Since seventh grade, when I had to make the decision on what extra curricular activities I would be a part of, I have wanted to learn how to play the drums.  I didn't want to be a school band nerd and so I never took that opportunity to branch out and do something different.

Fast-forward eleven years to last spring, my uncle had just gotten the first rock band and had asked me to come over and check it out.  At that point I had heard about Rock Band and knew that there was not only guitar, but the game also came with drums and a mic to get a whole band going.  So we fired up the game...and rocked.  I had so much fun and enjoyed being there bangin away at the drums so much that it became a regular thing, hanging out at my Uncle’s playing Rock Band.

As much as I liked playing the drums my Uncle loved playing the guitar...so much that he became curious about how much of his rock skills on the rock band guitar would transfer to a real guitar.  So to satisfy his curiosity he got a sweet vintage fender (of course, its a real version of what he uses in Rock Band), an amp, and a book to start learning with.  Over the next few weeks, he spent time playing rock band on hard and expert level and practicing basics on his guitar.  Seeing him and his progress with both, as well as hearing rumors that the second rock band would better facilitate transitioning to real instruments really rekindled my desire to want to learn how to play the drums.

Then there was the announcement that a few months before the release of the game, Ion would be releasing the Drum Rocker Drum Set for Rock Band 2 (it works on the other music based games like Guitar Hero 4, and the new one that Konami is releasing) and this was the icing on the cake.  The Ion is a full 7 piece, fully adjustable electronic drum kit and paired with the drum brain becomes a full featured drum set with customizable sound sets and the whole 9 yards.  With pricing comparable to buying a full eight piece drum set, I could get the Ion and the drum brain, play Rock band 2 for a bit to warm up, then plug it into the drum brain which is plugged into garage band on my Mac and do my own thing.  But actually doing it well.

To help with my progress I have gotten an instructional booklet (Mel Bay's Complete Modern Drum Set, which came with a DVD), a double sided practice pad, a couple of different sets of drumsticks to practice with, a metronome, and I have found online resources with pictures and video.  So with all of this I feel like I am set to start learning how to play the drums.

Every weekend I will set goals and report my progress on the "Weekend Rocker" here on Gamervision.com

For this upcoming week, my goals are:

1) Get an average or 4 or more stars in a challenge set (medium difficulty)

2) Get 4 or more stars on 2 songs in Band Tour (hard difficulty)

3) Get over 75% on a song (expert difficulty, no fail mode)


If you already know how to play the drums and have any pointers, tips, hints, anything to help, I'm all ears.  Thanks.

My overall goal is to end up being this good.