DRUMMERS: Advice for a beginner

nb you will never see this ever

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/77/Longa.gif

unless you're hanging out in my tree house. that is the official flag of the burgeoning nation of the tree rebellion

ok, after listening to those wikipedia time signature samples, i am doing ok with simple and compound. i can do those. maybe not reliably for 10 min straight, but i can reproduce those patterns pretty easily i think?

maybe what i should do is practice identifying them and then playing them so i can talk about this more coherently

unless you're hanging out in my tree house. that is the official flag of the burgeoning nation of the tree rebellion

posts that put a smile on my face

http://knoxville.craigslist.org/muc/3926515417.html

poll please

no tank tops just seems tyrannical

also no drinking any beverage onstage

i've been to two different drum teachers and they both used this book
http://www.scribd.com/doc/49158857/A-FUNKY-PRIMER

I hate this book! but it must be good or fundamental or something.

xp I think my favorite is "No sheet music or music STANDS" -- just the utter contempt conveyed by the capital letters there.

Dude played with Pablo Cruise (known to fans simply as "the 'Cruise") -- I wouldn't question him.

xp

'no drum mics' - ever?

'no drum heroes' - good title for my autobiography

We could be drum heroes, just for one day.

i...i would wear shorts
and you...you would be my onstage beverage

xp Philip - never seen that book! I got recommended "syncopation for the modern drummer"

I used this one:
http://www.amazon.com/Advanced-Techniques-Modern-Drummer-Independence/dp/0757995403/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1373575960&sr=8-2&keywords=Jim+Chapin

It was a mindfuck, but an incredibly helpful and valuable one.

when I felt the exercises in the syncopation book were too simple, I would try doing them with my feet.

oh yeah the syncopation book was the other required text. i hated that, too! i guess i just hate practicing.

aggh i just emailed the person i want to be my teacher
hopefully i don't sound like a boob
i have been suffering through some ridiculous and powerful fits of self-doubt about this endeavor and the only way to proceed is to force myself to move forward
eek

in the meantime, i have been working on endurance. it's my favorite of the types of practicing, i think.

ah yes, the chapin book. I always found it confusing whether those dotted eighth - sixteenth patterns were supposed to be played straight or like "swing" notes.

I haven't used the Chapin book, but they should be played straight, right - ONE-e-and-UH TWO - rather than swung. Unless the passage is marked "swing" or "shuffle", I always assume it's straight.

Then again, it's been a few years since I regularly read sheet music, so maybe I'm missing something.

I would tend to agree, but it's just weird to start out a book with an exercise like this:

http://www.drummerworld.com/Drumclinic/pics/jimchapin1a.jpg

(I mean I think that's actually several pages in, but it starts with exercises with that top pattern in the right hand)

i always read those as swung, because it seems like it's clearly representing a jazz swing pattern in the right hand and giving you left hand patterns to practice against it.

Right...BUT, then why does he also have pages that use a similar pattern built on triplets?

One of my drum teachers told me this question was "controversial" among drummers.

A teacher of mine who had been active in New York the 60s said that the Chapin book originally had the right-hand figures as quarter note - two eighth notes. Drummers were reading them literally -- not swinging them -- and suddenly there was an influx of decidedly non-swinging drummers in NYC.

(dunno how true that is, because any drummer playing straight eighths like that probably wouldn't get hired, but my teacher swore it happened)

please don't feel self-doubty about drumming! I have to believe that hitting things with sticks is the last refuge of unselfconscious fun.

i'm working on it. admitting it is part of defusing its power, i guess. i just have to remind myself that the shame of giving up now (this is not an option tbh) is way more than the discomfort of proceeding as if this were a totally logical endeavor. it's not that everyone hasn't been totally supportive, i just am hard on myself. surprise.

I'm sure I've posted this on drumming threads before, but I find the whole what-is-swing question really fascinating.

http://www.acoustics.org/press/137th/friberg.html

that is interesting. I'd like to see it with a wider range of drummers -- tony williams and jack dejohnette are both drummers who swing toward the straight side, especially at higher tempos

i have a teacher! and scheduled lessons!
tbh i am terrified but it's only 4 weeks, and i'm feeling optimistic.

do you want to set up a time to play together after your lessons?

i guess i could just email you

yes i do! i have 4 weeks starting next friday. i was gonna wait to email you until i figured out how the lessons were going but it's def on the horizon, is what i'm saying.
no idea why this feels like such a big deal to me, but it does.

that is interesting. I'd like to see it with a wider range of drummers -- tony williams and jack dejohnette are both drummers who swing toward the straight side, especially at higher tempos

A pretty good sax player told me he thinks how you accent is more important to making something "swing" than the exact calibration of your eighth notes.

Yeah, exactly.

Also been hearing recently that where you end the note is as important to the feel as where you start it. Which may be obvious to some but...

definitely! And since all drum notes are stacatto by default, it can also be influenced by what kind of drums and cymbals you use, how you tune/felt them, etc.

ok, i'm fully teachered up. my appointments have been made and i found my online supplement and i feel like i sort of have a plan.
so...how long did i last all by myself...let's see: June 15 was the day they came home, so about a month in so far. not bad!

that's cool! i only had two lessons, and they were both severely compromised by my tendency to apologize for everything. *flubs a fill* "Sorry!!" *flubs another fill* "Sorrry!!"

later on i gave lessons to other people, and it was reaaaaaally annoying when they apologized all the time! i felt bad for my previous apologetic behavior.

i am riiiiiiiiiiill nervous about being annoying to my teacher, esp since i am a teacher and i know how deeply irritating people can be even when their intentions are 100% good-hearted and real.
this is such a weird experience in so many ways. i guess that's part of the fun.

you seem a little bit nervous in an endearing way but it's hard to imagine that you would be irritating to anyone

i think the main thing to know is that it's ok and expected to mess up a bunch when you're first starting out. the only thing that fixes that is a bunch of practice. but the teacher can probably help out with a bunch of small technical things that will really help you out. also, if you're anything like, just knowing that you have an appointment is a huge motivator!

most of the time i'm ok, but i am def nervous and that really brings out the best (worst) in me.

but i have ideas and i'm bringing a notebook and preparing a little "these are the things i can currently do" routine so i can be as efficient and businesslike as possible. i've only got 30 min and i have a lot i want to share/ask regarding how i proceed with these tiny little 30 min lessons. 30 min is like a sneeze on my teaching clock. my classes are 3 hrs 20 min long!

in sum: i need to learn to control my jibjab.

one that thing drum teachers appreciate is when you demonstrate your loudest, longest cymbal roll as soon as they walk into the room, before they say anything!

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSCRASH!

"i am la lechera"

lololol
will do

Also, do a rimshot whenever your teacher finishes a sentence.

the whole situation is so nerve-inducing that i really might just try one of these strategies to break the ice