https://guitarnoise.forum/opinions-and-polls/question-about-learning-drums/ Guitar Noise Discussion Board en-US Thu, 04 Jun 2026 00:18:10 +0000 wpForo 60 https://guitarnoise.forum/opinions-and-polls/question-about-learning-drums/#post-174513 Mon, 01 May 2006 16:22:39 +0000
Seems like you are a drummer too (whose drumming is hidden by his great guitaring , eh ? :wink:)]]> Opinions and Polls Rahul https://guitarnoise.forum/opinions-and-polls/question-about-learning-drums/#post-174513 https://guitarnoise.forum/opinions-and-polls/question-about-learning-drums/#post-174494 Mon, 01 May 2006 14:25:08 +0000
The first is 'rudiments' - those are sort of the alphabet of percussion. Although there are a bunch of rudiments (26 are standard), there are a few that make up the real core of percussion technique: the roll, the flam, and the paradiddle.

Flams are the easiest. You're hitting with both sticks at very nearly the same time. Useful stuff when you want a cymbal crash and a snare hit coming together. The tricky part is getting the stick that just played to 'catch up' to the other stick, but you can learn that pretty fast.

Rolls are a matter of controlling the bounce of your sticks. You might be able to learn it on your own, and if you can't, a single lesson plus some practice time will be enough for you to tackle them.

The idea behid paradiddles is simple - you stroke RLRRLRLL in an even, controlled manner. Sounds easy, just alternating single and double hits... but give it a try. It'll take you a while to break the instinct to constantly alternate sticks. Again, this is something that you overcome with diligent practice - there's no 'trick' to it. But the ability to play a beat with either stick, even if it's the stick you just used, is the thing that makes percussion difficult - and many rhythms possible.

Once you have the rudiments down, the other thing that's tough is independence - think of that as paradiddles squared. You want to be able to 'double-up' with either foot as well as either hand. Many complex beats that sound pretty simple are actually a combination of three or four independent grooves happening at the same time. Again, diligent practice is the only thing that works... but having somebody show you how those patterns are assembled makes things a lot easier.

Percussion was my first instrument back in the 60s. At the time, there was basically one book for rudiments - the Haskall Harr Drum Method. He's the Mel Bay of rudimental percussion. Today there are a lot more tools available, so someone with more contemporary instruction can probably give you a better idea. But my son, who has been studying jazz percussion for about 10 years now, still practices those rudiments... they're more important than people give them credit for, and good for a lot more than the obvious (which is drum & bugle corps snare technique)

My first 'set' book was "Travelling Around the Drums Rudimentally". I don't remember who wrote it, and google didn't come up with anything, so it's probably out of print. But you'll basically want some book/video that breaks complex beats down into the individual components.

One other thing you'll want to learn is standard notation. It's not hard for drums - each drum gets one space on the staff, and is written with just the rhythm. Different note heads stand for different drums/cymbals - so you'll have x for high hat, etc. There is tab for drums... but it's pretty useless IMO. Even the major drum magazines often show stuff in just standard notation.

After you have that grammar down, you'll learn a few 'time' beats... one for rock, one for jazz, maybe one for bossa nova etc. That's what you'll play 75% of the time, just a repetitive pattern that keeps the beat and underpins the music. The rest of the tile you'll do 'fills', where you break into a different pattern - sometimes a completely different pattern (i.e. different time signature). Individual fills can be very flashy, and not that hard to do - the tricky part is to switch smoothly between time and fill and back again. Drummers end up buliding their own vocabularies of fills, and they can be very distinctive.]]> Opinions and Polls NoteBoat https://guitarnoise.forum/opinions-and-polls/question-about-learning-drums/#post-174494 https://guitarnoise.forum/opinions-and-polls/question-about-learning-drums/#post-17396 Mon, 01 May 2006 13:39:15 +0000
I am planning to get local made drums for myself soon...

So the natural question is - How does one start learning drums ?

I have absolutely no knowledge about setting up of drums , taking care of them , putting blanket or tape in the bass drum , taking out skins of the toms OR not ...etc.

The dealer i would buy from will surely brief me about the setup a little , so , the main question is 'How to learn' ?

Since drums contain beats , can they be self learned by ear (or by simply thinking of a rhythm in the head and then trying to bring it out on the pads...) ?

As the resident super drummer here , i suppose Bish will help me , by providing his expert advice.Please forgive me , if , i didn't mention other drummers here...you are all most welcome to bring on your suggestions.

Thanks , :)

Rahul]]> Opinions and Polls Rahul https://guitarnoise.forum/opinions-and-polls/question-about-learning-drums/#post-17396