Learn to Play Drums/Playing with Other Musicians

One of the most important parts of playing music is, well, playing music. However, there's only so much music you can play by yourself. By getting together with a group of musicians, you can have a lot of fun, learn a lot about playing, and maybe even get paid for the pleasure of doing so.

Finding people

The first step to playing with other people is to find others to play with. There are a lot of routes you can take with this. Do any of your friends play an instrument? If so, call them up and ask if they want to jam. No friends that play? People will often post advertisements for their bands at local music shops. Another possibility is to visit sites such as MySpace and search for bands/musicians that live close to you. If you see someone/a group that sounds interesting, contact them and get a group started.

What to play

If you have found a group of musicians, the most important thing is that you play and have fun, not that you play a specific style. A recommendation from the author is not to let your existing tastes limit what you're willing to play with others. Playing music you have not heard or don't think you would be interested in can be enlightening and more enjoyable than you would at first imagine. Ask each person what type of music they like and see if you share interests. If so, follow up and learn some songs that everyone likes. Once you get to this stage, things should probably be self-fulfilling.

It can be a bit difficult to find like-minded musicians if you have eclectic musical tastes. However, if that's the case don't let it discourage you! Even if you spend most of your time listening to progressive metal bands, it's still a lot of fun to play other genres.

Once you have found a band and are looking for places to perform, it may be more important to focus on the particular music you're playing and the expectations of future venues/audiences. Many places you will play (bars, restaurants) have customers and those customers usually aren't interested in exotic music. That doesn't mean you shouldn't play exotic music. However, if you do, it would be best not to expect flooring applause for your efforts, unless you know your audience will be interested in what you have to offer.

Where to play

There are a lot of places you can play music, so try them all! Each type of place is a different environment with different expectations, and learning to play in each is good.

A few types of places you might play are restaurants/bars, friend/family gatherings, school/company events, musical theater productions, battle of the bands competitions (events where several bands will take turns playing music, with the best group [as determined usually by audience or judge] winning a prize), talent shows, open mic(rophone) nights, and many others.

Tips

If you're going to play with others, try to do well. If you know your music inside out, things will be much more enjoyable for you and the other musicians.

The most important thing to do is find a band/group of musicians. It doesn't matter so much what music you play, as long as you are able to have fun with them. By playing with others, you will improve your own skills a lot and have fun while doing so. The more you play styles of music that are different from your niche (if you have one), the more you will appreciate other styles of music.

Feel free to add more information!