DRUMMERS: Advice for a beginner

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

you could be manic pixie drum girl

also look what i can kind of approximately play now

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vg1PpEDfg_8

maybe i should play this as entrance music for my teacher and then bow to him before introducing myself

what i would really like is to learn how to be cool
like calm and cool and normal

(not in general, just in these nervous situations)

Let this woman be your inspiration, LL: http://gawker.com/mystery-grandma-stuns-drum-shop-staff-with-killer-skin-836880396

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRhoHN8x_00

she is extremely cool

nice touch! And I like the sound of that kit.

it might be cool to develop an experimental "one inch punch" kind of technique - you hold the stick one inch above the snare drum, firmly but calm, close your eyes, and build your qi power up to and then past its limit. then you lay into the drum with the accumulated weight of the universe. and of course, bow to the instructor.

always yell "KIA!" whenever you strike the drum.

i should get back into teaching, i miss it!

that's how i feel about being a student tbh! i'm always teaching other people and i look forward to learning something from someone else.

first lesson is on friday! i'm trying to figure out where i stand on a number of issues: endurance, repertoire, feel, ANXIETY, etc.

endurance for playing the same beat with breaks and no fatal screwups: 3:34
not awful but it felt like forever! i think it will be more fun to play longer when there are other people here, no? i mean, is that how it works?

ALSO i REALLY enjoyed seeing YLT perform Blue Line Swinger over the weekend -- I could hear things about the drums/structure of the song that I never would have heard before starting this and I have listened to that song like bazumpteen times since it was released. It was pretty cool to realize how much I've learned already, speaking of learning.

sorry for the constant self-affirmation, it's one of those things that i feel i have to do in order to hold myself accountable to above.

BLUE LINE SWINGER

How's the 'no apologising' going?

poorly

i'm getting a little better though, if you can believe that