Crazy Texas Drummer
Free guides
Written up from Brian's own answers about starting out, keeping the peace at home, and getting a kit to sound like a kit. All of them free, all of them read in a few minutes.
All 9 guides
5 min readBrian says
Drumsticks: length and rebound do the work
Sticks are the cheapest decision in drumming and one of the few that changes how you play the same day you make it. Most beginners buy whatever pair is nearest the till, and most beginners then spend
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5 min readBrian says
Electronic kits: the one spec that matters at the start
If you live in an apartment, share a wall, or practise after nine at night, an electronic kit is often the honest answer. You put headphones on and the argument about noise mostly disappears.
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4 min readBrian says
Your first drum kit: what to actually buy
Buying a first kit feels like the hard part. It is not. Almost any complete kit, tuned and in a room you are allowed to play in, will take a beginner further than a better kit sitting untuned in a gar
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3 min read
Your first hour on the kit
If I get one hour with somebody who has never played, I am not spending it on rudiments and I am not spending it on a practice pad. I am spending it on beats you already know, because the fastest way
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3 min read
How to tune your drums (the ten-minute routine)
Most kits that sound cheap are not cheap. They are untuned. I have heard beginner kits sound great and expensive kits sound like cardboard, and the difference was ten minutes with a drum key.
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4 min readBrian says
Practising with headphones: playing along is the method
Ask most drummers how they learned and you get a story about records, not about a practice pad. Ask Brian and the answer is four words long.
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5 min readBrian says
Reggae: listen first, play second
Most styles let you fake your way in from a diagram. Reggae does not. A drummer can play every note in the right place and still have people in the room look at them sideways, because the notes were n
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3 min read
3 ways to make your drums easier to live with
Nobody in my house ever said "please, more drums." That is normal. Drums are the loudest thing most people will ever put in a bedroom, and the person on the other side of the wall did not sign up for
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5 min read
Warm-ups, wrists and hearing: the boring guide that keeps you playing
Nothing in this guide will make you sound better this week. All of it decides whether you are still playing in ten years. Two things end drumming careers early and both are avoidable: hands that hurt,
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“Put some headphones on with your favorite music and play along. See what happens.”
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New guides go out the same way these were written: from his own answers, one thing at a time, no filler.
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