Naperville Drum Lessons
The drums are really fun to play. But with great fun comes great responsibility in practicing for each lesson. If your rhythm is not perfect, your whole band can fall apart when you play. Also, playing drums requires coordination of the arms and legs. But once you know the basics of drum playing by taking lessons, you will be able to focus on the music.
The drumstick is held with the flat part of the thumb and the side of the index finger. You must hold it loosely for it to bounce off naturally. If you fail to learn this at your lessons, it would be like bicycling while holding your brakes. A drum roll is played by dropping the stick onto the drum and letting it naturally bounce. Practice this technique after your lesson with one hand at a time, and then alternate the hands to get a continuous roll. You may also want to experiment with another hand-hold for your left hand in which the nail of your thumb faces the ceiling and the stick rests on the big knuckle of the pointer finger and under the thumb.
The most basic rock beat requires the bass drum, high hat, and snare. Here is what you do. Play the high hat four times with your right hand. Do it again, but this time play the bass drum every fourth time you play the high hat. Then, play the snare with your left hand starting on the third time you play the high hat, and repeat every four times. That is all there is to this lesson. Now just practice until it is automatic for you. The next few weeks you would learn different grooves, and the transitions between those grooves which are called fillers. These are the basics of what you would learn in your first few lessons!
-Naperville Lessons, August 2010