Any drummers here? How to start on the drums?

[BenoA]

Just got a cheap electronic drum kit for my 12 years old son. Now I gotta suffer countless hours of noise coming from his room!

As he's just starting out, I'm planning getting him a local teacher but for the first few weeks, any advice on how to start? Any good youtube channel or DVD I could buy?

[Nightbat]

....waiting for the drummer jokes to roll in

[BenoA]

AH c'mon Nightbat! Can we be serious here for 5 minutes!

[horns666]

I know I wrote books on this subject before, and I'm not about to do it again. I tried a search..nuthin'.

OK, I taught my son how to play drums, guitar, bass..he learned some keys on his own. At age 5, I bought him a kiddie set at Toys R Us. I was basically a caveman without any knowledge of this drumming shit. I was like foot goes on this pedal..you hit it like ..boom...boom...count...boom..boom...boom...boom.. .1...2...3...4...ect Then I said you hit round thing (snare) like this ...Bing...Bing...So it goes like ..Boom Boom..Bing... Boom Boom Boom Bing. Then I grabbed my guitar and told him to keep going Boom Boom Bing...Boom Boom...Bing. Keep going, don't stop..keep doin' that! I grabbed my guitar and strated to play "Wasted" and we knew it was good. We made fire.

Later, he was using two feet on the cheap, very bendable kick pedal. We were playing and listening to thrash, death, and black metal. We started with Thrash beats, like Polka..easy stuff .. Boom ..Pop...Boom ..Pop..1...2...1...2...It was then I knew I had to buy him a real set..Sonors. I would throw him all kinds of riffs to play to..I still do. Oh, That's how I audition/dial-in amps. He's a loud drummer. You really don't know what an amp sounds like , dialed in to a loud drummer. So it is a win/win..for both of us. Now, He likes to jam on guitar. That's another story. I can't hang with him at al with his rythms. His right hand is rididculous. He did that on his own buy constantly practicing what I preached. Seiously, playing anything from Hetfield, Ian, Schaffer ect..is nothing for him...it's a game. Games are FUN!

BYW; Tapping on my desk and walls, and telling him to count..out loud was the ticket for me. Once he got that down. He practiced on his own and he just took flight..

I can't play drums to save my life, but I've always played to a meter of some sort.

[Nimitz]

[markD]

ihavebeen playing drums about 12 years now. i picked up playing because i got tired of programming drum machines. anyway...i basically did what bill said he did with his son. i ONLY allowed myself to have a kick drum until i could keep a beat. then i added a snare. once i could go "boom-bap-boom-bap" in time, i started trying variants. once i was okay with that, i added a ride cymbal. once i was able to have my hands and feet work independently, i added a hi-hat. once i could get all of that together, i added a crash cymbal. then i added one tom at a time, until i was able to play the whole kit. took me about a year.

i ALWAYS played with a metronome.

i did not worry about rudiments until i was able to keep a beat in time. THAT is the single most important part of being a drummer!!

[BenoA]

Good advice guys! Taking notes and already coached my son on some of the above.

[horns666]

Exactly. Keep this in mind. It's Music..music is everything awesome. Do not make it NOT fun. Honestly, I did yell at him out of frustration whenver his meter would change. Whenever he got tired he would speed up. At that time I would switch gears into a much slower groove. Then I would applause and encourage him again. I always told him to count out loud while jamming if he lost his place.

METER is the number one job for a drummer...or any muscian. But drummers are the clock of any band...from Polka to Rush.

[BenoA]

Agree 200% about the fun factor...

I'm quite surprised at the moment. He got the drums late yesterday and since then, he must have spent at least 8 hours playing them, may be even more. He's mostly hitting them and making noise but I can feel he's having fun. I go in the room when he asked for and jam for 5 to 10 minutes with him. He's able to play the basic 4/4 beat from "back in black" so we play the verse riff.

He also uses his iPod with it and I can hear him trying to follow some of his favorite tunes. Again more noise than actual drumming but, he gotta start somewhere.

One of his friends who's been playing drums for like a year came today and taught him a few things.

I know he's into the "honeymoon" phase so we'll see if he keeps his enthusiasm.

[Axegrinder87]

Guitar Hero.

[Jayster]

I'm sure some will disagree. I started playing the drums several years ago, most of holding a beat is focused on the bass, snare and hi hats. With that in mind, I would stress to first get comfortable with those 3, don't worry about cymbals or even toms at first. AND, the rudiments paradiddles, flams and ALWAYS have some type of timekeeper ~ whether it's a metronome or playing along to a cd of your choice.

[MetalDaze]

This guy's stuff isn't bad....and he wears a Tigger costume:

http://www.youtube.com/user/Spikeydrummer/videos