Potential New Drummer
 

So I've been thinking about taking up drums for a relatively long time, and finally might crack now that Christmas is coming. I'm 15 years old, and have gone through the stage of taking up and quitting instruments of all sorts, hahaha.

I've always wanted to give it a shot, and finally brought it up with my dad about a week ago. Unfortunately, he says it would be too loud (there really isnt anywhere to put it in our house) for both the rest of my family and the neighbors. I thought for a solution, and it finally dawned on me while at my girlfriends house today messing around with her electronic drumkit.

So basically I'm asking, is an electronic drumkit a good investment for practicing purposes? I'm bound to suck for quite awhile if i get hooked, and i figure no one being able to hear me is probably a good thing for awhile. If this is a good solution to my problem, any suggestions on brand/model?

Thanks for all your help :)

For practice purposes sure! I don't have any idea on brand/model but if you want to get into a instrument go for it! I'll just be mad at you if you quit when you realize how hard drumming actually is. If you get this drumkit, stick to it.

Awesome :) and ill do my best, sticking with things has always been a problem for me but i really feel like drumming will be different, ive always had fun with it (used to own a set and mess around, mess around at other peoples houses, never anything serious) so we'll see. How would i go about actually learning it if i get serious? Would you recommend i go out of my way to get actual lessons?

Yes, get lessons. However, I would recommend spending a couple weeks just getting used to it -- experimenting with how much force it takes to create a good sound, etc. There are plenty of sites that give you easy drum beats. For example, the basic rock beat:

hh:xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
s :--x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x-
b :x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---

You probably won't be able to hold this beat perfectly right away, but it won't take long as this is a very simple and well known drum beat.

then you can try slightly harder ones like this:

hh:x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-
s :--x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x-
b :xx--xx--xx--xx--xx--xx--xx--xx--

Slightly more difficult, but not too hard to master.

After you have those down perfectly, you should have a basic but solid foundation. After that, get lessons.

Yeah if you feel passionate about it go get some lessons. And ignore that ugly tablature you see from the other poster, just go buy a book.


Amazon.com: Stick Control for the Snare Drummer: George Lawrence Stone: Books

Pick this one book up, you'll need it. Practice your rudiments:

40 Essential Rudiments

Don't worry about the set stuff, it's more important that you learn how to use your hands efficently. You can always **** around and figure out the set stuff, but the stuff I gave you is the stuff that really matters.

I'd recommend getting books recommended by your teacher. There are many crappy books out there, so you don't want to waste your money.

And you'll have to get used to looking at my "ugly tablature" if you want to learn stuff from online tabs. By all means, ignore my post and ignore learning online tablature, you can always just buy every drum tab book there is. If you just want to try out some other tabs, no point at all in getting it for free, is there...

hahaha
 

Hahaha as much as i appreciate the help from both of you, you overestimate my abilities. Although I agree I should spend some time getting used to it first, i have no idea how i would play what you just wrote in that post. Like at all. Is it possible for you to give me a brief synopsis of how to read that?

Stick Control is a good ****ing book and any other book will due when you're a beginner and just want to learn some beats.

...where did I say Stick Control was a bad book?

And no, sometimes it won't do. When I started playing guitar, i got a couple guitar books. When I started lessons, I realized the books had stressed wrong points and essentially taught me badly, so I had to unlearn all I had learned before returning.

It's essential to get a good or at least decent book when beginning so you don't regret it later.

edit: Caoboi, sorry didn't see your post. I'm editing it right now to say how to play it

2nd edit: Let's take this one...the counting is under:

hh:x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
s :--x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x-
b :x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---
1 2 3 4-1 2 3 4- 1 2 3 4-1 2 3 4

Count 1 2 3 4 evenly.

On each of those 4 beats, hit the high hat (hh) with your right drumstick.
On beat one and three, hit the bass drum.(b)
On beat two and four, hit the snare drum.(s)

hh has an "x" on every beat.
So pretty much, on every beat you're hitting the high hat. Then, you are alternating the bass and snare drums -- bass, snare, bass, snare, bass, snare, bass, snare.


It'll sound like this. http://www.geocities.com/drummershaven/basicbeat.wav

Whatever. Disturbed.

Angel's you seem to know what you're talking about, in addition to MSPaint (but i heard his opinion). I appreciate all your help btw, and that goes for both of you equally.

Anyway, Angel, is there any defining arguments AGAINST me starting with an electronic drum kit? The positives seem to correlate directly with the reasons my parents wouldn't let me get an acoustic kit in the first place, which is why I'm leaning heavily towards that option.

EDIT: Thanks a lot for the clarification on reading that type of notation. I'm new at this, so it's probably going to take me awhile to get the ins and outs of it hahaha. That makes sense, and if I get it I'm sure I'll fit that in for practice eventually.

Nope, an electronic drum kit is a great way to start out. The only negative part is an acoustic drum kit sounds much better, but an electronic drum kit is just as good for practicing. Go for it.

edit: MS, why am I disturbed? Reading online drum tablature is a great skill to have, and I just don't want this guy to waste money/time with potentially bad drum books. Plus, having to relearn everything sucks, which I say from experience.

Alright, awesome. I just didn't want to end up having invested a large amount of practice time in an electronic drum kit and then however many months/whatever down the road figure out playing an acoustic is effectively a completely different instrument.

Are most teachers going to be ok with me having an electric set, and will they have me practice on an acoustic while im at lessons?

haha this is the last question, sorry. Appreciate all your help.

They feel a little different. And you can't be as expressive with the drums. But if you can play an electric drum set, you can play an acoustic drum set.

It depends on the teacher. They should be fine with you practicing on an electric set -- I wouldn't see why they wouldn't be. However, the teacher might only have acoustic drum sets. It's good for you to practice on an acoustic drum set at the lesson, though, so you can see the similarities and differences between the two.

And you know that electric drum kits are a bit more expensive, right?

Yes, i've looked through prices. I think that assuming I'm willing to chip in some percentage of it, my parents will be ok with sharing the cost for a Christmas present. That's what I'm banking on at least.

I just know that theres no way I'm getting an acoustic, my dad and noise don't go hand in hand unless the noise is being made by him or his TV.

Haha, yeah. Especially since you'll just be starting out. It's generally tolerable if you're already a drum expert and can always hold a beat...but when you're just learning... :P

Also, I think that since you won't have to worry about noise, it'll be better for practicing -- you can take risks with the drum set without anyone hearing and going "wtf?"

Good luck with it ^_^

Thanks man, will do :) Hopefully all will go well and starting around Christmas you'll be seeing me hang around more, hahaha.

Not a man, but you're welcome ^_^