DrumsTheWord.com - Any thoughts?

[simmo0916]

Hi guys,

Just after some opinions. I have been playing drums for a couple of years, self taught, just playing along to songs. Never had a lesson yet. However, I'm starting to struggle a little now, and dont really have the time to go for proper lessons - So... Does any one have any experience/thoughts with the video's from DrumsTheWord.com?

I have played about with a couple of the free ones, and found them good - Managed to learn New Fang from one of them. Has anyone purchased one of the packs?
If so, what do you think?

Bearing in mind I dont know what a rudiment actually is, I just hit em until it sounds like what I'm trying to play...

[billgtx]

I don't have any experience with DrumsTheWord.com but I am a huge fan and lifetime member of drumeo.com. Many instructors so you get variety and a wide range of topics.

[RichC1524]

I have made a couple of individual purchases from DrumsTheWord. You receive a video showing how to play each section of the song and the sheet music. I have been very happy with my purchases so far. And Rob seems to be a very nice guy.

[dabluesman]

+1 drumeo

Haven't heard of drumstheword until now

[EssKayKay]

And Rob seems to be a very nice guy.

I dealt with Rob on a different issue (not lessons) -- he's great to work with.

[VeeDrummer]

Awesome to learn from. You basically learn songs.. I think when I bought the pack, there was a DVD with techniques. In the song lessons, he throws in some techniques on occasion. It's good because the song lessons come with the complete drum notation. I will have the video playing on one side of the screen and the notion on the other.

[TangTheHump]

I'm generally quite skeptical of sites with "song packages" and "buy this now and get an extra Bazooka Whim-wham for free!" ads. That said, I've seen quite a few of Rob Litten's Drums The Word videos and they are well thought out, accurate, and complete. His transcriptions are superb. And, he's a very good teacher. Extremely clear. Demos things at multiple tempos. Points out troublesome spots and/or foundation things to practice before attempting a given section. All-in-all, he's a really good teacher. I'm not sure I'd buy one of his full song packs, but it might be worth a try. That said, I've pulled ideas from Rob's videos, not so much from the point of view to "learn a song exactly", but rather in the spirit of building general-purpose techniques. His teaching approach is broad enough that one learns more than "just the song". So yes, I think Rob's stuff is well worthwhile.

If you don't have any material for study and motivation, here's what I recommend:

Jojo Mayer - Secret Weapons for the Modern Drummer (books 1 and 2). Book 1 focuses on hand technique. Book 2 focuses on foot technique.

Tommy Igoe - Groove Essentials (books 1 and 2). Book 1 contains foundation grooves (in every style and from around the world) that you'll use all the time. It's an excellent groove toolkit that also provides plenty of play along files and full charts to practice reading. Book 2 is a little more specialized. It follows the same "every style / around the world" approach, but the grooves are more for specific situations rather than generic, all-purpose toolkit stuff. Still, I highly recommend both books. Start with book 1. Don't skip ahead to book 2, first.

[Oenone]

I purchased a pack and I quite like it. One of the things I like about it is that Rob doesn't speak to you like you're an idiot! He doesn't come across in a condescending way or "listen to me because I'm much better than you" (even though in my case he is!), it's just someone who seems like a genuinely nice guy who is showing you how to play songs. I haven't gone through many of them yet but I think it was money well spent. I found the videos easy to follow as someone who wasn't having lessons at the time. Actual lessons have made more difference for me, but like you it was hard to fit them in a lot and I could put a video on at 1am if I wanted to.

[trfcmikey]

same for me simmo0916, i started playing along to songs and self taught ive only been playing for 12 months on an accoustic set and just got my first set of edrums (TD11 KV) after seeing loads and loads of rob's free lessons on his various ekits which i loved the sound of, drumstheword.com has to be one of the best drum websites for me as like said in other forum members comments rob makes everything easy to understand with a bit of humour thrown in, his use of drum charts having the count above each bar was and is very helpful for a beginner drummer especially, i signed up for his free email lessons of which he gives away quite a few FULL drum song lessons as well as full drum chart (pdf) he even does a 3 part free lessons on learning to read drum music, ive got nothing but good things to say about rob littern and drumstheword he jas helped me progress from simple beats and fills to more intermediate level songs were im at 12 months down the line of learning this great instrument! ive been learning his free email song at the moment - "steppenwolf" - born to be wild which im really enjoying as a beginner/intermediate song, dont get me wrong there are some really good drum lesson websites out there like drumeo.com, stevensdrumshed, onlinedrummer.com and beginnerdrums.co.uk who i first learnt my first basic beats from and all sites mentioned send and give me FREE email video lessons, drumscore.com is great for full song charts as well, very reasonable prices too. i have purchased some full song lessons off drumstheword as well and find them value for money, i highly reccomend drumstheword and the other websites mentioned for any level of drummer.