Learning to play drums

[gbbird]

Following on from the electronic drums thread, i am seriously thinking of learning to play drums, mainly to enhance the overall quality of my home recordings. So, the question is, how easy/difficult is it to learn to play to a basic/intermediate standard? I am not talking Bonham or Lombardo level here, just enough to put some decent sounding beats and fills to my mainly 'heavy' recordings. Bear in mind i am a competent musician (guitar, bass and voice) and songwriter (well i would say that wouldn't I), have used drum machines and have played in a number of bands, so I do appreciate the notion of rhythm, timing, structure etc etc. Would this help me in anyway, or is it basically you either have it or you don't?

Please be kind if i am being a bit naive

g

[obscene]

I also played guitar first so I'm assuming you'll at least have a basic idea of how things work. If not pick up a simple beginners book and work through it. Hardest part is co-ordinating all 4 limbs to work together. Best songs to start learning are any ACDC classics, great simple drumming.

[GnuBee]

It's like any musical instrument (cue numerous jokes about drummers) in that you need to practice, practice and then practice more.

Your existing background will clearly bring with it advantages over what a non-musician would have i.e. a sense of timing, rhythm, song structure etc.

[5150]

I played drums for about 4 years as a youngster, including in a band, before finding my niche with the guitar.

A friend's son recently got a drum kit for Xmas and the main things I concluded were:

- You've got to WANT to play the drums (or any instrument to that end) - you're never gonna be good quickly, so you'll have hours and hours, months and months of tedious repetition exercises.

- A kit is a distraction initially - use the snare drum for practice, then move on to adding Hi-Hat and bass - worry about the toms when you feel you can put something together.

- Have a (basic) song in your head, If you don't even have a clue of what you want to play, you'll spend endless hours tapping out random ''beats'' and not really progress.

- With any instrument - you can always practice away from it. Drums especially - I always had a pair of sticks in my rucksack, or sat in front of the tv - the more time you spend with the sticks in your hand, the quicker you'll feel comfortable with them.

- as said before, you may feel like you're not progressing, but stick at it, practice and before too long, you'll be able to tap something out that you'll recognise and it'll all be worth it . . enjoy