn how to play with other instruments, and you want to learn from what the pros played. (Too many drummers just play along in their own style, without ever listening to the terrific grooves laid down by legendary drummers - what a waste of practice time!)
You will eventually get to the point where you are practicing with other musicians, either in your school band or orchestra or with a group of your friends. While this feels very different from practicing alone in your room, until you are playing in front of a paying audience, you are still practicing - and learning.
After all, that is what practice is all about: learning how to play your instrument and learning how to play in band. Just as you'd never try to fly a commercial aircraft without a lot of hours in a flight simulator, you can't sit down and expect to play the drums without practicing first. As the old adage says, practice makes perfect - there's something to that.
Step Three: Learn to Read
Yeah, I know that you know how to read words - now you have to learn how to read music.
I can already hear some of you saying, "I don't have to read music to play" or "So-and-so was a great drummer and he didn't know how to read music." Both of those statements may be true, but I still contend that you will get farther in your musical life - and have more opportunities open to you - if you know how to read music.
Imagine this scenario: A big-time producer calls you up and asks you to play drums for an important recording session (or TV show or Broadway musical). You get there, set up your kit, and introduce yourself to the other musicians. The producer hands you a sheet of music and tells you that the session starts in five minutes. You have no time to listen to the music before you play, you have probably never even heard this stuff before,, and you are expected to start playing - for real! - without a lick of practice. All you have is a piece of paper with lots of little black dots on it.
Chuck Taft Asheville | This may sound intimidating, but it's precisely how real musicians work. Unless you play in one band for your entire life, you will be "the new guy" on a gig sometime in your career. The way "new guys" learn the music is by reading it. In fact, most big-time gigs have no rehearsal - you just sit down and start reading.
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