How to start playing percussion instruments: 4 things you MUST have

paoloparolini.com/start-playing-percussion/ 4 things you MUST have to start playing percussion instruments

“I want to start studying percussion! Well, the instruments to play are A LOT… But, am I supposed to buy all of them?!” The answer is: obviously no. Indeed in this video I’ll explain that to start playing percussion you only need 4 things:

– a snare drum or a practice pad
– a pair of drumsticks
– a metronome
– a measure of goodwill

The last point is clearly the most important.

Let’s go on with order. So, why do we give so much importance to the snare drum? For two reasons:

For a traditional reason: till the last century approximately it didn’t exist a solo or educational literature but the one wrote for the snare drum. So, if you wanted to approach to the world of percussion instruments the study of the snare drum was a necessary step.

A logical reason: in other words the technical approach and the main tecniques that you learn on the snare drum can be transferred to any other percussion instrument, included drum set, timpani, mallet percussion and some ethnic percussion.

Having said that why is a pad enough? Because a pad is a rubber surface that reproduces the rebound of the drumstick as on a real snare drum and for this reason it represents a good way to replace it. Moreover it’s a useful instrument for all the people who don’t have enough money or space (i.e. “your neighbors don’t like drummers”) to buy a drum set. While buying a pad or a snare drum ensure that they are sold with their specific support (usually a tripod) adjustable in height. The importance of this factor will be clearer as soon as you watch the next lesson about posture: paoloparolini.com/posture-on-the-snare-drum/

As a matter of fact, I’ve been using the same practice pad everyday since I started playing drums: the 10 inch Remo Practice Pad and it’s perfect.

How much time do you have to dedicate to the snare drum only in the starting phase? The answer is simple: not more than the necessary. This because today all the other instruments belonging to the big percussion family have a starting educational collection which is sufficient to start with. So if you start using your time to study all the other percussion instruments too, it would be the best thing.

SUBTITLES AVAILABLE.

Versione italiana: paoloparolini.com/it/iniziare_strumenti_a_percu…