Saturday, March 27, 2010

The Worst Drum Courses... and the good one!

If you're a young (or old) person looking to start learning the drums, you may start asking drummers you know for their opinion on what your course of action should be. One thing I often hear repeated is that “there is no shortcut to learning the drums”. I'd agree with that. And because that is true, you should stay away from courses or instructional material that promises a shortcut to learning the drums.

I know, I know. If you're an aspiring drummer, you're probably anxious to get your skills in line so that you can just go ahead and drum like the people you hear on MTV. Unfortunately, that's not as easy as it seems, and some instructional materials will keep you at the basic state you're currently in.

There are horrible, horrible books and DVDs out there. Some are written by drummers who aren't even good in the first place! Some of them skip over the important parts or the basics or the hard parts and only give you what you want to hear. Meaning, what you're good at. Some don't present the information in a way that will help you learn.

Well, I've got one course/ DVD set that I consistently praise. And that's the Drumming System. It's got 20 DVDs chock full of content- the fun stuff, the boring stuff, the important stuff, and the stuff everybody just wants to do. Here's a list of the DVDs:

DVD 1- How to Play Drums by Ear

DVD 2- How to Practice Effeciently

DVD 3- Drum Theory and Notation

DVD 4- Hand Technique

DVD 5- Drum Rudiments

DVD 6- Foot Techniques

DVD 7- Heavy Rock Lessons

DVD 8- Mixed Rock Lessons

DVD 9- Groove Rock Lessons

DVD 10- Jazz and Latin Lessons

DVD 11- Drum Fills

DVD 12- Dynamic Drumming

DVD 13- How to Build Speed

DVD 14- Drum Setup, Tuning, and Gear Tips

DVD 15- Live Gig and Studio Drumming

DVD 16- Drum Soloing

DVD 17-19- Playalongs

DVD 20- Bonus Lessons


...and as if that wasn't enough, there's also 14 CDs and workbooks! That's a lot!


They're great quality DVDs too. If you're looking for a way to learn the drums, give this course a try. It's a good one among all the crap out there. Check out the Drumming System website here.