In the old days, we had to go see a drum teacher face-to-face if we wanted drumming lessons. Usually lessons were at a drum shop or music store and the teachers were professional working drummers in the community.
Fast forward a few decades and now we can learn via Zoom private lessons, YouTube videos and online drumming courses. My how the times have changed, for the better! In this article, I am going to share about these 3 lazy but successful ways you can learn drums online.
What are The Drums?
It’s been said that the first two instruments ever used by humans are the voice and a drum. There’s a good reason the drums are #2. They’re easy to play. Just hit them with your hand or a stick and you can instantly make music.
Today, when we say “the drums,” we are usually talking about the drum set. The drum set is a grouping of percussion instruments that has remained mostly unchanged since the 1960’s.
A typical drum set includes a bass drum, snare drum, hi-hat, rack tom, floor tom and cymbals.
By the way, if you’re just starting out and looking for a cheap drum set to get going, check this article out. I’ve got a couple of recommendations for you.
Drumming
The word “drumming” can mean different things. Some ways we use the word “drumming” are, jamming on your desk with pencils in high school, playing percussion, playing in a marching band drum line and most often, throwing down on the drum set.
For this article, drumming will mean playing the drum set.
Drum lessons near me
If you are old enough to remember phone books, you’ll remember searching for drum lessons the old fashioned way. Look up the local drum shop in the Yellow Pages and call them to inquire about drumming lessons.
You’d then go by car or bus to the drum shop. Including your 1-hour lesson, total time to take a face-to-face drum lesson was around 2 hours depending on travel time. That’s an extra hour of your time not even touching the drums!
In the old days too, teachers used to say that we couldn’t record drum lessons. Drumming exercises were written down and then we had to memorize what was said.
Lazy Method #1 – A drumming teacher near me
If you’re searching for a drumming teacher near you, have you ever thought about having a drumming teacher come to your home? That’s as near as it gets!
The Internet has made it possible to learn drums in a variety of ways all from the convenience of our home or practice space. If you have used Zoom video conferencing software or Skype before, you already know how easy it is to connect with people virtually.
While not exactly the same as being face-to-face, almost everything that we could accomplish before in-person, can now be done via video call online. This includes drumming lessons.
I regularly teach Zoom lessons to drummers all over the World. One really super thing about Zoom lessons, is students get a recorded copy of each video lesson.
This means they can go back and review what they learned as many times as they want! We’ve come a long way since the days of the “no recording” rule in face-to-face drum lessons.
Videos of drums
Learning the drums through watching videos has also become a popular way for drumming lessons. Below are two ways drummers learn with videos.
Lazy method #2 – YouTube drumming lessons
In addition to Zoom lessons, another option for drumming lessons online is through YouTube videos. YouTube drum lessons are a great way to start getting your feet wet in drumming. Here’s one of my YouTube drum lessons about how to play drums with a piano solo.
The only problem with learning from YouTube alone, is that the content is fragmented. You don’t get a complete picture or a guided lesson plan to help you get better at drumming.
You can get bits and pieces from different videos but it can be difficult to understand how to put it all together to actually play music with other people.
Lazy method #3 – Online drummer lessons
A third option for drumming lessons is enrolling in an online drum course. An online course uses pre-recorded videos and lesson attachments like PDF and MP3 files to help drummers progress in their learning.
Online courses are great because you can take them anywhere and even learn on the go. Courses have specific lesson plans to help you consistently and steadily get better on the drums.
Depending on the style of drumming you’d like to learn, there are different courses out there. In my jazzdrumschool.com I focus on teaching Jazz drumming.
I have a variety of courses at Jazz Drum School from beginning to advanced skill levels. They help drummers learn new abilities on the drums and connect their drumming to music and the other musicians.
Success in drumming is 50% patterns and 50% connecting those patterns to the music. My courses teach you how to do both.
How to play drums
The bottom line is learning how to play drums. However we get it done, that’s the goal. We want to play music with other musicians because playing music is fun!
Beginner drum lessons
To get there, every drummer will need to learn the fundamentals of drumming and important musical concepts. Some of these include:
- Drumming grips
- Double stroke rolls
- Single stroke rolls
- Flams
- Drags
- Paradiddles (See my article about paradiddles on drums)
- Bass drum and hi-hat technique
- Jazz, Latin, Rock, Pop and other drumming patterns (drum beats)
- How to play drum fills
- Drumming with brushes
- How to play with the bass player (Check out my live stream video about this)
- How to play with the other musicians.
- And other areas.
Drumming for beginners
Drumming lessons for beginners should be easy-to-follow and incremental. Beginning drummers’ success lies in the small specific details of drumming.
Larger musical concepts are important but the learning through action is much more effective. Especially when drummers are starting out.
There is so much out there to learn about drumming but I think drumming lessons should focus first on the skills that will get drummers up and grooving with other people the fastest. All of the advanced skills and concepts will come naturally in time.
Conclusion
So, the world of technology has changed and so has the way we learn drums. With so much information out there, it can be overwhelming, especially if you’re just starting out.
My advice is to find a drum teacher who’s teaching style you enjoy and stick with them for a while. Make sure they also have a solid teaching method that will help you improve incrementally.
Learn all you can from them and then move on to another teacher. This way, you’ll avoid learning burnout and gain the skills you need to get out there and start playing music with other musicians.
I’m here to help
If you’re starting out and looking for some guidance to get better at the drums, I’m here to help. All of my teaching allows drummers to learn through playing the drums and connecting their new skills with music.
There’s nothing I enjoy more in teaching than seeing my students deepen their love of drumming and music. Let me know if I can help. Always wishing you the very best in drumming. Swing on my friend!
What’s your favorite way to learn drums?
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