DRUMMERS: Advice for a beginner

not a beginner, but about a month ago i found myself doing quadruple-stroke rolls and was very nerdily proud.

!! i have been training like Rocky all winter! Lifting weights and pushups and everything. My upper body strength is way better than it was even 6 mo ago. I'm sure I can't really keep up this pace (of improvement) but I've definitely noticed that I feel stronger in general. Not afraid to make noise anymore either.

Quiet thing thirded (fourthed?)

One exercise thing you might want to try is hitting the furthest reaches of the kit, creating a pattern going from one extreme to another (e.g., ride cymbal to hi-hat with your left hand), as slowly and quietly as possible, but still in time (with a metronome or whatever. The challenge is in building up speed while keeping the volume low.

I kind of wish someone had told me about the importance of physical condition to drumming earlier in my drumming life. I once heard a guy saying that lifting heavy weights could be bad for drumming, and I was pretty young at the time and I think I didn't realize that he meant, like, LIFTING, which I was never going to do anyway. Building core strength and arm strength helped my drumming a lot. Also I found that for the short time I did yoga it improved my drumming, but I wasn't able to keep up the yoga.

But I am also a big proponent of practicing quiet (it takes a lot of strength to do that too in a way). Read the opening pages of Stick Control -- they contain great advice on dynamic practice and also are dryly funny (maybe not intentionally).

i definitely practice quiet stuff -- even within a song -- don't worry!
exercise time is also study time
which leads me to this question -- can someone direct me to something i can read/watch that discusses the recording of "mother sky"? i watched the can dvd on youtube, and it was v interesting but did not answer my questions. and jaki hardly talked at all!

oh and also the book i've been reading has a chapter about musical prodigies* and draws many parallels between language learning and music, including quotation after quotation of people saying that they first learned to communicate emotion through music. i have come pretty close to answering my initial questions about the learning process itself.

*not a book about prodigies

What I should I look into in terms of replacing drum heads?

Seems like there are tons of options - coated, non-coated, multiply plys - at a variety of price ranges. I've noticed big dents and flabbiness in my snare and kick batter heads and a small hole in the resonant head of the snare. This is a drum kit I bought for $100 total 8 years ago and have never done a single thing to since then so cheap is fine.

I'm also looking at replacing the snare wires as a bunch of them have come loose - how many wires do I need, really? Finally, I'm thinking about a new bass drum beater as they one I have is felt and looks pretty squished out and crusty, and I know you can go with a bunch of different materials and such.

coated (Remo) Ambassadors are always good, unless you hit reaaally hard and need more than one ply.

in 2 hours i am going to pick up my very first drum set. i have convinced myself +/- that i am not too old or too stupid. i finally have time and a basement and in 2 hours i will have some drums of my own, if this transaction doesn't somehow get screwed up. for a while i was looking for approval to go ahead and do this, but soon enough it became evident that i was just being a chicken. now i'm just going to finally see what i can teach myself in my oodles of spare time. this is one of the most self-indulgent things i have ever done in my life and i just have to get over that because i think it will be super fun and also good for my general health.

― free your spirit pig (La Lechera), Saturday, June 15, 2013 9:22 AM (1 year ago) Bookmark

happy anniversary to me!

what does one year of progress sound like?
i think this was the first thing i recorded: https://soundcloud.com/marshmallowy/june-beat
this is me playing along to another drumless roy montgomery song about a month ago: https://soundcloud.com/marshmallowy/ill-at-home-drums

i haven't tried something new and scary in a long time, and i can't express how glad i am that i did it. it has been sort of like gaining another voice, or learning another language in which i can freely express things i would not otherwise express. i am extremely thankful to have friends who have made songs with me (this would not have been possible without friends i met through ilx) and also to this thread for answering my questions and taking me seriously and listening to my whining. i have stopped apologizing for myself (at least in this context) and i think i am ready for phase II. i have been composing this anniversary post in my head for weeks, and this is not exactly how i imagined it going, but that's ok. this is only a beginning. i feel like my foundation is strong now, i know the basics and am functionally conversant in the language.

in conclusion--> an earnest and genuine thank you to everyone who has helped and supported me over the last year. your kindness has been metabolized into sounds, and i'm proud of that!

i have stopped apologizing for myself (at least in this context) and i think i am ready for phase II.

:) congratulations - that's great! wha's in store for phase II? i am imagining a lot of pyrotechnics!

Right on! Congratulations! And your progress is insanely impressive.

(xp) playing in a suspended rotating cube like Tommy Lee

congratulations LL!!

thanks!! i have been working REALLY HARD!

i need to do some aggressive "reaching out" and "put myself out there" (barf)
i need to find some people who are interested, willing, and able to play with me irl. i have ideas, but need some compadres.

other things i would like to do: record a song, have a record with my name on it. nothing outrageous or flashy! (although wearing a costume on stage sounds like fun)

there have gotta be punk houses somewhere in chicago

probably -- i'm going to have to really suck it up and talk to some strangers.

my friends are playing a show at "Conny's Plank House" in Chicago next Tuesday - that seems like a place you might find likeminded people just based on the name!

I'm still willing to do something but all I know how to play worth a shit is drums and you already have that.

drum duets are great

i have been thinking that i would be a good person to have around to play the boring/repetitive parts while someone else did the flashy parts

i love being the boring one holding it down in double drum situations

still at it
just FYI
getting a lot faster, talking to people, this is still probably the most difficult and also most fun thing i have ever tried to learn how to do

If you lived in north jersey/NYC I'd totally jam with you. I've been struggling with establishing some level of regular "band mates" for about 6 years.

I miss playing with a drummer so much, such a great way of coming up w/ things, spontaneously syncopating etc.

Glad you're still working at it! I thought about you last night listening to WFMU -- the Evan Funk Davies show was a drumming special of sorts -- he and some other WFMU DJs who are also drummers got together and played songs they particularly loved the drumming on for various reasons -- amazing technique in some cases, but also "taste" and "feel" as they defined it.

Also a couple of weeks ago I watched part of a long video where 5 drummers/percussionists who had played for Frank Zappa got together and chatted about their time with him and drumming in general.

alas, my basement/practice space is in chicago
i've been wondering about skype jamming lately
is that even possible? seems like it would be.

i saw 2 drum-focused performances in a 4 day period and it felt like summer camp -- man forever + so percussion and then jon mueller's death blues ensemble. both were really enjoyable to watch and great. and emotional! THEN a few days later the solar motel band and then 4 metal bands (would list but i forget one of them) all in the span of like 10 days. i learned a lot tbh!

i still play every single day and have a fairly regular practice routine. it's keeping me going!

i've been wondering about skype jamming lately
is that even possible? seems like it would be.

that's an awesome idea but i don't think the tech is there for it yet. even a latency of 10-15 milliseconds would be enough to throw off timing, and then it might have a compounding effect as the sounds bounced back and forth with delays. i think the effect would be that each drummer would continually feel that the other is playing too slowly.

which...could be interesting actually! :)

yeah i was thinking that even if it sounded kinda fucked up maybe that would be cool?
i dunno
worth a try unless it's going to blow a hole in the universe or sthg

even then, why not
might as well go out with a bang
lol

I would be willing to try out a skype jam once I get all my stuff moved and set up.

haha, ok!

I'm not sure if I have the technology for a Skype jam but I'm always down for a collaboration by mail.

cool! i have found that i need to talk to a person on the phone briefly to make myself comfortable before committing my time (and anyone else's). is that normal?

i feel so weird plastering the atmosphere with information about myself, but i guess that's a required part of this operation? am i correct in saying that self-promotion (of whatever nature is comfortable and feasible) is a necessary element?

i have a tumblr where i put things that i think are decent/usable (an ever-shifting line separates the garbage) and a soundcloud where i am basically keeping a record of my improvement and using as a file placeholder/buffet. oh and i also have been trying to interact via twitter but man that really does not suit me. i am not a quick quippy read between the lines sort of person. going out and talking to people i do not know and who have no idea who i am has been the most fruitful activity yet, but also the most emotionally taxing. and rewarding! and actually kinda fun if the person is nice. so i feel like i have been busy, whatever that means, and also "reaching out" and "putting myself out there", and have come to understand the value of those terms. i also have come to find it enjoyable to talk about things i've learned. i have always been slow and skeptical about assimilating into groups -- all of them, if i recall my life history correctly -- and this feels challenging, but oddly comfortable.

anyway
here it is again

http://tbnurse.tumblr.com/

If it's not unseemly to say so, I am super proud of the track LL and I made together a few weeks ago ("Eyes Depart"). It's super fun to get a drum track from her in my email, listen to it, and basically have no idea how it's gonna end up when I've layered my junk on top.

It is not unseemly to say so! Thank you! I like it a lot too. It's fun for me to send stuff into the world and have no idea what it's going to look like coming back. That has been the case with most of the tracks. My goal is to have a little collection's worth by the end of the summer, to show off to my coworkers when they inevitably ask what I have been up to during break. While I'm being grandiose, this is absolutely a whole new fun way to interact with other humans.

still at it!
i have so many updates that i don't feel like typing that much but this thread is a good reminder of how far a person (me!) can come in a year and change.
i am also so thankful to the people who have helped me but i don't want to embarrass anyone

this is something i recorded last night, i think it sounds pretty good! http://bit.ly/1r0ZO0C

Clip sounded great! Love the squeaky throne, very "Day in the Life."

Maybe try it again without the light accent strokes and see how solid you can get the snare on the 2 and 4. Then, as another exercise, try it without the hi-hat, just the bass drum and snare. But really, sounded good!

Friends with kids often ask me - a friend with kids, and I take guitar lessons - what age seems appropriate to start a kid on guitar. I tell them what my teacher told me, which is 12 or so, or at least until the kid has enough of a taste inclination that she or he can tell the teacher what kind of stuff to teach them. When a different friend recently asked me about drums - because I can also play drums - it got me thinking that it's even more important to have music you like before you start drum lessons, because practice is really not much more than playing along with songs in your head. Otherwise, you're just hitting things, because there is no way you'll be able to lock a 6 year old down into doing a bunch of boring rudiments on a pad.

Thanks!
Also never too late to start IMO -- more time to get songs into yr head to play with

Sounds great LL! Good time, good feel, really solid, definitely shows great progress.

I like Josh's suggestion, and I would also suggest trying to play it at other tempos and still have a good feel -- can you keep the same beat at a slow tempo without the "energy" of that tempo pushing you along and still make it feel good?

Also try variations on the ghost note pattern -- shifting the 16ths to different places in the beat etc. You can also try the same thing with quarter notes instead of 8ths on the hi-hat, omitting certain beats on certain limbs, etc.

Wow; sounds great! You have a great overall sound on the kit. Funnily enough, I was messing around with "Super Bad" last night and it just felt wrong because my bass drum is low and dead; it just didn't work at all for the song. But your sound (and feel for dynamics) is perfect here.

xpost And then you'll make it to Can's "Mushroom"!

xp agreed on the sound too, could be a breakbeat. You have a good natural touch on the drums.

thanks guys! it means a lot to hear stuff like that.

i needed some homework too, so thanks for the ideas. i'm pretty good (at least passable) at playing slowly (i think) and right now my big question is whether or not i am ready to offer my services to irl people. what do i have to offer? i have no idea. knowing that you can tell from my clips that i have a decent feel makes me more confident that i'm ready though and man oh man do i appreciate the hell out of that. i have a lot of ideas, but spewing them unsolicited to strangers sounds daunting.

on the upside, i am not nearly as nervous about playing with other people (or even talking with them) as i was at the beginning of the summer
also i have met so many new people! that has been fun.

Do you have any friends who play instruments and who might *humor* you a little? You can probably also find other relative novices to play with, but sometimes it can be better to play with people a little above your level when you're starting out (otherwise you're working against people who can't keep time, etc.)

Yeah, I am totally on that. I have enjoyed the company of a half dozen people and it has been a very pleasant experience. I have some patient friends!

What I'm talking about is more than that -- I feel like maybe I should stop apologizing for myself and looking for people to "humor me" (sorry about the scare quotes) and confidently try to execute one of my ideas. Isn't that what people do? Teetering between feeling like a stupid n00b and demonstrating the confidence required to sell my services is a tightrope walk for me. I'd rather err on the side of confidence since it's very likely that I am always going to have to make the first move in these situations. I mean, that has been my experience generally talking with people. This is "putting myself out there" no? That's what I have been advised to do by several people whose opinions I trust.

go for it, just be honest about where you're at in terms of experience & goals.

I am putting together a lurching jangle pop thing with no drum track for u LL just FYI

Yay!

I've never been anything but honest about where I'm at/goals. It wouldn't occur to me to be otherwise. In other words, I'm not an asshole -- I'm an underconfident apologetic weenie. Get it straight ;)

really, being honest and straightforward is obvious and my general mo in life -- my real q is always what else could i be doing to demonstrate that i am worth taking a chance on?

i don't expect anyone to be able to answer that though
i just wish i had a little mouse or a cricket to feed me encouraging messages from my left shoulder