We asked our awesome team of Perth drum teachers for some tips for young drummers - these are the top five they came up with.
Get something to practice on
Don’t forget the three Ps of drumming – practice, practice, practice. Lionel Messi is the world’s greatest football player and he still practices every day - if you’re going to be a great drummer you need to practice too.
Make sure you have your drumkit set up somewhere at home where you can practice every day without disturbing your family or your neighbours. If you’re using an electronic kit you can set it up in your bedroom or the TV room and play through headphones. If you’re playing an acoustic kit maybe it’s set up in the garage. Wherever it is, make sure it’s somewhere comfortable where you’ll enjoy spending time.
If you don’t have your drumkit permanently set up at home then get yourself a practice pad to work on – these are cheap and take up no space and perfect for practising your rudiments. You can pick them up at any local music shop.
Listen to music
If you want to be a drummer, you must like music right? Make sure you listen to lots of it. One of the great joys of having drum lessons or learning to play an instrument is discovering new stuff to listen to. Whatever your favourite band or musical genre is, start listening to a wide variety of bands and artists and figure out what the drummer is doing.
Pretty much all contemporary and rock music will have drums and percussion in it – how important is it? Is the drummer just playing a groove or keeping the beat? Are there sections where the drummer is louder or quieter? When do they play their fills, or change patterns? Is it even a real drummer, or a drum machine?
As you listen to more music try to figure out which drummers you enjoy listening to, and see if you can pick up elements of their style.
Don’t ignore the basics
It’s fun to learn whole songs, make up drum beats, and play along to your favourite AC/DC tracks on Spotify and YouTube. But don’t forget to work on the basics and practice your rudiments – these are the essential building blocks that all drummers need.
When you start having drum lessons, make sure your drum teacher gives you plenty of exercises that you can use in your warm up routine that will help to develop your technique. People will have different ideas of what rudiments are, but they are generally quite simple, short patterns that may use single or double strokes.
Get into the habit of starting every practice session with ten minutes of work on your rudiments. Use a metronome to make sure you’re keeping time, and practice across a range of tempos from super slow to super fast.
Make it fun
There’s already enough stuff in life that we do because we have to, right? Going to school, washing the dishes, visiting the dentist. Music should never be a chore.
Drumming should always be fun, even practicing – that’s why it’s important to have a comfortable, convenient place to play
Rather be drumming?
Say ‘aaarrggh….’
If the things you’re working on are boring, talk about it in your drum lessons and ask your drum teacher to give you something different to do. Remind yourself why you wanted to learn to play the drums in the first place – because it looked like fun. Find other kids to play with, find some new songs to play along to, turn it up and play loud.
Find a Perth drum teacher
At Rock Scholars we believe that the most effective way for young people to learn to play the drums is through private teaching, and we specialise in contemporary and rock drum lessons. While there are lots of great teach-yourself books and online learning courses you can use, there is no substitute for real drum lessons with a real drum teacher.
A good teacher will tailor the lessons to your particular needs. You can tell them what styles of music you enjoy, what songs you want to learn, and what your musical objectives are. Personal drum lessons will allow you to learn at your own speed, set your own goals, and ask questions whenever you don’t understand something.
It’s also fun to have lessons – all of the teachers and mentors at Rock Scholars are real working musicians that play in some of Perth’s best and brightest young bands. They can give you advice not just on your drumming but also on how to get into a band, how to organise gigs, and lost of other stuff you’ll need to know if you’re going to be a rock drummer.
Rock Scholars is Perth’s favourite contemporary music school and we specialise in putting kids and teenagers in a creative, stimulating environment where they can find their voice and make music with other young musicians. If you’re looking for Perth drum lessons, or drum lessons for kids, please call us today on 0437 806 109 or complete an enquiry form here.
