4 Reasons Why You Should Take Drum Lessons

“Drum Lessons? Why on earth should I go through that? I’m doing fine. Not only my time’s getting tighter day by day, but also my chops are faster and cleaner than ever. Oh, and I have no problem understanding drum theory: I can read sixteenth-note paraparadiddles on the hi-hat, kick and snare, no problem.”

If that’s how your self-teaching drums process sounds like, you can skip the rest of this text and continue banging your problems away.

Otherwise, allow me to elaborate with my main points on why taking drum lessons would undoubtedly be beneficial for you.

Ok, here we go.

1. Saves You Time

In the beginning, it may feel like committing to climbing a whole mountain. However, taking drum lessons will save you the time it would take you to figure out all those new grooves and fills to which your ears are attracted when you’re listening to your favorite bands, the music theory behind those grooves and fills, and of course, the proper technique to execute them smoothly, with the right timing (or, as we say in musicians’ slang “in the pocket”) and at the tempo (speed) of the song.

Moreover, it will help you set goals, thus making your improvement not just faster, but also meaningful to you, as you will be studying the style of music which you want to be playing, you will be able to monitor your progress and you will be provided with proper guidance during your learning process.

Instead of wandering around online, consuming defective or incoherent information, and ending up moving in circles, you’ll be better off focusing your effort and choosing the rough path of drum lessons, which may very well lead you to the top of your expectations.

2. Saves You From Injuries

You’ve probably heard or seen the term “tendonitis”. That’s what happens when your nerves get tangled up because you’ve strained them or you’ve been executing one or more motions in a “harmful” way.

When it comes to playing the drums, a common mistake self-taught beginner-level drummers make has to do with the way they hold the sticks (the grip) —they usually hold them too tight— and with the motions of the hands and feet, as they don’t use the right technique for the strokes.

As a result, the tension from the stroke is not being released and it ends up being absorbed by the hands, causing discomfort and pain after a while of banging the drums.

And if the problem of stick grip technique is not fixed, then each time they play, the pain kicks in a little earlier than the last time, eventually resulting in said tendonitis, which cannot be cured, but only dealt with breaks and ice, so that at least the situation doesn’t worsen. I know people who experience pain just by picking up a glass of water —that’s how serious things can get.

Now I don’t mean to frighten you —I despise the boogeyman just as much as the next person and I would hate becoming, or even sounding like that. But you should definitely have a drum teacher show you how to hold the sticks properly and how to hit the drums so that you’ll never experience any kind of pain or discomfort.

I remember one day I was riding my bike to Los Angeles Music Academy (before it was renamed Los Angeles College of Music) and as I got there I felt my left ankle kinda sore from hitting the brake. However, later in the day and after consecutive hours of drum lessons and technique practicing I realized that the pain was gone.

From that day on I was convinced that applying the right technique on the drums not only has saved me from any kind of injuries but has also proven to be therapeutic —in the same way that stretching and warming up before working out is.

So get at least a few drum lessons and save your future selves from injuries. I cannot stress that enough…!

3. Raises Your Standards

The environment may be the most crucial factor of one’s development —it’s certainly one you can manipulate, at least up to some point. Your social environment shapes not only your (moral) values but, through competition, your skills, thus your value.

Why am I saying all this?

Well, because sitting next to a better drummer and watching him or her play is an upgrade for your performance in and of itself, as you get familiarized with that higher level of drumming and you inevitably absorb some —if not much— of the information you witness.

Let alone having someone whose drumming you admire be your teacher and provide you with the tools, guidance, and adjustments tailored to your learning progress.

Now compare that with just watching videos of drum lessons. Even if they’re worthwhile, they will at best give you some general knowledge on the drums, and eventually —and pretty soon I would say— you will hit a plateau and won’t know how to move past it or even what to do next.

To me, that feels like swimming in a sea of random and incoherent information and learning skills that may or may not be proven useful and which you don’t know if you’re applying them correctly, or in a way that’s harmful to your body, as we saw earlier.

4. Makes Drumming More Enjoyable

The first and foremost reason why I took up the drums was that it’s just so much Fun! I’m sure the same goes for you, too. It’s so much fun for me it has become more of an obsession, other than a profession.

However, for the experience of drumming to be enjoyable, it needs to be an efficient, coherent, evolving, and vindicating process. Put simply, you need to know what you’re doing and why you’re doing it, you shouldn’t feel stagnated and you should have a sense of achievement.

I’ve seen quite a few promising (not just drums) students quit, only because they got bored from going over the same ineffective exercises time and again, using the same harmful hands and feet motions, or because they couldn’t deal with the constant frustration of not being able to play their favorite songs on the drums.

Making drums practice an enjoyable experience gives you enough motive to face the difficulties you will inevitably come across —as it always happens whenever you learn something new. And to do that I strongly recommend you have a teacher who will guide you through the same kind of difficulties he or she was facing as a drum student.

These are in my opinion the most significant reasons why you should get a drum teacher if you’re planning on taking up the drums, or if you’ve been self-taught and you feel it’s time to put your progress in tracks that will move you closer and faster towards your goals as a drummer.

And if you’re looking for something that will get you started, here’s a drum book I recommend. It contains more than 800 beats, fill ideas, and technique exercises that are suitable for beginners, can be applied instantly, and —most of all— are fun to play!

You can also get the ebook bundle that includes videos of all the exercises in the book, performed by the author of the book, yours truly.

Now, I know I’ve just been preaching against relying on videos to learn the drums, yet:

• This is a drum book specifically designed for beginner and intermediate level students

• It’s coherent, as the exercises are of increasing difficulty, starting from the easiest thing that you can play (and which will make sense musically)

• Its content is specific, providing you with the appropriate exercises, to develop skills that are essential to every drummer and

• It’s a tool to be used along with the drum lessons (in fact, I use it to teach my students).

As always, feel free to send me your thoughts and suggestions at connect@theochristo.com and let me know what subject you would like to read about next (just make sure it touches on music, as I’m not much of a chef or travel guide).