want to learn how to play drums? read this

[elcuebee]

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Process Analysis Essay

In this Process Analysis essay i'm going to inform you on a few basics of how to play the drums, such as basic drum beats, the names of the drums, etc. basic stuff.

To start off with, I'll explain a basic set that a person playing rock music would use. On your very far left you have the Hi-Hat, one of the foundations of drums, basically just as important as the bass pedal. 

The hi-hat is what I like to call the main time keeper, because in almost 90% of music except for some heavy rock and country, the hi-hat is what keeps the beat in music. It does this because it (usually) is the quietest and shortest lasting sounding of all of the cymbals in a typical set, so when you hit it it makes a sound that is loud enough to be heard and keep the beat with, but not so loud (like a crash cymbal) that you would muffle out the rest of the music with all of the loud sounds. 

There are variations of hi-hats, some are just a small cymbal, but the most common type today is a small cymbal with the same size cymbal flipped upside down underneath it, both with a pole going through the middle of them, and a pedal that allows you to close them and open them at will. If you are holding the pedal down and you hit the Hi-hat, it will make a semi-quiet, very short-lasting sound, like metal against metal. If you have it open, it will create a louder, longer lasting sound, but nothing close to a Ride cymbal or a Crash cymbal.

The next object, moving to the right, is the Snare drum. This drum is also one of the foundations of drums, although not as important as the Hi-hat (in my opinion). 

Usually most of the new snare drums have a switch you can flick on the side of it that loosens the "snare" on the drums, i.e. little wires stretching across the bottom of the drum which give it it's loud, dominating sound when tightened, and a bongo-ish sound when loose. The snare drum looks just like a normal drum, although it is typically the shortest height wise, and drummers place it in different places, some like it close to their legs, some like it far away. etc.

The next object differs; I like having my Crash cymbal right next to my hi-tom. So i'm going to assume this is how your drumset would be also. The Crash cymbal is just a big cymbal that rests up in the air on it's own pole, between the hi-tom and the snare drum. Hitting it hard results in a loud, crashing sound, which is where it presumably got it's name from. 

This cymbal is used a lot in rock music, although it's found in almost every type of music as a end to a measure of music, i.e. every 16 beats (or 32 if you're talking rock).

Moving on, now we have the Hi-Tom, and right next to it, the Low-Tom. Both of these are bongo-ish sounding drums, and as you guessed probably, the Hi-Tom sounds a bit more high-pitched than the Low-Tom. These drums get used way less than the cymbals and drums i mentioned earlier, simply because they were introduced into drums very recently. 

(not really recent, but just according to the drums' lifetime)

They are both smaller than a snare drum in size, but usually taller/deeper, and they usually rest a bit above...

The bass drum. The bass drum is one of the other essentials of drums in my opinion, and as far as I know EVERY type of music uses it. The bass drum is the biggest drum on the set, rests on the ground on it's side (the actual part you hit is directly facing you), and you hit it with the bass pedal, which is usually directly in the middle of the bass drum, and your drumset. 

That loud vibrating sound that subwoofers make to vibrate your car? That's the bass in a song. The bass drum usually also keeps time, although not as much as the hi-hat is used for that. Experienced drummers (i'm learning it myself) can play the bass and hi-hat with their feet alone, leaving their hands to play other drums.

The next object to your right is the Ride cymbal, which is a huge (usually) cymbal that creates a sound that's in between the cymbal and the hi-hat, but with a bit more of a tinny sound, and the sound usually lasts really long. It's mostly used as a time keeper also, although not nearly as much as the hi-hat because it's louder, it may be used to emphasize the sound when the hi-hat isn't loud enough.

The final drum in a typical set is the Floor Tom, which is the deepest and biggest of all of the tom drums, and is almost as big as a bass drum, but not nearly as deep. It sits directly to the right of you (in my set, at least).

Now that we're done with that, I can finally explain some basics to you. First i'm going to explain musical time, and how to read drum tabs.

S |----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|

See that? That's a line of a drum tab for the snare drum, as signified by the S for Snare. (usually there would only be 8 "-", but i'm doing it in rock music, so it's double.) It's completely blank though. Each little line on there represents a place where a note can be put down. I'm going to come back to this later though, and explain something about time to you. Musical time is usually represented by giving such measures as 1/4th, 1/8th, 1/12th, 1/16th, etc. Since this is a basic tutorial though, i'm only going to cover easy ones, which means 1/12th is out. I'm going to also assume your drumset caught on fire or something, because I want you to try this next exercise where-ever you're reading this, on a desk, at your computer, whatever.

Put this paper down so you can read it, and put your hands down by it, one on each side of the paper. Now whichever hand you use the most, think of a song in your head. Something slow to start off with. Think of when you hear a bass sound or just how you feel the beat in your head, and then count off "1,2,3,4" to each time you hear or "feel" that beat, so to speak. Now slap your hand down on the desk (not hard.. your hand will be hurting by the end of this if you did that haha) to each count. That's 1/4th time, which means 1 beat every four of those lines up there. Sounds easy right? Well, this is. However, as you probably guessed, very few music actually plays the entire song only using 1/4th notes.

Now what I want you to do is to keep on tapping your right (or left hand, whichever) down with that same beat. Get it memorized in your head. Now, try and tap your other hand to the same beat, but make your other hand start one beat AFTER your first hand. So in other words, you'd be doing the same beat, but don't slow down, you have to keep the same pace with both hands. Just imagine it as walking, that may help. Once you've gotten this down, now you are playing the beat in 1/8th time, as you probably guessed. This would take up every two lines up on that drum tab line above.

Now for the final one i'm going to cover today, 1/16th time. Basically all you have to do to achieve this is just do the same beat you were doing, same pattern.. except double the speed. With both hands. So this time count out 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8... in the time it took you to count out 1,2,3,4. Another easy way to do this is to count out "1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and". The "ands" are the extra beats you'd be adding in. Try it with one hand first, hitting it 8 times in the space of the original four times. (that counts as 1/8th time, by the way.) Now you just have to do it with two hands, except once again, have the other hand start one "number" or beat forward. This may take a while to get it perfect, but once you have, you've done 1/16th time. A line of 1/16th notes takes up an entire 16 lines of the tab up there.

Now i'm going to put up a few lines of Snare drum tabs, and see if you can try them out. I forgot to mention this earlier, but there are four "bars" to a "measure" in drum tab music, see how the 16 lines per "bar" are seperated by "|" type of line? That's when you know the bar has ended, and four bars make up a measure.

S|o---o---o---o---|o---o---o---o---|o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-|oooooooooooooooo|

The "o" in drum music means to hit the drum then, an "x" is usually used for cymbals, and a "O" or an "X" means to hit them harder (or in the case of cymbals sometimes, to hit it when it's open like the hi-hat can close or open). So do you think you know how to play that tab with your hands? Basically you would just do 1/4th time for the first two bars, then 1/8th, then 1/16th. Try it out and then come back to this when you're done, or you get bored of trying.

Done? Ok, now that you know the basics of time and drum tabs, i'm going to move onto something a bit more complicated. This is assuming you have a real drumset, by the way. 

C |---------------X|---------------x|---------------X|---------------x|
R |XXX-------------|-------------xXx|----------------|xxx-------------|
H |xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx|XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx|xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx|xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx|
t |--------------OO|--------------oo|--------------OO|--------------oo|
T |--o-------------|--o-------------|--o-------------|--O-------------|
F |-o--------------|-O--------------|-o--------------|-o--------------|
S |o---------------|o---------------|o---------------|o---------------|
B |o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-|o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-|o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-|o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-|

looks a bit more complicated now, doesnt it?... Now admittedly I can't even play this kind of drum tab because.. well it's hard as hell However, i'm going to explain what each one of the letters mean before I move on. The C stands for Crash cymbal, the R (sometimes Rd also) stands for Ride cymbal, H is hi-hat, the lowercase t is hi-tom (although i'm not sure on this), and the T is the low-tom (they could be swapped, so I'm not sure). The F is the floor tom, S is the snare drum, and B is the bass drum/pedal.

Here's something a bit less insane.

H |x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-|x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-|x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-|x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-|
S |-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o|-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o|-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o|-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o|

Don't freak out just yet. This is a lot easier than it looks. First of all, before you try this out, i'm going to teach you how to position your body and hands. Sit down in your seat, facing your drums. Have your right arm crossed over your left arm, and hold the drumsticks in your hand like you're just gripping it naturally, almost like a bat grip. 

(There is another way to hold the sticks, but you're only at beginner level, so there isn't a point to doing it now, there's no advantage) 

Have the right hand's drumstick resting on the hi-hat, and the left hand's drumstick resting on the snare drum. Now just repeat the exercise earlier for 1/16th, except translate the slaps into snare and hi-hat hits. See? It wasn't as hard as it looks. Now i'm going to add an extra element into play though. Hit the bass pedal in 1/4th time. To make it less confusing, you'd do it like this

(right hand = r, left hand = l, H = hi-hat, S = snare, B = bass, each comma represents a line);

rH + B, lS, rH, lS, rH + B, lS, rH, lS, rH + B, lS, rH, lS, rH + B, lS, rH, lS.

That's one whole bar. Get it? So you'd only hit the bass pedal every second hit of the hi-hat, at the same time. Here's another different idea. Drummers, once experienced, often will never have their arms resting in the same position 

(right over left, left over right, neither arm crossed) for long. Here's an exercise in having to cross your right arm over your left, and back over again repeatedly. This is a bit harder, so make sure you got the last exercise down right.

H |--x---x---x---x-|--x---x---x---x-|--x---x---x---x-|--x---x---x---x-|
t |o---o---o---o---|o---o---o---o---|o---o---o---o---|o---o---o---o---|

Looks like you can just play this by using your left hand to hit the hi-hat and your right hand to hit the hi-tom, right? That's true. However... what if I were to add this in?

S |o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-|o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-|o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-|o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-|

Now you have to hit the snare drum every 1/8th, while you're hitting the hi-tom and hi-hat (alternatively) at 1/4th. So how would you go about doing this, you ask? Easy. Start off by having your right hand resting on the hi-tom, and your left hand resting on the snare. Start off by hitting the hi-tom with your right hand, and hit the snare at the same time with your left hand. Then as you raise your left hand again to hit the snare, cross your right arm over to the hi-hat and hit it with your right hand, at the same time you bring your left hand down to hit the snare. Then just repeat that over and over. 

Not as hard as it looks, right? I'm going to add something else into it now. Try hitting the drums in this order; hi-tom, snare, hi-hat, snare, and repeat from hi-tom, but never hit any of the drums at the same time as any other ones. I'll let you figure out how to do that, then come back to here for a bit more advice and info, and then that will conclude the Process Analysis essay.

Done? 

Ok, now I want you to try one last thing. When you hit your bass pedal or hi-hat pedal, there is more than one way to hit it with your foot. The most commonly used ways are two different styles, both used (usually) for different styles of music. The one I myself prefer is the one where you have your foot at a diagonal angle to the pedal, i.e. your toe is resting on the top of the bass pedal, and your foot is angled diagonally up. This method allows quick bass pedal hits, but not much power, so you have to build up your leg muscles. This is typically used in heavy rock, where speed is needed. 

However, if you're playing something like jazz or slower songs, you can use the second method, which is simply to rest your foot on the pedal and slam your foot down. This gives more power but not as much speed.

Now I want you to try playing the hi-hat and the bass at 1/4th speed, together. Either method is fine at this speed. Done? Now try playing them alternatively at 1/4th speed. 

A bit harder to control your legs alternatively, isn't it? Now try playing them at 1/8th speed, alternatively. If you can't do that at this stage, it's totally expected, because using your legs alternatively and keeping a beat is much harder for most people (unless you're already in something that would require this, like soccer, or swimming, or something that works out your legs a lot) than doing the same with their arms.

The last piece of info I have to offer you, is to practice often. Another thing I forgot to mention is that depending on what type of music you are trying to play, you may not even need half of the drumset.

Listen to some Elvis Costello, Beatles, Frank Sinatra, etc. to see more examples of using a limited drumset and still making great music. But if you're into heavy rock, metal, some alternative, punk, etc. then you'll want the whole set, and some bands' drummers like No Doubt's have MASSIVE drumsets, with over 20 drums and 5 or more cymbals! 

Speaking of cymbals, a last side note is that there are many different types and sizes of cymbals, so shop around and check stuff out, they all have unique sounds, and the same goes for drums, just not as much. 

There are also things like double bass that you should explore if you want to get into fast, hard rock type music.

Anyways, I hope this helped you in learning how to use your drumset, or just to keep time in music for drums in preparation for using the drums and reading drum tabs. Thanks for reading!

-----------------

Thank you sam for telling me how to get it into Lucida Console. the tabs should make much more sense now. and yes i wrote this for english class.

[seveneleven]

ZOMG i hate you for posting this i play the drums but i dont own a set so now you brought back the thought of not being abl3 to play .... i read you essay and would have to say its very informitave yet somewhat confusing...

[elcuebee]

ZOMG i hate you for posting this i play the drums but i dont own a set so now you brought back the thought of not being abl3 to play .... i read you essay and would have to say its very informitave yet somewhat confusing...

why is it confusing? the drumtabs don't line up correctly because the post isn't in lucida console font.

[sam]

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use the code thingers

[djfooboo]

djfooboo's guide on playing drums:

Buy the soul of Dwight...You know that awesome jazz drummer...No?...Go screw a goat then.

[elcuebee]

djfooboo's guide on playing drums:

Buy the soul of Dwight...You know that awesome jazz drummer...No?...Go screw a goat then.

or fuck a dog, either one

[hascoolnickname]

post too long to read
if you want to learn how to play well then you should probably take lessons.

[Green Tea]

the drummer in my band never took lessons and he's amazing... except for his broken foot which sucks for double bass until it heals up

[elcuebee]

post too long to read
if you want to learn how to play well then you should probably take lessons.

i never took lessons.
my friend took lessons for three years.

i'm better than him...? i've only been playing half that time

lessons are pointless in all aspects except for extremely difficult tasks (i.e. you would want to get lessons for say, building a rocket, for being a doctor, etc.)

but stuff like drums, video games, ddr, tennis, 3d graphics, film editing, none of that i ever took lessons on and i'm ranging from decent - highly skilled in all of them...

yet all of the things I DID take lessons for I suck ass at. taking lessons means that you're being taught in someone else's image, rather than your own "flow".

and if that was long.. you definitely didn't read my story post did you hahaa

[sam]

drums are one of the rare instruments you truely can learn on your own. get a book on basic rudaments of the sort like paradiddles, flams, flamadiddles etc etc and once you get the basics down it's meerly linking together rudamentries to make awesome beats. Drums are very user friendly and hell, you truthfully don't even have to be on beat...but those drummers suck

as for other instruments, about the only one i've found you can pick up on your own is the guitar/bass. but it's pretty hard to make your own music or do anything past tabs without knowing some basic music theory

[elcuebee]

drums are one of the rare instruments you truely can learn on your own. get a book on basic rudaments of the sort like paradiddles, flams, flamadiddles etc etc and once you get the basics down it's meerly linking together rudamentries to make awesome beats. Drums are very user friendly and hell, you truthfully don't even have to be on beat...but those drummers suck

as for other instruments, about the only one i've found you can pick up on your own is the guitar/bass. but it's pretty hard to make your own music or do anything past tabs without knowing some basic music theory

yup yup. drums is the backbone of all (GOOD) music, keeping the beat and adding oomph to it, but they are, because of this, and by nature, very "basic" except in most types of heavy metal, jazz, alternative, and some types of rock. (i guess you can call rap complicated w/some of the drumbeats but.. most of it is electronic).

seriously, like 60% of music is the classic bass-bass-snare-nothing with hi-hat in the background keeping the beat.

[Original Sin]

I've never taken lessons in my life, and I can lay down a basic drum line. I've been debating about getting an electronic drum set, to help in recording my music, and hope that someday down the line I can find an actual drummer to play live with, if I ever get my musical works off the ground.
Drums are easy to learn, hard to perfect. You can teach yourself and instrument, though. I know a guy that plays guitar, damn good heavy metal and acoustic styles, and he's never taken a lesson in his life. He learned by listening to music, and trying to replicate it on his guitar. He can't even read tabs, but he can play anything he hears note for note.
Sadly, I don't have that much patience. I rarely play other people's music anymore, and just sit down with my axe and make shit up.

[elcuebee]

I've never taken lessons in my life, and I can lay down a basic drum line. I've been debating about getting an electronic drum set, to help in recording my music, and hope that someday down the line I can find an actual drummer to play live with, if I ever get my musical works off the ground.
Drums are easy to learn, hard to perfect. You can teach yourself and instrument, though. I know a guy that plays guitar, damn good heavy metal and acoustic styles, and he's never taken a lesson in his life. He learned by listening to music, and trying to replicate it on his guitar. He can't even read tabs, but he can play anything he hears note for note.
Sadly, I don't have that much patience. I rarely play other people's music anymore, and just sit down with my axe and make shit up.

I would say this;

Drums = easiest to pick up, hardest to master.
Guitars/String Instruments = medium to pick up, medium to master.
Piano = hardest to pick up, easiest to master.

I've never played a saxophone or any other wind instrument so.. yeah.

I say this because Drums are extremely easy to do basics on, but for pro level, you require a level of physical and mental stamina, plus coordination that no other instrument requires. You have to use all four limbs, INDEPENDENTLY from each other, moving extremely fast, and still keeping a steady rhythm.

Guitar is just medium/hard all around, the difficulty curve doesn't really amplify way up there or suddenly die as far as I know.

Piano is the hardest to pick up basics on because you have to know the keys, the chords, multiple key setups, etc. to play anything decent, but once you have all the hand positions and chords memorized, all you need to work on is flexibility of the fingers, speed, and being able to read tablature.

[Green Tea]

Drums = easiest to pick up, hardest to master.
Guitars/String Instruments = medium to pick up, medium to master.
Piano = hardest to pick up, easiest to master.

you are an idiot.... guitars are easy to pick up, easy to master... I have nearly mastered guitar in 4 years of playing.... I've played piano for 10 years and I'm nowhere near mastering it. I play 7 instruments and I say piano is the hardest BY FAR! unless you have mastered them you have no fucking room to talk. Piano you need to dedicate your life to to master. Guitar is a hobby. And drums aren't hardest to master either, because alot of drummers never took a single lesson. Find a master pianist that never took a lesson, they don't fucking exist so don't post your ignorance...

EDIT: yea if you call playing fucking chopsticks mastering the piano, it's easy. Try playing real songs like rachmaninoff. Oh and the fact that you referred to piano music as "tablature" makes you more of a dumbass and proves you don't know what you're talking about. so thank you and don't talk about what you have no fucking clue about

please ignore my drunken stupor

[elcuebee]

Drums = easiest to pick up, hardest to master.
Guitars/String Instruments = medium to pick up, medium to master.
Piano = hardest to pick up, easiest to master.

you are an idiot.... guitars are easy to pick up, easy to master... I have nearly mastered guitar in 4 years of playing.... I've played piano for 10 years and I'm nowhere near mastering it. I play 7 instruments and I say piano is the hardest BY FAR! unless you have mastered them you have no fucking room to talk. Piano you need to dedicate your life to to master. Guitar is a hobby. And drums aren't hardest to master either, because alot of drummers never took a single lesson. Find a master pianist that never took a lesson, they don't fucking exist so don't post your ignorance...

EDIT: yea if you call playing fucking chopsticks mastering the piano, it's easy. Try playing real songs like rachmaninoff. Oh and the fact that you referred to piano music as "tablature" makes you more of a dumbass and proves you don't know what you're talking about. so thank you and don't talk about what you have no fucking clue about

Um. No. Funny hearing all of this from someone who continually advocates a pacifistic, "i don't play for competition i just play for fun on DDR" additude around the boards. Looks like someone was just going with the crowd, eh?

All instruments take a lifetime to "master".

By master, I mean on a vague level of being able to do most of, if not all, the deep intracies of the instrument. For example in drums, this would be having the ability to move all four limbs independently, be able to do at least 30 hit rolls every second for as long as you want (5 minutes upwards), and be able to make your own rhythms and remix music in real time on the drums, as well as play odd rhythms, not just 4/4 timing.

Drums, and guitar, in actuality, would be two instruments that would take FAR longer to master than piano, just on the sole fact that drums are "infinite"; you can add on as many side instruments and extra drums and cymbals as you possibly want as long as you have the money, meaning more and more things to synch into your songs.

I have two blast blocks, toccatta bells, double bass pedals, a piccolo tom (extra), china cymbal, small splash cymbal, chimes, triple cowbell, and tambourine as extras on my drumset. I'm still adding things.

Guitar has effector pedals, not to mention the tuning of the guitar can add millions of different possibilities to what you can play, and while I know a piano has tuning, it's not as easily doable as tuning on a guitar, nor does it have that big of an effect, not to mention as well that tuning a piano can throw off a pianists' entire flow because piano keys center around a "set" sound much more than a guitar does.

Anyways, ever think that other people have different skills than you?

My dad's been playing guitar 20 YEARS and he can't do songs that my friend learned in 2 months.

So by "master" you can play Eruption by Van Halen easy right? Make a recording of that and get back to me, since you've "nearly mastered" guitar. How about a recording of Big Sur also while you're at it?

Piano is hard for you because that's who you are. Piano is only semi-hard for me because that's who I am. My friend Shaun has been playing piano for two years and can REMIX CLASSICAL SYMPHONYS IN REAL TIME. aka he can get classical piano pieces, and decide to throw in an entirely different flow in the middle of the song on the fly without any previous practice. He's just a natural at the piano; yet after playing drums for three years, he can't do stuff that I picked up after two weeks.

Oh, and he took ZERO lessons. By the way, how did beethoven take lessons? He couldn't even hear, only feel vibrations, and back in those days, that was a curse and a sin, basically. There's no way anyone would have taken the time to get him lessons, he paved his own way. So, you fail.

You're telling me drums aren't hard to master? Someone hasn't listened to jazz... let alone the band "berzerker", some of the hyperblasts he does there are over 60 hits a second, at least.

My friend has been playing drums for 8 years and has had three cds put out, had gigs all over california, and used to be in a band that opened for X-Fest (hetch hetchy).

Yet within one month I can blow him away with my double bass technique on drums, something he can't do at all, just because he is who he is.

So before you start sounding like you're a know it all, you might want to learn how to look at different angles of reality and people's personalities/skills before you act like you're the leading master on music.

Still waiting on that Eruption and Big Sur recording, by the way, guitar master. Thanks for playing, don't try this again unless you want to get served; being in the DDR community for 5 years has made me pretty toughened to people trying to talk shit.

You have to have a damn good argument to be able to talk shit to me.