Teaching suggestion greatly needed

[Manicoti]

I'm one of these "self taught" drummers and unfortunately have never received any formal lessons, which i plan on changing in the near future.
My problem is that i have a 7 year old nephew who really wants to learn to play drums and i'm not sure how to start him off so that he doesn't develop any bad habits. I've explained to his mom that I'M still learning and need much instruction even after 16 years of playing. She still would like me to give it a shot and i've agreed to for now until a "real" instuctor comes available.
For the next 2 months i won't have a kit available for him to practice on other then an electronic kit i have.
Today is his first "lesson" and i was thinking of starting off by showing him around a kit so he understands what a snare is, ride cymbal etc. Explain a drummers job is to keep time and hold down a groove etc.
I'm also planning on starting him off on basic rudiments with "singles" being the first exercise (stressing that speed isn't the aim yet but consistentcy and fluidity is)
How long should he practice his singles and how often a day?
When should i introduce "doubles" etc.
When should i move him onto a kit?
Any suggestions would greatly appreciated [img]smile.gif[/img]
Mani

[Greaseleg]

You know - I'm about to start teaching my 7 year-old nephew too. I think the most important thing for a kid that young is just to play. Put on some old Michael Jackson, Beatles, Stevie Wonder and let them play along. Let them learn pop song form and structure. I think 7's a little young to worry about groove, etc. It should be fun and exploratory. Just my opinion. (and nothing wrong with throwing some early Miles and Monk in there from time to time)

[Dazzler]

Nice suggestions Greasleg. Personally, I wouldn't get bogged down in rudiments at all. Once you are comfortable that he is holding the sticks correctly, as Greasleg suggested, I would just allow him to jam along to music - with your guidance obviously!

At the age of 7, playing any instrument should be fun and enjoyable. Getting him to play doubles and singles at that young age would in my opinion, seem like a task and monotenous. I would say that it is far more important that he's able to hear where a song is going and to have some sense of form and shape in music. Once he has developed an ear for the beat and can play in time, I would then introduce some more 'technical stuff'.

Good luck and keep us posted! ....oh and leave the Contemporary Drummer +1 for at least a couple of weeks.

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[Klemme]

Gah double post [img]frown.gif[/img]

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ January 10, 2005 05:37 PM: Message edited by: Klemme ]</font>

[Klemme]

A good idea would be to make his lems pretty much independent.

When i used to give som beginners lessons in high school, they usually had the bad habbit of hitting simultaniously all accents with hi hat, snare and bass drum.

Try to give him/her a simple pattern. with 2 and 4 on the snare. Then make him overstate the hits. FOOTS OFF on 2 and 4 and RIGHT/LEFT HAND OFF THE SNARE on 1 and 3. They usually find it funny as they quickly realize progress fairly quickly.

I also find it important to make the student aware of putting all of the energy they initially would put on the Hi-hat to be drawn into the hits on the Snaredrum and bassdrum, it's a bad habbit that sooner or later would have to be "fixed" .

To finish it's natural that your student will look up to you and see you as a rolemodel for developing his future playing. It is therefor very important that you act with musical tolerance, just because you don't like Thomas Lang or the drummer from Avril Lavigne, it shouldn't boundary him from seeking out ideas and learn from the records they play on.

Good luck and enjoy it!

[Manicoti]

Thanks for the suggestions. I was thinking that it was too soon for rudiments. I was just trying to make up for not being set up yet to give him the kind of lessons you guys suggest. I have very limited space and only have an electronic set, set up with headphones, so i think i'll just show him a straight 4-4 and let him go.
I'm moving into a house in about 2 months time so i'll be able to have a stereo and a couple of kits set up, so we can both jam etc.
Thanks!
Mani

[drumgod1]

I would give him a simple singles exercise to warm up on, just to have his grip under control. I call these my "Grip Exercises" for my students and have them work on them at the beginning of their practice session. The first one I give them (if they have never played before) is just 8 strokes on each hand repeated. Have them work at playing in a spot the size of a quarter in the middle of the drum or pad. This will help their accuracy. I also tell them to let the stick bounce bring their hand back up for the next stroke. Both hands need to come up to the same height and let gravity bring the stick down to the head (kind of like letting the stick and hand drop with the pivot point on the wrist). Also, I remind them to keep their fingers on the stick, but not white knuckle tight. I give them the analogy of a cartoon character taking a baseball bat and hitting a tree or something immoveable. The vibrations come right up their arm and can do some damage, which isn't good.

Once they have this down, I give them a fill-in exercise. I have them play one measure of 8th notes (4/4) on one hand, and then one measure of 16th notes with the opposite hand filling in the e's and a's. Have them repeat this, trying to get the 16th's even. Once comfortable, I have them start with the opposite hand that they started the 8th's with.

The next exercise I give them once they have mastered this is playing one measure of 8ths on the right (in 4/4), a measure of 16th's alternating and starting with the right w/a right hand paradiddle on the 4th beat. The next measure, they start 8th's in the left hand, followed by 16th's starting on the left with a left hand paradiddle on beat 4, which gets them back to the beginning of the exercise starting with their right hand. I have them repeat this.

I try to stress the importance of grip in that if you have a good start and everything is under control, that's one less thing they will have to worry about later. I write the exercises out as well, which gives them a bit of reading practice. All of my students read music, or will have to learn to do it if they want to study with me.

I teach from a music store in KC and most of my students are beginners. They usually start out on snare, and once we get to 8th notes in their reading of music, we begin drumset. I teach out of Joel Rothman's Basic Drumming, which I think is a great book for beginners. It has snare, drumset, some rudiments, rolls, accents studies, and stickings. Best bang for the buck.

Good luck with the lessons!!

Mike

[Lee Collins]

I would start him off with lathams advanced funk studies, then in a weeks time, move up to gary chaffee's and gary chesters books. Make sure he's getting those blushdas right, the double drag and stroke, the double drag tap and Swiss Army Triplet.

Also, put on weckls 'island magic' and get him to play along to that.
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[Suspiria]

Haha Rudy...I was expecting a smily or hint of sarcasm somewhere along the line of your post...You nearly had me at one point. I visualize you as the teacher of this poor kid, who would probably burst out in tears if you came at him with this terminology. On a more serious note, I would really have a hard time putting myself in the position of an instructor for such a young child. I mean is rhythm and even distribution of strokes really that important when starting out. I would have a hard enough time just stressing the importance of rhythm or even groove. Do you think he/she will understand? I would strongly agree with giving the student a "tour" of the drum set, giving him in idea of what everything feels and looks like. Starting slowly is important - let him jam around a little and create some sounds. Perhaps the execution of singles distributed around the kit would be something I would include in my first lesson. Good luck!

EDIT: While I don't question your abilities, keep in mind how important proper guidance is when starting out at such a young age. His technique should be solid from the beginning - don't want him developing any nasty habits. If you really insist on instructing him seriously, you should maybe get some advice from professional instructors, or maybe even find him one. Then again, maybe I understood this wrong and the kid should just get a fun intro to the world of drumming.

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ January 11, 2005 10:41 PM: Message edited by: Suspiria ]</font>

[Don Worth]

If your going to actually teach someone to play drums, DO NOT START ON DRUM SET. How can anyone on there first lsesson play a single stroke roll around the tomss if they do not even know a single stroke roll on a pad. Learning to hold sticks and rudiments to get hand position and getting a good stroke is much better than let's play the drum set now. That is more of baby sitting then actuall being a teacher. I have been teaching a long time and have had 5-7 years olds and they all have learned to hold sticks basic rudiments, to roll and learn notes before we EVER start to use 4 limbs on a set. If 2 limbs do not have any coordination then there is NO way that throwing the kid on the set is going to help him. OK, groove is fine but a 6 year old has NO idea what your talking about with that. There are guys in town that start the kid on set and then he gets to school band and has NO idea what is going on. But he can sure play a mean rock beat .........can't read and knows nothing of a roll, so all those lessons for 3 years with the neighbor guy really helped ....NOT.....I then get them and have to explain that they had a babysitter for the last 3 years and you learned as much as the teacher knew, swhichhich was how to play a rock beat. Teaching is not as easy way to make money if you take it serious, which in some cases is not happening, but more of a way to make the teacher think he knows something because he really does not have a gig but a straight job his whole life and used to play drums. Sorry for the rant but I got a new student yesterday that had taken lessons.....HA HA.....2 years if lessons and his buddy as school that started when school started knows more in that short time then his buddy being baby sat for lessons for 2 years. Have another starting today that there teacher did not show up all the time and never gave him a book or written material, all from just play what I did and that is perfect. I can just imagine what I will get today from the next new kid that I start today from another teacher in town. There are 2 kinds of drummer.......one that uses rudiments and know that he does and the other drummer that uses rudiments but does not know that he does. Ok, I am done ranting now......