Drums

The drum kit is the instrument most children ask to try, and the one most adults quietly wish they had learned. It is also more demanding than it looks. A drummer is the timekeeper for everybody else in the room, which means the job is not simply to play the right notes but to play them exactly when they are needed.

What makes it different

Almost every other instrument asks your hands to cooperate. The kit asks all four limbs to work independently, each holding a different pattern, while you keep a steady pulse through the whole thing. Nobody can do that on day one. We build it one limb at a time, adding the next only once the last is genuinely automatic, which is why a student who is taught properly progresses far faster in the second year than the first.

What you will learn

• Timekeeping: pulse, subdivision, and playing to a click without fighting it
• Coordination: independence between hands and feet, built up in stages
• Rudiments: singles, doubles, paradiddles, rolls, and the stick control underneath them
• Grooves and styles: rock, pop, funk, Latin, reggae and swing, with the feel each one needs
• Reading: drum notation, charts, and playing a song from a written part
• Fills and dynamics: how to go somewhere without losing the time

Practising without a kit at home

Not every family has room for a full kit, and that is not a reason to wait. A practice pad and a pair of sticks will carry a student a long way through the technical work, and we will tell you honestly what you do and do not need to buy at each stage. Electronic kits are a perfectly good option at home, and are accepted in Trinity examinations up to Grade 5.

Examinations

Graded examinations run from initial grades through to diploma level with Trinity College London, ABRSM, London College of Music and MTB. Trinity's drum kit syllabus is worth knowing about in particular: the repertoire covers jazz, funk, show tunes, film and TV, Latin, reggae and swing, so students prepare on music they actually want to play. Electronic kits may be used up to Grade 5, but an acoustic kit is required from Grade 6 upwards.