DRUMMERS: Advice for a beginner

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

mouse on the left shoulder, cricket on the right IMO
bonus: you can begin to use the royal "we"

The clip sounds really good, LL. Clearly you can get a good sound and keep a beat. No sign of Old Leadfoot or Shakey Hand on the horizon. Happy that you are doing so well and looking forward to seeing you posting in the near future on the "I Hate My Bandmates: I Can't Believe Worked So Hard To Hone My Craft And Have To Play With These Jokers" thread.

Also, good advice upthread, especially from Hurting

Thanks, and yeah I can keep a beat! I don't anticipate hating any bandmates just yet because I have yet to find any (also I don't hate people). It has only been just over a year, and I realize that maybe this sounds immodest but I'm kind of sick of feeling like I'm a special needs drummer, like i have a severe handicap to overcome (noobness, age, inexperience). At the beginning, I definitely had a lot of obstacles to overcome, but I have overcome so many of them! And I'm not done! And I FULLY REALIZE I'm definitely not at the same level of expertise as most people my age, but I think I would be a good person to have around in a supporting role. Upthread when I said I didn't know what I have to offer -- that wasn't entirely true. I have enthusiasm, a solid work ethic, a friendly attitude, wide-ranging taste, and basic skills. I'm a late bloomer! That doesn't mean I'm a joke or a charity case.

I have been really doing my best to reach out and meet people and interact and whatnot. To talk about my pursuits openly and confidently. Running up against walls is part of the experience, I 100% know that. I guess maybe I just needed to express the above for my own benefit. Underneath all of my public modesty lies a seething egomaniac, surprise!

I love this dude:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msB4F316sWI

Wrong dude: http://www.pearldrummersforum.com/showthread.php?95436-My-name-is-doob-and-I-m-a-cymbalholic

Still inspired by La Lechera's great progress. What city do you live in again, LL?

I said dude, not doob.

Ha, sorry, I wasn't responding to your post, I just thought that link was going to be about a different drummer.

Chicago!

Good luck looking for bandmates then. Chicago's not a big music town.

j/k

achieved a milestone yesterday: my dad found my original music "difficult to understand", "hard to follow" and "confusing"
far out freak badge, get on my jean jacket!

*high five*

This is basically like getting an A++

I felt bad until I realized that this is a rite of passage and I passed it rather spectacularly

hi 5 accepted

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

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?

― cross over the mushroom circle (La Lechera), Wednesday, September 17, 2014 1:59 PM (6 months ago) Bookmark

lol i've taken to wearing an ancient akron public schools tshirt that says "i'm worth your investment" in capital letters
so subtle

i like to confine my news to my tumblr now but i would like to update this thread with some geeky excitement about my new cymbal! i went to the drum store for the first time yesterday and bought a cymbal and new heads. when i walked into the store, i told them i was looking for a cymbal, and the guy was like "we've got a few" and pointed to his right, where i saw a glassed-in room filled ceiling to floor with cymbals. i was the only one in there and it was so fun testing them all out. of course the one i wanted was $300, handmade and Turkish, but I found a decent substitute for much cheaper and I love the way it sounds. Being able to make another sound is like realizing I have another arm that I wasn't using. Love it!! The new heads are great too, and I feel like my sound is much less cheap/flabby.

two years ago today! still at it. i went back and read from the point where i initially revived this thread (when i brought my drums home) and realized that i would never have made it this far if not for early support from this thread. i didn't know anything! i feel like i've grown a lot because i've done a lot of things that were inconceivably (prohibitively) anxiety-inducing to me 2 years ago. thank you!

aw, congrats!

thanks! i feel good about it and very grateful. i have learned so much about so many different things too. my life feels significantly enriched in a number of ways. hi 5s for everyone!

*high five*

Now I want to get a drum set.

― Elvis Telecom, Friday, June 21, 2013 1:22 PM (2 years ago)

I got a drum set today!

I totally sound like a guitarist who's playing drums for the first time - nevertheless my serotonin level totally shot up within minutes of playing along to the Ramones and "Hallogallo."

Drumming is wonderfully therapeutic, yes. It's up there with sex and drinking in terms of things I wish I were doing, pretty much all the time.

You don't need to read music, know theory, or have a perfect ear to work out the drum parts from your favorite records. So you can quickly commit a few cool and funky and bitchin' drum parts to your muscle memory, and you're 90% of the way there.

The downsides are: ridiculously heavy and bulky equipment, long setup/teardown time, need for transport, and most of all the FKN LOUDNESS. Played correctly, they are definitely too loud for the neighbors of apartment-dwellers, and often too loud for the neighbors of 'burb house-dwellers. In my experience you need serious soundproofing or extreme remoteness to rock out guilt-free.

Me, I drummed in mediocre bands in high school and college. For like 10 years after, I had no car and lived in tiny walk-up apartments with lots of non-deaf neighbors. So I sold my much-beloved drum kit for way too little and resigned myself to a non-drumming lifestyle. I took up lots of other instruments (guitar, bass, mandolin) but they didn't satisfy on the same level.

Now I have an acoustic kit that is too loud and big for my living situation (it lives in my bandmate's house), and an electronic kit that I can play with headphones or at low volume. I still crave the real drums for all their headaches. When I was gigging regularly while playing both guitar and drums, I'd arrive at the venue hours in advance, take several trips to load in, then all the work associated with setup and tuning and everything, (play for 20 or 30 or 45 minutes), then all the work associated with tearing down and loading out, and drive home. So five or six elapsed hours for maybe 30 minutes of the joy of performing music live in front of people. I have rarely been happier, though. It is a paradox.

woohoo!! elvis, looking at the dates, you originally posted that about a week after i got mine :)
still at it!!

the downsides are not to do with the noise or bulkiness at all in my case, it's more about my personal situation and lack of experience with the overall endeavor of playing music with other people. still at it though!
the best part remains being able to be a noisemaking musical shapeshifter

I haven't played drums in a decade, but I'm excited about the opp to sort of relearn with a friend's dad band this week. Curious to see if it's a bit like getting back on a bicycle (blisters aside), or how a few years of learning guitar will or won't change my approach.

Anyone have a reco for a fine electronic kit?

I bought a Roland TD-15 kit earlier this year and I'm pretty happy with it. I tried a lot of kits before buying and I'd strongly recommend (1) getting Roland over Yamaha (sound is much more natural) and (2) spending extra for something with mesh heads (feel is much more natural and sound is quieter). I'd also recommend spending more for an actual kick pad instead of a no-pad pedal (although the no-pad pedal is quieter).

I'd poke around a little on eBay/Craiglist because people seem to get rid of these things all the time and I get the impression that they don't deteriorate that much from use.

One thing I would caution: if you live in an apartment where noise is a problem, electronic drum kits still make noise and cause vibration, they're not silent. In particular, a lot of vibration comes through the legs of the kit and into the floor. You can use memory foam mats, rugs, and/or plywood platforms mounted on cut tennis balls to reduce the vibration.

The TD-15 is basically a mid-level kit, and I'm happy with it. Obviously it doesn't quite fool you into thinking your playing a real kit. The range of sounds each head makes is far far narrower than a real drum, although the dynamic response is pretty decent.

man, i can't even remember the last time i played drum kit alone, for practice or catharsis. just don't have a good situation for it so i only play at shows. i feel like i'm able to maintain my current level through mental practice, imaginary drum kit playing (ie hand & foot tapping in my office, lol), and occasionally getting out the pad. i don't appear to be getting worse, and i've made my peace with not getting better chops-wise.

can't stand electronic drum kids btw.

I used to be 100% against them but the Roland kits won me over a little, esp given that the alternative for me right now is basically never playing at all. Also it has enough different drum sounds and is tweakable enough that it's possible to put together a "kit" that I think sounds ok.

In performance I think they are atrocious.