Getting Started

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Getting Started – Your First Steps to Playing Drums

So you’ve decided that you want to play drums.

Maybe you messed around with a guitar, sang, but drums is your calling.
Well, welcome to the world of drumming.
If you practice, work hard, there are endless possibilities as a drummer that you can reach.

My Drumming Journey & How It All Began

I started playing when I was about 12 years old, a bit of a late starter.
I had friends who played guitar in bands and I really wanted to do that.
I would watch bands I loved, playing live, ripping it up, the drummer blowing me away like Rob Hirst of Midnight Oil. Brad Heaney of the Screaming Jets (he is a master) and Jon Farris of INXS was my biggest inspiration at the time back in the day.

I went and bought a Pearl drum kit. Gradually, I saved up to buy decent Sabian cymbals like Jon. I even got the same sticks as him, which I still use today.

But learning to play is a journey. You can’t just get on a kit and start playing like a master.
It takes practice, long hours and hard work to get to a good level.
Then, when you do, it’s great if you can join a band and learn how to play in a band with other musos.
This takes it to another level because you have to be good, or someone in the audience might yell bad words at you, or throw something. I’ve had that happen.

The picture here on this post is of me with The Choirboys at the MCG playing to 75,000 people with other famous bands. It took a long time to get to a level where I played well enough to be in a famous band and then play a show like this. But it is possible with hard work.
Here’s the video of the song we played for fun:

How to Start Playing Drums: Basic Techniques

So where do you start? I’ll list out some basics for you to take away and start.
Stick grip – how you hold the sticks is super important. You need to let the stick bounce off the head so you can play hits or notes.
Foot position – how you have your foot on the kick pedal is also important. You need to be able to push down hard and slide sometimes for fast hits and notes.
Rudiments – this is where you start to play the drums, hit each drum and cymbal. You will learn techniques to help strengthen your wrists and fingers, play fast and slow and develop a solid style. This is repetitive, over and over, stuff to get good at.
There are some really good books you can get to help you practice and do this.

Why Lessons Make a Difference

Lessons can show you all this, how to do it, how to play in time and grow into a great player. I will work with you to help you get good and learn lots of different techniques.

So you can start today by making a booking so we can get started together. I love doing this and playing drums, so it will be a great experience. Contact me to book in now.

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