beginner

[christian_skater]

yeah thats right, im a beginner.

i want to try out for highschool drumline next year

where should i start learning

my brother (who went off to college so he cant teach me anything) left behind some sticks, and a couple practice pads behind for me to work with.

Where should i start?

also, i have started just messing around on the practice pads to get a feel for them, and i noticed my left hand is a LOT more slower and less coordinated than my right. what are ways of helping this?

[drummer]

Hi Christian, (love your user name btw)
Take some lessons with a qualified teacher. This will help you get on track and not pick up too many bad habits. Bad habits are hard to break once you learn them. Find a teacher that helps with drumlines. They're the best as they know "exactly" what you need to be competitive.

Start by buying the book, Ted Reed's Syncompation. Go through the first few pages of that book and practice everything on the pad. Make yourself do exercises to strengthen your left hand like:

LLLL, LLLL
LLLR, LLLR
LRLL LRLL
LLRL LLRL
RRRR, LLLR

You'll find tons of these types of exercises in the Ted Reed book.

If you don't already know of it, check out the Drum Lesson Database. It's got tons of free drum lessons of all styles and for beginner to advanced.

Hope this helps! Good luck and welcome again. Please post a lot and take part in this cool drum family of ours!

[christian_skater]

Hi Christian, (love your user name btw)
Take some lessons with a qualified teacher. This will help you get on track and not pick up too many bad habits. Bad habits are hard to break once you learn them. Find a teacher that helps with drumlines. They're the best as they know "exactly" what you need to be competitive.

Start by buying the book, Ted Reed's Syncompation. Go through the first few pages of that book and practice everything on the pad. Make yourself do exercises to strengthen your left hand like:

LLLL, LLLL
LLLR, LLLR
LRLL LRLL
LLRL LLRL
RRRR, LLLR

You'll find tons of these types of exercises in the Ted Reed book.

If you don't already know of it, check out the Drum Lesson Database. It's got tons of free drum lessons of all styles and for beginner to advanced.

Hope this helps! Good luck and welcome again. Please post a lot and take part in this cool drum family of ours!

Thank you for the help and support.

Anyone else have any suggestions?

I think to make my left hand more coordinated, im going to start doing everything with it. Like brush my teeth, hold my fork/spoon, etc

[Lezzledrummer]

You could also try going to some websites like drumbum.com or drummingworld.com and try some of the rudiments and excersizes. or just google ''drum tips" or something like that and you'll come up with some good stuff. And also if you have any questions, just make a thread and you'll get some educated answers pretty soon.
And by the way, welcome to drumchat

[B-Hole]

I have been haveing the same you are. Try parradidles RLRR,LRLL,RLRR,LRLL.......

[bongobro]

Hey, CS, if you haven't already, check with your high school and see what books they're using...and review the rudiments as well...drummer's suggestion on the Ted Reed Syncopation book is great--would also suggest you work with both the practice pads so you can start getting accustomed to playin' on multiple drums (like the triplets or quads that drumlines use).

Good luck, buddy, and...

[jkallash]

The best thing to do is learn all the basic rudiments. You can find them pretty easily for free online. Just do a search for them and you can get them. I think you can get them on the vic firth website still too. Start with the basics. As an instructor, I see too many young players trying to do too much of the flashy stuff and can't do the basics. You will be a much much greater player if you can do the basics.

[jarhead]

welcome to the world of drums. to get better at the snare,learn all the rudiments and start practicing them. with the left hand problem,go get one of those stress balls and sqeeze it all the time. it willbuild your arm up. and so will practicing.







peace,love,and drums

[drumerboy696]

one of my friends made the mistake of doing matched style (bothe sticks held the same way ) and now our lind it trying to go to traditional she is the last one who does not know so she has to relearn every thing so try to learn both matched and traditional it will also strangthen your left hend alot but it will be hard at first

[TIMPANIST09]

try going to your school music teacher and ask if he would teach you thats what i did and i was on snare for two years