Who started 'here' long before they went 'there'?

Jeremy Bender

Platinum Member
Thinking about my teenage days from many years ago. I started with a six inch pad long before I got my first real kit.
 

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I started on a drum "kit" made from practice pads. Does that count?
 
I started on a kit. Had a snare drum first for a year. I made such a racket on it that my parents decided to buy me a kit when I was 12 y.o.
 
When I first took drum lessons, as about a 10 year old, my teacher would not let me close to the student kit he had setup in his studio. I played on a rubber practice pad for about a month or two before I got tired of it and lost interest.

Fast forward ~35 years (damn!) - when I got interested in drums again I bought a Simmons SD7PK "starter" electronic kit and shortly thereafter bought my Gretsch Catalina Maples. After I bought my Gretsch kit I started taking lesson :)

I have heard folks brag about how long their teacher made them play on a pad before letting them on a kit and I don't understand why a teacher would do that. One old drummer dude I met at a jam bragged that his teacher made him play rudiments-only on a practice pad for a full year before he was allowed on the kit. I did not say it, but I was thinking "Why?"
 
I started lessons one one of these babies:

http://store.drumbum.com/media/duplex-wood-pratice-pad.jpg

after about 6 mos. my teacher told my dear Mother that it was time to get some real drums and in another few weeks a blue sparkle kit of questionable breeding showed up in my bedroom!!

Thinking back I believe starting out on the pad - with the promise of actual drums waiting, should I stick with it, did me a world of good... by the time I had a drum kit, I had a little experience reading etc... and could almost 'play' them rather than banging away making a racket and I probably wouldn't have stuck with it otherwise.

Thanks Mr. George Haller, my first instructor, may he rest in peace!

Mike Noll
Nate Myers & The Aces
www.natemyers.com
 
When I first took drum lessons, as about a 10 year old, my teacher would not let me close to the student kit he had setup in his studio. I played on a rubber practice pad for about a month or two before I got tired of it and lost interest.

this in my opinion is a huge mistake that teachers make .... very old school out dated attitude

all of my students spend at least a few minutes on the kit by no later than the 3rd lesson
 
My first lessons were on a desk top (no, not a PC, they didn't exist). If I remember rightly, the first 10 lessons were single stroke rolls at different dynamics & stick heights. There then followed another few lessons on a pillow. I never progressed to a practice pad. I was 12 at the time, & the school didn't have practice pads. Because of this special teacher they employed one morning each week, the school did invest in a pair of fibreglass timpani. So I went from pillow to timpani, then to tubular bells. I only got to play a kit for 15 minutes on my last lesson aged 16. I think I've told this story before, but It's worth repeating in abridged form.

I was taught by an elderly lady called Jean Webster. She was in her 70's when she started teaching me in a class of about 12 pupils. One hour/week, provided by the school. I had a very humble upbringing, & my adopted parents couldn't afford drum lessons, they had enough difficulty affording one pair of shoes each year.

By the time I reached my final year at the school, I was the only pupil left in this weekly one hour class. On my very last lesson, this purely classically trained diminutive old lady (I'm guessing she was under 5 foot tall & weighed under 70lbs) she brought in a drum kit. Not just any old drum kit, but a huge Ludwig kit c/w 26" bass drum, 14" mounted tom, 18" floor tom. She set it up in the middle of the vast school hall, & proceeded to hammer out some of the best rock drumming I've ever heard. Her hand/foot triplets were a joy to behold. Zero effort, minimal stick heights, huge technique, massive sound. My jaw hit the floor. She let me have a go, & I played my first ever money beat. She packed up the kit, said her farewell, & left me with this message - "remember Andrew, keep it simple". A few months later she passed away, & a month after that, I had my first drum kit.
 
Since my first experience was going to be concert band and orchestra, my first year of lessons was on shelving laid on the back of chairs. Our first class, in the eighth grade, was 14 people. By the time it ended, at the end of the year, there were three of us. I had a pad at home and shelves at school. When we got to the next year of school we were all in the band and played bass drum, snare, cymbals, tympani, triangle, tambourine, what ever the piece called for. The first song I ever played to, was with the music teacher on the piano, and the three of us on shelves playing to the theme from The River Kwai.
 
My first lessons were on a desk top (no, not a PC, they didn't exist). If I remember rightly, the first 10 lessons were single stroke rolls at different dynamics & stick heights. There then followed another few lessons on a pillow. I never progressed to a practice pad. I was 12 at the time, & the school didn't have practice pads. Because of this special teacher they employed one morning each week, the school did invest in a pair of fibreglass timpani. So I went from pillow to timpani, then to tubular bells. I only got to play a kit for 15 minutes on my last lesson aged 16. I think I've told this story before, but It's worth repeating in abridged form.

I was taught by an elderly lady called Jean Webster. She was in her 70's when she started teaching me in a class of about 12 pupils. One hour/week, provided by the school. I had a very humble upbringing, & my adopted parents couldn't afford drum lessons, they had enough difficulty affording one pair of shoes each year.

By the time I reached my final year at the school, I was the only pupil left in this weekly one hour class. On my very last lesson, this purely classically trained diminutive old lady (I'm guessing she was under 5 foot tall & weighed under 70lbs) she brought in a drum kit. Not just any old drum kit, but a huge Ludwig kit c/w 26" bass drum, 14" mounted tom, 18" floor tom. She set it up in the middle of the vast school hall, & proceeded to hammer out some of the best rock drumming I've ever heard. Her hand/foot triplets were a joy to behold. Zero effort, minimal stick heights, huge technique, massive sound. My jaw hit the floor. She let me have a go, & I played my first ever money beat. She packed up the kit, said her farewell, & left me with this message - "remember Andrew, keep it simple". A few months later she passed away, & a month after that, I had my first drum kit.

What an awesome story!

I started on an old snare drum and hi-hats my parents located for $25 when I was in second grade. School band program let me start band a year early in the fourth grade. When the band instructor found out I could read music (my parents made me start classical piano training very young) I never got to play snare or bass drums in the school band. The band instructor had me playing on all of the percussion instruments because I could sight read scales and charts. Three years later my parents surprised me with my first drum kit. I took a few drum lessons here and there but ended up primarily being self-taught playing in garage bands.
 
I totally forgot I still have my practice pad! My parents bought me a pad in elementary school so I could play in the band, but it wasn't until my dad got a work transfer that I got my first kit/had a place to put it. I still have a set of bells/xylophone-thingy that came with it too.
 
Started on a kit, and have barely touched a practice pad. So I guess I started "there" before I went "here".

The only reason I started - about 18 months ago - was Mrs JustJames bought a kit for MiniJustJames, who's been playing drums in his school band.

Before we finished the (10 minute) drive home from collecting the drums I resolved that I would learn. Since then I've been taking lessons weekly, can read music (in a cat-sat-on-the-mat fashion) and the drum kit has been upgraded out the wazoo.
 
I started on one of these (or like it), in 1966. Got a snare about 3 months later. Got a drum set about 2 years after that.​
 

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Started on a pad.

Still use it a ton.
 
I barely ever used a pad when I first started and nothing's changed. I don't own one and no desire to do so. When I first started my lessons all occurred on the real thing.
 
I started on a drum set. 5 years later I got my first practice pad, when my desire to get serious about technique and pushing my limits came about. So glad I did. I'm also glad I got a few years to "mess around" on a kit...if I would have started on a pad, I wouldn't have stuck with it.
 
Both... kind of...
Mom made me join the school band. The band director required that I take lessons. The (free) lessons I took with him were on the pad and after a few weeks I got to play actual percussion items. He then suggested a guy to take lessons with. The first half of each lesson was on a pad, the second half on the kit. The first several weeks were all on the pad though. I didn't get my own drum set for several months. Didn't matter though because I never practiced. The only time I played was with other people. Drumming has always been my fun thing.
 
Look at all you rich boys with your expensive practice pads to start with!

I literally made kits from coffee cans, butter tubs, propane tanks, whatever sounded even remotely like a drum.

Not letting kids touch a drumkit for a year is stupid.
 
Can´t shoot - root or electrocute them rich boys!... :-D
 
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