Learning to Play Drums for Beginners

It is now time for you to learn how to play the drums. There is a step-by-step way to play the drums. Here are the most widely accepted techniques you need to play drums:  

 

·        Learn Without Drums: Start learning by just using your hands and feet. Here is how this works. You will use your right hand to imitate a hi-hat; your left hand will be a snare drum. You will use your right foot to imitate a bass drum. Or, if you do have drums, just follow along. Rest comfortably at a desk or table and start tapping with your right hand. As you do count to four either out load or to yourself. After you get past four, start the count over. Remember, each number will be one tap of the hand. Now using your left hand as a snare drum, tap that for every count of three. In other words, when you get to three you make one tap with the left hand. Now, using your right foot as a bass drum tap with it for every count of one. Remember, your right hand will tap four times, your left hand will tap on every third tap of the right hand, and your right foot will tap for every tap of the right hand.

·        Reading Drum Notation: In order to play the drums you have know how to read drum notation. This is the way to learn how to play the drums. You will see this in every drum book or program out there so become familiar with it. On music notation the pitch of a note is indicated by a dot on the five horizontal lines called a staff. Of course the higher the dot the higher the pitch. When reading drum notation, the note’s position will indicate what drum or cymbal to use. The generally accepted way to position drum and cymbal notes is the brass drum is at the bottom, the snare in the middle, the hi-hat and cymbals are at the top. If you are not familiar with this, the timing of each sound depends on the progress of the notes from left to right. When you look at the notation, you will no doubt see 4/4 on the left. This is called a time signature. This indicates how much time and exactly how many beats are in a measure. Each measure is separated by a vertical line. If you see a note with a stick or tail going either up or down, this has no bearing on the note. It is just written like that for clarity. If you see a dot after a note, that indicates the note one and a half times the length of the non-dotted note.