October 27th, 2008
People often talk about “grip” and which they use/is best to use. Beginners often ask me why people hold the stick “kinda sideways” in the hand…. Well this is known as either “orthodox” or “traditional” grip. It’s when, in one hand, the stick is held in the crevice between the thumb and index finger and the middle and ring finger. (see photo)
The other hand holds the stick in the “matched” grip style.
Put together it looks like this.
(is it me or does that drum look HUUUGE compared to the kid?!?!)
Next time I’ll tell you how and why this grip came about and how it’s pretty much redundant on a modern set up.
October 11th, 2008
If you’re a regular reader you may remember me writing a piece on “sub divisions” a while back. Well today I’m gonna tell you the counts I use when learning to play them properly.
Just as a reminder here are the sub divisions again:
Sub-division of…. Note type….
1 ¼
2 8th
3 8th note triplets
4 16ths
5 Quintuplets
6 16th note triplets or Sextuplets
7 Septuplets
8 32nds
So for ¼’s I count
1 2 3 4
For 8th’s it’s
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +
Triplets
1 trip let 2 trip let 3 trip let 4 trip let
16ths
1 e + a 2 e + a 3 e + a 4 e + a
For Quintuplets or “5’s” I use the word “university” as it has 5 syllables
Un- i- ver- si- ty Un- i- ver- si- ty Un- i- ver- si- ty Un- i- ver- si- ty
Sextuplets (there are a few but this works best when mixing sub divisions)
“t” = “trip” and “l” = “let”
1 t l + t l 2 t l + t l 3 t l + t l 4 t l + t l
Septuplets or “7’s” I use “go to university” as it has 7 syllables
Go-to-un-i-ver-si-ty Go-to-un-i-ver-si-ty Go-to-un-i-ver-si-ty Go-to-un-i-ver-si-ty
And finally 32nds I like to use
1 e + a + e + a 2 e + a + e + a 3 e + a + e + a 4 e + a + e + a
The count is most important this here because if you can’t count it you cant play it! Simple as that! So work on your counts more if you struggle with sub divisions. Remember, 5 and 7 ain’t really all that great so if you DO sub divisions difficult don’t waste your time and energy on them until the others are flawless.
October 7th, 2008
Short and sweet one for today…..
I often mention using a “trashy hi hat” when talking about playing aggressively, by this I simply mean having the hi hat very slightly open so that the top and bottom cymbals can rattle together to create a “trashy” sound. Often using the shoulder of the stick helps to create an even better “trashy sound”. An open hi hat is all the way open, a “clean” hi hat is simply all the way closed, and “trashy” is somewhere in between!
September 21st, 2008
If you look at the attached PDF you’ll see different notes and their equivalent rests and what they look like individually.
Click here to open the file in PDF format. If the attached file does not open click on the article heading and open it from within the article.
September 15th, 2008
When people see proper music notation they always ask questions like “why does this one have two lines and that only have one?” or “how do you know which notes are which?”. Well, I’ll give you a bit of info today and a bit more later in the week so it has had time to sink in!
Different notes are much like different letters of the alphabet, but instead of having 26 we only have around 6 notes. (whole-32nd)
When describing notes we use the following terms:
Hollow note head (used for whole and half notes)
Solid note head (used for everything else)
Stem (in everything except whole notes)
Tail/s (for 8th – 32nd notes)
Click here to see drawing.
When notes are in the same section their tails join up to make “joins”. So two 8th notes would have 1 join (as they have 1 tail each) four 16th notes joined would have two joined (as they have two tails each). Follow??
8ths can be joined to 16ths and so on but you have to make sure the right stem have the correct amount of joins attached.
Phrases can then be made up with different note values (like letters to make words).
August 18th, 2008
People often hear about “rock kits” or “fusion kits” but few new drummers actually know what the difference is. So here you go….
A “rock” kit is a drum kit characterised by toms which are larger and deeper than on a “Fusion” kit. For example, a “Rock” kit traditionally consists of 12″, 13″ and 16″ toms and a base drum size of 24”
A “fusion” kit is a drum kit characterised by toms which are smaller and shallower than a standard “Rock” kit. For example, a fusion kit may consist of 10″, 12″ and 14″ toms, and a base drum of 22”
July 26th, 2008
“Four to the Floor” is a groove (rhythm or beat) that contains a bass drum playing all the ¼ notes (i.e. the “1” “2” “3” “4”).
The snare drum pretty much always stays on the “2” and “4” like normal, and the hi hat is usually the biggest variant.
Four to the floor is very common in dance music as it maintains a constant pulse or beat for people to keep dancing to.
The most common mistake when playing four to the floor is to “flam” some of the sounds (to play them slightly out of sync). This gives and un-tidy and not really very “danceable” kinda groove!
I personally think that a good four to the floor groove is the mark of a good drummer. Any drummer that can kick a good four to the floor groove throughout a track and make the instrument sing is a very good musician and although doing something seemingly simple, deserves his dues!
July 25th, 2008
We’ve all heard of an accent, but for most of us it’s something we talk in that makes us different from someone else.
An accent in the world of drums works much in the same way. An accent is an emphasis of a note, for example, playing it louder. Accents work best when accompanied by a ghost note.
A ghost note is basically the opposite of an accent. It’s something that doesn’t stand out. A ghost note is supposed to be quite, this in turn makes the accent stand out even more.
To get a real good texture one may need to work on the quality of their accents and ghost notes. My ideal is to have the accent at 80-90% vol and the ghost note between 5-15% vol when slow so that when sped up they become 70% to 25% in ratio.
It’s actually more important to work on the ghost note to get a good accent. I know that sounds counterproductive, but the accent is the easy bit, trust me!
I use this analogy for people when explaining accents and ghost notes:
A guy who’s 7ft tall, in a room full of guys who are 6ft 9 tall doesn’t really stand out all that much. But take a guy who’s 6ft and put him in a room full of dwarfs and he sticks out like a sore thumb!
It’s not about making the accent LOUD, it’s about making the ghost note quiet
July 21st, 2008
Something very simple for you tonight.
Down beat = the “1” of the bar.
Up beat = the “2” of the bar
Back beat = the “2” and “4” of the bar.
See, told you it was simple!
June 29th, 2008
Interestingly enough I’d never heard of a “snake pit” in a musical sense until last weeks gig. It turns out a snake pit is a slang term for a stage box. For those of you who are still none the wiser, a stage box is a box that you use up on stage into which you plug your various leads (like an XLR or Jack). From the stage box you then have just one big fat, but neat, cable running into the mixing desk. They save having a whole bunch of separate cables running all over the place and getting in people’s way.
So there you go, a “snake pit” is another name for a stage box!
