Learning to play drums on your own is not impossible. It’s actually very easy to do with all of the free resources online. The hardest part is organizing your priorities, which is one of the many important things a good teacher will do. So, what are these things you should be focusing on while you learn to play drums?
The most important priorities for learning to play drums are in the areas of equipment, technique, inspiration, and repertoire. You don’t need the best equipment, but it needs to be good enough to give you a chance at success with the other priorities.
The following list is based on the things that I have learned from my best teachers. I was fortunate enough to have several good ones.
1. Sticks
Sticks come in all shapes and sizes. The tips can be round, acorn, or some other shape. Acorn-shaped tips can work well for drum set because the flat side of the acorn is great for cymbals. The rounder tips are better for drums, so the acorn is a good compromise because it almost has both.
Check out this article on everything you need to practice drums.
I use Vic Firth SD1 Generals because they’re slightly more mass than the 5Bs and give my chops a good workout. The round tips also work well for the practice pad.
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2. Grip
American grip is a mixture of French and German grip. French grip is when your thumbs are on top and your palms are facing inwardly. German grip is when your palms are facing down and the top of your hand is flat, like it could hold your drink.
The ergonomics of American grip are the best because your hands are positioned the way they would be if you were not holding sticks. Your hands are in a resting 45 degree angle with your pointer finger knuckle at the highest point.
3. Ready Position
The ready position is how your hands, arms, and overall posture should be set when you’re ready to play the drums.
- Keep your back straight.
- Relax your shoulders.
- Bend your elbow as you bring your forearms up to the drum.
- Keep your elbows comfortably resting. To avoid letting your elbows climb to high, adjust the height and angle of the drum accordingly.
It’s important to start by paying close attention to how your body is positioned because drumming is all about motion. Proper technique makes it easier to move your body efficiently, without damaging it.
For drum set, the ready position on the high hat and ride cymbal should be natural, as well. You’ll need to decide how you want to play hi hat – overhand or open position. If your hi hat is on your left, overhand places your right hand over the left to reach the hi hat. Open position is when you play the hi hat with your left hand, so no hands are over another. Do the opposite for hi hats on the right.
4. Setup
The goal of a good setup is to position the drums and cymbals so you can reach them comfortably. Movement for playing the drum is one aspect, while movement to transition from one drum to another is important, too.
Avoid setting your snare at an awkward angle that keeps you from accessing the rim through comfortable positions and motions.
For a more detailed explanation about setup, check out this article on how to set up your drums.
5. Define Strokes
The two types of strokes are rebound and controlled. Make sure you develop your hands to transition between allowing the stick to rebound and controlling that rebound. This will allow you to play accents by defining the stick heights that contrast the dynamic of louder and softer strokes.
The following videos explain how to play both strokes, including exercises. The descriptions have more links to resources that you may need, too.
6. Learn Rudiments
The rudiments are the drumming vocabulary, and learning to play them well will allow you to experience a certain fluency on your instrument. Like the sounds that are pieced together to make words, the rudiments are comprised of several individual strokes and combinations of strokes that can be reworked into new phrases.
Break down the rudiments into its parts. For example, practice flam accents by playing the accent and tap pattern for a measure before adding the grace notes on the accented notes. If you add drags to the inner taps on the flam accents to make flam drags, take away the grace notes again and play the drags in the accent pattern without the flams.
Check out this article for more lessons on technique and rudimentary drumming.
7. Read Sheet Music
Reading music is not hard. Start with how the measures are broken down, like fractions. If you can decide how many slices of pizza everyone gets to eat, you can learn to count and read rhythms.
The benefit to reading sheet music is the ability to learn from books. It’s not as crucial to be able to sight read for drum set, but it certainly helps, especially if you want to be called for anything professionally.
More on how to read drum sheet music.
8. Practice Routine
Practicing doesn’t look the same for everybody, and it may take you a long time to figure out what your practice looks like. Some drummers think it’s all about chops and technique, while others consider playing random grooves and improvisational forms of practice. The truth is that it’s all practicing.
The routine is up to you. Some routines work better than others, and you’ll learn what’s best for you as you try different things and begin to achieve results
Don’t forget to use a metronome. If you want to know more, this article on drumming with a metronome may help.
9. Method Books
Every drummer comes up with some new ideas from time to time, but not often. A lot of players develop techniques and approaches to grooves from method books. Even the players who wrote the books often share about where they learned the techniques they’re sharing in the book.
I have a few favorite method books from my collection. You may not have a teacher, but you should still get your hands on the best lessons and techniques for drumming.
Here’s an article that shares my favorite books and how to approach using them.
10. Study Your Favorite Drummers
If you want to play like John Bonham, play what John Bonham played. Either transcribe the grooves yourself, buy the sheet music, or listen and play along so you can absorb the feel and vibe of his work. I can’t think of a better way to develop your own sense of feel than playing along to your favorite drummers.
Transcribing is one of the best ways to study your favorite drummers because you have to listen to phrases over and over to write it down. By the time you are done with a few minutes of a song, you are predicting what the drummer will play next. Plus, you can see the placement of rhythms and choices on how to play the rhythms on drum set.
Learning by studying other drummers, favorite or not, allows you to absorb the musical decisions another player makes. This often leads to players questioning their own decisions and becoming more aware of what they are playing, taking it less for granted.
11. Play With Other Musicians
This is the most important part of your development as a drummer and musician. Playing with others teaches you how to listen and respond. Make sure that your goal is to play grooves and fills that serve the music, not your ego.
Something amazing happens when people make music together. It doesn’t matter whether you’re playing original music or covers. The most important part is the vibe that’s created in the moment. For learning to play drums, this is a teacher in itself – it inspires and gives you feedback.
The feedback is different than what you may receive from a teacher. Playing with other musicians reveals connections that you can’t come up with on your own. You need the interaction with someone else’s ideas to come up with a compliment or response that’s beyond what you would play on your own. The approval of other players when the music sounds and feels good is like no other type of feedback.
12. Search YouTube
YouTube has so many great lessons. You can find lessons on general topics and the more focused ones, too. Better yet, if you’re looking for an explanation of a specific technique that your favorite drummer uses, there’s a good chance several people have done a video on it.
Some of my favorite drum channels include, Drumeo, Drum Channel, Mike Johnston, Stephen Taylor, Modern Drummer, Rob Brown, rdavidr, Vic Firth, and so many more.
Check out the ▶️ Rhythm Notes channel on YouTube.
13. Go to Live Performances
Experiencing music as a listener is so important for your development as a drummer. Listening to other drummers and how they perform in the moment allows you to be a part of the energy being created. For me, this experience inspires me to recreate the energy in my own way with other musicians.
It’s important to go see the big touring bands at the huge amphitheaters and stadiums, but don’t underestimate the value you get from the smaller groups in the clubs. The club setting is more intimate for both the listeners and the players, which usually means the band can take more chances with less risk of feeling disconnected from each other.
14. Take an Online Course
The online courses often include well-organized lessons, videos, a book to follow the lessons, and an online community. Some of the courses are by subscription while others are a one-time fee. The courses can range from $40 to $200 or more. Make sure you do your homework to compare as many of them as possible before you buy.
15. Online Communities
I think the online communities are the only thing I like about Facebook. Where else can you talk to beginners and seasoned professionals all in one space. People share videos, polls, questions, and general comments about gear, playing, bands, and all kinds of other topics.
The comments give you a good sense of what people think about certain issues pertaining to drumming. Many of the issues could be stuff that you may not have even thought of yet.
On Facebook, check out The Art of Drumming, Drumming, and Kind Beats. These are a few of the groups that I like. Just make sure you follow the rules for each group to preserve the goal of the community.
Final Thoughts
I had great teachers. They taught me a lot that I would have never learned on my own. After working with these teachers, I could spend the rest of my life learning on my own. Although times have changed and more resources to learn to play the drums are available, I think it’s important to seek a good teacher, even if it’s an online teacher through YouTube or an online course.
Thanks for reading. If you have any comments or questions or anything to add to this list of tips, please share with us in the comments below.