The first thing you must do is get yourself a decent drum set. The drum set usually starts out as a snare, bass, 3 toms and a crash symbol and a hi-hat. You must adjust the drums so you feel comfortable.
One of the first things you got to do is learn to read tab. Tab is like notes that you follow but its not notes.
It looks something like this:
Bass/--------------------------------------------------/
Hi-hat/------------------------------------------------/
Snare/-------------------------------------------------/
Each line resembles the drum or symbol it names. Each - is a quarter note witch means one beat.
So when you see this:
Bass/--------------------------------------------------/
hi-hat/hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh/
Snare/-------------------------------------------------/
It means hit the hi-hat every other beat. Practice the hi-hat before we move on.
Next you'll see things like:
Bass/--------------------------------------------------/
Hi-hat/hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh/
snare/-s--s-s--s-s--s-s--s-s--s-s--s-s--s-s--s-s--s-s--/
It means while hitting the hi-hat on every other beat; you will be playing the snare starting on the second beat but you won't have an easy pattern. This how you do it hit the snare on the second beat , then hit it again after to beats, after one beat it's a pattern of 1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2. Practice this for a while.
Then things get even tougher as so:
Bass/b-bb-b-bb-b-bb-b-bb-b-bb-b-bb-b-bb-b-bb-b-bb-b-bb-/
Hi-hat/hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh/
snare/-s--s-s--s-s--s-s--s-s--s-s--s-s--s-s--s-s--s-s--/
You will play on the counter beat of the snare so you kind of alternate as so bass, snare, bass, bass, snare, bass and so on and so on. Practice this as well and remember while alternating with the bass and snare keep the hi-hat going.
Thank you for reading my guide I hoped it helped you. Remember 2 things none of the greatest drummers got to were they are without practice and you can't learn it all in one try. It takes time and hard work. With what you learned you branch out
Michael T. JR.
