Monday Drumday: Working on a warmup

I have not done a drum video, or any video really in a while. I need to get back into it as it forces me to practice. I was looking for some basic drumming exercises that could improve my technique. It is very easy to just play things you can do already, so you need to get out of your comfort zone.

Drumeo have some great lessons and they make a load of them available for free. This is rated as something for beginners, but I am not playing it all yet. It is a series of patterns using alternating feet on the bass drum and high hat. This is not something I have done much and as I started this just now I was all over the place. Every time I played the high hat with my left foot I wanted to use my left hand when I should be using my right. With this kit the high hat is quite quiet and I cannot adjust the balance, so take my word that I am mostly getting it right now.

I just play the first two of five patterns. The third has paradiddle and the others have more hits to the beat, so I will need to work on those. On the site they have videos at different levels depending on how fast you can play. I did try this with the metronome on the drums at around 50bpm, but I turned that off for the video. It is quite hard to keep with it. That can actually be harder when playing slow as the gaps are long and hard to judge.

I was chatting the the guy who runs the open mic I played at on Thursday. He is a drummer and offered me a free trial lesson on real drums. I need to arrange that. I have not had a proper go on a real kit, so it will be interesting, and loud. If I think it is useful then I may pay for some lessons with him. I have considered subscribing to Drumeo, but having a teacher in the room can give you instant feedback.

Rock on!