By Mitch Rice
Learning to play the drums can be beneficial in many ways, and by practicing, you can become a skilled drummer. But beginners can delay their progress if they make some of the mistakes listed below.
Gripping the sticks too tightly
While there are two accepted ways to hold a drumstick, matched grip or traditional grip, and either can work well, gripping your drumsticks with the proper amount of tension is a prerequisite to developing proper technique. But many beginners grip their sticks too tightly.
When striking a drum, your drumsticks must be able to rebound from the drumhead freely. But if they are gripped too firmly, the natural rebound of the sticks is restricted. Your drumming also will require more energy as you will tend to use your arms as you play rather than relying on the wrists, fingers, and the natural rebound of the drum.
While your arms are needed to reach the various parts of the drum kit, your wrists and fingers, not your arms, should be used to execute the drum strokes.
Not Using A Metronome
When you are new to drumming, it is vital to develop the ability to keep steady and consistent time, neither speeding up nor slowing down, by guiding your practice with a metronome. While you may have a good natural sense of rhythm, developing steady timekeeping takes practice.
In addition, the rest of the band tends to use the drummer as a reference for their own timekeeping. Thus, practicing with a metronome is essential for developing the ability to play steady, rhythmic patterns that will provide a reliable metronomic frame of reference for the other musicians in the band.
Hitting The Edge Of The Drum
This simple mistake makes an enormous difference in how the drum sounds. Hitting the edge of the drum generates a thinner sound than hitting the middle of the drum head while at the same time generating unwanted overtones. In rare contexts, hitting the edge of the head may be useful for producing expressive effects, but, in general, you will want to develop the habit of producing a good, solid sound by consistently hitting the center of the drumhead. So, get into the habit of hitting the center of the drumhead early in your drumming career.
Stomping On The Bass Drum Pedal
This is a common error that many beginning drumming students make when they begin playing the drum kit. The control needed to use the bass drum pedal effectively is different from most movements we make when not drumming. That is why the natural motion that many beginners use is to take their foot off the pedal and stomp it. Unfortunately, there are several problems with this technique.
The first issue is such an aggressive action will generate a dead, harsh bass sound as the beater rests on, and dampens, the drum head.
Second, using so much force can cause repetitive stress injuries or other strain over time.
Third, the time necessary to take your foot from the drum pedal and stomp means you cannot manage any fast or intricate rhythmic patterns.
Fortunately, the bad habit of bass pedal stomping is easy to remedy. Be sure that part of the foot always maintains contact with the pedal. Depending on your personal preferences, you may use a heel up or heel down technique.
Trying to Learn to Play Musical Styles That You Haven’t Listened To.
Drumming approaches differ dramatically from one genre of music to another, so you need to take the time to listen to and become familiar with musical styles before attempting to learn how to play them on the drums.
For example, jazz drummers play with an entirely different feel than rock drummers. They also play much less repetitively than rock drummers, who, unlike jazz drummers, are usually tasked with laying down a repetitive accompaniment pattern. Therefore, to play either genre properly, you need to know what it sounds like first and how each differs from the other. This is true for all genres of music, and can only be accomplished by listening to recordings of each style.
Failing to Practice Repetitive Technical Patterns
An important part of learning to play the drums involves developing “good hands,” i.e., the ability to play intricate patterns on the snare drum rapidly and precisely. Developing good hands requires practicing technical patterns over and over on the snare drum in order to gain technical mastery over them. To know which patterns to practice, you should find a good drum book that identifies the fundamental drum techniques that are the most useful.
These common beginner mistakes are understandable as you take on a new musical instrument. The good news is that they are easy to fix with the help of a good instructor, good practice materials, and plenty of practice.
Data and information are provided for informational purposes only, and are not intended for investment or other purposes.
