The Drum Thread

[MasterOLightning]

Surely there must be some drummers on UM. Since there must not be too many, we could probably fit all discussion to one thread.

Which drum books do you use? Some of the ones I like are Realistic Rock by Carmine Appice, Advanced Funk Studies by Rick Latham, and the Rush transcription book.

Also, what is your usual practice routine like? I probably spend too much of my time messing around, and not enough on rudiments and drills, although I've worked on double strokes for the past month and gotten a lot better. I spend quite a bit of time on blasting and double bass runs, so those are pretty good, but I could always get faster.

Get posting!

 

[~Neurotica]

http://www.berkleeshares.com/drums__percussion - some good archive of electronic books.
When you're starting practicing - better start from some easy stuff like singles and doubles, tripples. It may seem too easy but you have to do it every day - thats fucking drummer's burden - to play it again and again, even if you think you're already good at it. Dont forget about paradiddles.
To train your feet better - you can do exercises, just sitting at the computer - like you would do it on your pedals.

 

[MasterOLightning]

Yeah, tapping your feet with your heels down during the day seems to really help those muscles. I can probably do 16th notes at about 180 on double bass right now.

 

[Hexer]

hey Neurotica: any chance to catch you online (on ICQ) at the moment?


sorry for OT


lol, even I do "air doublebass" all the time (especially when listening to music) and I'm not a drummer anymore (I used to play drums many years ago)

 

[sikth]

Thought I'd resurrect this thread to try and give a few tips and hopefully receive a few too. The best site I've found for free lessons and practice tips is Tomás Howies website here:

Tomás Howie Drumming Web - Home

His monthly lessons are really good (though they don't seem to be updated anymore), as is the practice tips archives, it's really helped me out alot over the year or so that I've been drumming.

When I practice, I try to break what I do into four separate categories, warm-up's/rudiments, I usually spend half an hour to an hour on this, then click training, which'll be another half hour, then stamina training for another half (doing single limbed and double limbed single strokes against a metronome, increasing the tempo progressively) then I'll spend another half hour pissing about/jamming with a mate/playing along to a song.

This has worked pretty well for me so far, along with doing paradiddles on my hands and feet when I'm away from the kit. Any other tips/advice that people wanna throw in?

 

[DemonJay]

Whatever you do, just make sure you practice with a click. All the chops in the world would do you no good if you're unable to play it in time. Just make it a habit to play with a click right from the get-go so you're used to it. Within time playing to it will be second nature and you wouldn't have to think about it anymore.

 

[Matt]

I use ankle weights when practicing, to increase my foot muscles.

 

[sikth]

Whatever you do, just make sure you practice with a click. All the chops in the world would do you no good if you're unable to play it in time. Just make it a habit to play with a click right from the get-go so you're used to it. Within time playing to it will be second nature and you wouldn't have to think about it anymore.

Definitely, electronic drum kits are great for this since they generally come with built in clicks and click based exercises.

Montu, I don't use ankle weights, but do I tighten up my pedals to the maximum to try to build up my legs.

 

[EnmityPure999]

YouTube - Chason solo Enmity Pure

 

[Dead Winter]

Jesus God...holy fuck.

I've seen drummers who trigger who aren't that fast.

 

[Vacant_Planets]

Bah haha, same here, I've been looking for a decent drummer for sometime to put something to my guitar work, but that's just great. lol

 

[ParsonsMatt]

Anyone know how ash drum sets sound?

 

[DemonJay]

Anyone know how ash drum sets sound?

Well since a great majority of drum sets are Maple, and Ash is warmer sounding the Maple, then I can only assume that an Ash drum set will be warmer sounding.

Typically drum sets arn't made from Ash, what brand of drum set is this?

 

[ParsonsMatt]

Gretsch Catalina, Ddrum Dominion all come in ash. I like ash more than any other wood for guitars so I thought, hey why not? if I get a good set it'll be an ash one ( maybe )

What heads are the best for deep, punchy, clear sound?

 

[Cul-Kothoth]

YouTube - Chason solo Enmity Pure

This guy is better in my opinion. YouTube - 280bpm clickblasting

 

[cobhc_777]

I don't know what you guys were talking about before this... but I would like in on the little conversation (if it's all right).

 

[Therma lobsterdore]

Although its boring, you can't beat playing against a click for getting your hand and foot speed up, here's some tips:

- Go get George stone's Stick control for the snare drummer, its the drummers bible.

- Play singles with one limb, you wanna aim for at least 200bpm with a single foot for quick double bass, and you should be aiming for at least 220bpm with a single hand.

- Pratice one limbed double, triple and quad strokes alot too, they really improve your hand speed.

- Do the same with two limbs, go against the click and practice singles, doubles and triplets.

- Playing on a pillow with your hands, and also adjusting the spring tension and using ankle weights for your feet can help you out alot too.

- If you've got Stick control for the snare drummer (if not then go buy it now!), doing the excercises with your feet as well as your hands (not necessarily at the same time, its up to you) will help you alot, I'd recommend doing these slowly though (100 - 120bpm), and then building up to a faster speed, but don't go too fast, make sure you really get the sticking/footing down before you speed up.

- You should let your limbs rest for a day or two if they really burn after a practice, warm up and warm down when you play as well, going at high speed can really mess you up otherwise.

- If you can get up to 180bpm on the double bass then your pretty much sorted, give yourself a nice pat on the back.

- If your stuck for ideas, go look at the wealth of instructional videos on youtube. Or play rudiments accross the kit, like instead of doing a standard RLRRLL parradiddle-diddle on the snare, do the same hand arrangement but go Ride + kick - Hightom - Floortom x 2 - Snare x 2, if you get this pattern good and fast it sounds amazing!

I really love this clip of Andy C from wormed, fucking amazing skills:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZfj-7-fiXM