Guys...Any Questions About REAL Drums? Any Questions About Drumming?

[DrumBob]

Electronic drums and software have their place, but aren't there any questions that any members have here about real, acoustic drums?

Ya know, wooden shells with heads attached?

And, aren't there any people here who have questions about the art of drumming? There must be somebody out there who needs some clarification on drumming.

We're here to help. But if you don't ask the questions, we can't.

 

[slayerbear17]

Not so much questions from me VS an experience I'd like to share.
Guitarist first drummer second. I learned a lot from watching my friend play his huge Tama kit.

Bought a cheap MIT kit so he wouldn't have to lug his kit over to my place for recording. Took a cheap kit and made it sound expensive, reskinning it, tuning, eq'ing. We did use his Paiste, Zildjian Cymbals and his beautiful sounding snare.

After the band folded we spent 4 years together learning recording, buddy had already worked in a studio so he already had some knowledge. The biggest problem was trying to convince him we could get solid home recordings.

Biggest trial and error was mic choice and placement.

After I moved backed to Canada after living down under for 15 years, 2012 I started putting a kit together on the cheap because I had no money.

Being on Kijiji a lot I scored some wicked deals. My humble 5 piece turned into a monster, replacing the pearl claw tom mounts with opti-mounts. Scoring some Paiste 2002 cymbals, 19" and a 16" I scored for free ( buddy sold a group of cymbals cheap, I flipped the rest and kept the 2002 which ended up free )

Took me 3-4 years to build the kit, feels like blood sweat and tears. The next journey was buying mics. I love recording real kits, you can't replace those dynamics with electronic drums, not even close.

Love using Remo Pin stripes.

Some of my discoveries this year have been finding cheap mics that actually work, less eq'ing in Cubase saves times.

Its been quite the journey and not finished yet.

 

[mycroftxxx]

So, here’s a question from a completely self-taught, totally amateur drummer who has never played drums with a band (guitar, yes; drums, no): how important is it to learn the classic rudiments? I do drums just for fun, and just imitated things I heard on records, but occasionally think that maybe I should try getting more formal. Thoughts?

 

[DrumBob]

So, here’s a question from a completely self-taught, totally amateur drummer who has never played drums with a band (guitar, yes; drums, no): how important is it to learn the classic rudiments? I do drums just for fun, and just imitated things I heard on records, but occasionally think that maybe I should try getting more formal. Thoughts?

I come from the traditional school of drumming education and thought. I think it's imperative that aspiring drummers learn their rudiments, learn proper stick control and execution, proper posture behind the drumset. etc. That's how I was taught, and that's how I taught years ago when I was teaching. The problem was, most kids didn't want to take the time to learn properly. Too many of them wanted to be Lars Ulrich or Joey Jordison in three weeks. That wasn't gonna happen. I found kids generally had too much going on with school, sports, video games, partying, etc. There were a few really dedicated kids, but probably 80% of them weren't serious, once they saw how much work was necessary to get good.

It wouldn't hurt for you to take some lessons with a qualified teacher, if you have the desire, motivation and cash to do so.

 

[BluesForDan]

i wish i knew more about drumming so I could program drumming software to sound less 'robot', if that is possible. I'm in an apartment so a kit is utterly undoable. I look at the drum stuff on Logic Pro X and I'm so lost. I want to bring drums into my recordings but so far all I can do it copy and paste and it doesn't sound terribly inspiring. Plus the samples are 8 bars long and I don't know how to make them into 12 bar patterns.

I know what a snare is, and a floor tom from a rack tom, what a bass drum is. Cymbals are a mystery to me, though and I don't only want to use them as a crash at the end of a 12-bar pattern.

 

[mycroftxxx]

I come from the traditional school of drumming education and thought. I think it's imperative that aspiring drummers learn their rudiments, learn proper stick control and execution, proper posture behind the drumset. etc. That's how I was taught, and that's how I taught years ago when was teaching.

I can relate to this. On guitar, I just noodled around for some years until I decided I wanted to be more than a rank amateur, at which point I got a good teacher and made real progress.

The problem was, most kids didn't want to take the time to learn properly. Too many of them wanted to be Lars Ulrich or Joey Jordison in three weeks. That wasn't gonna happen. I found kids generally had too much going on with school, sports, video games, partying, etc. There were a few really dedicated kids, but probably 80% of them weren't serious, once they saw how much work was necessary to get good.

I think this is true for almost any instrument; relatively few people have the stick-to-it-tive-ness needed to get to a level of competence where you can actually recognize what you’re doing as music. But I’m guessing maybe more people come to the drums with more of a “how hard can this be?” attitude than other instruments

 

[DrumBob]

I can relate to this. On guitar, I just noodled around for some years until I decided I wanted to be more than a rank amateur, at which point I got a good teacher and made real progress.

I think this is true for almost any instrument; relatively few people have the stick-to-it-tive-ness needed to get to a level of competence where you can actually recognize what you’re doing as music. But I’m guessing maybe more people come to the drums with more of a “how hard can this be?” attitude than other instruments

There's certainly some truth to that. I saw it all the time.

 

[DrumBob]

i wish i knew more about drumming so I could program drumming software to sound less 'robot', if that is possible. I'm in an apartment so a kit is utterly undoable. I look at the drum stuff on Logic Pro X and I'm so lost. I want to bring drums into my recordings but so far all I can do it copy and paste and it doesn't sound terribly inspiring. Plus the samples are 8 bars long and I don't know how to make them into 12 bar patterns.

I know what a snare is, and a floor tom from a rack tom, what a bass drum is. Cymbals are a mystery to me, though and I don't only want to use them as a crash at the end of a 12-bar pattern.

Well, this is the place to ask about cymbals. What do you want to know?

 

[JPF]

How can I get my Logic Pro X drummer to sound more organic?

 

[In Absentia]

Electronic drums and software have their place, but aren't there any questions that any members have here about real, acoustic drums?

Ya know, wooden shells with heads attached?

And, aren't there any people here who have questions about the art of drumming? There must be somebody out there who needs some clarification on drumming.

We're here to help. But if you don't ask the questions, we can't.

I think a lot of folks are just confined to their living situations and that means EDrums for a while.

I am a bit of an advanced novice-intermediate player. Definitely could use some ideas for getting smoother singles and doubles.

 

[DrumBob]

I think a lot of folks are just confined to their living situations and that means EDrums for a while.

I am a bit of an advanced novice-intermediate player. Definitely could use some ideas for getting smoother singles and doubles.

Can you read drum notation? If so, get copies of Ted Reed's Syncopation and Stick Control by George Lawrence Stone. They are both proven tutorials, classic drum books that never go out of style. I've been using both since I was a teenager. And it wouldn't hurt to do your 26 rudiments, which are all available online.

If you don't read, simply work on smoothing out your quarters, eighths, triplets, sixteenths on a practice pad with nice, even strokes.

 

[In Absentia]

Can you read drum notation? If so, get copies of Ted Reed's Syncopation and Stick Control by George Lawrence Stone. They are both proven tutorials, classic drum books that never go out of style. I've been using both since I was a teenager. And it wouldn't hurt to do your 26 rudiments, which are all available online.

If you don't read, simply work on smoothing out your quarters, eighths, triplets, sixteenths on a practice pad with nice, even strokes.

I know the books, and can read sheet fairly well. I’m gonna dig in this week to it. I’m also trying to work on 4 Way Coordination.

I work the rudiments but I just can’t get them sounding smooth as I hear them.

Right now, I’m away from my actual kit (which is killing me), so I bought a Roland Ekit. But of course I can’t REALLY get any of my pad practice to really translate because of the machine gunning of the pads.