#orbinator

I emailed Travis Orbin today, and got an almost instantaneous reply! What a man!

Greetings Tim,

I had a private instructor early on, so I can't exactly relate to learning on my own. I subscribed to that notion during my first year of owning a drum set (my parents wanted to see if it was merely a 'phase' that I was going through) but after a year of faithful playing/practicing, they hooked me up with a terrific, competent teacher.

Your piano training will actually come into great use since you can - presumably - read rhythms. You could read any drum set chart it you took it slow; instead of treble cleff/notes, now you're gonna deal with components in the drum set.

Anyway, I did embrace my share of autodidactism after I had reading down pat and purchased plenty of books, videos and albums without my instructor ushering me to do so. Without said knowledge (reading), it wouldn't have been possible to assimilate all the different varieties of texts and the vast amount of music and musicianship that I set out to absorb throughout the years. This 'post-training' has been nearly as beneficial in educating myself and forming my own identity with the instrument as my initial formal training.

On Wed, Dec 14, 2011 at 7:22 AM, Timothy Popkin wrote:

Hey, Sorry to bug you, especially seeing as people probably email you all the time, but I was just wondering if any of you could help me out a little with a university project? Basically, I'd like to know a little about how you learnt to play drums, and what you thought were the most important things to pick up on! I understand that it's a process that is different for everyone, and that we all have to find our own style within the broad spectrum of the instruments we play. I'd really appreciate anything you would be willing to share! See, I'm doing this bit on what it takes to teach yourself how to play an instrument i.e. without a tutor. I play and have been taught piano for years, but for this project I'm learning drums by myself. Sat with a metronome and various instructional videos, I'm working my way through the rudiments and I'm playing along to some of my favourite tracks. I was just hoping you might be able to point me in the right direction in terms of teaching myself! Many thanks, this would really help me out with a difficult module, and the best of luck with the new album! Tim.