As someone who has spent years teaching drums and performing as a professional drummer, I consistently encounter the same question from aspiring musicians: “What is truly the best way to start learning drumming?”
In my experience, the most effective approach to learning drums balances two crucial elements: enjoyment and progress. Ideally, your practice should be both fun and productive.
When you feel yourself making tangible progress, drumming becomes inherently more enjoyable and motivating. Conversely, when playing the drums is a fun and engaging experience, you are naturally inclined to practice more frequently, which in turn accelerates your progress. This creates a positive feedback loop that is key to long-term success.
By concentrating your efforts on the most impactful aspects of drumming from the outset, you can significantly accelerate your learning curve and minimize potential frustrations.
In this article, I will break down the essential elements every beginner drummer needs to understand. I’ll also highlight common pitfalls and traps to avoid, ensuring your drumming journey is as smooth and rewarding as possible.
While there’s no single “perfect” method for learning drums, some strategies are far more effective than others. Let’s invest the next few minutes to set you on the right path and prevent you from wasting time on less productive approaches.
Let’s dive in and get started!
The Need-to-Know Essentials for Aspiring Drumming Wizards
There are fundamental skills that are absolutely crucial for any beginner drummer to develop: technique, timing, and coordination. These three pillars form the foundation of good drumming.
Firstly, mastering basic drumming technique is paramount. This begins with learning how to properly hold the drumsticks and execute fundamental strokes.
Developing sound technique from the start is essential. Poor technique can lead to inefficient playing, limited control, and even physical discomfort or injury over time. While there are various schools of thought on hand technique, often referred to as “German,” “French,” or “Moeller” grips, the specific name isn’t as important as learning a solid technique.
My advice? Don’t get bogged down trying to learn multiple techniques simultaneously. Choose one reputable technique as your starting point and commit to developing it. Consistency and proper execution are far more valuable than technique names.
buddy rich technique – what is the best way to learn drums
Image: Buddy Rich, renowned for his exceptional drum technique, demonstrating stick control. Developing a solid technique is a crucial first step when learning drums.
The second essential element is timing. In drumming, just like in comedy, timing is everything.
Solid timing is the backbone of rhythm. Without accurate timing, your drumming will sound disjointed, and playing along with music will be challenging and unsatisfying. Even if you master complex patterns, poor timing will undermine your overall sound.
Fortunately, timing is a skill that can be developed and refined through practice. It’s not an innate talent; it’s cultivated through consistent effort.
The classic tool for developing timing is the metronome. This device produces a consistent click at a set tempo, providing a steady pulse to play along with.
While metronome practice might not always be the most exciting activity, its importance for drumming cannot be overstated. It trains your internal sense of rhythm and consistency, which are vital for playing with other musicians and in time with songs.
Practicing along with songs is another excellent way to further develop your timing in a musical context. Combining metronome practice with playing along to songs offers a well-rounded approach to timing development.
“The drum is the heart of the music. The drummer keeps going, he can’t afford to stop.”
– Jo Jones, legendary jazz drummer
The third essential skill is coordination. If you feel like you have “two left feet” or struggle with tasks requiring limb independence, don’t be discouraged. Coordination, like timing, is a skill that improves with practice.
Drumming requires coordinating multiple limbs to play different rhythms simultaneously. This can seem daunting at first, as it involves training your hands and feet to work independently yet together.
It takes time and dedicated practice to develop this coordination. Don’t expect to master it overnight. Consistent, focused practice is key.
A CRITICAL TIP FOR BEGINNERS: When striking two drums or cymbals together, strive for absolute synchronicity. This applies whether you are using your hands, feet, or a combination of both.
Ensuring your strokes are perfectly simultaneous is crucial. If they are slightly out of sync, it creates an undesirable, muddy sound where one drum is slightly lagging or leading the other.
From the very beginning of your drumming journey, consciously focus on making each combination of drums and cymbals sound as one unified sound. Aim for a clean, precise impact with no audible gap or “fuzziness” between the notes.
Mastering these three fundamentals – technique, timing, and coordination – will set you up for a bright future as a drummer. Many common drumming challenges stem from weaknesses in these areas. By prioritizing them from the outset, you gain a significant advantage in your playing development.
“Playing well with others is important – not being too flashy, just keeping good time and of course, coming up with cool beats. A good snare drum, kick drum, hi-hat. Just getting good at the hand feet coordination.”
– Chad Smith, drummer for the Red Hot Chili Peppers
What Should I Practice as a Beginner Drummer?
The most efficient way to learn drums is to focus your practice on the elements that drummers use most frequently in music.
In reality, drummers spend approximately 90% of their time playing drum beats, also known as drum grooves. As a beginner, this should be the primary focus of your practice on the drum set.
The remaining 10% of drumming performance typically involves drum fills. While fills add variety and excitement, they are not essential for beginners. You can play a vast repertoire of songs without incorporating fills initially. Therefore, at the beginning, your energy is best spent mastering drum beats.
When it comes to learning drum beats, the question arises: which ones should you practice?
Practicing outdated or overly obscure drum beats will limit the range of music you can play along to. Conversely, focusing on overly futuristic or niche beats won’t be immediately applicable to most common musical styles.
Learning the right drum beats is like having a treasure map that guides you directly to your goal. You will be able to learn a far greater number of songs, much more quickly, if you focus on learning the foundational beats that underpin most popular music.
Drumming, while seemingly complex due to its many facets, can be simplified by breaking it down into manageable categories.
A surprisingly small number of drum beats form the rhythmic foundation of the vast majority of songs across various genres.
Choosing the appropriate drum beat for a song, even a simplified version, will make your playing sound relevant and musically coherent, even if the original drummer on the track is adding complex embellishments and advanced techniques.
Therefore, establishing a solid foundation in drumming requires starting with the fundamental drum beats and grooves that are prevalent in popular music genres.
“Grooves pay the bills.”
Steve Gadd, highly influential session drummer
Think of a drummer’s role in three layers:
- The Basic Beat Skeleton: This is the fundamental rhythmic framework of the drum beat. If you stripped away all the embellishments and variations, this is the essential pattern needed to keep the song moving forward rhythmically.
- Beat Variations and Embellishments: On top of the basic skeleton, drummers add variations and extra touches to the drum beat. These make the beat unique and tailored to the specific song, adding nuance and musicality.
- Drum Fills: To add dynamic changes and transitions, drummers incorporate drum fills every few bars. Fills inject energy, create interest, and signal changes in song sections.
Learning the “skeletons” first, which is step 1, is a highly logical and efficient way to begin learning drums.
Understanding the foundational beat before attempting to learn complex variations makes the learning process significantly easier and more effective.
This is arguably the biggest mistake many new drummers make.
Understandably, beginners are often eager to play their favorite songs immediately. However, the drumming parts in those songs often feature complex rhythms and techniques that are beyond a beginner’s current skill level.
Having a structured learning path that prioritizes what to learn is extremely beneficial. Trying to tackle a fast-paced rock song with intricate drum fills right away, without a solid foundation, can be overwhelming and discouraging.
You will have ample opportunity to learn those advanced techniques and songs later. However, your starting point should definitely be mastering the common, foundational drum beats.
How to Effectively Get Started Learning Drums
Numerous approaches exist for starting to learn the drums. However, many common methods lead to wasted time and inefficient progress.
If you have a busy life with limited time to dedicate to drumming practice each day, efficiency becomes even more critical.
Therefore, I strongly advise against relying solely on randomly searching for videos on YouTube as your primary method for learning drums, especially in the initial stages.
I can personally attest to the challenges of this approach. When I started learning piano a while ago, even as a professional musician, I felt overwhelmed and lost trying to discern which YouTube videos were truly relevant and effective for my practice. It was difficult to establish a structured and progressive learning path.
While some individuals claim to be entirely “self-taught” musicians, this is often misleading. True self-teaching often involves countless hours of trial and error, wasted effort exploring unproductive avenues, and navigating frustrating dead ends. It’s rarely an enjoyable or efficient path, especially for beginners.
You need guidance, especially in the beginning. Having someone with experience to point you in the right direction, even for a limited period, can dramatically streamline your learning and build confidence.
Learning with an experienced drum teacher is by far the most effective and efficient way to start playing the drums, particularly in the initial stages. This can be done online via platforms like Zoom or in person – the delivery method matters less than the quality of the teacher.
A good teacher provides invaluable benefits. They can save you significant time and frustration by offering a clear, structured roadmap of what to learn, in what order, and by identifying and correcting any technical errors you may develop early on.
Having taught drums for over a decade, I consistently witness the transformative impact of targeted instruction. Often, imparting just one or two key pieces of knowledge can dramatically improve a student’s playing almost instantly.
I recall a student who recently joined my lessons after attempting to learn drums for six years using YouTube videos and self-study. She shared that she had learned more songs in just a few lessons with me than she had in the previous six years of unstructured learning!
When you focus on learning the most important elements of drumming first and postpone less critical aspects, it unlocks significantly more opportunities to play music and accelerates your progress exponentially.
Even with just 15 minutes of daily practice, you can make consistent progress, provided you are focusing on the right things and practicing effectively.
Consider another student of mine, Bethany, a 40-year-old from Florida who runs a demanding dog-walking business. Her work consumes most of her time and energy, leaving limited time for other pursuits. Despite her busy schedule, Bethany had a strong desire to learn drums and needed a practical approach to make it happen.
Here’s how we made it work for Bethany:
We prioritized practicing only the most essential aspects of drumming, focusing on high-impact exercises and techniques.
Even with just 15 minutes of daily practice dedicated to a specific drum beat, Bethany has made remarkable progress. By focusing on mastering one beat at a time, she has been able to unlock new songs, increase her playing speed, and gain confidence through consistent, short practice sessions.
It’s important to note that choosing to learn drums with a teacher, especially initially, doesn’t require a lifelong commitment to one-on-one lessons. Even a few months of focused lessons can build a robust foundation, making you more equipped to utilize online resources, courses, and continue learning independently with confidence that you are heading in the right direction.
If you are curious about experiencing this type of focused and supportive learning environment with a fun, introductory drum lesson, I offer free trial lessons. It’s an easy way to explore if learning with a teacher feels like the right approach for you. You don’t need any equipment to get started, and I teach students worldwide via Zoom.
Click here to visit my teaching page where you can learn more about my drum lessons. I encourage you to reach out, even if you are unsure if one-on-one lessons are the best fit for you at this time!
Regardless of how you choose to embark on your drumming journey, I wish you the very best of luck with your playing and hope it develops into a lifelong passion!
