This is the starting point to learn to play drums. So what I would like to suggest is that, if you train yourself to think like a drummer thinks first, you will train yourself to play drums much faster. And just as crucial, starting here makes most all other instruction even more helpful, because your mind and body will absorb the new ideas and drum lessons much more easily.

I’ll do a brief explanation of what I’m actually talking about. An experienced drummer’s brain “hears” drums (like all the time), and then associates the correct movement automatically. The sound and the movement have become one. They are connected. Experienced drummers really don’t think in notes or movements, but in sounds.

When we learn the drums, we must listen very closely. The sound of a correctly hit drum (or cymbal), and the sound of an incorrect drum hit, is completely different. So, once you know what a correctly hit drum sounds like, then you just listen, and you instinctively make adjustments.

So the more you play while listening intently to the sounds you make, the more you are automatically adjusting to being a better drummer. Since almost all music has great drum sounds, listening to music has “tuned in” our hearing to know the difference between the “good” drum sounds and the “weak” drum sounds.

Ultimate Drum Exercise

We want to have as much of the required mechanics as soon as possible. When taking drum lessons, often we start attempting to learn beats and fills, and trying to have 4-limb coordination while playing to music. It’s much more beneficial to learn the coordination before you attempt to play a drum beat, fill or solo, than it is to try to learn the beat, fill or solo first, while forcing the coordination to develop.

Now, normally what I do with a beginning drum lesson student is to go ahead and have them play a drum beat and fill, and then, gradually, add more and more complex exercises so that the future lessons come easier and easier. Of course, just playing exercises, especially when first beginning to learn to play drums, would not be much fun, and many students would probably not be motivated to find the time to practice, and eventually would lose interest.

Steve Blank

Learn to play drums online, or at my studio in Round lake Park, Illinois.

Serving Lake County Illinois and McHenry County IL 224-636-7038

Watch this Video and see How to Play Electronic Drums!

Learn to play drums online, or at my studio in Round lake Park, Illinois.

Serving Lake County Illinois and McHenry County IL 224-636-7038

“Learn to Play the Drums

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Learn to play drums online, or at my studio in Round lake Park, Illinois.

Serving Lake County Illinois and McHenry County IL 224-636-7038