DRUMMERS: Advice for a beginner

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.

Once I put new heads on using this crazy method that took like 30-45 mins per drum and involved a hairdryer. I do think they sounded pretty good, but probably not worth the trouble.

anybody use an app for tuning? my old friend was telling me about something he has on his iphone but i was skeptical

update:

final lesson was rescheduled over and over until it landed toward the end of the month, so i have some time to rack up a nice big list of questions before i bid my teacher adieu for a while. also his schedule is full for the next 2 months, so maybe i can use that as a window of opportunity. knowing what you do of me and my skill level, does anyone have any advice re: setting goals for myself? that is not really a skill that i have developed much. i don't want to reach a plateau and get stuck there because i don't know how to move forward, and then give up (this is what i usually do).

i was getting a little bored, so i have been trying to think of a new routine that would be fun and i now do a new warm-up thing that is making my brain light up a little more and also allowing me to try new things. so that's good. have been enjoying the longer sight reading exercises in my book. not a lot of (no) progress on the singing yet, but i have a few more weeks to try to come up with something. right now i'm working on learning what playing a song feels like so i've been playing along with a lot of different music to get a handle on that (and obvs this is totally fun)

otherwise, i have noticed that continued motivation to play requires focused listening to things that i know i can probably come close to playing, so i've been making a lot of mixes to listen to in the car and i forgot how fun THAT is too. so overall, good news. just in case anyone was wondering if had given up.
nope.

i think the way that i like to practice and think about drums in general isn't like most other people, from my experience, so the following fun practice idea probably won't appeal:

one thing that i really like to do is stick with a simple beat, play it at a slow, easy tempo, and really concentrate on listening to the tone of each of the main components (hihat, bass drum, snare). first i'll just jam on the simple beat with everything at a moderate level. then i'll see what it sounds like a single component is accented more than the others - e.g., laying into the hihat a little more heavily, or easing up on the BD while keeping everything else steady. it's fun to alter the volumes of individual components gradually, so that each bar is nearly the same, dynamically, as the previous bar, but over time you're shifting into a different feel altogether. you seem much more organized and goal-driven than me, LL, so this probably sounds terrible to you, but i enjoy the freeform structure of practicing in this way - it's fun to not worry about how long to stick with each set of volumes or accents, or what dynamic shift you're going to make next, but to instead just kinda zone out in each groove until it's second nature. it not only drills in the basic beat, but you get to really know each individual component of your set, what each piece sounds like at different volumes.

along the same lines, i also like to do the same kind of zone out thing but work on gradually altering timbres of each drumset component. a snare drum makes a totally different noise if you dampen it by striking it and pressing firmly into the top head with the tip of your stick, vs. striking the head and letting the tip of your stick rebound for a more resonant sound. or the hi-hat, which has an incredible number of noises it in, depending on how tightly you're holding them together, and at what angle you're striking it with the stick.

i guess if you wanted to transform the above "420 dude" exercise into something structured, you could do it like this:

1) start off by playing a beat at a very loud volume for 16 bars - think led zeppelin, sold out crowd, and you have to fucking HIT the thing because you're john bonham dammit
2) over the next 8 bars, gradually reduce the intensity one of the three components - either hihat, snare or bass drum - to a medium volume, while keeping the other 2 at full volume
3) over the next 8 bars, gradually reduce the intensity of a second component to a medium volume.
4) over the next 8 bars, gradually reduce the intensity of the third component to a medium volume.
(you should now be playing at a medium volume across the board)
5) repeat steps 2-4, but this time bring everything from a medium volume to a whispering intensity.

ha! your first paragraph is exactly (well, more or less) what this i now do a new warm-up thing that is making my brain light up a little more and also allowing me to try new things is! i am not goal driven at ALL, i am mostly novelty driven, so i gotta keep trying new stuff or rewarding myself in some way or i give up. the times i am having the most fun is when i don't try too hard to perfect anything, just to keep going and trying different things until i run through all the things i know how to do. then i do the same things on different drums. i like moving around a lot!

ultimately though i do like having a plan, so i appreciate the 1-5 step plan :)

eventually after running through all the things i always default to the same sort of plodding ritual-sounding beat with increasing cymbals. i am a little cymbal crazy, i can admit that.

also fun is adding my own little flourishes to songs that have a really simple beat. that's fun too. i'm not very good at it but it's fun.

i guess i feel like other people are going to expect me to have a plan? so if i want to play with other people they are going to expect me not to just freak out at my own pace, that i should be able to play "a song"
i mean right?

for me the only thing that gets me excited about practicing is learning beats in a different genre, which usually requires some kind of independence that i haven't been working on. so you can try figuring out country 2-step beats, or New Orleans beats, or a bossa nova, or some Bo Diddley shit. either just listen to something and try to approximate the feeling in your own way or look up a lesson on Youtube, although that's hit or miss of course.

nb: i don't really practice anymore, except mentally.

that is a good idea and i have a head start on it because a while ago i bought a book that has tons of different genre beats and i know +/- how to read it now. it has CDs too so i can verify that i'm reading correctly. that is on my plan.

i guess i am so afraid of my own tendency to give up that i need a lot of structure? i dunno. maybe i'm overthinking but i don't really mind because i have never felt so diligent in my life!

speaking of which, i played a gig with my sit-down New Orleans jazz band last weekend, and i hadn't played that music for a year at least (and haven't been playing much drumset, except in short spurts at Ch/\nts gigs).

while playing the tunes i felt totally comfortable and relaxed, even moreso than in the past. however, the thing that goes when i don't practice is any ability to solo, at least in a jazz context, the ideas and the instinct just aren't there. so i get through the whole gig just fine and then, while i was taking some bars at the beginning of the last tune, my brain stopped talking to my limbs for a moment and i had a totally embarassing gap before bringing the band in. just horrible, i couldn't believe it.

xp - is learning to write music something you want to do?

like i remember one of the early exercises my teacher gave me was to write 10-15 fills and then practice them at various speeds with the standard rock backbeat.

My advice is to find people you feel comfortable with and start a band.

I learned and played so much more when I was in a crappy band for six months than I have in the combined six years since then.

is learning to write music something you want to do?
yeah i think so. it has taken me 100 years to come to this conclusion, but yeah. why not?
i am going to try your teacher's advice too. that gives me a task. thank you (also sarahellll you were in my dream last night. you and a bunch of your friends, including val kilmer, came over to the house i was cleaning and took turns applying this tube of purple lipstick that looked more like oil paint. we also ate a ton of carrots and you were driving a moving truck in the middle of the living room.)

i am assuming based on various irl conversations that no one i know has the time or the inclination to commit to being in a band with me, so i made a flyer. it has yet to see the light of day, but the whole process is equally appealing and intimidating. i keep waiting for some magic moment when i know what to do, but that hasn't happened yet. i've waited this long. i guess i can wait a little longer.

fwiw, "being in a band" can sound like a big commitment. If a friend asked me to come jam sometime, I'd say sure. If they asked me to be in a band, I'd say, I don't have time for that right now... But of course, if I jammed with them and had a great time, and then did it again, eventually it could turn into a band. Who knows?

You mean no one wants to marry me without going on a date first?

Seriously though, I get it. It's just a whole new set of things I've never done before. I'll send out some invitations and brace myself for some flops (my own flops).

If I had a bass or guitar I'd come awkwardly rock out w/ u LL.

otherwise, i have noticed that continued motivation to play requires focused listening to things that i know i can probably come close to playing, so i've been making a lot of mixes to listen to in the car and i forgot how fun THAT is too. so overall, good news. just in case anyone was wondering if had given up.
nope.

― sweat pea (La Lechera), Monday, November 4, 2013 2:49 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

RAD.

Listening is so key. I mean, you know that. My drum teacher in high school was complaining to me once about another student of his who kept wanting Neil Peart transcriptions. My teacher wrote them out -- he wasn't averse to writing things out by any means -- but said to me, "I told him, the best way to learn those parts -- to learn anything -- is to listen." Kind of blew my mind/made perfect sense.

The times I felt I grew most as a player was when I listened to recordings (jam session tapes, practices, actual "pro" recordings, whatever) of myself & others playing and then adjusted my playing to fit better.

listening is great. WATCHING helps a lot too. Going to the transcription is a last resort after you've listened your brains out and "know" the music but can't figure out what's going on.

otm re: watching. I didn't know what the fuck Rob Ellis was doing until I saw PJ Harvey live. And obsessive viewings of Who videos helped immensely in my understanding of how Moon used two bass drums.

I will jam with you. I also have extra bass/guitar gear for dan m. to play if he wants to jam too.

yeah I think drummers need to actually see other drummers playing possibly more than any other instrumentalists. Youtube is kind of a goldmine -- I think I would have learned like 10x faster if I had been coming up now.

totally

i know that for brass band drumming my learning curve went through the roof, being able to watch hours of it on Youtube vs going there to watch bands once or twice a year.

So let me see if I get this straight:

I'm supposed to listen to music and go to shows and watch people playing the drums on youtube whenever I can? OH GOD NO! NOT THAT! ANYTHING BUT THAT!! (this is like someone telling me that two glasses of red wine and two cups of coffee are required daily minimums)

But seriously -- I have definitely enjoyed seeing live music on a whole new level since I began this experiment. It's really all-consuming though, huh?

na/danm -- i am about to email you to make an appointment with me (not the with the wicker man)

update: plans are being made
before too long (before the end of the year at least) i will have my first jam on the drums!

update: i have been playing along with songs more and managed to record one! the whole thing -- 5:05. i screwed up in the middle for maybe 2 measures and also had some trouble maintaining a steady pace, but i think it sounds ok. not great, but ok. i'm not ashamed of it.

playing along with songs i can actually keep up with has been top notch fun. and then i have also found that working on speed is more fun if i am trying to keep up with an actual song rather than just speed up til my arms hurt sans accompaniment.

I've just started to play around with recording drums (and guitar) and it's making me realize how awful I am at keeping time.

I guess the only time I ever actually played consistently it was for like two months ages ago with drunken people and it was all close enough but playing along with a metronome is super humbling.

update: my last lesson was supposed to be last night. unfortunately, when my teacher came up the stairs, i could tell that he thought he was going home and his face kinda dropped when he saw me. i confirmed that he had forgotten and also was on his way somewhere, so we agreed that this was unfortunate and planned to reschedule. this did not leave me with the best feeling, but it gives me more time to practice/accumulate questions so whatever.

on the bright side, i am not making leaps and bounds of technical progress, but i am much better at keeping up with songs. i recorded another one on tuesday. i'm not going to post links here but i'll share if anyone's interested.

practice time is still the bright spot of my day.

Progress in terms of facility may not be noticeable in leaps and bounds, but one day you'll be practicing or playing and you'll suddenly realize that what you're doing at that moment was something you had always wanted to be able to do.

Thanks, I'll take what I can get.

Ok, I have a minor dilemma. Friday was my rescheduled last lesson (that I had been anticipating tbh) and as I explained above, I basically went all the way there only to turn around and go home. I was disappointed, but it was a different kind of disappointment than I am feeling right now.

i emailed teacher on saturday, the day after our lesson that didn't happen, to try to reschedule. i also updated him on what i had been doing and what i was hoping to get from my last lesson. i thought this was reasonable, it was organized, contained minimal babble/no asides or jokes, and not too long. that was on saturday morning and he still hasn't responded.

to recap: final lesson was cancelled and rescheduled for a month later, i show up and he forgot, now he has taken almost 4 full days to respond to an email from an earnest (and paying!) student. and that student is me!

i'm not angry so much as disheartened. being a total beginner at something is a really big challenge, an steep uphill trek in every way, esp at this age and esp being who i am. all i am asking for here is what i consider basic minimum professional courtesy.

i guess i'm just disappointed and i don't like it. maybe i will write a song about it and then make him listen to it if he ever reschedules our stupid lesson.