Switching Instruments

Hello. First post on Harmony Central.

As of now, I've been learning bass for about 6 months. It's just not clicking for me. I'm 18 years old, music is basically my life and I want to be able to play it. My younger brother plays guitar, and my dad is quite a drum virtuoso. I bought a cheap bass simply because nobody in my family played that, and some bass players really make the instrument sound appealing. However, I think it just might not be for me. I can't get into it.

Since I was young I wanted to play drums, but was held back by my mom. You know the whole "it's too loud" and "why do you want to play an instrument where you just hit things" routine. My dad would have liked nothing more than to see me take up drums like he did, but my mother wouldn't budge. Well, now I'm 18 and they really can't stop me from trying it out if that's something I'm interested in. And I have a skilled drum player as a father who is willing to help teach me.

So my question is, do you have any advice for someone who is seriously considering switching from bass over to drums? Anything I should know?

Hi.

It's not supposed to click really, unless you're Fieldy.

ouch. sorry.

If you never really got the hang of the bass, I don't think there's much you'd need to know to relate it to drums. There are factors that both have in common, but sounds like you'd pretty much be starting from scratch- so just try it out I'd say.

6 months isn't much of a time investment. Learning to play music is hard work, and you not only need to learn the physical aspects of it, but there are also tough mental challenges to conquer as well. Look at it this way, if it was easy, everyone would be able to do it. Unless you're one of the 0.0000001% of the people in the world that have some kind of freakish innate ability, the only way to learn is to work really, really hard for a long time. Even then, you'll never progress as fast as you'd like...it's much easier to imagine what you want than to achieve it.

So if you're thinking the drums might be an easier way to play music, that's not necessarily the case, and you might be in the same frustrated mode in 6 months of drumming as you are now with 6 months of bass playing under your belt.

The only caveat to this is the desire factor. My mom made me take piano lessons for a couple years as a kid, and I hated it. As a result, I never put in the work to get good....playing was a chore that I suffered through. Drums was a different story...I liked it and as a result was more willing to work at it. So if you don't like playing bass, but DO like playing drums, you'll probably do better playing the drums because you'll be more willing to invest the effort in learning.

Anyway, only you can answer the question of what it is you really want to do. If it's just to be in a band and get chicks, be a singer...less to carry around. If you really are drawn to an instrument, give it a try.