Hi, I'm Andrew (the person Arky referred to), first thanks very much to Arky for posting this for me. As he said, I am having some problems logging in at the moment and so couldn't really post anything until now.
I'm looking for some advice about learning to play the drums, I am an absolute beginner and I have some specific needs that prevent me from going down the usual routes to learn an instrument. I have autism and so going to an actual music teacher would be very challenging for me as it would be a long process of trying to get to know the person and feel comfortable with them before actually learning the drums. Also, I've looked for some tutors in my area and there aren't any nearby and so there would be the extra stress of traveling further away to see someone, I'm not sure that would be something I could do.
As I mentioned in Arky's post, I have just bought a Yamaha DD65 electronic drum-pad kit as I don't have the space for a full-size kit and I don't want an acoustic kit or anything that would make a lot of noise. I don't want to disturb my neighbours and I am also quite sensitive to noise.
I had read a lot of good reviews for the DD65 and seen some videos of it on You Tube and so I thought this would be a good compromise. I've bought a snare drum stand for it and some birch rod sticks (I had read these can help to reduce the noise when hitting the pads and I do notice a difference in sound from using the regular drumsticks that came with the kit).
As the kit was second-hand it came with some books: Drums For Dummies, Simply Drums by Cameron Skews and Absolute Beginners Drums. As I am more of a visual person and find it difficult to understand some books, I thought a DVD or You Tube videos might be better but I'm not sure where to start as there are a lot out there.
I know you can get some drum lessons online such as mikeslessons.com which seems to be quite popular here but as I am in the UK and that is an American site, I think the time difference would be an issue.
So I'd appreciate it if I could get some advice here, I have looked through some of the threads already but as I have additional needs I thought it best to start my own and explain the situation.
Thanks very much for reading this long post and for any help people can provide.
Andrew