Tagged As: Learn To Play Drum
Question:
I recently got a top of the line 6 piece DW kit for my studio. but, having these gorgeous instruments in front of me is too much. i gotta learn to play the thing. i was hoping that someone could recommend some books that i could learn to play drums from. something i could start from scratch with and give me things to practice to work my way up. also, does anyone know of some good headphones that really block the outside sound so i can practice with? i really appreciate any help. i want to start making music on the drums, but don't want to start any bad habits.
Answer:
If you can afford the DWs you can afford to take some lessons. You'll learn more and faster than from a book. While there are a lot of great drummers who probably never had a lesson in their life I think you would be best off finding a good instructor and taking lessons for a minimum of at least a year. On thing that is hard to learn from a book is holding the sticks properly and striking the drum properly. If you are worried about developing bad habits, teaching yourself is not the best way to do it. If you can't get an instructor you can do it on your own but you should seek out some video tapes for beginning drummers that will show you basic technique so you can actually see what you should be doing and what it should sound like. When you start out you will most likely just focus on playing the snare drum to build basic stick technique, learn rythm patterns / rudiments, and build your hand and wrist muscles up. I taught drum lessons for many years and the main three books I used were : A Funky Primer for Rock Drum by Charles Dowd : This is an awesome book for learning rock drum beats. It starts off very simple and then very slowely increases the complexity. It's my favorite drumset book and students always seemed to like it. http://www.musiciansfriend.com/ has it for $10 Info on Mr. Dowd at http://music.uoregon.edu/About/bios/dowdc.html America's N.A.R.D. Drum Solos ( Ludwig publishing ) : A great way to learn the basic snare drum rudiments and then apply them by learning short solos http://www.lentine.com/bo/deblud.stm about $9 MODERN READING TEXT IN 4/4 Louis Bellson and Gil Breines : An awesome book for learning to read and play rhytms and syncopation. Starts out super simple and gradualy gets super complex. ( note : there are, or used to be, a couple 'typos' or mistakes in the text so read carefully! ;-) Some students realy liked this book and others didn't like it at all. It's very technical but it's a worthy effort to get through it. It can be made fun by applying the patterns to a drum set. It's also great for every musician, not just drummers. http://www.the-sheet-music-store.com/index.htm about $10 When ever I record now I use GK music's Superphones. GK also has a book and video called Open/Close Technique which looks pretty good. http://www.gk-music.com/index.htm Also, at least have a good drummer show you how to tune drums if you don't know how already. ( you can ship your DW set to me and I'll tune them for you and send them back free of charge . . . .it should only take me a few years!
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