Drum 101

Well, we took a drum class this week and while I did know most of what we learned, I did get quite a bit out of it.  Pastor David Hare has been coming in for the past two weeks to teach us about music.  Last week we took a piano class and a music theory class.  So, as you can tell we have been given all kinds of lessons in music.  It's a lot of information to take in especially for people who aren't musicians but for those who are it just adds to or reinforces the knowledge that we already have.

I've been playing drums for years, but mostly on a kit.  I never really had anyone to teach me the fundamentals of what percussion was.  Things like low position, medium position, and high position.  I always did those things but never knew what they were called.  I was lucky enough however to have had someone teach me percussion rudiments up to paradiddle's.  I learned those from a friend of mine in High School Marching band so I was still able to stay a little ahead of the game in the basics.  For those who don't know what a paradiddle is...it's a drum pattern of RLRR LRLL RLRR LRLL.  R standing for right meaning you hit with the right stick and L standing for left meaning you hit with the left stick.  All of this I had learned before but it was great to be able to reinforce the knowledge and get some practice with it that I hadn't gotten in a while.  One thing I do need to work on though is the fluidity of my left hand in comparison to my right.  I'm right handed so naturally hitting with my right stick is going to be a lot better than my left.  It'll be like when I had to learn how to kick with both feet in soccer.  It took me a while but I practiced it all the time and eventually was able to be good with both.

Anyway...I enjoy all of the music classes that we've been able to take because I love music and it's great to be able to learn and become more skilled at the things I do know.  You can never learn too much of something and you have to know it to get better.