Patience, dedication and hard work are all called for to learn to play the drum or any other musical instrument. It takes years of practice learning the drum, despite the fact that many professionals make it look easy. However, even the great drummers had to start somewhere and learn to play, and if you want to be a drummer, you should persevere and learning the drum online can be one of the easiest ways to master the instrument. The following tips can help you.
Learn To Read Drum Notation
Although many people learn to play drums without learning how to read sheet music, you should not follow in their footsteps because this approach generally limits one's ability to experiment with different styles of music and beats. By experimenting with different music genres, you will enhance your skill level and technical ability. The good news is reading sheet music is not hard. To start with, you need to understand sheet music terms such as tempo. In simple terms, tempo is the pace at which one plays music or drums.
Most music sheets utilize one note and a numeral to indicate the tempo. Also, music notes lie on the staff - five horizontal lines that run the entire length of the music sheet. The time signature is another significant drum notation. It is comprised of two numerals with the top number indicating the worth of each beat. The bottom number indicates the number of beats that each bar contains. Writers of sheet music use drum keys to denote drums. The prevailing rule of thumb is to read drum notes a little bit in advance of the ones being played. This allows you adequate time to mentally and physically prepare to play the drum.
Develop Good Rhythm
To ensure that every other aspect of the music is synchronized, drummers need to have a strong sense of rhythm; this sense of rhythm can be the difference between a good performance and an average one. The key to developing good rhythm is simply to practice as much as you can; there is really no quicker way to accomplish this and one way to practice effectively is to play at a set tempo, having set your metronome to that specific tempo. If you adopt this approach, start out with a slow tempo and then increase the speed until you get the hang of it. You can also develop a better sense of rhythm and improve your timing by drumming along to pre-recorded music.
Improve Your Technique
Drummers traditionally used their hands alone to play drums. Today, however, they use both their hands and feet to play drums. This means that you have to learn and perfect drumming techniques that involve the feet. Examples of popular drumming techniques include the heel-up and the heel-down techniques.
The heel-up technique involves applying the weight of the entire leg to the foot pedal in order to hit the drum. It is wise to keep the heels of your feet one to two inches off the floor. On the other hand, the heel-down technique involves applying force to your drum's foot pedal using the calf muscles and ankle joint.
Pulling off the heel-down technique requires you to maintain contact between your foot and the surface of the foot pedal at all times. Do not worry if you find it difficult to master this technique. Instead, just keep practicing and ensure that you remain as relaxed as you can. Also, allow your feet to assume a natural and ergonomically-correct position.
Get a Practice Kit
Of course, your family and neighbors may not appreciate you practicing the drums at all hours of the day and night, although plenty of practice is needed for learning the drum. A practice drum set consists of wooden blocks covered with rubber and is a lot quieter than the regular kit. Another solution is to place sound-off pads on top of your regular drums to keep the noise to a minimum.
Practice is definitely the key to learning the drum and becoming skilled, although it is admittedly not the easiest instrument to learn. Reading and understanding drum notation, followed by developing good rhythm is the way to go, and this will improve your overall technique. A practice pad kit will allow you to get in as much practice as you need without driving the neighbors crazy.
Learn To Read Drum Notation
Although many people learn to play drums without learning how to read sheet music, you should not follow in their footsteps because this approach generally limits one's ability to experiment with different styles of music and beats. By experimenting with different music genres, you will enhance your skill level and technical ability. The good news is reading sheet music is not hard. To start with, you need to understand sheet music terms such as tempo. In simple terms, tempo is the pace at which one plays music or drums.
Most music sheets utilize one note and a numeral to indicate the tempo. Also, music notes lie on the staff - five horizontal lines that run the entire length of the music sheet. The time signature is another significant drum notation. It is comprised of two numerals with the top number indicating the worth of each beat. The bottom number indicates the number of beats that each bar contains. Writers of sheet music use drum keys to denote drums. The prevailing rule of thumb is to read drum notes a little bit in advance of the ones being played. This allows you adequate time to mentally and physically prepare to play the drum.
Develop Good Rhythm
To ensure that every other aspect of the music is synchronized, drummers need to have a strong sense of rhythm; this sense of rhythm can be the difference between a good performance and an average one. The key to developing good rhythm is simply to practice as much as you can; there is really no quicker way to accomplish this and one way to practice effectively is to play at a set tempo, having set your metronome to that specific tempo. If you adopt this approach, start out with a slow tempo and then increase the speed until you get the hang of it. You can also develop a better sense of rhythm and improve your timing by drumming along to pre-recorded music.
Improve Your Technique
Drummers traditionally used their hands alone to play drums. Today, however, they use both their hands and feet to play drums. This means that you have to learn and perfect drumming techniques that involve the feet. Examples of popular drumming techniques include the heel-up and the heel-down techniques.
The heel-up technique involves applying the weight of the entire leg to the foot pedal in order to hit the drum. It is wise to keep the heels of your feet one to two inches off the floor. On the other hand, the heel-down technique involves applying force to your drum's foot pedal using the calf muscles and ankle joint.
Pulling off the heel-down technique requires you to maintain contact between your foot and the surface of the foot pedal at all times. Do not worry if you find it difficult to master this technique. Instead, just keep practicing and ensure that you remain as relaxed as you can. Also, allow your feet to assume a natural and ergonomically-correct position.
Get a Practice Kit
Of course, your family and neighbors may not appreciate you practicing the drums at all hours of the day and night, although plenty of practice is needed for learning the drum. A practice drum set consists of wooden blocks covered with rubber and is a lot quieter than the regular kit. Another solution is to place sound-off pads on top of your regular drums to keep the noise to a minimum.
Practice is definitely the key to learning the drum and becoming skilled, although it is admittedly not the easiest instrument to learn. Reading and understanding drum notation, followed by developing good rhythm is the way to go, and this will improve your overall technique. A practice pad kit will allow you to get in as much practice as you need without driving the neighbors crazy.
About the Author:
Daniel Sears is an expert in drum playing for several years, who is sharing is experience, reviews and knowledge through is own website blog. if you desire to know more about it, you can visit is drum site. if you desire get more information and reviews about playing the drum, you can go visit is playing the drum reviews, videos and articles pages.
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