Nice.

I have been contemplating buying a kit such as yours and start drumming for quite some time. Money is not really a problem, but I keep thinking; "what if I lose interest after a short time?".

There was someone who posted pictures of a bass…About a year ago…Seemed like something you would have posted, haha.

Mordi: I'd recomend renting, if you're afraid you might get bored.

Are you looking for electronic, or acoustic? I played acoustic for a couple years before I bought this, and…Well, it's a lot different.

Everything sounds good on the electronic kit, everything sounds the same (if you hit a drum head in a different location, it sounds different), everything is small and compact (it's so mcuh easier to do a roll across the toms on the electric kit), and, if you spend the extra for the mesh pads, it's bouncier than acoustic drum heads.

They're good for practice, having fun, and, like me, keeping things quiet in an apartment (just be careful with the bass pedal; I've got pillows and stuff under my bass pad 'cause I'm paranoid it goes through the ground), but they're not good for learning.

If you do get a drum set, you should definately get a teacher. It's important to learn how to hold and use your sticks and stuff. (You'd be surprised how much coordination and practice it takes to do a double stroke drum roll on beat)

I'm going to be a douche to TG and ignore him so he never comes back! =D

…<3

Anyway, let's start a Drum and Bass group built around the 64D forum, like Pendulum did with Dogs on Acid.

Also, someone should get me a Roland VH-11 to I can have more control over my hi hat. DnB is just insanely fast on the hi hat. =S

Killin: Rockband drums do count. Kind of. They stay true to the rhythmic feel of the drums, and the hand co-ordination. It's a lot of the same "complaints" as the electronic kit though. It's very condensed, and it does NOT have a hi hat pedal which is difficult to get used to as well, and is crucial to drumming. Using the hihat pedal or double bass pedal, can really put you off balance though (you're usually holding both your feet off the ground to an extent, while flailing your arms around), and the co-ordination needed to keep all four limbs moving at the right time is…Well..Frustrating, haha.

The bass pedal itself takes a bit to get used to (I played rockband before playing real drums), but it's a lot of fun. I used to hate songs that had the bass drum on eighth notes ("in between" the yellow hi hat), but after I got used to it, it was so much fun.

Hitting hi-hat quarter notes over and over, with the bass and snare alternating every other quater not gets pretty monotonus. The bass pedal becomes the tool that gives the song life, most of the time.

You hit the hi hat on one-and-two-and-three-and-four-and, and the snare on two and four, but throwing the bass pedal in wherever you want (or wherever the original drummer of the song wants) gives you the rhythmic and fun feeling.

Mordi: Electric sets are a lot more expensive than most accoustic sets. I rented my acoustic set for $25/month (it was loooow end, but had the basics, and wasn't complete crap), and bought "sound off" pads to silence my drums for ~$60. It's like putting rubber of your pads and cymbols.

But just like the electric kits (though more pronounced in acoustics), the bass pedal can still cause you some grief with the sound.

The electric kit on the other hand, cost me ~$200/month, so I ended up buying it. It was nice, worked well, and if I'm spending $200/month, I might as well be paying that much to own it.

Do you live in an apartment, or some sort of semi? If you happen to be friendly with your downstairs neighbours (I'm not - we refer to them as the "fat bitches", for anyone curious), or know their schedule, you should try play at times when they're out. If you aren't in an apartment, and find time to play things loud, everything is much more fun (and sounds better) loud. You can't really get the feel for what sounds you're making unless you hear it with the pads off as well.

…So…Yeah, I guess you should get an electric pad if noise is a huge issue.

Another huge reason to get a teacher, is for the music theory. Like, what the notes mean, how to keep time, etc.

I spent 8 years playing piano, and 3 years learning music theory, and hated every moment of it. My parents always told me "well if you don't end up playing piano, you'll be able to pick up almost any other instrument, like a guitar, and it plays almost the same way".

So then I go and start playing drums, which does not have different notes, or chords, or scales, or anything. =P

But music theory does help a lot with the reading, writing, understanding, and repeating [music that you hear].

It's like programming. You can look at things, like kabob's hit counter, and tell it's obviously just a loop, because you understand the basics of programming. You could probably code something to duplicate it exactly.

If kabob showed you the code, you could probably envision or at least understand what it was intended to do.

But if you sit at the drums and try to learn without music theory, you can kind of get somewhere, like using drag and drop in GM, but for the amount of effort you put into it, it's easier to just learn GML.

And just like you probably need to learn GML to understand a lot of examples, tutorials, and theoretical essays on developing games in GM, the same goes for learning in drums.

I have a book with different ostinatos and beats and stuff. Usually my teacher will say, as a basic example, to get some coordination, "play [this beat] with your hands, and follow along in the book with your feet". So I'll just keep repeating something with my hands (my teacher is formally trained in jazz, so it's usually some really frustrating hand/foot combination), and I'll have to try follow along with my bass foot in the book.

That ended up being longer and more repetative than I wanted to, but basically, music theory is a must, proper technique is a must, and understanding what things are supposed to sound like is a must.

Soooo…yeah, make sure you get a teacher. He'll teach you a lot of boring and repetative stuff for the first couple months, but as you get better control and coordination, you'll start to feel really free and have a lot of fun with it…And if you don't end up having fun, you can just return the rentals. =P

I have to disagree, admittedly in far fewer words. Your language analogy falls flat, because how did you learn to speak? You weren't taught by a single book, tutor, or point of view. You "picked it up" from the world around you, and as such your way of speaking is unique and distinct, which is why in my opinion the best musicians don't depend on theory but speak freely.

I'm not anti-teacher, I'm saying don't just get a teacher because you don't have the motivation or can't think for yourself. After all, it's alot of money. It should be supplementary.

Rock Band drums are near as dammit actual drums. Not like the guitar or bass.

Here's an interesting thing to consider: all cultures have a concept of the diatonic pentatonic scale (as we call it in Western terminology). This would seem to suggest a genetic disposition for tonality.

Teachers are no substitute for motivation.