I took my first drum lesson. (long read)

[tselanne]

So I'm 34 and been playing on/off since college - bought my first kit in '99. My pattern over the years has been that I play, on average, for about 3 hours every month. Probably more like 3 hours every 2-3 months. When time permits, I put on headphones and my favorite cd's and just play along - it's usually a long session and I'm always really sore afterwards.

Wanting to get better, I joined here and have been reading more and more online. Many of the senior members around here have been recommending lessons to the newbies.... since I put myself in that category, I finally got the guts to walk into a local music store and sign up. I was actually pretty nervous when I signed up, lol.

It was a one-month minimum - came out to $25/lesson for 4 lessons, at 30 min per lesson.

Teacher is very cool. We sat in this tiny-little room packed with rhythm instruments. I sat in a throne for a 10-yr old which, after heightening all the way, was still too short, lol. He asked me a few questions like 'why are you here?' and 'how did you get started?', things like that. I gave him my background and my 'story'. That ate up 15 minutes right there. We then moved on to instructional topics like posture, correct grip, and basic rudiments.

He had me sit properly, hold the sticks properly, and I followed him doing single-stroke rolls on the pad - we did them together, slowly increasing the tempo. The dude has some fast hands! He did compliment me on my speed, which was nice, although I was no where near HIS speed....

Then we switched to the electronic kit for the last 2 minutes as he asked me to practice paradiddles on the pad and then the kit.

The session was over before I knew it.

I learned:
- I've been holding the sticks slightly wrong (or just wrong I guess). He explained that my thumb should be centered on the stick - the stick should be in the middle of my 'thumbprint' - and my thumb should point directly at the tip of the stick. I have been resting the stick on the top of my thumb, almost on my thumbnail.

Homework he gave me:

rlrr lrll
rllr lrrl
rrlr llrl
rlrl lrlr

He told me to do these while doing rlrl with my feet at the same time, and counting 1-2-3-4 out loud. I went a step further and have been doing (well, trying to) the 4 paradiddle patterns w/my feet while doing rlrl with my hands. I also do them 'backwards' so I start with the left hand (which is my lead hand). It took me about 45-60 minutes (over 3 days) of practice time on the pad to get these down to where I can switch between hands and/or patterns without stopping. Seeing improvement is really fun!

I thought I'd write this so any other newbs like me would get an idea of what a lesson is like. I'll post my other lessons too, I'm curious to see where these lessons go. Until then....

[jafo]

Sounds cool.

You know, Building a repor with your instructor is important. That 15 mintues probably told him more about you than you realise. He can guage your interest, your skill level, your experience ect.

The first lesson with my instructor was actually over the phone. He works private, and it would be a week before actually going over to his studio, so he had me start counting to beats, and doing exercises with my bass pedal foot to kind of get it some what in shape to play. We still sat and talked the first visit, and he checked out my rhythm.

Thing is, if he told you to practice a certain amount of time or sessions per week, try to do more if possible. He will be able to tell right off if you've been precticing or not. I practiced every night. It made a big difference too.

It sounds like you enjoyed your lesson, keep it up and you'll never regret it! Looks like your on the right road. Can't go wrong with lessons.

[tselanne]

Thx for the tips Jafo, I need all the encouragement I can get! It's weird showing up for lessons, considering my last memory of music lessons were from when I was a kid. That and everyone else taking lessons in the building is 12 yrs old or less! The only people my age are the parents dropping off their kids or for a recital.

Lesson #2:
Started 5 minutes late 'cause we didn't see each other right away after his previous lesson. Boo.

Spent 15 minutes re-discussing proper stick-holding technique. Ex: how to hold, where the stick should bounce off your palm, how fingers should be curved, where pressure should be placed, etc., etc. I was asking A LOT of questions because I have played for the last 15 years holding the sticks improperly. It's been a strange transition - like brushing teeth with your opposite hand. You know what to do, but it's just tough to do it.

Spent the last 10 minutes on the electronic set playing wk1's rudiments together.

Homework for this week:
Performing the same 4 rudiments:
lrll rlrr
lrrl rllr
llrl rrlr
lrlr rlrl

4 measure's for each, with the last measure played as a fill on the toms, any way I want.

[LudwigLifer]

I will be watching this thread because I am so UNproper on how I sit,play,etc. that I KNOW I will learn something I need to know.Thanks for sharing your experiences tselanne.

[jafo]

Thx for the tips Jafo, I need all the encouragement I can get! It's weird showing up for lessons, considering my last memory of music lessons were from when I was a kid. That and everyone else taking lessons in the building is 12 yrs old or less! The only people my age are the parents dropping off their kids or for a recital.

Lesson #2:
Started 5 minutes late 'cause we didn't see each other right away after his previous lesson. Boo.

Spent 15 minutes re-discussing proper stick-holding technique. Ex: how to hold, where the stick should bounce off your palm, how fingers should be curved, where pressure should be placed, etc., etc. I was asking A LOT of questions because I have played for the last 15 years holding the sticks improperly. It's been a strange transition - like brushing teeth with your opposite hand. You know what to do, but it's just tough to do it.

Spent the last 10 minutes on the electronic set playing wk1's rudiments together.

Homework for this week:
Performing the same 4 rudiments:
lrll rlrr
lrrl rllr
llrl rrlr
lrlr rlrl

4 measure's for each, with the last measure played as a fill on the toms, any way I want.

Kind of wierd aint it? Ha-Ha! All those kids and your the only grownup around taking lessons.

I kind of approached my lessons like a competition with my instructor. I came and left with the idea that I was going to be better than my instructor at every lesson. He would challenge me and I tried my dangdest to over achieve every lesson. Thats why I practiced every night no matter what, and I always made the time to practice. Nothing got in my way of that. I established that right from the start with my family.

I wound up in my estimation equal in abilities to my instructor when all was said and done, which really was one of my goals.

So be sure to make time to practice, nothing beats time behind the set.

[tselanne]

Thx Ludwig.

jafo that's awesome. Becoming as fast as my teacher doesn't seem real or possible at this point. But I see what you mean about practice. For the first time in my life I've actually played consistently and been able to notice the small improvements. Fun!

[late8]

Great thread tselanne! Sounds exactly how my first lesson went. You haven't mentioned working with a metronome so my 2 cents would be to invest in one ASAP. Good luck and keep us posted!

[jafo]

Don't get me wrong, I'm by no means a pro. An I'm just moderately fast with my hands. What I took away from my lessons was the ability to branch out and play the way I want and feel with due respect to any song covers. But not to lock myself into what someone else's beats are but create my own. Your covering the basics, that's good, but the more I experienced going through lessons, the more I wanted to do my own thing. It was fun, he had me come up with beats out of the air while he played on his guitar. But that was fun.

[pastor_bob]

WTG tselanne! Lessons will be fun and give you that little extra direction to speed up your progress. Thanks for sharing your journey!

[chrisbkk]

sounds like the guy assessed you from your history and sarted you at a level he thought would be most appropriate; I'm sure the lessons will become more interesting I never took lessons at a school but have considered it; I saw a local band play years ago and just hired the drummer to teach me for 6 months at my place at around $30 an hour (he was Thai) he wasnt a teacher but a damn good drummer and he definately set me along the right track; however I'm still considering proper lessons to brush up on basics that i may have missed. WIll be interested to read about your forthcoming lessons

[Doc_d]

Congrats on starting lessons! I tried to learn on my own for about a year before I broke down and took lessons. Lessons have helped me immensely.


I would give you one piece of advice. If you can afford it, don't be afraid to take lessons with a couple different teachers and see who you click with before you commit to one for the long haul. Just like any profession there are awesome teachers / drummers out there and there are some chumps.

When I took my first lesson, I got the impression that the guy really wasn't a drummer but rather someone who was musically inclined who wanted to making a living teaching music. He played and taught several different instruments. I didn't get a good vibe from him at all.

The second teacher I found was much better. He's a working professional drummer who lives, breathes and loves this stuff. He teaches out of his house and only charges $35/hr. I really clicked with him and his style and it's amazing how far he's brought a no talent non-musical right brained type like me in about 1.5 years of lessons.

To give you an idea the difference between him and the first teacher I had, he is a working professional drummer who was a Berklee grad. He has played /done session work for some big names (Mitch Ryder, Tony Orlando, Kid Rock, Gordon Lightfoot, KC and the sunshine band), does tons of session work for local TV / radio commercials (Meijer's stores, Ellias Brothers (big boy), Garner White stores, Ford Flex campaign, ClearChannel, JB Robinson Jewelers, McDonalds). In fact his current band just won't the "Dodge Ram Battle of the Bands".

I think of teachers like drums heads. If you never try any different heads you'll never know which ones are right for you.

[trickg]

This thread reminds me a lot of a guy from my small SW Nebraska hometown I bumped into online - he's 10 years older than me, but currently lives in the LA area and I live near Baltimore. We never knew each other in my hometown due to our age differences, so it was kind of funny "meeting" for the first time on an international online trumpet player's community/forum.

Anyway, the gist is, he played trumpet through high school and quit, and now, 30 years later, he's coming back to it, basically starting from scratch. Like you, he's older than the next oldest student by a long shot.

We correspond via email and text regularly and I try to keep him motivated and encouraged, and I also help him to have faith in what he's being taught by his instructor. Like you, he does some really basic stuff that is borderline boring, but is necessary to help build the foundation to move forward.

My hat is off to you - that took a lot of guts to go in and sign up. We as adults sometimes have a hard time submitting to the authority of someone else, even if it is something like music lessons.

Just keep plugging away, working on what your teacher is giving you, but don't be afraid to continue to play along to recordings - there is a lot of great stuff that can be learned by doing that too.

[Larrysperf]

Cool glad you are havin fun, thats what its all about

[marko138]

Cool thread. Thanks for sharing.

[tselanne]

You haven't mentioned working with a metronome so my 2 cents would be to invest in one ASAP. Good luck and keep us posted!

Yes, I don't have one yet! Thank you for the advice; I have been wanting to get one, but there are so many! I don't know which to get. I only know some can do a lot of different things, and some are just basic. I suppose basic is all I need for now, but I do tend to gravitate towards complicated.

I would give you one piece of advice. If you can afford it, don't be afraid to take lessons with a couple different teachers and see who you click with before you commit to one for the long haul. Just like any profession there are awesome teachers / drummers out there and there are some chumps.

Thank you for the advice. I see what you mean about trying more than one. I only signed up for 4 lessons due to having knee surgery scheduled for June 9, so I may try a different teacher when I'm back.

[tselanne]

3rd Lesson:

To begin, we did not discuss any of the prior homework. In my head I was like, 'come on man, I practiced this week!' Instead, we discussed reading music and proper notation.

He explained in general about reading music, specifically drum music of course. We reviewed whole notes -to- sixteenth notes, and what they look like on paper and how they fit into time signitures. How long is a whole note.... how many quarters fit into a whole, half,.... etc. This I understood pretty well from taking piano lessons as a kid.

Next, we discussed the importance of counting out loud. In his words, counting out loud is just as important while learning music as it is while learning to read. It helps the brain associate different parts of music-time with verbal sounds (which apparently makes it easier to understand music in the long run). He actually busted out spanish during this conversation (he's fluent) because I responded 'yes' when asked if I ever learned a foreign language. I quickly asked him to switch back to english, lol. We then took that discussion to the kit, whereby we played some simple beats while counting out loud. As always, we first played together, then just me; or he'd start with me but stop half-way through while I kept going. He explained that I should be changing my pitch with certain words. Ex: 'one' 'and' 'two' 'and'.... where the 'and' should be slightly higher pitched than the 'one' or 'two'. Next we did the 'one ee and ah two'....

Counting out loud felt REALLY weird to me, as during the lesson was the first time I have EVER done that. Especially when the beat only fell on the 'ee' or the 'ah'. I anticipate it's going to feel weird for a while....

For homework, he told me to buy Alfred's Beginning Drumset Method, and to start working through the book. So I did. It cost 20 bucks, and I've gotten half-way through the book reading and listening to the cd. I haven't played with it yet though, just listened to see what was coming....

Then on Sunday, I actually went to his recital for his other students. THAT was 'throw-back' experience! Most were kids 3rd grade on up, but he had a few seniors in high-school and one college kid. The college kid played a metal song which was cool - and hilarious watching all the parents grimacing and little kids covering their ears.

Next week's lesson is my last before surgery. Not sure if I'm going to continue, but I'm liking him more and more, especially after this week.

[gonefishin]

There are certain things you just cant get from searching online.

Having someone point out the way you were holding your sticks alone was worth the lessons.

Congrats and keep us posted on your progress.

[Rickkus]

It sounds great. I'm going to give lessons a try with someone near to me.

Good work!