Drum grades

DrJ wrote: »

Hi all, I have searched the archives but I can't find the answer I'm looking for so I thought I'd start a new thread. I had a once-off drum lesson back in January and loved it. I've been an air drummer all of my life I'm very close to buying a kit and going for it as I'm edging towards 30 and think it's time to do a few of the things I'd really love to do in life. My passion is really rock music but I would like to have the option of perhaps teaching drums in the future so I'm wondering would I need to do a particular type of grade for that. I have researched a little and it seems to me that Trinity Guildhall and London College of Music are the more reputable ones to do the grades through. Would that be correct and for those of you in the know which one would you recommend? The nearest school to me only does rock music grades but there's one not too far away that does LCM grades and then one a bit too far away tbh that does Trinity Guildhall. Do you know would going through all the grades with LCM qualify me to teach and be recognised by music schools? Ta, folks. Also, do you think a DXP beginner's kit would be ok to start on? Thank you so much in advance for any advice.

Just posting here to remind me to give you an answer later. I know a good bit about this subject. I'll have a good response to your queries very soon I promise. If I had seen this post before I would have replied already, better late than never though I suppose.

No problem. Seems like this forum is mostly guitarists and bassists. Hence the lack of replies.

It's great you're taking up drums, never too late.

Firstly the grades. If you look at America, they don't even have a grades system. There are so many top-notch teachers there and they don't use any system designed by an examination board. There's the elite level educators like Tommy Igoe, Joe Morello (RIP) and Gary Chaffee who wrote books/videos and do/did it their way.

I was lucky enough to have a lesson with one of Irelands best drummers and he mentioned that he wasn't really into them. Then again, this guy would have done some studying in the U.S with great teachers and has an impressive list of playing credits.

So, I'm not totally sure they're needed to teach here. I know people who've taught without them but I guess it doesn't hurt to have them as accreditation. Forgive me for my vagueness, I can possibly get you a better answer later.

As for the grades, I myself did Drumsense up to Grade 5 with a teacher. It's a good system designed by a great British drummer and educator. I did a wee bit of the Trinity stuff before I left my first teacher and yes I believe it to be the most reputable examination board, and the hardest exams. I don't know anything about LCM sorry. The main (and original) Trinity drum kit exam, now I'm not going to discourage you, but Trinity is far more than just rock music. It covers a lot of styles. Jazz/Swing, New Orleans, Tango etc, Latin.

These are the positives of following a grade system like Trinity, and I think there is a huge benefit to grades for the following reasons: They teach you the key fundamentals. Can you read music? Trinity will build your reading bit by bit.
The thing I like about Trinity is that it covers styles that'll make you in to a versatile musician.

I've seen Rockschool and a bit of their syllabus. It looks good. I know a bassist who did all 8 grades. He's a very good player. I've no doubt following that syllabus would make you an excellent drummer! I don't think it's just rock either. I'll get you more info on this.

Again, not trying to discourage you but many teachers at music schools have degrees and even Masters behind them. You might be getting a bit ahead of yourself at the moment, but it's totally possible if you put the work in! If you have a good teacher stick with him/her and the lessons.

My first kit was a budget kit for 300 euro. Everything included. Bass drum and toms were decent. Stands and cymbals were dreadful, snare awful too. Ended up getting frustrated with the gear and replaced snare and cymbals with nicer gear.

I would say avoid budget kits IF you are going to stick with this. All the big drum brands make good kits and you can get a great kit for not too much used. Look at adverts.ie for people selling. The Gretsch Catalinas come with a good reputation, and sound very nice indeed, way better than the price would suggest. The Club Jazz set is very nice. Sonor, make some of the most droolworthy kits out there. Their German made stuff is highly expensive and amazing but you can't go wrong with their cheaper to mid range stuff either. Their hardware and drums are high quality from entry level to mid range and pro level. Yamaha, are a very good brand. Check out a second hand Stage Custom, have a look at Pearl Export too. It's a classic affordable kit for a reason.

Hope all this helps, any questions fire away.

Morf wrote: »

I know a friend of mine who worked as a session drummer for a while got back into drumming recently doing a lot of rudiments on a practice pad.

Would you recommend that (although relatively unexciting route) to a degree to a novice, Sever?

Thomas Lang talked about learning rudiments down pat quite young.

I would have learned certain rudiments from my first teacher but I didn't take them seriously until 5 years ago, when I started practicing them a lot more than before just on a pad and learning more as I went along.

I'd definitely recommend a beginner getting into rudiments from the get go. Guys like Lang are such technical beasts partly because they have that strong foundation in rudiments. Rudiments are to drums what scales are to a guitar/piano etc, look at them that way. Even look at great groove players like Steve Jordan (plays with John Mayer), Jeff Porcaro (Toto, did a heap of session work), and Bernard Purdie (Steely Dan, Aretha Franklin, James Brown, the list goes on forever). These guys practiced their rudiments too and are strong technically. I can guarantee they wouldn't sound as good without practicing them. You can be a solid and grooving drummer, get people dancing but you won't have as good a sound as a guy like Steve Gadd or especially Vinnie Colauita, a guy who does a tonne of sessions but has played some of the most technical stuff out there, for example, when he was with Frank Zappa. Joes Garage is really popular with some drummers, haha

Some great advice though here from the legendary Dennis Chambers and it's worth noting for young players. Anyone aware of Dennis will know what a great drum soloist he is and how unbelievably fast he can play. But the situations where you need this are few and far between when playing music. He makes a great point about playing music with others and taking care to make it sound as good as possible, rather than constant fills from the drummer (which often helps take away from the music).



Great advice for any musician really, not just the drummer. You know they type of lead guitarist who plays too many fancy licks, and the bassist who solos too often instead of holding the groove.