Start With A Snare?

Push pull stroke said:
I think starting with a kick, snare, and hi-hat is a good, balanced approach. 99% of what you do as a drummer can be covered with those 3.
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After one year on a practice pad and another on a snare, I graduated to the setup you're suggesting. Though I had purchased a full kit, my instructor demanded that I place my toms in a closet and not touch them for six months. I worked on nothing but hi-hat/snare/bass patterns during that stretch, and it was excellent preparation for the full configuration that followed.

Wow, based upon the accounts I've illustrated in this thread, my first instructor might sound sadistic. He wasn't. He just had a system in place and refused to modify it. Decades later, the wisdom is clear to me.
 
Push pull stroke said:
I think starting with a kick, snare, and hi-hat is a good, balanced approach. 99% of what you do as a drummer can be covered with those 3.
Click to expand...

By purchasing individually, did you find the method allowed for better quality drums? Also, as opposed to buying a kit, was it more expensive buying indvidually?
 
Can you make noise? Will your family and neighbors allow the noise? Because drums are loud, and it takes years to sound OK on drums.

You can start with drum sticks and use a magazine for a drum pad.
 
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I started with a thrift store kit/pieces... a bass drum, 2 toms that don't match the bass drum or each other, a cheap snare, and an inexpensive basic hi hat stand. I added cheap hats and a snare stand from a pawn shop, and played that kit for a year or so in the garage, before I got a basic starter 5 piece set.
I also had a practice pad, and used that intermittently for rudiments and such.

Now, I have the 5 pc set, a "practice kit" that's bass/snare/hats/ride and a jingly thing :D , a few snare drums, and the practice pad (I really need a new one). I alternate between all, depending on time, others, and mood.

I can't say if this is right, or even good, but I play as often as possible, and I'm having fun.
 
Push pull stroke said:
I think starting with a kick, snare, and hi-hat is a good, balanced approach. 99% of what you do as a drummer can be covered with those 3.
Click to expand...


I'd also start with snare, kick and hi-hat, but I'd start like this:
  1. buy a really good throne: really, the best one I could afford. Looking back, I realize it's one piece of equipment I'm always using when playing;
  2. buy a solid hardware pack: bass drum pedal, hi-hat pedal, snare drum stand and 2 cymbal stands (with one boom if possible). Again, I'd get good stuff. I remember cheap and unreliable hardware making things more frustrating for me as a beginner; and
  3. buy a practice pad, a bass drum practice pad, and a set of low-volume hi-hat cymbals. Face it, drums are loud, and drums played by beginners seem even louder.
I'd put the 2 cymbal stands away, set the rest up and learn how to play them.


While doing that, I'd save up for a decent snare drum and a good cymbal pack (hi-hat, ride and crash). I'd take my time, and find something I like.

Once I'd learned how to play some, and bought a snare drum and cymbals, I'd buy an inexpensive shell pack (bass drum, mounted tom and floor tom). Then, I'd learn how to play the kit. I'd learn how to tune it, too. I'd experiment with different heads and tunings.

If eventually I wanted to upgrade the shells, I'd still have good cymbals, hardware and throne.


And if I found that drumming was not my thing, I'd probably have an easier time and get a better return selling good cymbals and hardware as opposed to selling a starter kit that came with cymbals, hardware and a throne.
 
No Way Jose said:
You can start with drum sticks and use a magazine for a drum pad.
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If you want to start as soon as possible, that's what I'd do. Learning the basic motions takes some time, so starting right now is a good thing (with a teacher's assistance if you can afford it). You need sticks anyway and you'll probably get a practice pad sooner than later. A mouse pad or something similar also works in the meantime.
Regarding the rest: it depends also on your budget, how much noise you can make where you live (assuming you don't have a rehearsal space yet), if you can store stuff you don't use yet, how tall you are and the style of music you want to play eventually. The cheapest way is buying a complete second hand kit at once. Buying components piecemeal, will be more expensive. Since you can't know yet which exact cymbals and pedals you like and so on, I'd look for a decent used drum set and replace stuff as you see fit. You can sometimes get a workable used set for $200 because somebody just wants to get rid of everything.
 
Just a snare is the proper way and in the long run will be of greater use to you as a player from a technical standpoint HOWEVER it will get really boring really quick and can be highly de-motivating to new players. Full kit from day one is really fun but can easily cause you to focus on the 'fun' and not technique. I agree with some above posts of splitting the difference and starting with bass, snare, hi hat. This will teach you groove, feel, time, and give you a place to practice "snare drum basics" like rudiments without distractions.
 
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In my opinion there's no right or wrong way to do it, do what works for you.

Last night I sat down with a practice pad for the first time in my life and played, badly, double stroke rolls, again for the first time in my life. Hopefully they'll sound better tonight.
On that basis I'm not a very competent drummer. However at the age of 20 I was playing self organised and profitable Heavy Metal gigs and having fun in my band. I didn't play for about 18 years, bought myself a new kit and have been regularly gigging, having fun and earning money for the last 14 years in 2 different bands. When anyone asks me to name my favorite drummer I struggle because I've never studied drums and drummers, but ask me to name memorable albums and songs that influenced me and that's not a problem. I think this is because I've always played with people of a similar ability and we've grown together and my focus was being in a band and playing songs. I can do what a Heavy Rock drummer needs to do, but not much more than that, but I'm happy and I haven't been found out yet! When I started playing 70s Glam Rock I had to learn to play in a different style, another drummer probably would have slid into it immediately whereas I had to work at it for a short while before it became second nature, but that wasn't a problem to anyone.

Someone with different motivations to mine will do things differently and that's a good thing.

On the subject of drum kits. There hasn't been a better time to buy kits and hardware in terms of their quality and price. Back in the 70s and earlier it possibly was literally a case that you either bought a snare drum or you bought nothing at all. Nowadays many more people can afford a full kit, if it was me I wouldn't deliberately not buy a kit. I've also never subscribed to the idea of buying a kit piece by piece thinking that that way a person can get better quality drums. Everything in the £500 to £1000 range is going to serve a drummer well. To really move to the next level probably requires £2000+ invested (adjust the figures if a person is looking at used) and I feel that that is a massive jump for a "new to kit" drummer to make. In my opinion buying drums one at a time is even worse, I'd rather have a full and complete 4 or 5 piece in the sub £1000 range than spend that amount on a bass drum then struggle to get matching toms a year down the line.
But as I've said several times already this is me and my opinion.
 
roncadillac said:
Just a snare is the proper way and in the long run will be of greater use to you as a player from a technical standpoint HOWEVER it will get really boring really quick and can be highly de-motivating to new players. Full kit from day one is really fun but can easily cause you to focus on the 'fun' and not technique. I agree with some above posts of splitting the difference and starting with bass, snare, hi hat. This will teach you groove, feel, time, and give you a place to practice "snare drum basics" like rudiments without distractions.
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I agree with much of this. I wanted to play drums since I was about 8. My parents got me a practice pad and sticks and told me if I did well with that, they'd eventually get me some real drums. That was a big motivator for me to learn the basics. By the time my parents surprised me with a real kit, I was even MORE excited to learn how to play all the other pieces. Great times.

Everyone is different, but starting with a pad and earning my way up to a full set of drums was a big deal for me. (y)
 
jdavis said:
I agree with much of this. I wanted to play drums since I was about 8. My parents got me a practice pad and sticks and told me if I did well with that, they'd eventually get me some real drums. That was a big motivator for me to learn the basics. By the time my parents surprised me with a real kit, I was even MORE excited to learn how to play all the other pieces. Great times.

Everyone is different, but starting with a pad and earning my way up to a full set of drums was a big deal for me. (y)
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I played clarinet then trumpet for a few years before expressing interest in drums. My mom took me to the local gear shop when I was about 10 or 11 and told me to pick any pair of sticks of I wanted (I of course picked a pair of Zildjian black 2b's because they were huge and looked awesome lol), we left the store with just the sticks. I was kinda bummed and when I asked why she didn't buy me drums she responded, "those sticks cost me almost $10... You better hit every ******* thing in the house with them over the next year if you want me to buy drums!"

I did and, well... She did. Now I'm 30 and I haven't looked back haha.
 
Well, you could actually buy a standard 5 piece kit.

When you get it home, pack away the 3 toms and set up the bass, snare, hats and ride.

Having those 4 components in my opinion are the core elements.

You can work on keeping time with your feet and work on your hands AND your feet with your rudiments.

It just gets you working on all limbs ASAP.

Then once you get things good with those 4 components.....add a tom or two and increase your vocabulary ?
 
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