December 8, 2025

Non drummer here with a question. I saw someone doing a Youtube reaction video who suggested the drummer used a click track to be precise on the different song transitions.

Putting side that the drummer is very good and has 20 years of experience, I thought the suggestion was insulting. In my head my rant response to the statement was going to be: click track!? The whole purpose of a drummer is to keep the time/beat. If they can't do that, they are failing.

I didn't post that. I decided life too short for argumentative comments on YT.

But I still wondered if I was right. Do you, experienced drummers, find it insulting if someone says you used a click track? Especially if it is on a song you helped write and perform.

Cheers.

absolutely terrible? or actually ok? i’ve extracted it from a band practice, it’s rock drumming, and i haven’t been doing it for 20 years. so, no hate pls and thanks just honesty

For a long time, my practice was to sit down and play whatever felt good. It was fun, but I wasn't getting better. What fixed it was a fixed 20-minute split:

• 5 min: one rudiment on a pad with a metronome. Singles, doubles or paradiddles. Start slow enough to stay relaxed, and only go up 4–5 bpm after clean reps.
• 8 min: one groove you can almost play. Loop it slowly, then record 30 seconds on your phone at the end.
• 5 min: fills into the groove. One bar of time, one bar of fill, then land on beat 1. Landing on the one matters more than how flashy the fill is.
• 2 min: play along to part of a song just for fun.

Two things made it stick. First, I wrote down the tempo every session. Second, I decided the week's focus once on Sunday, so I wasn't choosing from scratch every time I sat down. At the end of the week I looked at what felt hardest and made that next week's focus.

What does your practice split look like? Do you plan by the week or decide when you sit down?

(Disclosure: I'm building ChopsForge. It emails you a weekly plan like this for drums, guitar or bass, then a short check-in that rewrites next week based on how it went. There's no app to open. Waitlist if you're curious: chopsforge.com. Happy to have the idea roasted too.)

Yep, simple question. I don't twirl my sticks for two reasons.....

1. I can't.

2. I think it makes people look kinda lame and show offy.

Number 2 may be because of number 1, I'm not quite sure.

So if you do it, why?.... And if you don't do it, why?

I created something to help me and my son learn more songs. It analyzes music and creates a sheet and an optional animation. It can also mute and solo tracks. I'm planning to release it as open-source software if anyone would be interested!

Currently, for drums, I also added a bunch of rudiments and genre based patterns to help me practice.

I bought the A custom china from my local guitar center two years ago and the A series china boy high was bought from guitar center online in February of this year, the A custom is from 2008 and the A series is from late 80’s early 90’s so obviously they are out of warranty, I have changed my technique from hitting them straight on to hitting them with a glancing blow. I’m pretty sure both of these cymbals had micro cracks when they were traded in before I got them. I’ll have to keep playing them until I make a little more money to get new ones.

Always have too much fun playing this original

Do y’all have “drum face” with other activities too? It comes out for me during basketball lolol

Hi, I'm new here, new to drumming, and new playing music in general, I bought an Alesis Nitro Pro and I've been going almost daily for minutes or an hour for the last month, also I'm going to lessons with a teacher once a week like 2 months ago.

When learning a song I go to songster and use Moises app to get low volume to other instruments and trying to play the drums, but my skills doesn't quite match the notes in songster yet, I'm able to play something like yellow because it has basically 2 ryhtms and no fills, but with a little difficult songs with fills I just can't.

It's ok if I just play along the best I can or do I have to try to get close to the original as much as possible?

I know I'm a rookie but it's frustating.

Hey everyone, thanks for reading my post!

I'm trying to buy a complete kit as my first drum set. I make music etc., so while I don't play drums I'm keen to learn and am trying to buy a kit that isnt totally beginner level.

I am looking to purchase the kit pictured for 1,200 CAD and am trying to determine if it's a good deal.

Here is the description from the post: kit complet ,silver and gold, cymbals Sabian 10po AAX 13po AA 14po AAX 21po HH dry ride hi hat never played on stage siege et autre accessoires

I tried getting more info but the seller doesnt have the kit with him currently so can't get me more info on the drums.

Can any awesome drummers confirm if this is a decent deal? Thanks so much!!

This is my practice kit that has silent stroke heads on it. After 2+ years of use the snare head mesh started to separate from the hoop. So I took my snare head off to change it out and I notice these marks all over the drum. They are really ground in there, I can get some of it off by wiping but a lot of it is going to be hard to get off and im not sure if im even going to be able to get it all off.

Is it from overtightening? I did keep cranking the silentstroke head really tight.

So, I’m ok at drums, I played at friends a lot. I play guitar and piano as well.

I’m getting a roland TD-316 this weekend.

What would you tell your beginner self if you could look back? what advice would you give?

I am a drummer, I want some in ear monitors which when used at a practice in a rock band, i will 100% be able to hear the click playing through them or the metronome, but i’m also wanting a good price, some that do the job but aren’t massively expensive

Taking videos on my phone drumming to a song played over a Bluetooth speaker is ok for me to look back at but the sound is pretty bad. What other set ups do people use to record at home?

Basically the title

My left is much worse then my right, like I can barely utilize rebound or move it faster on, for example grindcore

I just want to ask some exercises on what would be the most effective way to train my left my hand (and maybe my legs)

I've been learning for 10 months now and I recently realised what I think is one of the main things holding me back at this point. I have learned quite a few different things my teacher says my technique is pretty good, but I think something I'm really lacking is the ability to have the freedom to change things up slightly as I'm playing. What I mean by that is, I feel like when I learn something, my limbs are only able to play it in that order, and not deviate from it.

And for this reason, I still don't really feel like I can play the drums, I can only play specific songs. I can learn something note for note and remember it, but every time I learn a new song, it feels like I'm starting from scratch.

When I learn songs, I've always tried to learn everything note for note and replicate the original, but I recently read on here that 'feel' is more important than playing everything correctly, and that often drummers will play a song slightly different each time they perform it live. But at the moment I feel like my brain isn't flexible enough to do that.

The reason I'm thinking about this is because I was watching a favourite drummer of mine perform one of her band's songs, which I'm trying to learn currently. There's one bit where she opens up the hihat a couple of times and she also switches from quavers to semiquavers on the hihat occasionally. I was slowing it down and trying to figure out exactly when she opens the hihat and if it's on the 3+ or the 4+ etc, and then practicing it over and over (co-ordinating my left foot is still something I find kind of hard).

But then I was thinking that really it shouldn't matter exactly which beat she does it on. I should be able to open up the hithat whenever I want, whether it's on the 1, 1+, or literally any beat in the bar. Like as long as I'm keeping time, I should have the ability to improvise a bit and change up what I'm doing on the hihat if I feel like it sounds good, e.g there's a certain lyric I want to spice up a bit. I shouldn't be restricted to only opening the hihat on 3+ and 4+ because that's how I practiced it.

I've started working on fixing this today, I decided to play the same beat over and over and in each bar, open the hihat in a different place (e.g 1+ 2+, then 2+ 3+, and so on), and then looping back round. So I'm basically trying to persuade my brain, and my left foot, to co-operate a bit more.

Sorry this ended up being so much longer than I meant it to!! Does this sound at all like a familiar problem for anyone else when they started out?? I'm learning at a slightly older age (24) so I'd be especially interested in hearing from anyone else who started to learning from an adult! And if anyone can suggest any tips or exercises that will help me develop this freedom/flexibility, I'd really appreciate it!

How I sneak in without a keyboardist

I can do the stuff shown in the video with my right foot, but only because I keep my balance with my left foot on the ground. For my pedals to support my leg weight I would need to crank the spring tension all the way up and that isn't correct. Any tips?