After I did the drums for kids thing a few times I decided I was ready for the next step and this Drumming Made Easy for Beginners was what I chose.
Harvey Sorgen makes a point of keeping things fun and simple but ends up teaching you 4 beats that you could actually use.
This time however you do need a set of drums.
He explains building up to a beat move by move counting out loud so you know where you are, just like Drums for Kids, but Harv uses a drum set!
Also this is a more of an adult presentation without the kids songs.
But I was glad I had studied Drums for Kids and it benefited me. Its touches on some basics like the waltz's three/four time, which Harvey doesn't. That's dead basic stuff you need to know. Harvey doesn't pretend to teach you everything there is to know about drums, enough to get us involved however for rock, dance, R & B and Country & Western purposes.
If you don't have a drum set yet I'd go with the for Kids Drumming lesson.
For this one I needed kit! I bought my self a cheap set of practice drums for 145 fiat. They look like electronic drums without the electronics and are pretty decent for what you get.
There were problems with the stool - or drum throne which comes with the set so I bought a professional drum throne.
After a while the high hat that comes with the practice set leaves you wishing you had the real thing so I bought an Iron Cobra High hat and fitted the plastic cymbals from the practice set on to it.
What's bugging me right now is the snare drum. It doesn't give you a snare sound or even a booming sound. Basically I have worn out the potentialities of the practice set.
Since I haven't made the move to a real set yet. I occasionally drag out the practice set and get what I can out of it. Also I cant decide ...do I buy and acoustic drum set or an electronic one?
Still with just the practice set you can get the coordination of all 4 limbs happening. I highly recommend it. You will essentially learn to play quarter notes on the bass drum with your right foot. You will learn to play eighth notes on the high hat with your right hand.
This completes the right side of your body.
With your left hand you will play quarter notes using the snare drum on the 2 & 4 count. With your left foot the 2 & 4 on the closed high hat.
That left foot is the last limb they add on and when you get it down - then you are doing the Mother of All Beats. IMHO you are a bad ass! It gives you confidence and gets me thinking programming drum machines or buying that Roland set. There are plastic semi acoustic drums to choose from too. An analog set of drums perhaps required less maintenance than an electric set. If you had an old set of drums laying around this is perfect.
Plus if you look around you can find practice pads to go over the skins and make less noise. Where I Iive its young-noisey and I have frame drummers and percussionists out in the street making noise and round back a drum set drummer who is pretty decent about his practice hours. He doesn't have a bass drum fortunately.
"When you put together deep knowledge about a subject that intensely matters to you, charisma happens. You gain courage to share your passion, and when you do that, folks follow."
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Jerry Porras