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.

Drumming Lessons with the Practice Routine Generator

When my son first started learning the drums, I used a nifty little tool called the Practice Routine Generator to get him up and running playing the drums. In this way, he was able to get the most out of the little practice time he wanted to spend. He was a kid- of course he wanted to get outside, play with friends, watch TV, etc.

So this little tool called the Practice Routine Generator was a godsend. Using it, he was able to learn different rock grooves, jazz grooves, latin grooves, fills, rudiments, technique, theory, and do lots of play-a-longs with just 40 minutes a day. The amount that he was able to learn in these optimized 40 minutes a day was so ridiculous that I never even bothered sending him to a teacher. I knew this was all he needed, that if he continued on this track, he'd be golden.

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Are you a drummer? Do you know any drummers?
Get your own copy of the Practice Routine Generator from the links at this site:
http://learntoplaydrums.weebly.com
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Here's a small sample of what his schedule looked like:

Monday:
Learn Favorite Songs- 20 min (using the Drumming by Ear system, more on this later)
Improve Groove- 20 min (using the Drumming System DVD on the topic)

Tuesday:
Drum Rudiments- 20 min (using the Drumming System Rudiment System)
Pedal Techniques- 20 min (again, with the Drumming System Pedal Technique lessons)

Wednesday:
Groove Rock beats- 20 min
Jazz and Latin beats- 20 min

and so on...

And with these 40 minutes a day, he became a pretty amazing drummer, pretty fast. Let's look at this a bit more specifically...

The Practice Routine Generator works in a 3-day cycle. Each day you may choose to practice for 20, 40, or 60 minutes, or maybe split a longer chunk into 20-minute pieces. The first day you work on the fun stuff- play alongs, jamming, and learning songs by ear with the Drumming System method. The second day, you get into the technical, not-so-fun stuff. Rudiments, theory, notation. And finally, on the third day, there's the practical element. That's when you learn beats, grooves, and fills of all styles.

If you'd like your own Practice Routine Generator, and to learn more about those Drumming System DVDs and Methods I keep talking about, check out the Learn to Play Drums Drumming Lessons page here. The Drumming System is really the reason that this Practice Routine Generator works as well as it does. Without the methods presented the way they are in the Drumming System, learning all this information in just 20-60 minutes a day would be impossible! So check that site out.

Until next time, enjoy!