How to Play the Drums Now

How to Play the Drums

by John Eberhard

So you want to learn how to play the drums? Drums are a great, fun instrument and with the right tools and assistance, you can learn to play.

Find a Good Teacher

The first thing I want to urge you to do is to find a good drum teacher in your neighborhood. I believe that working with a good teacher who is a good drummer himself will greatly speed up your process of learning drums.

Check with music stores in your area and see if they offer drum lessons. You can also look in the newspapers, especially in papers that specialize in reporting about music, and check the classifieds for drum teachers.

Drum lessons are usually offered once a week, in either half hour or hour lessons. Half hour lessons are probably better for young children. Otherwise, hour long lessons are better and you can cover a lot more. Your teacher will go over various things, demonstrate them to you, and give you an assignment of what to practice over the next week before your next lesson.

The price for lessons will vary a lot, from say $15-20 for half hour lessons up to $100 per hour or more for well known drummers. But if you’re just starting out you don’t need to go to one of the high priced teachers.

Practice Regularly

A key part of learning how to play the drums is practicing regularly, preferably every day. Depending on what you goals are, whether to play for fun or to be in a band and play professionally, you drum teacher can tell you how much you need to practice in order to meet those goals. In the beginning you should plan on putting in at least a half hour a day.

Learn How to Read Music

One of the first questions that will come up for everyone who sets out to learn how to play the drums, is whether or not they should learn to read music. There’s no question that one can learn how to play the drums without ever learning how to read music.

But I recommend that you DO learn how to read music. Why? Well, having learned with this approach myself, having attended Berklee College of Music and having taught many students over the years myself, I have seen that there are many benefits to reading.

First of all, learning to read music is not very difficult. You should use one of the basic books for this purpose, such as the Haskell Harr Drum Method #1. Just make sure that your teacher explains what all the symbols mean, because if you have misunderstood symbols in the music it will tend to stop you.

Secondly, if you can read music, it will open the door to many great drum books that you can use and study. You will then be exposed to and can take advantage of many new ideas and approaches that you wouldn’t get otherwise.

Third, if you can read music it will help with your understanding of some of the more complicated types of beats out there.

Practice With a Metronome

One of the most important parts of a drummer’s job in a band is to set the tempo (speed) and keep time for the band. To do that requires that the drummer be able to play at a consistent speed, not speeding up or slowing down.

Unfortunately playing good time without speeding up or slowing down is not necessarily an inherent trait that we all have. It has to be developed. Anyone seeking to learn how to play the drums has to develop this skill. And the way you develop this is by working with a metronome.

When you are first learning how to play the drums, you should use one of the metronomes that clicks, and practice snare drum exercises and techniques, usually on a practice pad so you can hear the metronome really well. Simpler exercises are better at first, and try to really stay in time with the metronome, not speeding up or slowing down.

As you get more advanced you should get a metronome or an inexpensive drum machine that you can use with headphones, and practice the whole drum set along with a “click track.” This is vital and you may be shocked at how much you deviate from the exact time as you are playing.

After practicing a while with a metronome and a click, you will find that you develop more consistent, steady time and you can play this way without the click.

How to Play the Drums Now: How to Get Gigs in Nightclubs

by John Eberhard

Hey, I realize this topic is a bit advanced for people just learning how to play the drums. But I also think that most music instruction programs and schools don’t put nearly enough attention on teaching music students how to actually get gigs and get PAID for playing music. I think this is a very important aspect of learning music, and if you don’t learn it, eventually you may give up because you never made any money doing what you love.

The first thing to do when you have your band together and you’ve rehearsed and the group is tight, is to go out to nightclubs where you want to play, that have bands that play music at least somewhat similar to yours. Since in every city in America and beyond there is a wide variety of clubs with a wide variety of bands, you want to make sure your band is a good match for that club. There’s nothing worse than getting booked into a club where they expect a certain type of music that you can’t provide.

Ask to speak to the person who books the live entertainment for the club. Tell him that you have a new band and you’re interested in playing at the club. Ask him what he would need from you in order to book your band in the club. He will probably tell you he needs one or more of these things:

1. To hear a demo tape or CD
2. To see a video of the band
3. To see a color photo of the band
4. To see a set list
5. To have the band come in and do a live audition (this is rare)
6. He may also tell you that he books all his bands through one or more agents

 

Thank him and tell him you will be getting back to him soon. Make sure to note down his name or get a business card.

I would repeat this process with several clubs so you get an idea of what is needed by the club owners or whoever books the bands. Next you need to put together the items that the club owners or bookers have been asking for.

Probably the most common item asked for is a demo tape or CD. Get a demo professionally recorded. You should include 5-8 songs that the band plays, and you only need to have a short segment of each song, say 30-45 seconds. Each song should fade in and out.

When you get the band recorded, pay particular attention to the recording of the drums. Some recording engineers really do not know how to record drums properly. I’ll cover more on recording drums in a later post, but before you hire a studio ask to hear some of their recordings and pay close attention to how the drums sound.

Some clubs and agents today will want to see a video of the band. This can be video footage of the band playing at another club, or done in a studio. However it is done make sure it looks professional and makes the band look good.

For band photos, these should be in color, the band should look good and generally be wearing the type of clothes they wear when they perform. If your band is new try to pattern the clothes after other bands that are playing in clubs doing the kind of music that you do. Then get a bunch of prints made, usually 8x10. The prints should have the band name at the bottom and probably a phone number.

I want to caution you against “pay to play” situations, where the club owner charges you a certain amount of money to play at a club and it is up to you to sell tickets in order to even get your money back let alone make any money. This was popular in the Los Angeles area a number of years ago. I don’t agree with it and don’t recommend you agree to do it.

Booking Agents

Some clubs book only through agents who usually take a 10% commission on the total that the band is paid. If so, get the name and number of the agent and contact him and find out what he needs in order to book your band. He’ll tell you and you can provide that to him.

It is a good idea to develop a good relationship with several agents who book the kind of clubs you want to play, because most agents will have a number of clubs that they book. So they will usually book you into one of their lower class clubs to start, which probably pays a little lower. This is kind of an audition gig. If you do well and the club owner reports back to the agent favorably about you, then the agent will book you either again in that club or in other clubs and you can work your way up.

How to Play the Drums Now: Using a Metronome

by John Eberhard

One of the most important parts of a drummer’s job in a band is to set the tempo (speed) and keep time for the band.

This is not to say that it is only the drummer’s job to keep good time. It is the job of every musician to play with good, solid, consistent time. But it is more so with the drummer. The drummer has to take the initiative in setting the tempo of the song and then stick to that tempo, and rather than following the time set by others, he gets others to follow him.

To do all that requires that the drummer be able to play at a consistent speed, not speeding up or slowing down. And he has to keep a consistent speed even when he plays a fill, which is when inexperienced drummers tend to speed up.

Unfortunately playing good time without speeding up or slowing down is not necessarily an inherent trait that we all have. It has to be developed. Anyone seeking to learn how to play the drums has to develop this skill. And the way you develop this is by working with a metronome. The metronome is one of the most valuable pieces of equipment in a drummer’s arsenal.

There are several types of metronomes. There is the kind where there is a pendulum on the front that sweeps back and forth and clicks at whatever speed you set. There is the type that has a light on top and clicks. There are electronic types that feed the click into a mixer or set of headphones.

When you are first learning how to play the drums, you should use one of the metronomes that clicks, and practice snare drum exercises and techniques, usually on a practice pad so you can hear the metronome really well. Simpler exercises are better at first, and try to really stay in time with the metronome, not speeding up or slowing down.

This is something you will not master in an afternoon. It is something you continue to work at over months, as you are practicing and learning.

As you get more advanced you should get a metronome or an inexpensive drum machine that you can use in this way, and practice the whole drum set along with a “click track” i.e. with headphones. This is vital and you may be shocked at how much you deviate from the exact time as you are playing. As mentioned earlier, it is quite common for drummers to speed up when they play a fill around the drums.

This practicing with a click track using headphones is vital if you plan to get into recording. Most CDs these days are made with the whole band using a click track, to avoid some of the embarrassing moments of the past where the band fluctuated in speed on a record. I remember one great song from the early 80s where the band almost doubled in speed from the beginning of the song to the end.

The point is that practicing your entire drum set with a click track will help you develop consistent time keeping, and will show you where you typically tend to speed up or slow down. For instance, I notice that most drummers tend to speed up the more notes they play, which is why many tend to speed up while playing fills.

After practicing a while with a metronome and a click, you will find that you develop more consistent, steady time and you can play this way without the click.

How to Play the Drums Now: To Read or Not to Read?

by John Eberhard

One of the first questions that will come up for everyone who sets out to learn how to play the drums, is whether or not they should learn to read music. There was a time when this was not even a question because everybody learned to read music.

It could be that this question started with the Beatles, because the most talented songwriters of the last century never learned to read or write music. Yet they created some of the best and most enduring music of that century. And of course as we move forward in time many of the Gods of the succeeding generations have never learned to read music.

There’s no question that one can learn how to play the drums without ever learning how to read music. And there are video courses available that will help with this approach, showing video of someone demonstrating various beats and so on. And of course one can just listen to CDs and imitate the drummers that you want to emulate.

But I recommend that you DO learn how to read music. Why? Well, having learned with this approach myself, having attended Berklee College of Music and having taught many students over the years myself, I have seen that there are many benefits to reading.

First of all, learning to read music is not very difficult. You should work with a competent drum teacher in your community, and use one of the basic books for this purpose, such as the Haskell Harr Drum Method #1. Just make sure that your teacher explains what all the symbols mean, because if you have misunderstood symbols in the music it will tend to stop you.

Secondly, if you can read music, it will open the door to many great drum books that you can use and study. You will then be exposed to and can take advantage of many new ideas and approaches that you wouldn’t get otherwise.

Third, if you can read music it will help with your understanding of some of the more complicated types of beats out there. I remember some students bringing in recordings of some unusual beats by Led Zeppelin or other groups and asking me to help them figure it out. Because I had been trained and understood various time signatures, I was able to figure it out and teach them how to do it.

Finally, there are certain parts of the music business where if you want to break in, you will need to read music and read music well, such as the studio musician scene or playing in jazz groups.

In summary, reading music is not hard, and in my opinion it will help to expand your horizons.