How to Learn Drums For Beginners
Want to start learning to play drums but don’t know where to start? Here are the key things you need to know.
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If you’re looking to start learning and playing drums, congratulations: you’re about to start having a lot of fun.
Stating out as a drummer can be difficult though. There’s a lot to learn, and you need to train your body to move in the ways you want it to to make the beats you have in your head.
In this guide we look at how you can stat learning drums from home, even without a drum set, we look at how you can approach that with the right resources to help, from the best books and whether online lessons are enough. We also look at what you should learn first, and how. We look at what equipment you need to get started. And finally we answer some of the common questions beginners have.
Grab a pair of drum sticks and one of our recommended books, and dive right in!
How to learn to play drums yourself, from home
Many people learn to play drums by themselves. By taking the right steps, using the right equipment and resources you can learn to play drums at home.
Here are the key ways you can learn to play drums at home by yourself:
Get a virtual teacher
Invest in books. In this article we recommend the best drum books for beginners
Use online video lessons on YouTube
Remember learning drums takes time. Invest in practice and keep going and you will be up and running and having fun.
Do you need a drum teacher?
You can teach yourself to play drums. However ultimately a teacher is the best investment if you really want to get as far as you can. A teacher will help to answer questions you don’t even know you have, set you straight if you are picking up bad habits, and help to inspire you.
Online and video lessons can be a great way to help you learn new techniques and beats.
Ultimately, a mixture of teaching and mentorship, online resources, self-guided learning, talking to other drummers and self-motivated practice is a good recipe for pushing you as far as you can go as a drummer.
Whether you are using a teacher, or teaching yourself, books are a great resource for learning and practicing exercises.
Here we recommend the best instructional books for beginners that will set you on the right path.
Can you learn drums from online video lessons and books alone?
You can learn a lot from online drum lessons, particularly picking up new beats and ideas. However, you will always need to practice outside of the video lesson environment. Investing in drumming books is a great way to structure your practice.
Ultimately we recommend a good mix of face to face teaching, online resources, self-guided practice, and talking to other drummers.
What is the first thing you should learn on the drums?
Start with a simple rock beat.
Why should you learn this first? This beat will get you up and running and having fun, which is the most important thing in your drumming journey.
Over time you need to build technique and stength by practicing ‘rudiuments’ (we’ll come on to that later) but you should be able to get a simple rock beat together within your first practice session or two. from there you can embellish and let the beats flow.
How to play a simple rock beat on drums, step by step:
Play 8 even hits on the hi hat with your right hand crossing over your body to your left. These are the ‘eighth notes’ or ‘quavers’ in a ‘bar’ or ‘measure’: the way music is carved up into short sections.
On the first and fifth of these notes also hit the bass drum with your right foot.
On the third and seventh of these notes hit the snare drum with you left hand. Your left hand will be underneath your right in a crossed over pattern
That’s it! Work on playing it evenly, and when you’re ready, embellish!
Need some inspiration? Here’s our list of fun and playable rock songs to drum to.
What should you practice on drums?
As a a beginner drummer there are some key things you need to practice. Here is a list of the most important:
Rudiments: the simple building blocks of drumming. Working on these lets you play many patterns evenly.
In this article we recommend the key books for learning rudiments and exercises for practicing.
To get started we recommend The Language of Drumming by the legendary Benny Greb. Benny breaks down some key drumming concepts in a way that helps beginners understand how playing drums works, giving you some key things to practice in the process.
Coordination, or ‘limb independence’: this is you ability to move each limb independently of the others. It’s hard work to train this but you will notice the difference over time in your ability to play freely around the drum kit.
Beats or ‘grooves’: Learn some of your favourite beats, starting with a simple rock, funk and swing beat. Check out these fun rock songs to play along to.
Groove Essentials by Tommy Igor includes must-know beats that you should learn, broken down into easy steps with a play along streamable video.
Dynamics and accents: playing at different volumes, and playing individual beats louder than others. This makes your playing more musical.
Ear training: Listen to your favourite drummers and digest what they are playing. Think about how they are playing the beat technically, how are they using dynamics, what drums are they using, how does the beat progress to mark the sections of a song, how does the beat work with the song and make the song shine?
Learn how to hold the drum sticks in the main drum stick grips
There are a few different techniques for holding drum sticks. The main ways you hear are ‘traditional’ and ‘matched’ grip. Here is our complete guide to these two grips.
In general, matched grip is easier to pick up as a beginner. Hold the stick as if you are shaking hands with it. Pivot it between your thumb and forefinger, and use your other fingers to support and move the stick. Your grip should be loose so the stick can move freely, but not so loose that you drop it.
Ultimately it takes time and practice to feel comfortable holding the sticks: don’t be put off if it feels awkward at first.
Holding a drum stick using matched grip
What equipment do you need to start playing drums?
It’s great if you have access to an acoustic or electronic drum kit. However if this isn’t possible, you can get started with:
Check out our guide to learning drums without a drum set.
What are the best drum sticks for beginners?
Drum sticks come with a code to tell you how long and heavy they are. Our full guide to the best drum sticks for beginners is here.
Overall we recommend a 5A from a top brand like Vic Firth to get started. This is a good versatile stick with a medium weight that many drummers choose as a good all-rounder.
What is the best practice pad for beginners?
Investing in a decent practice pad is crucial for learning drums. This allows you to work on your technique when you can’t get to a drum kit, need to play quietly, or just because a pad helps to build the muscles in your hands and fingers.
Check out our complete guide to the best practice pads for beginners here.
Overall we recommend this Vic Firth double sided pad as the best option for beginners.
How to choose a drum kit for beginners
Ultimately you’ll want to play on a drum kit: that’s when it gets really fun. Choosing a kit is exciting but can be confusing. If you need help choosing a drum kit check out our complete guide to choosing a drum set for beginners.
Key questions for learning drums
How often should you practice drums?
You should practice drums every day if you can. this will help to build strength and coordination between your limbs, create muscle memory so you can play beats effortlessly, and help you to come up with new creative ideas.
How long should you practice drums for each day?
It’s more important to practice the right things than it is to count the minutes you play for. However, thirty minutes to an hour would be a good guide for a minimum practice time to allow you to warm up, work on technique and have fun playing some beats. Of course, if you can, more than an hour of practice will let you fit in more work, but you can also get fatigued.
How long does it take to be able to play gigs as a drummer?
If you practice the right things regularly you should have the coordination, strength and beats to be able to play a gig of simple songs within a year. However there is a lot to learn about gigging in itself and more complex or technically demanding songs take a bit more time to build the skills to be able to play confidently.
Have fun in your practice and eventually you will be ready to gig. Don’t worry if it takes a bit longer: drumming is harder than it looks.
Do you need to read drum music?
Some drummers read very little music and just play or learn by ear. We recommend learning to read to music if you have the time. This will help you to understand how to play new beats and techniques when they are given to you in notation form, and in some gigging situations reading may be necessary or at least useful.
Reading music also helps you to understand how music works on a logical basis and to interpret the intention of the composers, giving ideas and structure to your playing.
Should you start focussing on a particular style?
You should focus on the style that inspires you the most, whether that’s rock, pop, soul, jazz or something else. Some styles are easier to play than others at first. For example jazz is regarded as more difficult to play, because it requires a lot of limb independence and technique to play the typical beats, and musical knowledge to improvise.
However all styles take many years of work, or a lifetime, to master. So pick what inspires you and start practicing!
We hope this guide helps you to start drumming. We hope it shows how you can learn drums yourself from home, even without a drum set.
Ultimately learning to drum takes time, but it is well worth the investment in terms of the fun you will get from it. Practice hard using the resources we recommend here and you’ll be rewarded with being able to play one of the most fun instruments there is.
Related Articles
How to hold drum sticks is a key question for new and even experienced drummers. In particular drummers may often be wondering whether traditional grip or matched grip is best for them to hold the sticks. In this guide we give a brief comparison of the techniques to help you decide.