In the world of drums and rhythm, there are a few essential skills and concepts every drummer must know. If you are an absolute beginner on the drum set, this is definitely the place to start out. Even if you are an advanced drummer already, it is never a bad thing to brush up on the essentials. A lot of drummers actually do not know some of these essential concepts of drumming, so make sure you check this article out and learn the basics of drumming and rhythm. Although learning how to play the drums is a huge task that never ends; there are a few things that every drummer must know. If you fail to learn these essentials, you will find it harder to improve your overall skills on the drums.
So what are these drumming essentials? Well they are what give a drummer complete control over their instrument. Being able to tune a drum will give a drummer control over the sound he gets from his kit. Being able to hold your drum sticks properly will allow you to maximize your practice and play time on the drums; allowing you to improve your skills faster. Knowing how to read sheet music will give you the ability to teach yourself more diverse beats and patterns. And lastly, knowing how to count time will give you the pulse every beat is based from. If you cannot count time properly, how will you stay on time with your beats?
If you learn how to tune your drums the proper way, you will always have this skill under your belt. You have no idea how many drummers do not know how to tune a drum set. They are left with a nice looking drum kit that sounds terrible, because they never took the time to learn how to tune it. Also, you would be amazed how many drummers I know that do not know how to hold a pair of drum sticks. This is another essential skill of a drummer that you must learn. Whatever stick grip you are using, make sure you are gripping it properly, or you will end up hurting yourself and your practice time.
Reading sheet music is a skill that a lot of drummers choose to ignore. They feel a drummer should be able to improvise and feel the beat. This is true to an extent, a drummer must be able to do that; however, being able to read sheet music gives you so much more options when it comes to playing live, and practicing. If you can read sheet music, you will get more gigs as a drummer. In addition, learning new beats, grooves, and patterns is a lot easier if you can read drum notation. You can find lessons all over the place that include sheet music, especially if you are looking for rock drumming beats. So before you even begin to practice your next solo, try reading some drum charts!
The last obvious skill is the ability to count time. Now I am not just talking about counting to 4. Being able to count time means being able to follow along to odd time signature grooves, fast tempo songs, and polyrhythmic beats. If you cannot count the time of the song you are playing, you will not be able to play it properly.
All of these concepts can be learned over the internet with the help of useful resources like this one. Although this site is still in the works, it still has some useful tips and pointers on these essentials for drummers. There are tons of free websites out there that can help you learn these key concepts, here are a few to check out:
These are all free resources dedicated to teaching drummers of all skill levels. These essential lessons are covered in full detail here on this website, as well as the websites listed above. Now that you have a further understanding of this, go out and start learning these skills!