5 HUGE Mistakes Self-Taught Drummers Make

special thanks to:
Paiste Cymbals
Vater Drumsticks
Gretsch Drums
Revolution Drum Co.
Red Bridge Studios

recorded at Red Bridge Studios

[adityatyagi]

Excellent video. As a self-taught drummer, I held the sticks extremely tightly for far too long. In fact, learning to let go felt extremely awkward and uncomfortable at first. But now, I will NEVER go back to holding sticks tightly ever again.

[elehnez]

Good to see that I don't make too many of these mistakes.
One "mistake" I often see and hear is that lot of drummers do Not consider their drums and cymbals as real instruments. They just hit on anything, maybe technically correct or even pretty fast. But they don't think about how they want each hit to sound.
We can hit a cymbal or a drum in so many different ways and achieve so many different sounds just by the way we are hitting them. So how do you want your instrument to sound? Which "tone" you want to hear and to bei heard?

[roydied]

Another thing that seems like it would be super obvious, but I see many people doing it along with the white knuckle death grip is simply hitting the drums too hard. Every time I go to a garage/basement drummer's house and look at their kit, their heads will be destroyed and dented and usually the entire head is beat up.

Alongside loosening your grip, definitely need to focus on accuracy and not needing to hit the drums so hard. I played drums for 17 years before taking a 4 year hiatus (finally getting back into it after a breakup kinda changed my short term goals and aspirations) and I NEVER dented heads like I see so many people do. In fact, I was at GC this weekend grabbing some odds and ends to complete my newly purchased bop kit and 2 of their store display models had HOLES in the bass drums, including a $3500 Alesis Strata Prime kit.

THE DRUMS ARE NOT YOUR ENEMY. No need to beat them within an inch of their life

[royphillips]

Liked the video but must say I play with most of these things you point out 😊 been a working skinsman over 50 years professionally and never harmed me playing with some pretty cool artists but understand where you're coming from !

[saulvera]

From a drummer who's been playing 20 years (in between self-taught and with teachers) I've spent the first half of my years just practicing random, whatever I like, when I get to college I had to relearn must of my bad habits skills ( low chair, holding sticks too tight with no gap, no heel down technique, just could play loud, etc), long story short when I graduated and started practicing on my own I went to my unstructured practice "routine" and noticed gaps I should've focus way more like doubles, singles, precision, endurance, timing...now I focus my routine mostly on that, if I have time then I practice linear, polyrythm and all of that stuff, if I only have 20min, is just singles, doubles, fingers, wrist, control, dinamic...Also I still struggle with my ergonomics and I work on that as well

[nickwadson]

I only disagree with #2. Bozzio uses that grip and Thomas Lang. It is referred to in Dom Famularos book as the Power Grip.

[davidhatred]

hurricane neddy! my fav simpsons episode!

[muffinman]

#6. Feel comfortable holding the sticks with traditional grip as well as matched....

[jhovpil]

El estepario often has no gap between thumb and index though

[zachdrowsy]

No gap is very comfortable for me I learned it in marching band but I’m sure it’s not for everyone

[JeffHogue-emzx]

1:00 Why are your legs at 90 degrees ? You are lifting more weight than you need to, especially if you play with your heel up off the pedals. As an extreme example of having to lift less weight (legs) look at the photo inside Buddy Rich's album, "The Monster" to see how angled beyond 90 Buddy's legs are. He decreased the angle later on, but still maintained more than 90 degrees. I noticed your explanation has you using a matched grip. A set up would be different comparing matched with traditional grips.

[m.a.]

TL/DR: If it hurts, it's bad.

I play and teach the marching drum for years and I see where mistake #1 is pointing to. The thing is: proper physiological grip is not so easy to explain. You might look at someone and they have a different grip but they are still relaxed and wont get hurt. There are as many ways to hold the sticks as there are hands. But there are some biomechanical aspects which are making it "right" or "wrong". I think it is almost impossible to explain it in a video, it's already complicated enough in person.