DRUMMERS: Advice for a beginner

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.

(unless you're doing something that uses "electronic drum sounds" and you're not trying to imitate acoustic drums, of course)

Yeah, I would never put the e-drums on a stage - unless that were the point, i.e., to have Simmonsy sounds, 808 sounds, or jokey samples like screams and car horns and such. As it stands I have never done it - both because it doesn't make sense with my musical style, and also because it would be Yet More Stuff to Bring.

My electronic setup is not even an e-kit: it's an Octapad, plus external pads for hat, snare, and kick. Usually I set it up so that I play normal beats on the external pads, with the Octapad having a row of toms and a row of cymbals. Useful for quiet rehearsal and occasional bloopy experiments, not much else.

I have also done occasional acoustic folky-type gigs with an array of small hand percussion - bongos, shakers, foot tambourine. Occasionally adequate for the situation but not viscerally satisfying.

My preferred stripped-down folky-jazzy kit is just a snare and hi-hat, played with brushes. You can get a lot of mileage out of that. (Can throw in a splash or crash too without too much trouble.)

(I once sat in with a wedding band with brushes on an upturned metal cookie sheet. Surprising amount of sonic options there.)

there's one dude i know who is doing interesting things with V-drums, using a custom midi setup to alter the sounds (hand-free) for each section of a track:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxTJSfEI5GA

I once saw a King Crimson side project where Adrian Belew played V-Drums the entire set.

not sure if that's an argument for or against them tbh

I am curious about the midi programming possibilities. I've also heard there are companies that offer packs of sounds that are more realistic/natural than Roland's that you can play through the V-drums with midi. I'm very un tech savvy so I don't know much about it.

For the most part I just don't see a lot to gain by using a drumkit as a controller for sounds. But I love a blend of acoustic drums with electronics. Been geeking out on these Deantoni Parks videos recently:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6VYuwImqKo

I spent an hour in a practice studio this summer playing this. It's a loop, but has some nice high hat accents and an unusual bass drum / snare rhythm.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMPJdr4XtQo

For the most part I just don't see a lot to gain by using a drumkit as a controller for sounds.

I see it as just another interface, as opposed to a piano keyboard or a laptop/ipad. Granted, it is more limited in that it requires more physical movement and has fewer "options" in a standard configuration, but compared to a drum machine, it is a lot more appealing to me, whereas using a drum machine feels too much like "work" in terms of physical use.

I got my electronic drumset for free from a friend about a year ago, and it is convenient in that I can play it in my apartment, as opposed to having to drive to the practice space to play my kit. The weakest aspect of it is that it isn't as responsive at fast(er) speeds and/or with certain rudiments.

I also successfully converted a small kick drum into a floor tom, and want to do other modifications to it to give it more interesting sound(s).

that deantoni parks video is awesome! i was able to find a pro-shot version of it

Leave it to a drummer to be virtuoso annoying. (/drummerjoke)

#notalldrummers