Drummer in need of assistance!

[Memnon-D]

Hey, I am new here at the forum. Anyways, I have been playing drums for almost a year now. I am having trouble with my 5:4 beats though. I was wondering if anyone here could help me by giving me some kind of technique or some tips. I would deeply appreciate it.

 

[Koma]

Playing whith metronome is always good.

 

[Memnon-D]

Is there another way? Metronome is good and it helps, but are there any other ways to train my hands to get into the habit of odd time beats?

 

[Kenneth R.]

think in 5/4. really, practice is the only way to do it...

 

[Memnon-D]

Well, I guess thats true... Hopefully I can get the hang of it. Thanks for the help.

 

[Disembowelled]

I think it comes down to the way you count the measure, concurrently or in fragmented parts

e.g. evenly along the segments 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 5 and
or broken down to one triplet and one double 1, 2, 3, 1, 2
I would also like to know if there are better ways of doing this as i have been thinking of quintuplet conspects lately.

As well as this, it depends on what your trying to do

 

[Nefarious_]

You can also think of it in terms of numbers of beats. If you take four bars (or measures) of 5/4, there are 20 beats in total. Instead of counting this as 4 bars of 5/4 you could count it as 5 bars of 4/4. The number of beats is the same so you'll stay in time with the rest of the band. This is also a good trick to get some weird displaced accents. If the rest of the band are playing in 5/4 and you play the same number of beats, but accent in 4/4 like I described above, you can get some really quite wierd effects.

As for actually playing and getting the feel of 5/4, it's just a question of practice. I couldn't do anything in 5/4 a year ago, but Now it comes really easily to me.

 

[Memnon-D]

Yeah.... Thanks you guys... you've all been a big help. I know I'll get it sooner or later.

 

[leprosy]

count at loud, and play slow. brake it down