Drum Related

You may know from reading previous material that I really love my co-ordination exercises. I personally feel a great sense of achievement when I crack them as it’s something you can notice right away.

I’ve given you quite a few co-ordination exercises over the past year, but this is the most tricky one to date.

It’s only 3way co-ordination using both hands and your right foot.

We’re gonna take 3 repetitive patterns (that we’ll loop):

“1e+”     “e+a”       “1  +a”      

To start with you’re gonna put…..

“1e+” on the Right hand (and play it on the floor tom)

“e+a” on the Left hand (and play the snare)

“1  +a” on the right foot (and obviously play the bass drum)

The idea is to keep these going simultaneously and smoothly.

I’d recommend just getting the hands going to start with, then maybe just playing 8ths on the bass drum until you’re confident, then turning that into “1  +a”.

When you’re fine with that arrangement try swapping two of the patterns without changing the other. (e.g. keep the bass drum “1  +a” going and swap the hand patterns over). This is pretty tricky as when thinking about swapping two patterns the third often forgets what it’s doing!

Give this a try and then I’ll give you a more advanced variation of this exercise.

When we “trademark” genres basically we’re talking about things that make them what they are. Things you use to identify it is THAT genre. We’re not talking about exacts, we’re talking about descriptive words to begin with.
Of course there are no EXACT answers as music has NO RULES, but generalisations can be made.

Now “pop” music is so eclectic as “pop” is basically “popular” music, which could include all genres. So to make things slightly easier I’m going to be focusing mainly on what I call processed pop using single artist and boy or girl bands. I’m also talking about how it is on the CD/MP3 file as opposed to the live version.

Here are some descriptive words I’ve put together for “pop”….

Flat

Repetitive/consistent

Un-complicated/basic/simple

Light

Catchy

Un-offensive
Things I wouldn’t really use to describe pop would be……

Dark

Aggressive

Super fast

Trashy

Sinister

When playing pop along to a pre recorded track there are usually very few fills. It’s mainly just groove all the way with the odd small fill here and there. It’s pretty much always in 4/4 and easy to sing and dance to - Think, 10yr old girl dancing in front of a mirror singing into a hairbrush doing the routine dance moves with a group of friends. You can’t do anything too outrageous as it would throw them off what they’re doing. Make what you play clear, easy to bop to and un-surprising. Pop should be very consistent in sound so if using hi hat lifts do try and produce the SAME sound over and over again.

When thinking about playing in a style or genre from now on, think also about HOW you play it rather than WHAT you play. Identify the trade marks and the rest will follow.

When learning to play drums, most people just want to learn how to do LOTS of different stuff. They want to learn how to spin sticks, how to play their favourite groove and fill from their favourite track. They want to learn how to solo and how to play round the kit real fast!

As great as all these things can be, they’re really not all that necessary if you wish to become a pro drummer, especially from a session prospective.

What’s really required from a drummer is a great sense of timing – which usually includes the ability to work with a click - a great sound, the ability to read a bit and being someone who’s great fun to work with.
Being able to solo, spin sticks, play at the speed of light and do all sorts of crazy arse fills doesn’t come into it!

When people I teach have been playing for a while I always advise focusing just as much, if not MORE on HOW they play something as opposed to WHAT they play. A simple groove and fill can sound WAY more effective when played well, than a supposedly complex/impressive groove and fill played slightly ropey.

Steve White said this “Remember, you might play a solo in one song in a 2hr set which lasts 5mins. That means you have 1hr 55mins of some pretty straight forward, solid playing. That’s about a 25/1 ratio. Meaning you should work on the “boring stuff” 25 times more than the fancy “fun stuff”!
Put simply, spend 25mins working of simple grooves, fills and solid time keeping and 1min on spinning sticks and soloing!

Now I know this is not something that any person learning wants to read ‘cos let’s face it, no one wants to get bored while practicing! So make you’re best efforts to keep the so called “boring stuff” fun. Play to tracks you know use a click, or play to loops. Challenge yourself and set goals in playing, then feel the sense of achievement when you complete them. Work on your sound. Try to turn a nasty sounding drum kit into a musical instrument, rather than taking a nice kit and making it sound like a load of cardboard boxes!

Try and take the most simple thing and make it sound poetic. Try and make someone dance with just you’re grooving alone. And finally remember this:

Nothing worth having/achieving comes easily, if it did everyone could do it and it wouldn’t be rewarding.

When you get to the stage as a drummer that you start to play with bands (either one band or are more of a session player) it’s more than likely you’ll need a “gigging” kit, even if you don’t have to use it every time.

So many people, when they first start out down this road, think that bigger is better! They say “I’ll have more things to hit”, “It’ll look more impressive”, ”It’ll look like I’m a better drummer if I have a big set up”. Well, I can tell you that all that really isn’t true for 99.9% of gigs they’ll be doing!

As a gigging drummer what you need is a SOLID kit that is easy to chuck around - focusing more on solid hardware.  You really want to make it as SMALL as possible to cut down on set up and take down time and you need to invest in some good flight cases.

Most gigs don’t involve a load of real flashy fills and made varieties of crash cymbal, so having a big flashy kit just isn’t necessary to start with (then when you do get to the stage when a big kit is necessary you can get roadies to help you out!)
If you turn up to a gig for the first time not knowing what might be in store then yeh, sure, maybe take a few extra bits with you. But that doesn’t mean you have to use them when you get there!

When thinking about a gigging kit think move-ability, adjustability and necessity!

One thing I like to use a lot are cymbal stackers to cut down on the amount of floor space needed as well as the weight of my hardware case.
If you play double pedal but one is not necessary for a particular gig then don’t take it!
Just because you HAVE 5 crashes doesn’t mean you must take 5. Just pick the 2 that compliment each other best or are most appropriate for the style of music or the room you’ll be using and take them.

Finally I’ll say this. If you get good it might even be worth having more than one gigging kit - One bigger kit, rock sizes with bigger cymbals etc… and one smaller kit, fusion sizes with smaller cymbals. That way you’re gonna be more versatile as a player.

People often have expectations when they come in to learn the drums. Some people say to me “how good do you think I’d be able to get in …… months” or “I’d like to be able to play this” – then proceed to play me a track – and are then disappointed when my reply is, “about 5yrs”. Or they’ll say “I’ll give it 6months and if I’m not as good as I’d want to be I’ll quit.”

Personally I think all these things are a little silly when starting anything new, let alone learning something like the drums - as they’re a pretty complex instrument!

They say that it takes you around 2 years to “learn” something – if you immerse yourself in it – and then at least another two years to “master” what you’ve learnt. And that’s if you work on it EVERY single day, not if you only pick up the sticks from time to time.

I guess what I’m saying is that it probably takes a hell of a lot longer than you’d think to learn to play the drums. To play them naturally, confidently, and with some finesse you’re really looking at a minimum of a five year commitment to reach your potential. And that’s if you practice pretty much everyday. If your playing is more sporadic then you should really think about doubling that figure.

If you asked the people considered to be the “best” in the world they’d pretty much all tell you that they were playing for at least 10yrs before they really made anything of
themselves in the world of drums.

When starting out people rarely realise how tough the learning process ahead can be. So if you’re someone who’s been playing for a year or two and you aren’t as good as you’d like to be yet, just remember, nothing worth having comes easily, so keep working at it and see where you’re at in another two years or so.

I just thought I’d write a quick little note about practicing. Obviously, as most of us know, practicing can be a bit of a chore sometimes and doing 30mins straight can seem to take ages if you’re having a great playing day. But it’s actually better to practice little and often than to practice for say, 2hours once a week.

So if you’re one who finds practice hard sometimes just try breaking it up into little lumps here and there. For example if you’re waiting for 5mins before you get picked up to go out. Or in between your favourite T.V programs, or maybe you’re doing some homework and it’s doing your head in, just jump on the kit for 5mins.

Practicing little and often can then lead you on to doing longer practices without you even realising it. So 5-10mins here and there is a good way to go.

I saw this funky little co-ordination exercise done by Craig Blundell back in October last year and gave it to some of my guys to try. Evidently they found it pretty tricky so I thought I’d give it to your guys to try as well!

It’s very simple really. It involves a little arm/shoulder and hand eye co-ordination.

Your left hand plays: 1    2     3     4

Your Right hand plays: 1     2     3     4
(See, told you it was easy!)

Your left hand plays: Snare, hi tom, snare, hi tom      etc…..

Your right hand plays: Snare, hi tom, floor tom, snare, hi tom, floor tom    etc…..

Remember they’re BOTH playing ¼ notes.

What makes it tricky is that your left hand only moves between two drums and your right hand moves between three drums! But they’re BOTH playing ¼’s…. simultaneously!

If you’ve cracked that then try adding in a bass drum on the “+’s”….. If you crack that why not try playing “Trip Let” with the foot and keeping the hands the same.
And if THAT’S too easy then try and make your left foot on the hi hat play 8th notes!

Go for it!

Pretty much every single drummer in the world has heard of buddy rich. And some of you may know he is also widely regarded as THE greatest drummer of all time. He was a pioneer and a role model for nearly all of today’s great drummers. Even if he didn’t inspire them directly he most likely inspired the people, who inspired them!

His rudimentary skills are just extraordinary and to top it all he can make this old kit sound like a musical instrument! I think drummers of today would struggle to play a good solo on a kit such as this.

In my opinion – and we’re all entitled to one – this clip can be a tad boring in places, but none the less it’s still massively impressive!

When we “trademark” genres basically we’re talking about things that make them what they are. Things you use to identify it’s THAT genre. We’re not talking about exacts, we’re talking about descriptive words to begin with.

Of course there are no EXACT answers as music has NO RULES, but generalisations can be made. For example, we can use these adjectives for rock….

 
Harsh/abrasive

Solid

Punchy

Trashy

Loud

It flows

Very rarely is rock ever:
Light and fluffy

Thumpin’

Super fast

Dancey

Mellow (except in the case of a rock ballad, but even then they’re still rather hard hitting)

Sharp/ “stoppy starty”
This is what you should try and identify when playing in a genre. See, the way I teach is that there aren’t really “Rock” grooves or “Pop” grooves and such…. It’s more about HOW you play what you’re playing. Of course some grooves and fills lend themselves better to different genres, but you can’t say as a rule THIS is a such and such groove and THAT is a such and such fill. You can use them in many genres and simply change how you approach playing it.

So when thinking about playing in a style or genre from now on, think more about HOW you play it rather than WHAT you play. Identify the trade marks and the rest will follow.

A lot of people see some performers – of all types- and think they’re a bit cocky or arrogant. As much as this can be true SOMETIMES, most of the time it’s that the performer has to be so very confident in themselves to BE a great performer that it can be misconstrued as cockiness or arrogance. Without confidence they’d simply freeze up as soon as they got on stage. Some people try to “fake” confidence by adding a little “Dutch courage” – alcohol! – however this is not the best way. True confidence makes the best performers what they are.

Many of you may have seen this drum solo by the great Mike Mangini before but even if you have just watch the confidence this guy has. If you have seen it before then just start it from the 3min mark and watch from there.

A friend said to me “I don’t like this guy, he’s just so up his own a*se!” but if he wasn’t confident enough in himself to APPEAR to be up his own a*se he wouldn’t be the best!!