Learning to play the drum

[Hardtack Herring]

Re: Learning to play the drum

B&E explains the rudiments pretty well. You should be able to learn the rudiments from this book by yourself. All drum music is, is a series of rudiments. By learning what the rudiments look like from B&E you should be able to read music.

To be honest it can take up to 2 years or even longer to master the 26 basic rudiments.

This website may help you as well. Some of the rudiments on this site are modern but the 26 essential are there. http://www.vicfirth.com/education/rudiments.php

My advice is to master the long roll first. This is a series of taps. 2 left then 2 right 2 left then 2 right. Start off slow... Very slow and control your taps. Do not let the sticks buzz. The secrete to a good a long roll is controlled taps.

Once the long roll is mastered you will find it easy to learn the 5,7,9,10,11,and 15 stroke roll.

Flams are used a lot. Paradiddles, flam a diddles, ratamaques, ruffs, single drags. Basicley you will have to master 26 rudiments.

By the way.... As I said it can take up to 2 years or more to become good at the snare drum. That is with a lot of practice.

It only takes a few weeks or months to learn to play the fife!

Good luck.

[mtvernon]

Re: Learning to play the drum

If you're in a pinch, can't get to a proper instructor, can't afford one, don't have the time, but need fast results, I'm going to say something that will go against the grain of all the comments up to now, but please don’t think I disagree with them or their viewpoints.

Here's my personal, opinionated advice: copy other people better than you. Copy them until you can get actual, professional instruction. I really don't think you're going to do too much damage learning something the "wrong" way in the interim until you get proper instruction. I have a hard time believing drummers of the period had the luxury of 2 years to learn their roles before taking the field and being of service. Please correct me if I'm wrong! I'm not going on the official record, but just a hunch that prepubescent boys didn't always receive formal instruction.

My only reason for voicing an opinion here is that I was a drummer in stage band, concert band, marching band, and a couple of extracurricular bands all through high school, and the first instruction I received was having the Junior and Senior guys just having us copy the cadence for all the parts in our marching band by watching them closely. Now, we never marched in the Rose Parade, but we did win regional contests. Also, not that it's saying that much, but I was playing the solo snare two Independence Days ago with the SUVCW when we won Best Drum & Bugle Corps in the largest 4th of July Parade on the West Coast.

I guess I was a pretty decent drummer all around based on what people around me were saying at the time, but I would never mention it unless it was to illustrate that receiving formal instruction is not a sine qua non when it comes to drumming. Nevertheless, I want to make it clear that formal, progressive instruction is the way to go if you can swing it, but even though I used and loved Vic Firth sticks, until today I never heard of the 40 Essential Snare Drum Rudiments.

In my experience, the only MUST is that the person in question understands rhythm and how to keep it. The rest can come along in time. Don't be intimidated!

[33rdaladrummer]

Re: Learning to play the drum

This website may help you as well. Some of the rudiments on this site are modern but the 26 essential are there. http://www.vicfirth.com/education/rudiments.php

Sorry, Paul. The Vic Firth site is terrible. Much of it is modern interpretations of the old rudiments. The single drag they have is all wrong. Their version of the 7 stroke roll is all slurred together -- also wrong. Those are just a couple a clicked on.

I searched youtube for single drag and all could find was the modern version that would never fit the rhythm of Breakfast Call or Pop Goes the Weasel. Maybe I'll make my own video this weekend. The single drag would be a good place to start because it is often misunderstood. The paradiddle on the other hand is pretty hard to mess up.

[33rdaladrummer]

Re: Learning to play the drum

"From Camp Dennison we moved to Cincinnati, where we took steamers for Camp Piatt, on the Kanawha river, arriving there and reporting to Gen. Rosecrans a few days later. This camp was located about twelve miles above Charleston, West Virginia, and had been occupied by the Thirty-fourth Ohio, for whose colonel the camp was named. A day or two after our arrival the drums came, when the drum corps was obliged to put in four hours a day of practice. It was in this camp that I first saw the "Johnnies"—a couple of captured "bushwhackers." They where dressed in homespun "butternut," and to us a great curiosity."

History of the 37th regiment O.V.V.I., furnished by comrades at the ninth ...
By Ohio infantry. 37th regiment

"Attached to the regiment was a drum and fife corps, which, after much persistent practice, upon reaching the field, became a useful adjunct to the command. Recruits for a drum corps generally were taken into the woods adjacent to their camp, and there taught to beat the drum for several hours a day, until they became proficient. The first exercise given to a pupil on the drum is " De Dada, mama," " dada, mama," and is known as " Daddy, Mammy." The racket and din kept up by the students of this noisy instrument were something awful, and gave rise to the following rhymes:— " Dada mama," " dada mama," " Dada mama," dada mama." " Flamadiddle," " Paraddidle," " Flamadiddle," " Paradiddle."

The Ninety-fifth Pennsylvania Volunteers (Gosline's Pennsylvania Zouaves ... By George Norton Galloway

"The recollections of the writer are mainly connected with the drum corps, of which he was a member, and of the regiment from the stand-point of a musician. The surviving members of the drum corps cannot fail to remember our first public appearance on duty as a body, at the camp at Arlington Heights. The outlook for efficiency was not particularly hopeful. The fifers could play together only ' Yankee Doodle' and ' The girl I left behind me,' while the drummers beat their drums in the old-fashioned ' slam-bang style.' Nearly three years, however, of constant drill and practice made a wonderful difference; and at the close of the war the drum corps of the Eleventh, although greatly diminished in numbers, contained as accomplished a company of musicians as could be readily found."

A history of the Eleventh New Hampshire Regiment, Volunteer Infantry in the ... By Leander Winslow Cogswell

" borrowed a drum from the quartermaster, and used to go over to the hill between the camp and Tufts college to practise. I had no one to teach me and probably began wrong., for I think I have never succeeded in anything less than in learning to drum. My sense of rhythm was keen and I could keep time, but I could never get an even roll. This is done by making a double stroke with each hand. That double stroke I never mastered. It was partly because a drum was so awkward to carry on the march that I soon sent for a fife and learned to play that, and in December got transferred from drummer to fifer, but I was glad enough to turn in an instrument that I played so poorly."

A little fifer's war diary: with 17 maps, 60 portraits, and 246 other ... By Charles William Bardeen

"This negro, John, was a camp follower from the time the regiment went into camp at Gentilly until it embarked for the North. He was formerly a slave, and lived a long distance from camp, but was always on hand at reveille, remaining until Peas on a Trencher, doing all the hard work of camp, splitting wood, getting water, etc., etc., and would work steady in the hottest sun, with perspiration coming from the pores of his skin like water. He worked for small pay; for a small sum of money sang the old religious hymns the negroes in that locality sang at their prayer meetings, danced as plantation darkies can dance, and was the jolliest old negro there was in camp. Old John's wife did a large amount of washing for the boys, which brought additional picayunes to his wallet, and, although he made a few bad debts — some of the unprincipled men taking advantage of his ignorance to cheat him—on the whole,'John made a good living from his labor for the Forty-Second. His boy was also a hanger-on at camp, but could not be made to do much work. This boy was a great imitator, and would watch attentively the drummers at practice, and soon became able to handle a drum with skill."

History of the Forty-second regiment infantry: Massachusetts volunteers ... By Charles Palfray Bosson

"After entering the city, Chief Musician L. C. Skinner of Amherst, organized and uniformed a drum corps of twenty members, and by persistent practice brought them to unusual perfection. This corps was a source of pardonable pride to the regiment, and of great enjoyment to the citizens. When its martial strains filled the air in parading the streets, business cares and treasonable reserve gave place to appreciation and delight. No band in the department enjoyed the high estimation of this " drum corps," the credit of which is due to Comrade Skinner. Music was to him an inspirali >n, and most of his exorcises were original with himself. Comrade Skinner died at Plainville, Conn., Feb. 14, 1867."

Bearing arms in the Twenty-seventh Massachusetts regiment of volunteer ... By William P. Derby

"Our drum corps was most thoroughly drilled by Drum-Major Dayton assisted by Drum-Sergeant Dunham, and under their able supervision, with constant daily practice, became very proficient and was superior to any other in the department."

The 159th regiment infantry: New York state volunteers, in the war of the ... By William Francis Tiemann

[HangarFlying]

Re: Learning to play the drum

Paul, et. al.,

Thanks for all the advice and support! I do know how to play the fife although not very well nor very fast. Unfortunately, my job prevents me from regular practice. I could take it on the road with me, but I'm sure others staying at the hotel would object to that "shrill noise" coming from next door. Mostly because of that, I haven't picked up my fife in over a year. I do expect it to take a while to become proficient on the drum, but I figure it would be a quiet alternative to practice that on a practice pad in a hotel. Besides, sitting in a hotel for days on end, what else do I have to do but practice practice practice.

PS - Will, videos on youtube showing the "correct" rudiments would do wonders for me! I'll be your first subscriber!

[33rdaladrummer]

Re: Learning to play the drum

James,

Here's my attempt at breaking down the single drag: