DRUMMERS: Advice for a beginner

Playing drums motivates me but the awkwardness of the movements and the sounds demotivated me.
I asked a teacher if the hand dominance awkwardness ever goes away. She said it NEVER does!

On the Purdue video how does he keep the 16th notes going on the snare? Is he tapping the snare with fingers while holding stick?

If you like practicing, you will be expert in no time. All the craigslist drum listings are from us practice haters

xpost

do you mean the part with the cross stick? that's all repeated 16th notes on his right hand, not his fingers.

The right hand is hihat though and I'm hearing snare + huhat

ah, not sure which part/video you mean, but it sounds like he is doing repeated ghost notes and rebounds with the left hand.

the key with double strokes is getting the second note to be the same volume as the first. it takes some time to get the hang of iirc.

― festival culture (Jordan), Thursday, December 12, 2013 8:29 AM (5 hours ago)

Yes it does! This was one of the first things we covered when I was taking lessons (after the very basics), and it took me about a month and a half to get? The other key is to get the left hand and the right hand to sound the same, and to do it in an even pattern of 4. When I learned the paradiddle family rudiments, it was entirely with double strokes. N.B. one of my goals was to be able to play as many notes as possible in as short an amount of time as possible.

I also need to do something about rearranging my drums so I can reach them easier. I played his drums in his practice space (rather than the ones at the school where we normally meet) and they were so easy to navigate. He's about a foot taller than I am and if his drums are set that close together, mine prob should be too.

So much about playing drums well is about ergonomics!! You have a dance background, right? Think about in those terms.

Essentially you are doing repetitive physical tasks -- like if you've (you goes for everyone) ever had a menial job, you figure out ways to make it efficient and resulting in the least physical strain -- setting up your kit should operate on those principles

On the Purdue video how does he keep the 16th notes going on the snare? Is he tapping the snare with fingers while holding stick?

yeah, he's using his fingers. you can see him doing it kind of at 1:55.

indeed he is! didn't notice before

So much about playing drums well is about ergonomics!! You have a dance background, right? Think about in those terms.

Essentially you are doing repetitive physical tasks -- like if you've (you goes for everyone) ever had a menial job, you figure out ways to make it efficient and resulting in the least physical strain -- setting up your kit should operate on those principles

Yes, and yes -- I tried to set it up to be comfortable, but it's only after a few months that I realize that maybe I need to rethink. Eventually I would like to buy my own kit (instead of using this somewhat large craigslist jobbie) but I'll do that when I feel like I've earned it.

I stumbled on this thread yesterday afternoon & ended up reading the whole thing

LL this journey is awesome and your updates are so great, I love all of it. Keep it up!! Very inspiring etc

not exactly beginner stuff here but it does give a really interesting perspective on how location matters when playing drums

http://www.dailydot.com/entertainment/wikidrummer-drum-sound-changes/

hey thanks VG! it is really fun!

i haven't looked at that link yet, but i rearranged some things down there. i think my movements are a little more economized now? i'm getting there, at least. practiced moving around the set with double strokes on each drum, as fast as i could, and it started to feel ok after a while.

i also screamed OH GOD NO in frustration at the bouncing, but after a while i had a tiny breakthrough and i think i can do 2 bounces on each hand in pretty rapid succession now if i start with a normal grip and then loosen to just a pinch and then add the fingers back for control. i can do it for a while at least. now i know why people don't like practicing -- it requires a lot of self-control! this, of course, is why i like it. after i take my medicine, i get to play whatever i want. it is more fun if the medicine is out of the way first.

sorry for the psychological tmi

Oh hell, while I'm at it:

The earliest point of comparison I have for the process of learning to bounce on the snare is learning how to walk up stairs one at a time. It's that 'ugh i am NEVER going to get this but I need to get this in order to move forward' sensation, aka a total compulsion to keep trying. I taught myself how to ride a bike, do cartwheels, make balloon animals, cook, do various other things, and I'm pretty sure that I can do this too. It's def gonna take some time, though, because things are sounding pretty lame atm. That's ok. If I keep doing it, eventually I'll get it, right? Like, I have no idea how many times I fell down while trying to do cartwheels, but it must have been a lot. But eventually I learned to do them R-L and L-R.

On the other hand, this is winter exactly as I imagined it!

If I keep doing it, eventually I'll get it, right?

Yes, yes, and yes. Also, yes. It might take a while, but once you've got it, it won't leave (muscle memory is a motherfucker). You'll also have that indescribable feeling of "I never thought I could do that, and I just did it."

i am super looking forward to that. in the meantime i am somewhat enjoying the maniacal fixation on learning how to do it :)

It will happen faster than you think. The key with the bounce (or a key anyway) is to let the drum do the work -- the drum head throws the stick back to you and you just let it bounce off your hand. Then catch it on the second bounce.

(That may not be a helpful way to think about it, I don't know, it's just how it feels to me.)

Still working on it, but it's definitely getting better. More info upon request, do not want to bore anyone.

I have a year-end update brewing, but there's one more thing that needs to happen before I can provide a complete update.

that was cryptic and pointless -- sorry for blogging!

I request more info! When you're ready.

^^^

^^^

today i am practicing for my recital/first concert (chez moi, audience is 1 human, 1 dog)
lol it's 9 songs and 35 min
i promised 20 min and only 6 songs but whoops

once i successfully execute ^^^ i will feel more comfortable expanding on even having year-end thoughts. the year's not over til that happens!
moderately nervous, a workable amount

QUESTION -- practice pad recommendations, knowing my set up (drums in basement where i live, freedom to practice as i please with general neighborly respect)?

i see such a wide range of options, i'm not sure what would be best for me. i think i just want like something i can put on the coffee table and play while i watch tube or something. this may be a stupid question, but what's the difference between a practice pad and a large paperback book? noise? bounce? nothing?

I want to focus on the movements without getting too distracted by the noise -- i think it might help me get better faster? but if it's a waste of time/effort/money, you gotta tell me.

I would recommend putting a practice pad on a stand instead of on a table -- it's not really going to be comfortable or at a proper angle/height on a table. Even a pad does make some noise though -- sometimes I put a towel or something over it if I want more quiet and/or less bounce.

The standard remo ones are fine. There are gel pads that are quieter and more resistant but I haven't used them. It's definitely not a waste of time or money. A book will feel weird. A pillow can also be good for practice sometimes but I wouldn't do exclusively that.

ok, that helps. thanks.

also, thank you to this thread for answering my questions and bearing with my blablablablabla because really i don't have anywhere else to put it. it's a generous act to help a noob.

that goes for the entire last 6 months (and two weeks iirc)!!!

I honestly wish that the internet as we now know it had existed when I had started playing -- would have saved so much time and frustration.

I've tried practicing on pretty much every surface imaginable. It's hard to explain why I don't like the way a paperback feels, but it's just something about the particular way it absorbs the shock yet feels hard. I also used to do the rudiments on the leg thing, but that get's irritating after a while.

what's up with this little pile of pink barf? do people really use this stuff?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUOKvMEh0LU

oh that's a cool idea. I still don't really like practicing on a desk/table though because it's almost never a good height/position.

I'm guessing that's just silly putty at 10x the price.

"chez moi, audience is 1 human, 1 dog"

why not POWER TRIO?

if they want to join in, there is an acoustic guitar down there and also i will be printing lyric sheets just in case
i still need them if i'm going to sing along. gives me somewhere to write notes too.

I like Remo overall but I picture it as this one dusty factory somewhere with a single fat middle-aged dude running the company from a creaky old swivel chair. I doubt they laid out big bucks to develop some elaborate new tech specially designed putty alloy for drumming.

I remember their awful PTS series -- pre-tuned heads. They made entire drumsets around this horrible concept, and even got Louis Bellson to endorse them.

But I swear by their coated snare heads and FiberSkyn3 dealies. The latter especially are wonderful.

Aquarian 4 lyfe

Yeah I've overall had better luck with Aquarians as well. I still like the sound of the classic remo coated ambassadors, but the quality is a little suspect in them sometimes.

i really don't like those Remo practice pads, i've had one like this (Evans 'Real Feel') for years, and most of my drummer friends have the same one (looks like they've changed the colors though): http://www.amazon.com/Evans-2-Sided-Practice-Pad-Inch/dp/B000FMDIXY/ref=sr_1_1?s=musical-instruments&ie=UTF8&qid=1388167941&sr=1-1&keywords=evans+practice+pad

love the Aquarians for bassy, 808-like kick drums, but i stick to the remo coated ambassadors for snare and tom top heads.

i basically never change my drum heads btw. :/

maybe i would if i was tracking drums for a record, but that hasn't happened in years (at least not with my own drums).

i added that to my wish list, thanks jordan.

I like the aquarian bass drum head with the built-in muffling rings. I hate putting anything inside the kick, and that's a good solution to getting a little tone without it being too boomy. Actually the best kick sound I got was using the aquarian super kick on the beater side and a regular remo coated on the front, but with an muffler ring basically taped on - it looked sort of funny but cool and occultish at the same time.

Year-end beginner's update:

After deciding that yes, I was going to do this, and yes, I will take lessons, and yes, I have thought ad nauseam about what it means to be doing this as an old person and no that won't stop me, I made three silent wishes based on what i figure are the essential parts of making music and/or being a drummer (afaik): i wanted to play with other people, i wanted to have a recording, and i wanted to stage a performance. None of these things had to be super formal but I wanted to get the first time out of my system so I could learn what I needed to do in order to prepare for such a thing.

1) did it, and have been trying to play it cool about how much fun it was for me so as not to embarrass anyone else involved, but omg it was so fun i thought i was going to die. like my heart was gonna fly out of my body and zip around like a bat.

2) this is a developing situation, so i will have more to say when i have more to say but i have heard what it sounds like to be part of a song and how totally cool is that feeling?! i have never had a recording of myself doing anything but singing alone in my room (moderate to serious disaster) and practice reading (low stress). that's it! until now!

3) i have been practicing a little set of songs (7 songs, some of which i can sing along to) and threatening to make my mr sit down there in the basement and watch my first performance. he has been gamely playing along, so i practiced for this over and over and over until i could sort of feel the songs moving themselves ahead rather than it being belabored.

(update -- i wrote all that days ago but waited to post until i had achieved 3 and today i did it! and also it's our <3 anniversary <3 so i feel extra festive. i kinda pooped out on this one song that turned out to be really boring, but that was a lesson learned. i also really need to work on remembering to count more, esp at the end of a song, but again that was a learning experience. this whole thing has been a pretty major learning experience in a lot of ways. i definitely have no delusions of grandeur about my playing, but i am proud of my persistence more than my performance.)

yay!

i love all of this update!

Woo-hoo!

Encore!

this is kind of embarrassing but this is what i did on nye (for a while, at least)
i have always been an obsessive archivist, so i wrote down what i played and took a picture of it. i did not play all of sister ray but i thought it was an appropriate song to end the year with because it could be however long you want it to be.

http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2871/11679190075_e806361d01.jpg

we're expecting 2-3 in of snow per hour here for the next day or two, so i'm hoping to get a lot of practicing in because i truly have nothing else to do, aside from shovel snow.