The Basics Of Learning The Drums
Drums are a fun and exciting instrument to learn. The drums is what often keeps a song moving and provides the main feel and groove. When you first piece together a full beat with the bass drum, snare and high hat you’ll be excited.
I want to introduce you to the basics of learning to play the drums in this article. If you’ve just got your first kit or are just starting out this article will get you playing in time on the snare, high hat and kick drum.
1 – First begin with the High Hat Cymbal
There is a lot happening when you’re playing a beat on the drums. Your right and left hands are doing different things and now so is one of your feet. Before you introduce the kick drum to anything start out first with the high hat. You can start this process with the snare as well but following the pattern I outline is closer to what most songs follow.
Use your right hand and practice keeping an even beat on the high hat. If you have some knowledge of 4/4 time then practice keeping the beat like this: 1,2,3,4. You want the time between each strike of the high hat to be the same.
2 – Add in some Snare
Now that you’re maintaining the common time 4/4 beat on the cymbal high hat let’s add something else, let’s hit the snare on the 4 beat.
While you’re still playing on the high hat 1,2,3,4 add in a hit to the snare on the 4 with your left hand stick. The first try you may find your right hand mixes up on the high hat. That’s alright since you’re trying to get your brain to do two different things with your opposite hands at the same time. You’ll get it to work it just takes some practice.
3 – Add the Bass Drum
If you’re feeling good about the snare and the high hat let’s add in the kick drum. On the 1 beat now hit the kick drum. Continue with your two current pieces of 4 beats on the high hat cymbal and the one hit of the snare drum on the 4 beat.
Now you’re telling your brain to do three different things with each hand and one foot, this is going to take some practice and patience.
This is a basic beginner beat when learning to play the drums. If you’re eager to learn more beats I’d suggest getting a dvd drum lesson. These self study lessons are quickly becoming the method of choice for adults to learn the drums at home.
The best course we’ve come across to help teach yourself the drums is Learn & Master Drums. The program comes with several DVDs of instruction and audio that you can use entirely at your own pace to learn the drums at home.
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Tags: drum lessons, drumming, drums, learn drums