Part of my philosophy in general is to learn from history.
It’s a logical approach and I’m all about logic, particularly when it comes to learning something new.
When I first wanted to learn to play drums, like when I first really decided that I was going to dig into it and learn, the first thing I thought was, “I need a teacher.” That’s just how I operate. If I want to learn something new, I turn to an expert. Luckily for me, I grew up in New York City, and it was the 1970s, so there were accomplished musicians in great numbers there. And I happened to find a drummer who knew what he was doing and who was an experienced teacher.
I figured I would just listen to him and do what he told me to do.
Luckily for me, he knew what he was talking about. And he had studied history enough to be a good teacher. My first teacher’s name, by the way, was Charlie Davidman.
Although I didn’t know it at the time, his teaching was based on a deep knowledge of the history of drumming and its greatest players. And it turns out that these great players all have certain skills in common. It follows that in order to be great yourself, you should make sure that you are well-versed and well practiced in the same skills.
There are five of them:
Before I even began my lessons with him, I needed to understand how I could practice because I didn’t have a drum set when I started. It turns out, that wasn’t really a problem at all.
And that was a relief because I really looked forward to my weekly lessons.
Every week, when I went to my lesson, there were several topics that we worked on and they were pretty much always from the list of five topics above. First, we’d work out of a great reading book. The first one I recall using was Modern Reading Text in 4/4 By Louis Bellson and Gil Breines
Our first technique book was Buddy Rich’s Modern Interpretation of the Snare Drum Rudiments by Buddy Rich and Henry Adler.
For Independence the first book we used was Realistic Rock by Carmine Appice.
For vocabulary, Charlie had is own worksheets that had fills written out for me. Back then, I don’t think there really were any books on fills yet.
For teaching me groove, it was me behind the kit at my teacher’s house and him guiding me from the other side of the room. “Play it like it’s the last time you’re ever gonna play the drums!” And that’s actually one pretty good to think about how to make your grooves feel great. There are many others, but honestly, that’s not a bad start at all. He also made me aware of the notion that when you’re behind the drum kit, the sound you want is more important than the technique you use.
If you only take this one piece of advice from this article, it’s this: beginner drummer friends, work on those five things consistently when you are starting.
I call them The 5 Pillars of Drumming® and they have informed the way I work with beginners for many years now.
Work on them until you are good at all five. That will make you competent. Then work on them some more until you are great at all five of them. And then keep working even beyond that.
Focus on the music that excites you. If you really want to play the drums, and you’ve been thinking about it for a while, this tip should be easy. That’s because if you’re into music; like really really excited about it, then you have real passion. And if you’re passionate, then you’ll no doubt have strong beliefs and opinions already driving you. The music that you like will already be known to you. The drummers that you like will already be known to you. It’s all in your heart already. But you have to allow that to come through. You have to listen to your heart. If you do that, your path will be clear.
Besides your passion directing you towards the right music for you, it will drive you to do the work. Opening up your heart to the love of the drums (I know this sounds corny but, I promise you that this is a real thing), will motivate you and keep you doing the work so that you can become as good as you wish.
Let your passion rise out of you.
I can’t begin to tell you how important this is. A recent student who I worked with told me that this bit of advice “changed everything” for him. It doesn’t seem like any big deal and it may sound obvious, but I can assure you that it’s much more important than it may seem. Many beginners don’t go slowly enough when they practice; they want to go fast! That’s a natural inclination, especially when it comes to drumming. People generally seem to equate speed with success when it comes to drumming. When you’re a beginner, you might figure that just being able to go fast is going to be one of the things that makes you sound good. It is one of the things, but not really the most important one. But, speed is an attractive goal. It’s that shiny little drumming object that calls your name.
I get it. It’s a natural inclination and I’m not going to criticize anyone who wants to play fast when they’re drumming. But the problem here is that, as counter-intuitive as it may seem, you have to go slow before you can go fast. When you’re woking on technique (which is what will eventually allow you to go fast) you need to practice your physical movements very slowly in order to create the correct physicality for playing. If your physical movements are unnatural or tense, your technique will never be optimized. But the movements need slow practice at first.
Slow practice is not just for technique either. Whether you’re learning to read, or working on an independence issue or even trying to memorize a set of fills, slow is what will get you there. There is a long history of research as well as anecdotal evidence that points to slow practice being an effective strategy. I promise you that this is the truth. So, slow down. You’ll actually get better faster that way.
I’ve often heard beginners tell me that they’re not ready to play with other people yet. Sometimes that feeling of not being ready indicates reality. Sometimes that feeling is insecurity that leads to hiding in the practice room when you should be playing music with other human beings. I believe in plenty of practice. In fact, you can read a little about my thoughts on practicing HERE.
But you’ll shortchange your progress if you don’t start making music with other human beings as soon as you are able to. There is a massive amount of learning that will take place when you get in a room with others and make music together. You may find that stuff you thought you could play is actually not fully baked and needs more work. You might find that something you thought sounds stupid actually sounds amazing. You might get compliments on your playing that excite you and then drive you to work harder.
You see, when you sit in a room and make music with people, you get feedback based on real world experience. And that is invaluable.
This quote is attributed to Picasso. As much as history tells us that Pablo may have actually been quite an asshole, if he did actually say this, he was pretty spot on here. In my travels teaching beginners, I’ve noticed that sometimes, they believe that when it comes time to play a drum fill, drummers just make something up on the spot. And if you approach your drum fill vocabulary this way, you’ll put yourself at a distinct disadvantage. In fact, you’ll often crash and burn like this. The more knowledgeable musicians know that the best way to approach vocabulary is to learn a whole bunch of words (in our case; drum fills) and then have them ready to speak at will.
Further, smart musicians also understand that stealing from their predecessors on their chosen instrument is an incredibly efficient way to learn. When you steal an idea from Steve Gadd for example, you’re taking something from a well-practiced, highly-knowledgeable, greatly experienced drummer. I could go on, but I think that you can see how much of a short cut this could be for you. So, steal! In music it’s OK to do this. Musicians have been stealing licks and ideas from others before them for eons. It works. Just give credit where credit is due. You’ll speed up your progress and sound great while you do it.
By the way, if you want to steal from us, please feel free. There is a great page with tons of free drum fills on both video and PDFs that you can steal by going to this link HERE.
One of the most underrated ways to improve as a beginner is to record yourself regularly — even with your phone. Listening back is like holding up a mirror for your playing. You’ll catch timing issues, uneven dynamics, and habits that you never notice in the moment. When you hear yourself from the outside, you start thinking like a producer rather than just a player, and that awareness fast-tracks your progress.
You don’t need fancy gear — just record short sessions and take notes on what sounds better each time. Over weeks and months, those micro-adjustments add up to real musical maturity. The act of listening is what turns random practice into purposeful learning.
These five tips for beginner drummers come from my observations and teaching over more than a decade and I promise that they can help you. Please give them a try.
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