[UPSTROKE]

Excellent response from Everyone. A drummer that is just starting out, should be required to read this thread. Well rounded, excellent advice from everyone.
You even put in some nice Simon Phillips goodies. It sounds corny -- but-
"GOOD JOB" all of you. Now every one of you go right out & get a gold star & put it on your forehead.

[UPSTROKE]

Please do us all a favor. Got to the "Introduce yourself" forum &----------
I'm sure we would all like to know about you. Thank you for your good input on this thread.

[ekdrummer]

At the risk of being a broken record listen to mouse. When I began playing I was discouraged because I couldn't play fast or do anything well, cool. But then I learned to relax and my speed increased greatly. Also, stick with it. Although it might seem boring, tedious, repetitive, and difficult the quicker you get rudiments and excercises down, the faster you can move on and incorporate what was once hard into your playing. That is not to say to rush through everything, its means just to practice a lot to get the most out of your playing.

[givemethebeat]

Originally Posted by ekdrummer

At the risk of being a broken record listen to mouse. When I began playing I was discouraged because I couldn't play fast or do anything well, cool. But then I learned to relax and my speed increased greatly. Also, stick with it. Although it might seem boring, tedious, repetitive, and difficult the quicker you get rudiments and excercises down, the faster you can move on and incorporate what was once hard into your playing. That is not to say to rush through everything, its means just to practice a lot to get the most out of your playing.

It seems the wave of good advice is finally starting to swell. giveme this....anytime....

[UPSTROKE]

This IS sounding good. I agree that learning rudiments can be extremely boring.
This approach may help get past most of the frustration of something that seems so stupid. As soon as you have the sticking pattern into your brain, try using the rudiment around the set. For example; A normal single paradiddle is played like this: R-L-R-R L-R-L-L R-L-R-R L-R-L-L
If you play them as 1/16 notes, counting= 1-e-&-uh, 2-e-&-uh, 3-e-&-uh, 4-e-&-uh. Play the paradiddles around the set. You will quickly see the value of that double stroke on the end of a paradiddle. IT GIVES YOU TIME TO MOVE YOUR HAND FROM ONE AREA TO ANOTHER.
If you invert one of them you would get; R-L-R-R L-R-R-L R-L-R-R L-R-R-L. Learn to play them that way & keep your right hand up on the hi-hat. The left hand shown in bold is an accent on the snare. What you get here is a cool little riff that fits into a lot of areas & styles of music.

[mouse]

Another tip to add add which applies to learners and all drummers. Be versatile, and remember simple playing is sometimes best. Attending my band's ex guitarist's house warming party last night promted me with this tip. My mate broke out his electric acoustic guitar to play some background music. His son who has just gotten his first kit, produced his snare drum, so i showed him how to play along using the cross stick and simply keeping a steady beat. When i had a bit of a play myself doing a simple cross stick bossanova type feel and using various parts of the stick and playing the side of the drum for effect,someone in the audience approached me later and was amazed at how i could play a rhythm on one drum and make it sound good "without even hitting the drum". So there you go.

[UPSTROKE]

A-a-a-h This room is all warm and fuzzy. Just like it should be.
Isn't that nice??

[drum_ritual]

My 2 cents: The most important things are being relaxed (full body). If you feel tense in your arms, shoulders or neck, then you need to loosen up and go with the flow. Secondly, I recommend listening to diverse styles of music in order to familiarize yourself with different styles of percussion and drumming. Thirdly, I recommend NOT drinking alcohol before drumming. It's a great way to wear out quickly and embarrass yourself and your band. Also, I have to recommend NOT drinking too much coffee before drumming because this can throw your playing off as well--you'll be playing turbo-style while your band is struggling to keep pace. These are lessons that I've learned the hard way. Cheers and best of luck to you! Now that you've entered the wonderful world of drumming, prepare to get laid a lot more often!!! Yay!

[drum_ritual]

Oh yeah--don't forget to get plenty of sleep/rest before band practice or a gig. The reasons are obvious. Also, here's a bit of advice that you may not have heard:

Be the leader of your band. As drummer, you are going to have to take the leadership position in order to keep the other band members on track. That's something that you definitely can't leave to a guitarist. Those asswipes are too busy tuning their guitars to care about anything else. You may not be in a band at this moment but drummers are in demand and you will eventually be recruited. Remember--Take the leadership role!!! It's yours for the taking and the rest of the band will quickly learn to appreciate it. You're going to be great!

[MakingMusicMagazine]

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