Playing a musical instrument is one of the most common hobbies of men. There are some men who prefer to play the piano, some the guitar, and some men play the drums. If you are a beginner, you do not need to buy a whole set of drums right away. You can begin learning the skills by just having two sticks and a practice pad. Begin to acquaint yourself with the different beats by just using the sticks and the practice pad. Once you have the feel of the beat, then you can proceed using the actual drums.

Here are the steps on how to play the drums, according to a professional drum player:

1)      Start with the proper grip on your stick. Do not hold it too tight or too light either.

2)      Then learn how to count or understand time signatures. The basic drumming beats are in the signatures of 4/4, meaning there are four counts before the beat begins again, so each beat is different. You also have to time the beat with the bass drum using your right foot, and on the snare drum with the use of your left hand. If you want to play the drums, timing or counting is the first thing that you have to learn. A bass drum is a big drum that produces a low pitch sound, while a snare drum is a drum that produces different modes of vibration. Understand the difference.

3)      Spice the beat with hi-hat. Follow the counting with the dominant hand, right if you are a right-handed person, and hi hat on every beat. The basic drum beat to follow is bass drum on 1 and snare drum on 3. So you will just add your bass drum and snare drum on the counts to get your basic drum beat.

4)      Then add to that is learning how to play the drum fill. This is the transition from one song to the other and the length of time and the beat all depends on the discretion of the drummer. So if you want to play the drums, playing the drum fill is one of the skills you have to learn.

5)      Once you have learned the count or time signatures, you learn how to practice stick control. There is the single stroke roll and the double stroke roll. The single stroke control is just basically alternating the left and the right while beating the drum. In the double stroke roll, you beat the drum twice with exactly the same pressure and power so the sound it will emit is the same. This is very tricky and you need time and patience in order to master this. It usually involves the wrist while beating instead of the arms.

Music is very relaxing, either you are just a listener or you are the one playing an instrument in order to produce a good music. Learn how to play the drums and produce beautiful music that would delight your listeners.

By Daniel

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