Drums - failed grade 2 and general advice please!

Tap and drumming are not the same - I have one son who tap dances and abother who drums so I speak from experience here. Obviously both are based in rhythm but they are not interchangeable.

Video of Yamaha Futurbeat final is anybody interested:

Also Young Drummer of the Year for under 16s open for entry for another week or so.

Thanks for that druid. Will have a look although getting DS to focus on things like that is tough. Barely does anything on a pad generally.

Love Tommy Igoe. This one of him playing The Chicken with Buddy Rich Big Band is great.

I'd think about changing teacher if it isn't working out but there are a couple of things to check based on my experience with DS1! He passed his grade 1 in primary school but he lost quite a lot of marks because he hadn't done much practice with the backing track and got behind in the actual exam.
He then switched to tuned percussion for a year and loved it, while playing in a percussion ensemble. In the summer holidays after Y7 he resumed drum lessons with a different teacher and completely different method and got a merit at grade 4 the following year.
He still has drum lessons with another teacher but likes to focus on jazz technique and is not interested in exams! So it could be you need to look closely at exam requirements, or it could be worth trying other percussion and other styles.

Yeah! Herts

PS this is turning into a bit of a drummers’ parent hangout thread. Quite a few of us around

Good luck with the new teacher and hope it works out. It probably will but you never know. My DS’s first teacher used to teach 30 primary school kids for years with great success for many but some couldn’t even get to the stage of taking grade 1.

I echo comments above on keeping time being tricky and not just rhythm. One of reasons why lots of people who have come through rock and pop teaching struggle to play a decent unaccompanied solo.

My son who is pretty advanced for his age tried a computerised test at a percussion event. He played simple straight 8s to a track and then the music cut-off for a few bars but he had to keep drumming. Then the music came back and the computer measured how far drummer had a strayed. Answer in his case was a lot more than he had expected!

My son is a drummer, he's just done g4 rock school.
I thi k the technical exercises are quite different to playing the pieces. You are much more exposed, you have to keep your own beat. To an extent you can hide with the music, or if you get a bit lost you can look for a cue to get you back in. So I thi k you can get away with being ok at one thing but not the other.
Have g said that I thi k she sing too long on the technical exercises by themselves and not alongside anything else would be soul destroyingly boring and I would not think that would be a good way to progress.
My son also drums in a pipe band and a lot of their practise time is spent on similar technical exercises without music. But they play together in a group with people dropping out and joining in, switching from one rhythm to another, so it's still engaging and interesting.
I would be happy with an increased focus on the technical exercises but if that is all they are doing I would be looking for a new teacher I think. Kids need to enjoy what they are doing or they won't stick at it.

(I'm also a parent with no idea about drums so I agree, it is hard to know what to do for the best)

Personally I really wouldn't put her in for another exam until you're confident she's been taught the correct syllabus. Otherwise you're setting her up to fail again and that would knock her confidence something rotten. Despite what some people think, grade exams are not some sort of holy grail. My DS has never taken a perc grade and plays at both county and national level. Getting her rudimental techniques rock solid is way more important at her stage.

Perhape change teachers but put hr in for a resit next term as well as she might pass with a different examiner and with another term of practice (my son passed grade 8 drums and I don't remember it being particularly hard so perhaps she either has a bad teacher or had a difficult examiner).

I'd try another teacher rather than give up completely. This time try someone who has an excellent track record of teaching children at your DD's age and stage. It worked for your DS2 so why not DD2?
Sounds to me like the teacher didn't understand how to prepare her properly for her grade exam so find someone who you know has achieved good results in the past. You are absolutely correct that not all teachers are good with little ones. My DS's first teacher wasn't great but we struck gold with his second (and current) teacher. I think you finding the right teacher will be key. If the teacher then advises you she'd be better trying another instrument at least you'll know for sure (As an aside my DS's perc teacher knew he was a natural drummer from the way DS hit a drum age 6 - his teacher told me that to the trained eye it is obvious.)
If drums turn out to not be her thing there are lots of rhythmic instruments she might consider like Double Bass (same fingering as Bass Guitar, too, so super-useful), Bassoon (an endangered species so she'd be most popular anywhere she went) or a bass brass instrument? But as I say, hopefully it's just been poor teaching. We need more female drummers!

I would be inclined to agree with Boys re: rhythm and tap....I don’t think it’s the same.
Anyway- have you made a decision?

I did say I was prepared to be shot down but. yes, I have seen professional tap dancers. And yes, it can be most impressive. But I still think driving a band/ensemble is a very different skill to tapping. As I said, I have an excellent sense of rhythm and can improvise with the best of them but actually being the impetus of the ensemble? Very different in my experience.
Anyway, I hope your search for a more appropriate teacher is progressing. Hopefully that will make all the difference.
Best wishes!

I'm prepared to get shot down here but I think there is a huge difference between tapping and drumming. In tapping you are following the beat, in drumming you are creating the beat. Now, I can follow a beat as well as anyone - my ensemble technique is good in that respect. It is a world apart from being the person driving the band/group/orchestra - that scares me senseless and I find it a challenge if I'm on my own, as you are as a kit drummer (if I'm playing bass drum and someone is playing snare next to me I can do that as I follow them but I'm not so good on my own). I guess it's a skill I could learn but as a string player I've never had to - I just get roped in to help on perc occasionally and it scares me to death.

So I believe that tapping and drumming require quite different skill sets and, frankly, balls of steel for a drummer. I am in awe of what my son does!

My feeling is yes might be better to change teachers and school teacher might be a good idea as there tends to be quality control. It may be that is not a bad teacher but just doesn't fit with how your DD wants to learn although I still wonder how she got entered for the exam and then told not to do it 2 weeks before. We have been through many teachers and maybe 30 exams and none of them ever suggested entering until they were convinced DC would be ready.

However, just want to question are your comment about her having a natural sense of rhythm. Are you sure and what do you base that on? I am not saying you are wrong but broader musical success doesn't necessarily equate to natural sense of rhythm. I don't know about tap but as you suggest maybe that is a good indicator. I do know of some quite good piano players who had passed grade 6-8 who tried percussion (orchestral drums, xylophone, etc) and really struggled with rhythm. Also I remember drum teacher my son had in primary school who said there were some students he had taught for years who were never going to pass grades as they had poor sense of rhythm and he refused to put them in for exams but they refused to stop.

Yeh, I'd move to another teacher with a strong track record. I didn't much like your earlier comment about the teacher's attitude to you asking about doing some pieces. That would have been a major red flag for me as a good teacher would recognise when their pupil is becoming bored and mix it up. Unfortunately, as in all professions, there are better and worse teachers out there and it's worth putting in a bit of research to find the perfect teacher for the stage your DD is at.