Habits

i have had the privilege of being tutored by very qualified drummers along my learning of the instrument. A privilege that i sometimes feel is better deserved by other more talented people. But since the blessing somehow fell upon me, i feel obliged to share about what i feel is one of the most important things that a student of drums or percussions should focus on before moving onto practicing chops and rudiments or even playing.

Technique.

Neglected by most our local instructors (i know my first teacher skipped this part), the basics of how to hold a drum stick, the detailed (But unfortunately boring) explanations of different strokes and their pros and cons, pedal techniques, etc are often glazed over for the sake of not boring the student. While in some cases, depending on the age and agenda of the student, this could be a compromise, one wonders if the student might one day have to deal with the most frustrating part of learning: Unlearning.

i'm speaking from experience when i said it was frustrating. For almost 7 or 8 years, i have been playing a certain way: Stroke technique, pedal/foot techniques and even my sitting position until i enrolled to do my diploma in music and realized how many of those were actually bad for me.

So take if from me. Endure the bore of developing good technique, it pays off later when you don't have to spend the time to unlearn things. :)