I was thinking about reinstalling Rock Band again recently, but I decided that, even though I really loved playing it back in the day, I am at a point in my life where I would rather spend that time actually learning an instrument, instead. I have played bass guitar and ukulele in the past. I also played guitar in the way that every lame college dude does, which means I never learned any theory, but I memorized some guitar tabs and chords, and sort of faked my way through a few songs for friends who were either too polite or embarrassed to tell me how bad I was.
I was sort of thinking that doing it as a game would be fun, so I gave Rocksmith guitar a try, but after about two hours of different game modes, it’s not for me. It was like all the frustration of Rock Band or Guitar hero, but without any of the fun of pretending that I was a rock star. I may plug in my old bass guitar (which is now a vintage instrument because I’m old) and try that mode, but for now, I’m going to try something different.
I have always wanted to learn to play the drums, and I was pretty good at the Rock Band drums when we played all the time, so I decided to pick up a small, inexpensive, student kit, and use YouTube videos to master the basics. While I was shopping around about a week ago, there was a shiny little kit on sale at woot, and it had more pieces and cost less than the three piece kit I was looking it, so I bought it. It was delivered today.
I’ve been putting it together, which is really fun, but murder on my old hands and knuckle joints, so I took a break to write this dumb post about the new experimental hobby thingy I’m doing: Is it possible for a 45 year-old dude like me to learn how to play the drums, using only the resources available online?
I intend to find out. I’ll document the process here.
As a violinist/violist, I’m prohibited by tradition and contract from being able to keep a beat or count to 3. So I’ve always admired good percussionists! Definitely agree on finding some other people to jam with. I never really enjoyed doing solo work even on the violin, but I always loved orchestra.
I have wanted to learn how to play a drum set since I was in high school. I have learned the doumbek for belly dancing, and I have loved playing the fake drums on Rock Band. I hope you have fun learning, and I can’t wait to see what you do!
Here’s hoping you have a LOT of fun however this experiment turns out!
You can totally do this. Just make sure one of the boys will take you in when you drive your wife mad.
And thanks for the post title that now has Pete Townsend shouting, “That’s no Keith Moon!” In my head.
Hey, you will know how fit you are if you sing while playing the drums! Rock and Roll!
When it comes to music there’s one thing I play very well. That’s the radio. I can tune with the best of them on the radio dials. Anything else I’ve tried to learn music wise I’m pretty lame at. But give me a radio and I’ll give you a tune
Listen to music and play along. I did that 25 years ago and it worked well. Start with something easy. Then progress to John Bonham :o) Also, consider what you want to achieve – fun or or technical bad-assery. I would go for fun :o)
As someone who has picked up guitar and mandolin and has dabbled in drums, all since age 40, I’d say you can absolutely do this. A few recommendations which I hope are helpful:
You mention using only internet resources. I strongly suggest you see if you can find a teacher, at least to get you started. With any instrument there is some basic technique that it is worthwhile to get down when you start. If you learn it wrong at the beginning you can hit plateaus that you will be unable to move past and it can be very difficult and discouraging to try an unlearn wrong technique.
Make a point of practicing every day. Even just 5 minutes if that’s all you can spare. If you just do it when you feel like it pretty soon you find that you haven’t touched the drums in 3 weeks and haven’t progressed and it just gets discouraging to go back. A little bit every day and you will see the progress and be encouraged to continue.
Be realistic about your goals. I am a prog rock fan and like listening to guitar virtuosos like John Petrucci, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Tony MacAlpine, etc., I had to accept early on that will never be able to play their stuff. Those guys spent many hours a day every day during their youth doing nothing but mastering their instruments. Starting at your age you are not going to get to the point where you are playing drums like Neil Peart or Mike Portnoy, and if you make that your goal you will just get horribly discouraged and quit. On the other hand, you can absolutely get to the point where you can having a ton of fun making some cool music.
Drum are LOUD. I know its just you and Anne at home now, but if you’re shaking the foundations every time you practice, patience may wear a tad thin with the wife and neighbors. One thing we did when my daughter took up the drums is get a decent Yamaha electronic set. That way she could practice anytime she wanted into headphones and all we would hear is tapping on the pads. It’s even something distracting you could get up and do when you are having trouble sleeping if the set is not on the same floor as the bedroom – whacking on the drums is physical and relaxing and can help break the mental cycle of whatever is keeping you from sleep. Anther poster recommended a practice pad. This is also a god idea plus it is something you can take with you when you travel to get a little practice and relaxation in on the road.
Once you get going see if you can find some people to play with. It’s fun and it gives you another reason to practice.
Hope this helps, and let us know how it goes.
These are FANTASTIC suggestions! I, too, love(d) playing Rock Band drums, but for various reasons would never consider actually buying a real set. But if I were to find a teacher and get a practice pad, then I could feasibly progress to playing at You Sing It Tuesdays (live band karaoke) at Howl at the Moon at Universal CityWalk! Maybe Wil and Anne will join me up there!
Agreed on starting on your own and then finding a teacher. Starting with net resources is fine, but if you really take to it and begin to love it, you will start to realize just how big a universe any musical instrument is, and you’ll naturally think about finding a teacher, probably within about a year or 18 months.
Hi Will,
I didn’t know you had hand problems, too. I have carpal/cubital tunnel syndromes and osteoarthritis. I send you my sympathies as a fellow sufferer. Best of luck with the drum experiment!
I just turned 50 and started playing the drums about 5 years ago, so no, you are not too old to do this! My friend Lisa has a channel with videos for ‘Spankin’ new drummers’ that helped me a lot. Here is the link . . .
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFTG4diUAao&w=640&h=390]
Good luck and PLAY MORE DRUMS!
You can do it! I look forward to the results of your efforts!
That’s awesome! I’ve been playing for almost 30 years now, so here’s my 2 cents: don’t neglect hearing protection (the obvious one that I ignored far too long) and get grip tape for your sticks (your joints will thank you).
Sounds awesome, i hope you have fun along the way! I started learning drums with an E-Drum Kit a year ago and made good experiences with drumeo.com, i can highly recommend it from my own firsthand experience.
Seconded, I love the drumeo videos.
My dad is a drummer… my brothers are both drummers. 3 of my cousins are drummers.
I can’t keep a beat to save my life and about as ambidextrous as a snake.
Good luck, man!
YES it is possible for anyone anywhere to learn an instrument and enjoy participating in the creative energy of the universe. DO IT. JUST FUCKING DO IT.
I’m a bit of an evangelist on this topic. Get the damned drums and DO IT. And if anyone tells you that you can’t or shouldn’t, tell them to go fuck themselves.
But buy musicians earplugs first.
This. This is the answer to the nagging voice in your head that asks, “What should I be doing with me life?”
“This,” is the answer. When you’re 45 and so much of your life is responsibility to others, damn right you should buy a drum kit and start bangin’. All things in moderation – especially moderation.
Just to be sure: You do know that you can use a “real” midi drum kit with Rock band/Guitar hero right? And that when playing on export level, you will be playing something which in many cases may be the real thing 🙂 (Do a youtube midi rockband drums) search if you want to see it in action 🙂
That way, you can play real drums(Because you obviously want the sound from the drums you are playing, while still having the fun of being a rock star 🙂
Totally possible to start playing at 45. I started at 53 when we bought my son a set for his 17th birthday. We took lessons together. He’s a musical genius and after a few lessons he could basically play whatever he wanted. After months of study, I could play a basic 4/4. But damn, it was fun!
I literally just watched a show this morning on The Who. And now I understand the title of this post! Yay for random morning TV viewing!
You’ll need to get some earplugs.
You’ll need some for yourself as well.
Ba-Dum Crash !
I’ve learned a few minor things on guitar, even took a few lessons, but I haven’t been disciplined enough to keep to a practice schedule. That said, I find Rocksmith a lot of fun. It is harder because, well it is a real instrument. I ended up restringing my electric with colored strings specifically for Rocksmith. That helped it seem more like a game than practice. My advice is to use the practice settings and slow it down first. I don’t have any advice for drums though.
Back in my youth, I was a drummer and a drum instructor, and yes, you can definitely do it! A couple of things you may want to consider:
-get some hearing protection (I have tinnitus from crash cymbals, you don’t want it);
-you are going to get super into some tom-tom riff and go “BLKUM-BLKUM-BLKUM-AAAAAHHHHH” because you missed the last one and hit the rim with your pinkie, we all do it, and we just use stick tape to tape it to the next finger over and keep going, because WOO!;
-learning some fundamentals just on snare can be helpful – all the paradiddles and flamadiddles and what-have-you are applicable to the kit, but can be less intimidating on one drumhead;
-it’s a workout – do the warmups and your joints will thank you;
-no, seriously with the hearing protection;
-I hope you have an awesome time with this!
In the words of some character in any Adam Sandler film; “You can do it!”
You certainly can do this, at least well enough to have fun with it. Re age: barring physical disability that’s only a problem if you want it to be one. I bought myself a bass guitar for my 59th birthday, under heavy prodding from a bassist friend 30 years younger, and am having a great time. Am I good at it? Not yet. Should I have done this decades ago, when my fingers were more supple? Definitely. But is it fun to play along with songs on the radio/CD/Internets? Hell yes!
And another thing: reading your post put this song in my head on perma-repeat, so I’m sharing the joy. You’re welcome. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZclddLcOYYA
(un-related) — OMG! Is that our Wil as the ‘CIA Spy’ (00:27) in this new video called “From Russia With Love Trailer (Trump Remix)” at this location? https://youtu.be/FSFqTCLAv3s
Mr wheaton ever think about a pr proton youtube serie and make the network pay for it?
Simply Awesome. Love it. The drum kit is a very important instrument. I am currently working on a piece of musique concrete that includes the use of the Motorik drum beat. I artificially created the beat with various tones and durations of white noise, brown noise, and pink noise. The formula for the beat is near the top of the wikipedia page for “Motorik.” It is heard on Autobahn by Kraftwerk, and Cars by Gary Numann. In connection with these bands, I highly recommend the album Ege Bamyasi, by Can.
A recent article on the subject:
http://blog.pandora.com/us/the-motorik-beat/
On RockBand, the drums were probably the most true-to-life of the instruments. The only thing missing (from the original controller, at least) was a dedicated functional hi-hat. Otherwise, pretty much a perfect analog.
Good luck to you on the drumming. I also want to say that I feel for Anne and anyone else that lives in your vicinity. My brother played drums throughout high school and while he was a pretty good drummer, where he really excelled was annoying the crap out of me with his drums. I’m not saying that I don’t want you to get joy out of your drums, I truly wish you the best, but when Anne threatens to have you move out, you’ll understand.
Hey Wil,
I recently noticed that both of my twitter accounts have, at some point, been blocked by you.
I have to ask – How does someone who is constantly calling for equality and has pinned tweets about how racists and nazis are trash manage to make it onto your blocklist? Do you have a way to, you know, get off the blocklist?
I’m not mad or hurt, I’m just confused. As someone who shares your ideals and loved seeing you dunk on intolerant assholes, it’s really baffling to find myself blocked.
It’s probably a false positive, and if you give me your account name, I’ll take a look.
townshend. with an h.
Hi Wil, I went to your Archives widget and noticed when I clicked on any date from July 2001 to May 2006, it gives me the following error: Parse error: syntax error, unexpected ‘<‘ in /home/wil/public_html/2006/05/index.php on line 3. I don’t get this error after May 2006. I googled how to fix this and found a post here: http://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-fix-the-syntax-error-in-wordpress/
Hey Wil, as a drummer who has tried to convert the other way (I built a guitar and modded another) I highly recommend drums. Try out Dave Weckl, he has some good beginner stuff.
As an aside I too have used Rocksmith and enjoyed it, but it’s not for everyone!
It is definitely not too late to learn a new instrument. I would suggest a lesson or 2 just to get the ball rolling. It can be really daunting to learn an instrument without starting with basic technique, how to hold the drumstick, how to keep your pinky tucked in, which grip feels most comfortable, yada, yada, yada. Another suggestion would be to start with JUST the snare and these basic rudiments: http://www.pas.org/docs/default-source/default-document-library/pasdrumrudiments2015.pdf. I have been playing drums for about 25 years in drum and bugle corps, a plethora of bands, and concert percussion and I can tell you that nothing has been more helpful than learning these rudiments. They build off of each other and will lead to an endless combination of musical flourishes to feed your creativity. Cheers.
I’ve played Guitar Hero Before. Good Luck with the drums. I’m Learning to play the Guitar.
I’m on the other end of this discussion – getting ready to get rid of my drums. I started about eight years ago, took lessons and had a fun time. Then heart surgery and a long time when I didn’t feel like playing. Took more lessons recently which were also fun. Since I was a kid I wanted to play drums but I grew up in the day when “girls didn’t do that”. So I took it up in my late 50’s. I could see progress when I first started, and loved the lessons. It is really hard for me to think about the kit being gone from my home. But I am reminding myself that I HAVE played the drums. I had a little recital, learned a lot about the drums and had fun. But the reality is that I am just not a musical person. It isn’t my “vocabulary”. So I am going to let myself off the hook and let them go. You can certainly learn to play but like others I would strongly encourage you to take a few lessons. Once you do, things online and various dvds, etc., will help you expand and learn more. Most music places don’t require you to sign up for more than a month or so at a time these days. And there are a lot of working musicians who teach on the side and will actually come to your home – which is really nice because you learn right on your own kit. Have fun, fun, fun! And do get ear plugs – seriously!
I’m 43 and just picked up the electric guitar. I’m learning online and so far…IT’S A BLAST!
It is never, ever too late to learn something you really want to learn.
I wrote a blog post about your blog, Will, because I liked it.
http://www.somethingmoreweekly.com/2018/03/477-wheeeeeton.html
Dan