Thanks to Bisharah Saeed for contributing this article!
If you are a person who is passionate about drums and willing to record videos of what your hands and legs are capable of producing out of that drum kit, welcome to the club. I (Bisharah) am a drummer myself. Mind you, when I say drummer, I don’t intend to become the next Dave Grohl. How good you are doesn’t matter. What matters is whether you enjoy what you play!
Selecting Your Drum Kit
When selecting a drum kit, it’s important to weigh your level, how professional you want the kit to sound, and how much money you’re open to spending.
Personally, I use a Mapex Tornado Series Drumkit. For a good price, the set includes a decent 5 piece drum kit along with a set of cheap high hats, a cymbal, the stands required to hold it, and the throne. This is a good beginner kit. However, once you start transforming into a good drummer, you will need to upgrade your cymbals, high hat, and your drum heads.
Alternatively, if pricing is not a problem for you, you should try out the big-name drum kits like Pearl, Yamaha etc.
- Buy a new set of heads every three years or so. Your high hats need to be at least of average or above-average quality as in most cases you will be using them a lot during jamming sessions.
- Don’t go for accessories that are too cheap as it can ruin your entire drum kit.
- Consider soundproofing the room you drum in. It can save you from annoying your apartment/housemates.
Finding Your Rhythm
When you’re starting out as a drummer or if you’re a little bit out of touch, don’t dive straightaway into songs that have insane rolls and beats per minute (BPM). Your arms and legs will need to gain the flow of drumming rhythms first.
The best way to get started is to look up some exercises on YouTube and practice them consistently. Some suggestions for developing techniques are below.
Once you get that right, you are ready to rock n roll!
Selecting Songs
Always select a song or solo that you think you can manage at your level. Many drum covers on YouTube are recorded by people with tons of experience, so it might be a good idea to find something simpler.
Try searching for sheet music online by using the search terms “drum transcript” or “drum score.”
If you have difficulty getting the sheet music of the songs which you want to play YouTube might be able to help. Try including the words ‘drum transcript’ or ‘drum score’ after the name of the song in the search bar for YouTube as well.
If this doesn’t help, then the only option to learn a song is to hear a cover video done by different drummers and copy it. This is easier said than done, but with consistent practice, you will be able to do it!
Recording Songs
Once you get yourself and your kit ready, the next thing you might consider is creating your own videos. To keep it cheap, I recommend using your phone for recording and iMovie or some other free software for editing the recorded video. (Check out our video-editing page (coming soon) for more suggestions!)
If you are using a video-editing software for the first time, chances are it can drive you crazy. So don’t try to edit everything at once. Take it part by part. Video editing is not something that you can learn overnight. But once you get a hold of it, you can work wonders with it.
In order for something to be a hobby, you have to enjoy it. So to all those drummers out there, make sure you’re enjoying what you play, jump on your drums, and rock on.