How to Teach Kids to Play Drums
If you have a child that enjoys banging on pots and pans, you can help them with their desire by teaching them to play the drums. By initiating some basic concepts, you can make sure that they learn the instrument correctly. You can begin your journey of teaching children by helping them develop some basic concepts related to music theory, as well as drum technique.
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Instructions
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Start with technique. Before a child starts banging on the toms or snare drum, you want to make sure they do it correctly. If your child doesn't have the proper way to hold drum sticks and to move their hands, it could cause tension and pain later on. A method for learning basic techniques is to have children start with hitting their hands on their lap. With this, make sure that their hands are loose and that their wrists move freely.
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Add in drumsticks. The most popular form of holding drum sticks is known as the "matched method." This starts by holding the hand two thirds down from the top of the stick. The thumb and pointer finger should wrap around the stick so it can move freely. The wrist will allow the stick to move up or down on the drum. You should make sure that their hands stay facing down on the drum stick while they are playing.
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Start with rhythm. The most important part to playing any type of drum is the rhythms that you are able to create. You want to start children with some basic rhythms that will help them to keep time. Quarter notes (hit every 1 beat), half notes (hit every 2 beats) and whole notes (hit every 4 beats) are the three basics that can help children to combine keeping time with their drums. Finding exercises that combine these different rhythms is an easy way to work children into understanding rhythm (see Resources below).
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Learn the time signatures. Even if the children you are teaching don't know how to read music, they can develop some skills by learning time signatures. This will keep track of the tempo that is moving throughout a song and will let you know when to accent specific beats. For instance, if a time signature says 4/4, then the 4 on top means that there are four main beats, with 1 being the strong accent. 3/4 means that there are 3 main beats with 1 being the main accent. Getting children used to these accented beats and allowing them to practice the time signatures with the rhythms can help them to develop a better sense of time and movement on the drums.
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Move into different drums. If you are working with a drum kit, take the rhythms and move them into different types of drums. The three basics that a child should start with are the bass drum, which is the bigger drum on the floor, the snare drum and the high hat, which is the cymbal on the side. Practice the same rhythms rotating between the bass drum and snare drum, as well as keeping both going at the same time. Keep in mind that the snare drum should be played with the stick in the left hand and the high hat is played with the right hand. As you move further into this, combine rhythms with the tom drums and cymbals on the side with the right hand. Then combine concepts, such as time signatures to help with this. For instance, if you are in 4/4, the bass drum will be played on 1 and 3 and the snare will be played on 2 and 4. The more patterns you add in, the easier it will be for children to learn how to maneuver on the drum set.
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Tips & Warnings
Use a metronome. Getting children used to different beats, and helping them to understand where the accents are also allows them to have better concepts with time and rhythm. Set a practice schedule. Learning the drums won't work if children only look at the drum set once a week. Making sure they approach technique, rhythms and a drum kit at least once a day can help the concepts to sink in so they can learn how to work with the drums more easily.
