Andrew,

 

Hi thank you for your kinds words about my site.  I very  much appreciate them

 

As they say there are many ways to get from A to B:

 

I teach kids in a local school, they are a bit younger aged around 7 to 8 than your son.

 

Here are some of my guidelines to teaching kids are:

 

1)      It must be fun to do for them, otherwise they will get bored and to make it fun I play music that they like (usually slow hip hop or rock music with an easy 8^th note beat to copy.  My own kids love “Yellow Submarine” by the Beatles for all the silly words!! I followed your link and saw you mentioned the Beatles) and then get them to tap along to the beat first, then to start playing the “drums” by just tapping out basic beats.  You don’t need a drum kit here, just sit down on a chair at a table and tap away very slowly to start with, print out my page of basic beats  For Example the 8th note rock beat and then use my counting article and common beats page to listen to it yourself so you can teach it J

If they are right handed .Your right hand plays the pretend hi hat, the left hand the pretend snare and your right foot the pretend bass/kick drum. So tap the right hand on the counts " 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + " say + as "and" Tap left hand on " 2 4 " Tap right foot on " 1 3 "

2)      Don’t spend more than 5 mins on new things as they lose interest real quick J

3)      Tell them, show them and then get them to repeat it  E.g tell them what a single stroke roll is and then show them it slowly and then get them to copy you together and then on their own.  You can then provide comment and feedback

4)      When you are teaching resist the temptation to practice yourself.  It is very easy to do stuff that you want to do that isn’t really right for them or start playing a a 5 min drum solo!!!!

My other thoughts would be:

 

1) Before getting a kit, get some sticks and a practice pad from you local music shop and do (1) above. Pretend your right hand plays the pretend hi hat, the left hand the pretend snare and your right foot the pretend bass/kick drum.  

A few years ago I went though a phase of playing my practise pad whilst watching the music channels and in particular Kerrang. I was going through a metal phase which I have now to an extent passed!!!.  Again, 90% of the beats will be one of the 4 main dance beats so they can play along.  If you have access to music channels you can sit in front MTV or similar and do 1 above.  I do this with my daughter some times. Or of course just turn on the radio or tune into an internet radio station to do the same.

2) Maybe go and have a few lessons with a local teacher with your son. That way they and you can actually sit behind a kit and be shown some of the basic stuff. Then you can start to know if this is something that they you/they want to do more often, which I bet you will because it is great fun!!!

3) If you want to jump straight to a kit, then get cheap second hand kit first, you can usually get very reasonably priced 5 piece kits (Snare, bass drum, toms, hi,-hat and cymbals) for about £200 UK pounds.  Don’t under any circumstances buy a new kit at this stage as they are grossly overpriced!!! If you don’t get into drumming you can sell the kit on and if you want to go upmarket then you can sell the cheap kit to fund the next purchase.

Lastly, re having a full kit and getting distracted, well that is the fun of having a full kit, getting distracted and hitting lots of drums that make lots of different sounds !!!!!  Learning the core beats is great but really doesn’t take that long and as I say above teaching kids is about have fun with them to keep their interest. 

And they learn by playing themselves so I try to teach some stuff for a while, but then let them play on the kit with no rules or just bang along to a song because it is fun to just hit all the drums and cymbals. To me it part of life and the Yin and Yang of life.  Study something like a single stroke roll and then just “play” for fun on the kit with no rules and in doing some “Playing “ you might just learn something like improving co-ordination around the kit!!!  Jazz guys call it improvisation….

Re using your right foot, I am not sure by what you mean as a counter beat ?  Do you mean playing your right foot on the main beats of 1 2 3 and 4 at the same time as you right hand or do you mean playing your right foot in a syncopated way that is the equivalent of  a single stroke roll with you hands and feet

This is sort excerpt from my new ebook on learning to play drums that covers playing syncopated beats between your hands and feet, it might help.

1.1.1          Single Stroke Rolls between you hands and feet

For your ongoing development as a drummer it is very important that you practice single stroke rolls between your hands and feet.

Why ?

Because that is how you will be able to play syncopated rhythms as you progress. 

First here is a single stroke roll between you hands and feet.

Traditional Count	1	e	+	&	2	e	+	&
Right Hand on hi hat	X		X		X		X
Right foot on the bass drum		X		X		X		X

As a beginner I am afraid that this will feel very uncomfortable (if not very very uncomfortable.  It took me a long time to get this OK and even now it still feels odd at times).  The reason is that you right hand and foot are very connected and want to hit down together. 

Like I have said a lot already start very slowly and only when you are playing it correctly and accurately start to get faster.

Now if you want to get faster here is the technique I use:

Traditional Count	1	e	+	&
Right Hand on hi hat	Hand strokes down	Hand strokes up	Hand strokes down	Hand strokes up
Right foot on the bass drum	Foot raises up	Foot strokes down	Foot raises up	Foot strokes down

 

Basically as my hand goes down my foot comes up, ready to play the next stroke and then as my foot goes down on the next stroke my hand comes up again ready to play the next stroke. 

My hand and foot, in effect, are cycling round each other

Hope this all helps

And am very happy to answer anymore questions you have.

Take Care and welcome to the family of drummers!!!!

Rob

www.learn-to-play-drums.com

Passionate about drums and music