Jason
Starting off on drums can be a super exciting or a super scary experience...or both. The reason most people get "scared" or just intimidated when they first pick up the sticks is a lack of goals or real motivation. They see the great drummers on TV or hear them on their favorite CD and just expect to be able to sit down behind a set and hit everything just like the pros. Then they quickly get discouraged after not being able to figure out why they don't sound like the greats. The easiest way to overcome this obstacle (that every drummer encounters) is to set a realistic goal for yourself. Decide exactly what you want to do in a certain amount of time. Do you want to get fast? Accurate? Or just to be able to lay down a solid groove? These should all be goals you have at one time or another but only set a few first. If you want to get fast, practice some speed exercises WITH A METRONOME so you can accurately determine your real speed. If you want to get accurate by playing exactly what the pros are playing, listen very close to exactly what is going on in the song and play along with it! If you want to be able to just stay in the pocket (hold a solid beat) then play along with other musicians and match your drum part to what ever the other musicians part is. As stated before, you should do ALL of these, just make sure you focus on exactly what you want to do with your drumming and set a goal that you can reach to keep yourself encouraged.