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In an earlier post, I talked about how you can learn to play drums on your lap. You don’t need a drumset. You don’t even need a practice pad or sticks.

How is this possible? Well, when you learn to play drums on your lap, you’re not only learning what to hit when you do indeed have a drum set in front of you, but you’re also learning how to actually utilize rhythm.

Honestly, I get a little aggravated at one trick pony drummers. Whether it’s the young kid who can double kick the mess out of a bass drum or an old timer who can shuffle a beat better than a Vegas black jack dealer, there’s all kinds of “good” drummers. Problem is, in  a lot of situations, these drummers do one thing and they do that one thing well. Which is not necessarily a bad thing…but it can be limiting.

What I Look For In A Drummer

1) Consistency: If you can keep the tempo together without falling apart 2 beats in, we’re good. I don’t want you to be Animal from the Muppets. I want you to be a machine, a human metronome. If it means all you do is 4 on the floor then that’s what we’re gonna do.

2) Solid-ness: I don’t care if you can play 64th note fills if you can’t lock in with the bass guitar and/or provide something solid for the bass guitar player to lock into. “In the pocket” is what your goal should be. Not “In your face.” In an environment where we’re trying to HELP people express their worship to God, it doesn’t help if every crash and fill you do distracts the congregation from worship. Keep that in mind about volume, too.

3) Humility: Yep. If you’ve got a chip on your shoulder bigger than Quasimodo’s hump and your ego is attached to every cymbal crash, then you’ll probably run into problems down the road. Honestly, if you can’t take constructive criticism or direction, when you join a worship band, then it’s probably better for you to start your own church in your bedroom. You can be the pastor, deacon, worship leader, and congregant all by yourself. And you can serve the most important person in your church…You.

4) Teachability: I love it when a drummer comes to me and says, “I want to get better, can you work with me on some things?” One of our drummers has recently done that with me, and he’s getting better with each Sunday. Not just because I’m working with him, but because God is blessing his good attitude. I hope we all can acknowledge that we’ve always got something to learn. I know for me, being a trained musician, with an emphasis in Music Composition and Theory, it’s sometimes hard for me to take suggestions. Something I’m working on. It’s a great trait we should all be pursuing.

OK, So What About This Lap Drumming Thing?

Well, it’s not the answer to all your drumming problems. You won’t learn over night. And it won’t get you a date. Well, maybe not.

The bottom line is this: You’ve got to understand rhythm to be a good drummer. You need to understand what you’re doing before you start trying to smack the drums around. Now, I’m not saying that you have to learn rudiments and be able to read music before you play a drum set, what I am saying is that while you’re learning to play drums, you should be aware that you are combining several different elements to make one cohesive “beat” that either works with an ensemble or it doesn’t.

You need to know that when you lay down a groove it’s about you synergizing with the rhythm section (bass, rhythm guitars, etc). NOT competing with them. If you learn to play patterns and rhythms OFF of a drum set, when you come to the drum set you’ll be better prepared to UTILIZE that tool properly.

By practicing RHYTHM instead of practicing SMACKING the drums, you can work on your consistency and solid-ness.

Eat, Drink, Sleep, and Think Rhythm

You need to learn to SUBDIVIDE. If you’ve never heard of the phrase, you need to spend some time in meditation on this concept. Let it sink in. Marinate your desires to play drums in this concept. Subdivision is not a chapter in a math book, though it is all about math.

Don’t just play a beat you hear some other drummer do. Don’t just mimic fills. LEARN TO SUBDIVIDE the beat.

Your mind should be ticking off 8th or 16th notes, even if you’re only playing quarter notes. When you count off a song your brain should be ticking off 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &…not just 1 2 3 4. If all you’re doing is just playing the “right” beat for the song, and not subdividing, you’re gonna be inconsistent in your playing.

A good way to practice subdividing is to “click” the ticks off with your mouth while playing. If you’re playing just a regular beat, keep the “clock” going by thinking about what your hi-hat is doing. That’s usually the best way to subdivide.

This is definitely beneficial for teaching young drummers, but can also be utilized by older drummers who want to improve their skills.

We all know that in ANYTHING we get better by practicing. And we definitely improve our drumming by drumming more…

BUT…

Do you really get better at drums by just smacking them around? To be a better graphic designer I’m constantly learning new elements, new tricks, new methods. To be a better husband I’m always learning new ways to bless my wife, to surprise her (I wish I could say I was perfect here…but I’m not so I keep learning). To be a better football or basketball player I don’t just go out and play, I practice with purpose.

Whether you decide to do that on your lap or actually on the drumset, make sure that you practice with purpose. You want to intentionally add elements to your repertoire, while keeping the ones you have in your toolbox sharp.

Let me reiterate, if you’re a young drummer, looking to make a difference in the world of music: honestly, not many seasoned musicians are impressed by flash. The wide world of music will bow at your greatness…if your greatness includes the ability to play in the pocket and to stay steady. We don’t care about crazy fills, rolls, crashes, or double kicks. We want you to play well with others, not outshine everyone else in the ensemble.

So how does lap drumming help? You focus more on rhythm than you do on being a cool drummer.

That’s right, no drum set needed.

When I was young and wanted to learn to play drums, there was really no way my parents could afford a drum set, not even a cheap one. In fact, I’m not sure I ever actually asked for one, though it would have been a nice addition to my bedroom, I’m sure.

I’m not the world’s greatest drummer, in fact I know I’m probably mediocre at best when it comes to shock and awe tactics on the drums, but then again, I’ve always felt like a good drummer should be felt, not necessarily seen so I value consistency over flash any day. That means all of you double kickers and cymbal killers don’t really impress me that much.

Give me a solid 4 on the floor that keeps the band together over Animal from the Muppets any day. Though I do enjoy some good drum soloing occasionally, it’s not necessary, and in fact might even be a distraction when it comes to drumming to create environments for worship.

Is it Hard to Learn the Drums?

Not really. Playing the drums really isn’t rocket science. It just takes a bit of natural rhythm, a desire to learn, and a bit of discipline to move past the “do I hit the snare now?” to the cruise control steady rhythm machine mode that all worship leaders dream of their drummers exhibiting. The bottom line is that if you really want to learn to play the drums all you need is the tools God gave you: your hands and feet.

You don’t need a set. You don’t need a practice pad. You don’t even need sticks.

All you need is your lap.

Lap Drums?

Seriously? Yep. I play the drum occasionally on our worship team, even though I’m the point leader of the ministry and we have 2 other capable drummers at the moment. This month I’ll play several times because one of our drummers is “off” for the month and the other works every other weekend. I jump right in and don’t miss a beat (no pun intended) because I learned early how to drum without ever hitting a drum head or cymbal.

I learned how to play the drums on my lap. Here’s how you do it:

1. Sit in a chair or on the couch.

Make sure your sitting up with good posture. You don’t want to be all slumpy when you get older, do you? It’s important to sit up so that when and if you ever do get to sit on an actual drum set you won’t look like you’ve been lounging on the couch learning on your lap while watching Dr. Phil fix someone’s marriage.

2. Label your left* hand: SNARE.

You don’t literally have to break out the Sharpie, but always remember that your left hand is going to be your SNARE hand.

3. Label your right hand: HAT.

Again, make a mental note that your right hand is going to be your HI-HAT hand.

4. Label your left knee/thigh: SNARE.

For this learning exercise we’re going to keep the left hand with the left knee. When you hit the SNARE drum (your left knee/thigh) you’ll be using your left hand.

5. Label your right knee/thigh: HAT.

When you hit the HI-HAT (your right knee/thigh) you’ll be using your right hand.

6. Label your right foot: KICK.

Since you don’t have a drum set in front of you, there won’t be a kick drum, right? So you’re gonna have to improvise and stomp that KICK sound. It helps if you do this on a surface that gives you a little noise so you can hear it. Or you might just want to lift your foot a little higher and make that KICK really sound out.

* If you’re left-handed, switch the hands and feet around.

So Now Your Lap Drums Are All Set Up, What Next?

Assuming you’ve never played drums before, you’re probably going to find that even the most basic beats will require coordination between your hands and KICK foot that you didn’t know existed. Well, fret not, it’s not too hard to learn and even the most uncoordinated can usually pick this up in no time at all with a little determination, work, time, and Red Bull.

When I was a kid I started with a pretty basic pattern (beat) and grew from there.

Listen to the 3 distinct elements in this audio clip.

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1. Kick: It’s the low thump that happens on 1 and 3 of each measure (count 4 beats for each measure). Right Foot.
2. Snare: It’s the higher pitched crack that happens on 2 and 4 of each measure. Left Hand.
3. Hi-Hat: It’s the metallic sounding cymbal that happens on every beat and on the 8th notes in between. All in all you hear it 8 times per measure (there’s 8 of them, hence the name 8th note). You count it like: 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & with a hit on the numbers and the &s (for 8 hits total per measure). Right Hand.

And here’s how it looks:

Here’s what I think we should do! Even if you’re a drummer of many years or if you’re a drum noob, make a short video of yourself attempting to play your lap and post a link here in the comments section. I want an ARMY of lap drummers!