The Drum Machine - Drum Lessons - Getting started - Do I Need Lessons or Private Tuition ?

The short answer is Y E S ! for how long ?, well how good do you want to get ?.

It's really not much more complex than finding a teacher, but before you do that, you really need to be honest with yourself first.. So ask yourself these questions.

Are you seriously going to make time to practice ?
What are your objectives ? What do you really hope to achieve from drum lessons ?. ( i.e. learn to read, play some beats, learn songs, the rudiments, clean up my technique, etc. etc.)

Personally, I believe that while a great number of us can learn via imitating others by ear, there are still many benefits that are gained from learning to read & write percussion music.

Reading will open up a world of useful information for you, be it magazines, instructional books, videos, or even web sites like this. It will give the added ability to easily share your knowledge with other musicians, learn songs, or complex rhythms and concepts that may have been completely foreign to the ear to begin with.

A common misconception is to think reading and music theory are musical, there not, it's simply the language we all should share. It's how we each use and apply the information we've gathered that ultimately determines if we're musical or not.

With Private Lessons, in particularly in the first few months to a year, you will notice a dramatic speed up in your learning curve. It can be said that most people that have never studied, learn more in the first month or two than they did the first year they taught themselves.

A teacher should be able to guide you towards your objectives, let you build and express your idea's creativity, correct and assist in your technical development and should ultimately motivate you by example. It's important to feel comfortable, and relaxed with your teacher, so you need to be able to get along!!!. Conflicting views are often a reason most students give up lessons... Think of it as gaining a mentor, somebody that's gong to share experience.. A valuable thing...

So, if I were you I'd at least give it a try..... But, please don't just show up once and never come back, stick at it, be upfront with your teacher, say I'm willing to try it for a month, then decide if your going on with it... Ultimately, the most important thing is too just make time to practice !..

I really can't stress that enough... SO PLEASE !!

..Practice !!!!..

..Practice !!!!..