Beginner Death Metal Drum Help Please

User01

Junior Member
Hello, im a massive death metal fan and im thinking of taking up the drums because i just love that style of percussion. Before i do start i just wanted to know a few things. I hope you dont mind addressing them for me.

1. What would be the most ideal beginner kit for playing death metal? i would like to have a cost effective but decent kit which has all the appropriate 'parts' for playing death metal.

2. Would the purchase of an electric drum kit for death metal hinder my progress? i plan to get an electronic drum kit because i currently live in student accomodation.

3. I want to be able to drum along to death metal bands like Decapitated and Necrophagist. Obviously your level of skill depends on the amount of hours your put in and the kind of stuff you practice, but assuming i played a couple of hours a day with a good metal drumming tutorial program, how long would it take to get to such a level of skill? How many years?

i hope you can help me out, thanks a lot!!!
User01
 
How much money do you have for a kit? We can recommend a kit based on that.

The main thing is to get a solid teacher. AND START SLOWLY. It'll take awhile before you can play 0mG f@5+ dUbBll3 b@55!!11!!1!!11!!1one 1! Also, don't limit yourself to just one style. Play every style and listen to everything.

The first thing I would do is get a solid teacher to point you in the right direction, and check youtube out. Look for beginning drum lessons.

www.freedrumlessons.com is a GREAT site, check it out and watch all of the videos on there.


EDIT:An electronic kit won't hinder you.
 
dude right on man. if your looking to play some hardcore stuff like nile and stuff...your gona need 1 nice setup. you'll need a double bass pedal a lot of cymbals and toms. i started with a crapy lil junior kit. i played on that for 2 years. then i got a nice pearl and i bought 5 cymbals and im getting 2 more toms tomorrow and another a lil l8er. iv been playn for a lil over 6 years. you'll need to practice a lot if you wana be at that skill level. it will cost a couple thousand for all the stuff but i bought some gear that was 40% off. so try to find good deals on stuff. for a good starter set try a pearl 5 peice forum. then practice a lot and get lessons and when you think u can play them get more cymbals and toms. but get a ride,splash,crash when you get your set. i recomend paiste good brand good price. thats about all i got to say. contact me if you need something.

heres a good starter set.

Pearl Forum 5-Piece Drum Set With Free 10" Tom $659.99 at guitarcenter.com

http://http://www.guitarcenter.com/Pearl-Forum-5-Piece-Drum-Set-With-Free-10--Tom-490841-i1372025.gc

hope i helped. oh yea i only play fast death metal.
 
Okay:

1) You're not going to be an effective death metal drummer for a LONG while. It takes, 3, 4 years, or maybe even longer (depending on the amount of practice you put in/natural rhythmic disposition/previous musical or percussive experience) - some guys had been playing for only 2 YEARS before 'making it' *cough*James King*cough* - do not worry if you cannot do the same. Everyone progresses at a different level.

2) Any kit is good to start with, whether it be a Tama Imperialstar, Pearl Forum or a CB700 - as long as you can play on it. (I'm still playing on my piece-of-s**t Pearl Forum that I started with - will be upgrading the instant I get a sufficient car to lug it around in) You can always change the heads if you don't like the sound - but you won't get it to sound like a top-level kit. Invest in an affordable (not 'cheap') double pedal, something like a Dixon double pedal or something similar. Start slow and consistent, then gradually work your way up.

3) It'd help to get a good teacher as well.

4) DO NOT only limit yourself to one style - a lot of extreme metal drummers borrow elements from other musical styles to create their musical identity.

5) Going back to No. 1 - to quote John Longstreth: "Take your time. It takes years to build the speed and chops that a lot of these guys have today. Thats why you're watching them TODAY. Cause they started YEARS ago." Now you might think I'm repeating myself, but I cannot stress it enough. I've been playing for 3 years now (the last 10 months of which, let's face it, have only been serious) and am only just entering the realm of Decapitated/Meshuggah stuff.

Hope this helps.
 
Last edited:
Hello There....
I offer Extreme Metal lessons at my site...
www.derekroddy.com
It's focus is extreme metal playing.
Go to my site, and click on the Artisan Foundry.
I also have a great forum there with 14,000 extreme metal drummers from all over the world including George Kollias, John Longstreth, Tony Laureano, Jade Simonetto, Myself and many others.
Drop in and say hello.
Cheers.
Derek Roddy.
 
Hello There....
I offer Extreme Metal lessons at my site...
www.derekroddy.com
It's focus is extreme metal playing.
Go to my site, and click on the Artisan Foundry.
I also have a great forum there with 14,000 extreme metal drummers from all over the world including George Kollias, John Longstreth, Tony Laureano, Jade Simonetto, Myself and many others.
Drop in and say hello.
Cheers.
Derek Roddy.

Yeah, Derek knows what he's talking about. I intend to start using his as soon as I can afford it.

Firstly, I'd say that learning slowly is the best way forward. I've been playing for ten years and playing becomes easier the slower I practice. I mean in terms of speed, the fastest guys out there like Mike Mangini and Tom Grosset got there from playing slowly till the motion became subconscious.

However, I prefer to learn along to death metal songs slowed down to a speed where I can play them comfortably. If you use the play speed controls on windows media player for example, it really does help. You'll eventually get the stuff down into your subconscious and you;ll be fine playing it.

Good luck.

Tutin
 
I understand the double bass part, but what does the rest of that mean?
Oh my God, fast double bass! Then I'm making fun of teenagers who have the need to add a lot of exclamation marks at the end of everything, but their fingers are too weak to hold the shift key down. Then there's the irony of spelling "one" out.
 
I'm a metal player and I hope eventually to get into the Death Metal scene, I'm definitely not fast enough to really move into that genre and currently I'm not working on forcing my self to get more speed I won't constantly be using. You will be very interested in gaining speed and the best way to get fast is to play slow, sounds weird but work at very slow speeds is highly beneficial.

I've been playing for a year and four or so months and I can consistently hold a stream of 16ths at 195 bpm. I can play 200 if I'm willing to push myself but beyond just working on speed it's important to be solid with your notes, a solid player at 145 bpm will ALWAYS sound better than a very loose player at 200 bpm.

Don't get too hung up on having "The perfect death metal setup" when you first start, get something you can play that you can learn on. Having a lot of toms and cymbals isn't the best idea if it's all piece of junk kind of stuff.

As far as an E Kit is concerned I don't think they feel natural at all, you learn a lot of bad habits from E Kits. If you do have to it's not like you won't learn anything.

Just get some equipment together and get playing and do not let it become a chore.
 
I've been playing for a year and four or so months and I can consistently hold a stream of 16ths at 195 bpm. I can play 200 if I'm willing to push myself but beyond just working on speed it's important to be solid with your notes, a solid player at 145 bpm will ALWAYS sound better than a very loose player at 200 bpm.
.

You've been playing metal for a year and 4 months, or drums altogether for the same time?
 
The most important thing is to not get overly stressed when you don't see instant progress. I've been playing death metal for about 5 years. I feel that my hands are very developed for speed, etc. But, my feet...god, that's a whole other story.

I agree with Mr. Pasquini that slower more controlled notes sound A LOT better than rushed garbled nastiness.

I do recommend you go to Derek Roddy's site (as he mentioned). There are tons of great topics that are mentioned on the forums and that will definitely get you started. (i just wish my account would get activated so i can post threads)

But yea...It all boils down to how much practice you can put into it...dedication. My feet (left foot) are very underdeveloped because I really don't practice on them as much as I do with my hands.

Best of luck to you!
 
I do recommend you go to Derek Roddy's site (as he mentioned). There are tons of great topics that are mentioned on the forums and that will definitely get you started. (i just wish my account would get activated so i can post threads)

Thanks for the words man.

On the forum thing....My webmaster has to enter them by hand...so to speak.
A lot of times...some registrations will get dumped into his junk folder.

Send a mail to this address...
[email protected]

Title it ...."joining Derek's forum....I'm for real.
And give him a few days. That's his "code" for serious registers!
LOL.
Cheers.
D.
 
Thanks for the words man.

On the forum thing....My webmaster has to enter them by hand...so to speak.
A lot of times...some registrations will get dumped into his junk folder.

Send a mail to this address...
[email protected]

Title it ...."joining Derek's forum....I'm for real.
And give him a few days. That's his "code" for serious registers!
LOL.
Cheers.
D.

haha. I understand. It's actually a good thing that he goes through the registration like that. I bet it cuts down on spam, etc.

Derek's videos are also good. I bought one a very long time ago (2003 or so). The one he was mailing out to people in between being on tours :). Good stuff.
 
Hello, im a massive death metal fan and im thinking of taking up the drums because i just love that style of percussion. Before i do start i just wanted to know a few things. I hope you dont mind addressing them for me.

1. What would be the most ideal beginner kit for playing death metal? i would like to have a cost effective but decent kit which has all the appropriate 'parts' for playing death metal.

2. Would the purchase of an electric drum kit for death metal hinder my progress? i plan to get an electronic drum kit because i currently live in student accomodation.

3. I want to be able to drum along to death metal bands like Decapitated and Necrophagist. Obviously your level of skill depends on the amount of hours your put in and the kind of stuff you practice, but assuming i played a couple of hours a day with a good metal drumming tutorial program, how long would it take to get to such a level of skill? How many years?

i hope you can help me out, thanks a lot!!!
User01

I would think an electronic kit would be ideal as you could play a variety of cool sounds. Other than that, I would get a kit with deep toms and bass, so the drums have a strong, commanding tone.

With consistent application (and assuming you have school, work, family, etc.), you could get good enough to play basically at that level in a year or two, but your skills might be narrow. You could play good death metal, but maybe not much else. That's not a problem if you have a well-defined goal and the ambition to get there. You can always learn different styles later if you want or need to.

Do you have other people to play with? That will also help a lot. You can practice stuff all you want but at a certain point, you will need to start making music with other people.
 
An electric kit would be good, because you could actually play it. You'll need to be practicing for an hour+ every day if you're in a hurry to pick up this skillset, so a "better sounding" acoustic kit that you can only bang on once a week is going to be far more damaging than any bad habits you collect from the ekit.
 
good morning to everyone i have a mapex qr series and a mapex double pedal my kit has 4 toms.i want to ask if it is a good kit play death metal.pls answer me i need your advice.
 
Hello, im a massive death metal fan and im thinking of taking up the drums because i just love that style of percussion. Before i do start i just wanted to know a few things. I hope you dont mind addressing them for me.

1. What would be the most ideal beginner kit for playing death metal? i would like to have a cost effective but decent kit which has all the appropriate 'parts' for playing death metal.

2. Would the purchase of an electric drum kit for death metal hinder my progress? i plan to get an electronic drum kit because i currently live in student accomodation.

3. I want to be able to drum along to death metal bands like Decapitated and Necrophagist. Obviously your level of skill depends on the amount of hours your put in and the kind of stuff you practice, but assuming i played a couple of hours a day with a good metal drumming tutorial program, how long would it take to get to such a level of skill? How many years?

i hope you can help me out, thanks a lot!!!
User01


1. Death metal drumming NEEDS double bass, so you're gonna need a double pedal for sure, and probably a pretty smooth one to pull off some of the more delicate techniques...my favorite is the iron cobra by tama, check craigslist and you can get one used for around or under 200, and its damn worth every penny. If not, go direct drive for sure, see if you can find a yamaha...my mentor uses one of those (i think its a flying dragon?) feels better than a demon drive. Always buy used if you're not sure you're gonna stick with it.

2. I think an electric kit is perfect for you to be honest. A lot of metal drumming nowadays is triggered, meaning that the acoustic drum sound is blended or replaced with samples of electric drumming, while retaining the punch of acoustic drums. ITs gonna be nice to be able to practice all hours of the day, with a sound that will suit your style. the cool part about an electric kit is you can build on to it, and make it sound like anything you like just as it is. So if you really like a certain drum sound from an album, you can import it onto your kit and play those sounds. Cymbals are kinda lacking...but you're beginng and don't need to worry about live and recording performance yet.

3. At least 3-4 years I think, this is one of the harder styles to drum for because it is extremely technical, and very demanding on your endurance. A book that really helped me out is "the evolution of blast beats" by derek roddy, the dvd is badass too. The book has a drumalong CD, exercises, as well as a basic guide on how to read drum music/rhythm. The key to all of this is PRECISION, and CONSISTENCY. the metering in this style gets pretty weird some times, which is hard on us drummers. You're going to be cheating on your lady with a metronome for the next couple years, but don't worry, she'll treat you well in the long run.

Also check out san jose local Marco Pitruzella on youtube/myspace, he has a DVD for like 15 bucks that will teach you some things too.
 
get as many pedals as you can with a double kick setup and learn to play fast, faster and then faster. that's the secret to being a successful metal drummer, along with a "singer" who can GROWWLLLLLL those vocals.

good luck, and see you at Madison Square Garden.
 
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