DRUMMERS: Advice for a beginner

Just that defined ridge on the outside of the forearm, running the long way and separating whatever those two muscles are.

Ha, I was wondering about that too. I was envisioning a ridge on top of one's wrist.

just for the record, i can read this and play it now! well, the first one at least. still working on the last two. for some reason the second one is the most difficult.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7349/10253999074_fcb6fb0739_c.jpg

sorry so big!

that's great! if you can get the first, you're definitely close to the others.

is the second one more difficult because it has two bass hits in quick succession? it's great that you're already working on developing your BD skillz. before long you'll be putting bonham to shame!

yes, def

syncopation!

xp

it doesn't sound that spectacular or anything when i play it, but being able to read it means i will have semi-independence to figure things out on my own and then practice them to my heart's delight
i like this teaching method, it works for me

those beats can sound spectacular with ghost notes, subtle accents, and bootsy collins playing along with you

update -- i can do all three without looking at the notebook, have narrowed down remaining difficulty to the last bass-hi hat notes of #2
cannot alternate between all three BUT can add extra measures with regular beats + ghost notes, so it kind of sounds like actual drumming!
amazing

finally understood what i was doing wrong with those last two notes - yay!

in second-to-last lesson on friday, my teacher asked me to sing the beat and i was like huh? he said you know like boom teeka teeka flap or something like that
and i was like i can't do that right now

i wasn't afraid that i would do it wrong, but i was so ott embarrassed by the idea of doing it that i was paralyzed. i said that i would be able to work on it over the week in the privacy of my basement, but i don't even know how to start. am i supposed to choose noises for each drum? a note for each drum? i feel ridiculous and bonus stupid for not being able to even try it. does everyone do this? is there some industry standard for drum-singing? where's fraulein maria when i need her?

every sound that comes out of my mouth when i try to do this makes me feel like i am scatting poorly and it's just unbearable

A teacher of mine in college used to do that in ensemble classes. We'd all play something and then he'd say, "OK, now sing what you just played." We all felt like ridiculous idiots, but when he explained it, it made sense: the music is coming out of you, so you should be able to sing it (not necessarily accurately) as well as play it. It's like when you hear Bud Powell or Milford Graves vocalizing on records, like a way to focus differently. Or something.

Like this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRxro9dW2EM

yeh i guess but not that elaborate!

the music is coming out of you
i had never thought of this before tbh* and that helps. but unless he's gonna give me some mind altering substances, i don't know that i feel comfortable doing this in front of people. are there some noises that normal people use or can i go in there and start singing wha dump dump pooch dinga linga dinga linga and he won't laugh at me?! i mean the syllables i keep coming up with are unacceptable.

*i am going to try to remember this because it's a good motivator

Think about the sounds/noises the various drums make and play around with onomatopoetic words similar to them. Like, you aren't trying to beatbox per se, but maybe if you think about it more in those terms, you'll find some words that don't make you feel silly when you use them?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJewbFZHI34

dump dump pooch

This should be a band name.

bd: boom
hh: ch
sn: kha

^^ news i can use!

Apparently Rush's producer Nick 'Booujzhe' Raskulinecz is known for his propensity to mime and sing drum fills to Neal Peart. One of the faithfully transcribed examples:

'Bloppida-bloppida-batu-batu-whirrrrr-blop—booujzhe!'

Sometimes when I'm messing around with fills I'll actually vocalize it first to figure out what I want it to do, and then try to transcribe the rhythmic sequence onto the drums.

(Sadly, sometimes the fills are easier said than done.)

my hs band instructor was a huge proponent of singing everything we played, the worst was during the festival competitions where we had to sight-sing

still, I'm sure it helped

did you just make up a set of syllables to use? do you always use the same ones?

i understand the utility of doing this, and I'm willing to try, I just don't know how to do it.

it was pretty easy for percussion because everyone basically played one part: snare, bass, etc. tympani had more notes I guess but I never played tympani

when I played tuba earlier in my hs career it was just singing notes... I sang "lo" a lot iirc

I would say "ba" over "kha" for snare but who really cares amirite

Last night while walking the dog I became obsessed in my head with a drumbeat that went "rikki tikki tavi rikki tikki tikki tavi". I am not a drummer but may try to get it down on my drum machine at least.

just use whatever words/sounds come to mind -- there isn't a "right" way. It is also a good way of getting the rhythms and parts instilled in your head without the filter of hands and feet.

i'm working on it...

in the meantime, my speed is improving, and i am also working on my very bad habit of standing up and walking around/taking a break as soon as i get something i've been trying hard to get. it's such a weird habit and i'm not sure why i do it.

i also made a new recording and learned that drums are referred to as bateria not tambores en esp.

batterie en francais iirc

Bombo!!! http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bater%C3%ADa_%28instrumento_musical%29

German for percussionist is "schlagzeuger." It literally translates to thing-hitter.

that's more like it!

relevant for "batteria" + "modern drums: a practical guide" + dope samples:

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

def heard that beat sampled before - I think DJ Shadow, and maybe also something on Paul's Boutique?

does your teacher have you working on hi-hat accents?

He has mentioned them, but we haven't worked on them formally.

yup:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5rVw2SEqwk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zx0eOlnbQ4

update: today was supposed to be my final lesson, but it was rescheduled. this is good because i haven't really been able to bring myself to sing very many beats!

good news: i've finally figured out the perfect band to practice with to test out new stuff and pretend that i am playing with real people, feels natural, feels familiar, and is predictable enough for me to anticipate what to do next
bad news: it is the velvet underground

still, i made some adjustments to the tightness of the drum heads (is there a verb for this?) over the weekend and i feel like i'm sounding crisper/more precise than before. and it was really fun!

Yes, properly tightening your heads will definitely do that. I'm not an acoustical engineer, so I'll probably misexplain this, but if you think about a hit on a drum, a tighter drum head will vibrate less and for a shorter period of time. Also a properly tuned head (in tune with itself) will have fewer different overtone rings of different lengths. Thus you get a more "precise" sound because the length of the sound is shorter.

A good method for tuning (which your teacher may have already told you) is to lightly tap near the edge of the drum right where each lug is, and try to match the pitches of each lug. But go crosswise instead of going around the drum; tighten one lug, then match the pitch of/tighten the one opposite it. Like so:

http://www.waywood.com/images/drumtune.jpg

I suck at tuning, though; I tune my snare really, really high, and it rings like crazy (which I love, but recording it is a pain).

If the drum is out of tune, it will have a wobbly tone when you strike it

Tuning! That's the verb I was looking for. Duh! I didn't know that about tapping, I'll check when I go home to see if I tuned evenly. All I know is that it sounds a whole lot better.

Tuning a snare drum is kind of like getting a two-year-old into a tuxedo. It takes a lot of patience, and every time you think you have one thing in place, something else is out of place.

my method of tuning involves letting the drums bounce around in the backseat of a car for a few weeks at a time.