My big brother was a drummer. No natural talent, but he took lessons from the guy who invented some of the rudiments, and he practiced every waking moment of his life. At 10 or 11, I forget which, he performed with a quartet of boys the same age--one was 12, I believe--I have the 78 RPM recording of the show. They played "marching drums" while standing in a straight line and tossed their sticks to each other during the show and never missed a beat. This was at Meyer's Lake in our home town, Canton, Ohio.
My dad took him to NY and he took some lessons from Krupa and Cole. Cole told him he was better than Cole was as this age (14 or 15).
Because he was also smart, he went to college at 16 to become a theorhetical nuclear physicist (say THAT 3 times fast) and Cole told him music was a terrible career and to go to college (1957).
In his first year of college (age 16) was carried to the 50 yard line with his drum kit during the homecoming football game (1958, I think) and played a 3-5 minute drum solo for the Queen who was visiting his college--William & Mary. We have the pictures somewhere.
Point is, the same as the old Carnegie Hall joke--practice, practice, practice. Today's drummers are NOT percussionists; they can't read music (heaven forbid!) and they play ham-fisted. Rock drumming is not totally percussion-based.
If all you want is to play along with pop and rock songs, have at it. If you want to be a DRUMMER, start here:
http://www.drumrudimentsystem.com/drum-rudiment-guide/drum-rudiments-guide.pdf
Otherwise, you are just amusing yourself banging about. Nothing wrong with that--I do it to on my vintage 1968 Ludwig set--but I PRACTICE the rudiments, as poorly as I play them, all the time and am getting slightly better at "copying" pop records. Try a drum-to-drum roll across three drums and see how it goes. A lot harder than it looks, and I have been practicing it for 40 years. Try the backbeat on "beach music" and see if you can do that one--very hard!
If you want to play serious music, jazz, orchestral, etc., you need to take lessons, but master the above rudiments and you will be well on the way to being a real dummer, IF THAT IS WHAT YOU WANT.
If not, bang away and enjoy!
(By the way, drumming is all in the wrist, in case you were wondering.)
Cheers!
My dad took him to NY and he took some lessons from Krupa and Cole. Cole told him he was better than Cole was as this age (14 or 15).
Because he was also smart, he went to college at 16 to become a theorhetical nuclear physicist (say THAT 3 times fast) and Cole told him music was a terrible career and to go to college (1957).
In his first year of college (age 16) was carried to the 50 yard line with his drum kit during the homecoming football game (1958, I think) and played a 3-5 minute drum solo for the Queen who was visiting his college--William & Mary. We have the pictures somewhere.
Point is, the same as the old Carnegie Hall joke--practice, practice, practice. Today's drummers are NOT percussionists; they can't read music (heaven forbid!) and they play ham-fisted. Rock drumming is not totally percussion-based.
If all you want is to play along with pop and rock songs, have at it. If you want to be a DRUMMER, start here:
http://www.drumrudimentsystem.com/drum-rudiment-guide/drum-rudiments-guide.pdf
Otherwise, you are just amusing yourself banging about. Nothing wrong with that--I do it to on my vintage 1968 Ludwig set--but I PRACTICE the rudiments, as poorly as I play them, all the time and am getting slightly better at "copying" pop records. Try a drum-to-drum roll across three drums and see how it goes. A lot harder than it looks, and I have been practicing it for 40 years. Try the backbeat on "beach music" and see if you can do that one--very hard!
If you want to play serious music, jazz, orchestral, etc., you need to take lessons, but master the above rudiments and you will be well on the way to being a real dummer, IF THAT IS WHAT YOU WANT.
If not, bang away and enjoy!
(By the way, drumming is all in the wrist, in case you were wondering.)
Cheers!