DRUMMERS: Advice for a beginner

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.

nice!!

awesome

this has been fun to read, reminds me of when i was learning guitar and would play along with VUs Live 69 for hours at a time, <3 Sterling's rhythm guitar so much

update - i am getting so much faster now that i have a practice pad! i had no idea the sound was distracting me that much, but it totally was. when the sound disappears, i find it a lot easier to focus on the physical act of increasing my speed. songs that sounded like just the right pace a few weeks ago sound easy now; the songs that were too fast to keep up with are suddenly songs i can play no problem. like, seriously no problem. it's totally weird! it has been so long since i could actually feel myself getting better at something, also very similar process to language learning (as i have suspected from the beginning, so much so that this learning process is about the only thing i have ever considered giving a conference presentation on, how about that?! maybe next year.)

oh! and the bouncing thing is totally creeping its way off the practice pad and into my actual playing -- i noticed i was doing it on the hi hat without even thinking. that is so neat.

getting so much faster! i have a lot of updates, but i stopped posting them. instead, i type them out as if i were going to post them, then i cut/paste and send it to myself in an email. there's a reason i don't have a blog to yammer about this stuff. i still practice every day and have been adding tons of songs to my arsenal.

however, major thanks to this thread (Jordan?) for recommending that practice pad!! it has made a HUGE difference and i can totally feel myself applying the technique when i try to play new songs. i haven't broken through to a full on drum roll yet, but i feel like it's possible now.

glad you like it!

ran into my teacher last night when i was seated directly next to him at a restaurant at the one remaining table. i was like oh hi !! and fortunately, he recognized me before i could see that awful "who is this person smiling at me" look people sometimes get. we had a very pleasant conversation and talked about drumming and playing and various other related things. it's nice to have someone ask about it because usually i get a strong sensation that i should not go on and on about my drumming experiences unless someone asks me. ime people (my mom, my bffs) aren't really into talking about music related things as much as i am, per usual. that doesn't bother me; it was just nice to have someone ask and be interested in my answer. dinner was good too!

i have a work-in-progress type thing i have a question about, but i don't know if i should ask here or on the general musical life thread. anyway, things are going well! i'm no mario rubalcaba (saw him last night, whoa), but i've heard worse drummers in recorded music, so i'm on my way.

usually i get a strong sensation that i should not go on and on about my drumming experiencesanything unless someone asks me.

Here's some advice for a beginner. Look up a couple of drum solos from John "JR" Robinson, and then listen to a few of the hundreds of songs he's played on - awesome and mundane alike. Steve Winwood's "Higher Love," Rufus & Chaka "Ain't Nobody," MJ's "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough." Then ponder the ability of a guy with a monster chops to just mentally suppress that a bit and simply play for the groove. And then focus a bit more and listen to how those monster chops actually do manifest themselves, albeit in simple, subtle, almost invisible but still mind-bogglingly impossible ways. That's some great drumming.

ok, thanks! i love dudes like that.

I was listening to "Don't Stop" the other day, and I realized there is no crash cymbal anywhere in the song. And there's about 750 opportunities for it that every other drummer would've jumped on, but Robinson wisely holds back. Kind of blew my mind.

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTg5WrZL3Eg#t=65

pardon me for one moment, i'm feeling proud
look who has a second song! ILX Compilation v6: FREESTYLER - rock your microphone

I don't know if I can stay this excited about making songs forever*, but for now it's definitely the most exciting thing I've got going on and is totally buoying my spirits.

*although I totally hope to drag it out as long as the world will tolerate me trying

still at it!

question -- is this a good price/type of mallet for a person like me? http://www.ebay.com/itm/Pro-Mark-MT3-Multi-Purpose-Felt-Drum-Mallets-Standard-/291067185034

that seems about right. mallets are the best, but i've found that they break really easily if you use the shafts to play on drum rims a lot. i went through a bunch of them over the summer when i was playing in a band using a Low-esque setup, and each time i was like "well, there goes twenty bucks." :(

I would just go to a store and try out different ones for the sound/feel if possible.

I love the sound of mallets on a drum kit

Me too. I'm partial to Vic Firth myself, but Jordan otm. Always pisses me off when they break.

i have thought about trying them out in the store but that has resulted in me going to one crappy store that had nothing i was looking for. considering the weather, it would be easier for me to have ones that are probably ok delivered to me. this winter has been brutal! on the upside, there has been nothing to do but practice so i've been improving a lot! getting much faster at least.

those seem a bit expensive? But then I used to run a venue and would just collect all the mallets and sticks people left behind, so I don't think I've actually had to buy mallets.

the key thing is to get ones the right size -- I have small hands (which is why I took up drums rather than guitar), and so I get sticks/mallets that are slightly smaller than average (in terms of girth). There are some expensive mallets out there that are geared for classical percussion.

i got the ones i linked upthread -- we'll see if they're right
if not maybe i can send them to jordan or throw them into the lake

i'm excited

xp -- differences in hand size/strength are one of the reasons it helps to try things out in the store. Best bet is just to hit a Sam Ash/Guitar Center type megastore that has large selection.

i know i know -- if they're unsuitable, i'll go to a store but it's a time/effort investment that makes me feel like

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51A2uEjoGwL.jpg

or throw them into the lake

XD

i ordered them and they still haven't come, but in the meantime i managed to finally play a decent enough sounding version of that roy montgomery song i posted waaaaaaaaay upthread. (it's not perfect sounding and the recording is bad. oh well!) there are no drums on the original recording, so i had to make up the parts myself and that's a whole new level of drumming that i am just getting ready to understand now that i can play fast enough. there were some days when i was feeling kind of low about my progress, but this song helped make me feel better. at least i am making some progress! this sounded awful 3 months ago.
anyway, this is me! https://soundcloud.com/marshmallowy/down-from-that-hill-and-up-to

Q for other drummers: have you ever had the experience of not playing for a really long time and then you sit down at the kit and you feel like you suddenly lock into a groove better than you ever have before? I find this often happens to me after prolonged periods of non-practice, but then I find it hard to duplicate as I get back into practice, almost as though something about my practice is harming my feel. But then again maybe it's just that I think I sound better than I do when I haven't played for a while.

I haven't touched any of my instruments for a while, but I'm planning on knocking out some guitar and drum tracks over the weekend to see if I can cobble together a tune or too, so I may have an answer for you then!

It doesn't happen to me with guitar, fwiw. Maybe it's something about the muscles involved -- when I don't practice drums for a while I probably use my arms more and hit harder rather than using those finely developed finger muscles when I practice a lot.

i can't answer that, but i did go for my longest stretch without practicing (4 days) recently, and when i sat down again i felt like i sounded great. (lol)
right now i'm focusing on fluency rather than expanding my sonic vocabulary. i want to feel comfortable above all else, and then i can proceed to learn new things without anxiety. it's working out better than i expected.
also i have contributed drums to three songs now!

i get irrationally happy whenever this thread is bumped btw

I haven't touched a set of drums for years, honestly, but I feel that aside from practical endurance or toughened hands, I could probably get up to speed relatively quickly. Like riding a bicycle.

Could totally imagine not practicing guitar being detrimental, though.

I played for the first time in like a year last night and it made me irrationally happy! I rented a space with a drummer friend and mostly played guitar but at the end he wanted to try some stuff on keyboard so I hopped over to the drums. It felt so good.

all my calluses are gone, which means my fingers will be torn apart if I really jam out on the bass

Other things to make you happy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0TeDKYtuQw

And Phil doing fusion:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vo7mYqaMKXA

You guys should post in this thread sometimes
Drum geek sick chops youtube thread

So this is not the place for Phil backing Howard Jones?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kpul9Xmjlv4