Welcome to my article on drumming for beginners! If you’re looking to get started with playing the drums, you’ve come to the right place.
In this article, I’ll cover some important tips to get started with playing the drums. We’ll cover choosing the right drum gear to learning some essential drumming techniques.
Choosing the Right Equipment
While many drummers start out with just a snare drum or practice pad (like I did), it’s always more fun if you can also get a drum kit. Drumming for beginners is an important time. So having a full drum kit to play on will make it more likely we’ll keep playing.
There are a variety of different drum kits available, ranging from small practice kits to full-sized professional kits. When choosing a drum kit, it’s good to get something that’s not too cheap. That’s so you’ll be able to eventually use it for live performance too.
Check out my Drum Kit Setup Course to learn everything you need to get drumming.
Regarding size, smaller-sized drum sets work great for playing Jazz. Larger drum sizes are perfect for Rock, Pop and Funk music. A typical Jazz drum set will includes a bass drum, snare drum, a rack tom, floor tom, hi-hat, two ride cymbals. It also has a drum throne (drum chair) and a bass drum pedal. See my picture below.
Drum sticks and even brushes are of course necessary. For drum sticks, I recommend any stick company’s size 7a with wooden tips. For brushes, I recommend the Vic Firth Heritage brushes.
The picture above is my Pearl Midtown compact drum set. I love it and use it on many of my gigs. Check it out as an option for your first drum kit.
I also have another article you might like about compact drum sets that includes the Pearl Midtown too.
Drumming For Beginners – The Basics
Once you’ve got your drum kit setup, it’s time to start learning some drumming basics. There are a couple of different ways we hold the sticks in drumming. One way is Matched grip where the hands are symmetrical. The other is Traditional where the hands are different. See my pics below.
Traditional Grip
Matched Grip
There are advantages to both grips but in the beginning, I recommend Matched grip in drumming for beginners. It’s just a lot easier to use and gets you up and swinging fast.
With your feet, start with heel down on both your hi-hat foot and bass drum foot pedals. Later, we’ll want to play heel up with our hi-hat foot. Again though, in drumming for beginners, it’s so much better to keep things simple so you can get grooving.
Check out my other article on Tips For Beginning Drummers!
I also recommend to all beginning drummers that they start off learning Jazz drumming. Learning Jazz drumming first will hardwire your brain for success. It will make it so much easier to play any style of music you want to play in the future.
Step into the world of Jazz drumming with my Drum Lessons Starter Pack – Learn the basics of Jazz drumming, comping and how to swing like a pro with sticks and brushes!
Practicing and Improving In Drumming For Beginners
As with any skill, the key to becoming good is practice. I always say to my students, “Practice doesn’t make perfect because there’s no such thing. Practice makes fun, because the more we can do on the drums, the more fun we’re going to have.”
It’s important to set aside regular practice time and really focus on the hard stuff so that you can get better faster. Just playing the same things you already know will not help you reach your drumming goals.
In fact, I suggest that you start your practice sessions with a light warm up and then dive into the most difficult stuff. Always finish your practices with the easy stuff so you’ll be motivated to come back again and practice.
Another tip I always share with my drum students is, “Play it slow to learn it fast.” Teach yourself the way your brain actually works.
If you play things slowly in the beginning, you’ll teach your brain and body how to play things correctly from the start. If you play things too fast, you’ll make more mistakes and teach yourself to play mistakes. In drumming for beginners, this is really important.
I feel it’s also really important to get feedback and guidance from other drummers and musicians. Taking lessons with a drum instructor, attending drumming or music workshops, enrolling in online drumming courses or simply playing with other musicians and asking for their feedback are great ways to accomplish this.
The perfect drum practice tracks to dial in your Swing feel, time and comping!
Conclusion
Learning to play the drums can be challenging in the beginning but they are so much fun to play even after you can play just some of the basics.
Getting your drum kit, learning drumming essentials, and practicing regularly, will help you to start enjoying playing the drums pretty quickly. So why not get started today?
Enroll in my Drum Lessons Starter Pack that includes my popular Intro To Jazz Drumming Course and take that first important step toward having fun on the drums!
I’m sharing some affiliate links in this article. Buying through me is a convenient way to get your drum gear and an easy way to support my blog. Thank you my friend 🤙
