Author Topic: New to drumming! I stink!  (Read 3699 times)

New to drumming! I stink!
« on: October 03, 2018, 12:17:54 PM »
I stink at the drums that is. My name is Dan, I play keys, bass, and guitar...figured I might as well buy an e-kit to have as well. Just put it together last night (Alesis Nitro mesh) and it sounds really good to me for $300. Excited and can't wait to (try to) learn!

Re: New to drumming! I stink!
« Reply #1 on: October 05, 2018, 10:17:54 AM »
Practice, practice, practice.  :)  I'd also suggest picking up a practice pad.  I have an Evans Real Feel and it works well.
Simple does not equal easy.

Offline rhysT

Re: New to drumming! I stink!
« Reply #2 on: October 07, 2018, 09:11:37 AM »
Maybe try some Drumeo 'deodorant' with these free video lessons: http://www.freedrumlessons.com/drum-lessons/
« Last Edit: October 07, 2018, 07:46:23 PM by rhysT »

Re: New to drumming! I stink!
« Reply #3 on: October 17, 2018, 10:40:16 AM »
Thanks for the suggestions. I've checked out some Drumeo videos and some others on YouTube for some drills. After a couple weeks I can already tell how much better I've become. As my skill increases, my wife's yelling at me to stop decreases.

Offline orion32

Re: New to drumming! I stink!
« Reply #4 on: October 19, 2018, 02:16:13 PM »
Hey Beef.  I'm new to drumming too.  Have been playing less than a year.  I found some really great videos by Gordy Knudtson on youtube.  (He's the drummer for Steve Miller). I found his videos on stick technique and holding very helpful.  Before watching his videos I was holding onto the sticks like I was choking a snake and wondering why my arms, wrists, and hands were getting tired so quickly.
Alesis Strike Pro
A to E converted Zildjian L80 - 14" crash, 16" crash & china

Re: New to drumming! I stink!
« Reply #5 on: October 23, 2018, 01:55:50 AM »
A wise man says: One can not stink, if one has not put in the sweat to try........

Re: New to drumming! I stink!
« Reply #6 on: October 23, 2018, 06:27:31 AM »
Hey Dan don't feel bad. I learned drums 60 years ago and then got sidetracked with bass, guitar, and keyboards. For my 70th birthday I treated myself to a nice set of edrums and I stink worse than you. But the important thing is I am having a great time stinking and because of my headphones no one else can hear me stink. ;D

Offline iCe

Re: New to drumming! I stink!
« Reply #7 on: November 01, 2018, 08:28:25 AM »
I've been drumming for 19 years now and still feel like I need to learn more and more haha. There is so much to discover, but I think the most important thing to 'learn' is how to analyze your playing and to listen/feel what needs improving. So keep going and eventually you'll look back at your progression :)
Alesis DM10 Studio kit with 682drums mesh heads
Asus F551MAV-BING-SX1008B - Laptop

Offline Iggford

Re: New to drumming! I stink!
« Reply #8 on: November 01, 2018, 02:01:29 PM »
I've been drumming for 19 years now and still feel like I need to learn more and more haha. There is so much to discover, but I think the most important thing to 'learn' is how to analyze your playing and to listen/feel what needs improving. So keep going and eventually you'll look back at your progression :)


This is very important information!  I have also been playing for about 19 years.  I am totally self-taught.  I messed around on an acoustic kit for a bit before purchasing my first e-kit.  I played just for the fun of it for a long time, and joined my first band in 2015.  We record each of our shows, and I like to mix down all the audio.  I'll (almost obsessively) study every bit of it, making notes on what I should do here or there.  To me, the learning process is never complete.


--
Shawn

Offline rhysT

Re: New to drumming! I stink!
« Reply #9 on: November 03, 2018, 04:32:00 PM »
If you want a challenge and have some fun, try practicing with this Dream Theater track: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFc_6UZmAWM
« Last Edit: November 03, 2018, 04:51:35 PM by rhysT »

Offline iCe

Re: New to drumming! I stink!
« Reply #10 on: November 07, 2018, 03:35:14 AM »
I've been drumming for 19 years now and still feel like I need to learn more and more haha. There is so much to discover, but I think the most important thing to 'learn' is how to analyze your playing and to listen/feel what needs improving. So keep going and eventually you'll look back at your progression :)


This is very important information!  I have also been playing for about 19 years.  I am totally self-taught.  I messed around on an acoustic kit for a bit before purchasing my first e-kit.  I played just for the fun of it for a long time, and joined my first band in 2015.  We record each of our shows, and I like to mix down all the audio.  I'll (almost obsessively) study every bit of it, making notes on what I should do here or there.  To me, the learning process is never complete.


--
Shawn

I must add that I'm also mostly self-taught. I feel that there is nothing more confronting than recording yourself and hearing where you mess up, but also recording a video reveals a lot (how you sit, how you hit, analyze how you execute certain fills etc). I learn a lot from that and also a lot from instructional DVD's. Can't hurt to have a couple in your collection.

For example; a tip from Todd Sucherman was to play the hihat with your foot when you're crashriding or playing the ride, but more or less so add an extra sound source. I noticed that i had difficulty keeping a straight beat with hi-hat when i tried that, but after a while it felt natural and i notice now that my timekeeping it way more solid when i do that. So especially with busy parts i keep my hihat in quarter or eight notes so that my timing is more spot on. Suggest that you incorporate that in your playing (to OP) so you'll benefit from this early on (i wish i started doing it years back haha).
Alesis DM10 Studio kit with 682drums mesh heads
Asus F551MAV-BING-SX1008B - Laptop

Offline Iggford

Re: New to drumming! I stink!
« Reply #11 on: November 07, 2018, 09:47:02 AM »
I must add that I'm also mostly self-taught. I feel that there is nothing more confronting than recording yourself and hearing where you mess up, but also recording a video reveals a lot (how you sit, how you hit, analyze how you execute certain fills etc). I learn a lot from that and also a lot from instructional DVD's. Can't hurt to have a couple in your collection.

For example; a tip from Todd Sucherman was to play the hihat with your foot when you're crashriding or playing the ride, but more or less so add an extra sound source. I noticed that i had difficulty keeping a straight beat with hi-hat when i tried that, but after a while it felt natural and i notice now that my timekeeping it way more solid when i do that. So especially with busy parts i keep my hihat in quarter or eight notes so that my timing is more spot on. Suggest that you incorporate that in your playing (to OP) so you'll benefit from this early on (i wish i started doing it years back haha).


I totally agree with you.  I just bought a GoPro and an extra cymbal stand.  I plan to use it during shows and even when I practice at home, just to study my technique and find places I need to improve.  I've been playing for nearly 20 years, self-taught, and I just picked up a beginner's guide a couple of months ago.  Part of it was for my younger kids, they're wanting to learn how to play, and I have no idea where to start in teaching them.  But I've found myself going over the techniques and watching the video for things that I've missed over the years.

I do exactly what you are saying with the hi-hat.  I find myself keeping a beat going with the pedal when I'm not on the hat more often than I used to.  It was definitely awkward at first trying to work both feet independently more than usual, but it's become much more natural for me also by now.  It has also helped me a little with my double-bass technique.  I was never a double-bass player, and when I bought my Strike, I decided to get a double pedal to go with it.  I used it very sparingly at first, but I find myself using it a lot more comfortably now.


--
Shawn.

Offline AlanK

Re: New to drumming! I stink!
« Reply #12 on: November 08, 2018, 10:39:05 AM »
Yup, can't agree more with you, iCe and Shawn.. I learned early on to keep time and add that chick sound with the hats when riding, or in soloing, or even in some standard rolls. Actually to the point where sometimes I have to consciously tell myself to take my damn foot off the hi-hat because it becomes so instinctive to use it all the time. But it adds that extra accent, that accompaniment.. kinda seems like a tambourine going with your snare hits. Try doing two chicks on the hats, one with your snare hit and one after, it's awkward at first but I was experimenting with trying to have the hats really stand out in my ride timing and this way you and/or your audience really picks it up.

Then it gets fun and interesting to vary things if you can spend 10 or 20 minutes practicing on the ride patterns.. you can add hi-hat chicks softly, or stomp it, or try barking it or splashing it... it's super hard at times to do with electronic but if you go at it for a long time in one sitting you can really find some amazing nuances. Also, many of us have been compaining in here about the Alesis hi-hat functionality (with good reason).. I've got the Pro X setup, with the shitty loud top cymbal and the not so perfect open increments. But over the last couple years I've really dug into why I've had difficulties and by spending say an hour straight on testing out my style in practices here and there, I've started to come to some conclusions that part of the problem is adjusting our method in coming from acoustic (which is way more forgiving) to ekits.. if I want to play partly opened rocking out, I find that with every hit it gives a slightly more closed sound and I really had to focus on making sure that when I'd land the stick on the edge of the hat that I'd concentrate on not letting my foot drop the slightest, it's almost automatic it seems.. like blinking if you tap your face.. as well, I often make the mistake of resting my left forearm on my leg in between snare hits, or it comes down and hits my thigh, which adds pressure on the hi-hat foot. So when I'd really try to change these habits, my partly open hi-hats came through much better. And of course, there's just the demanding need to really pivot your left heel well at the base of the pedal and maintain the same height of your upper foot. And that's not easy on electric.

I feel like there's a trade off.. we want our hi-hat to be super sensitive, allow multiple voicings depending on the spring/where the mechanism senses the height of the top hat, but then it picks up such slight movements in your foot or leg. On an acoustic hat setup you can have your foot resting on the pedal and if it moves a bit it's still harder for the ear to pick up the differences in open/closed widths but the module I'm sure brings out those. So I'm working on it constantly and have had some decent results but it takes hours of practice and its still not perfect. I know other brands do better jobs, that's for sure, but I'm just saying that at times it's ourselves and how we place our feet.. to get a good bark I often have to bring my foot up higher on the pedal so that none of it's on the heel rest.. but to get some fine tuned openeness, it's too shakey to have your foot up high so I bring it back farther down. Then, of course, I get on the acoustic set and I have to retrain myself, lol.. there's that slight difference in when you can begin to open the hats to bark it that is just off enough between electric and acoustic that makes it hard to switch from one to the other!

Now my focus is working on the transition from playing on the hats and then getting into a fill and moving my left foot over to the double kick pedal, and getting back onto the hat stant when I'm done. Takes a lot of practice to get that smooth.. and I still end up splashing the hats since the pedals are so close.. on the other hand, it sounds really cool at times.. sometimes those subtle mistakes end up adding some pizzaz and you weren't expecting it. Also, I'd like to get good at working the double kick pedals as well as having my heel or part of my foot on the hat pedal to give it that added ka-ching!

Damn ain't drumming just the funnest thing in the world?!? What therapy! Rock on boys!
DM10X with Addictive Drums 2, Pro X hi-hat, 4 crashes, foam cone conversion w Roland mesh heads, Laurin Drums snare and kick, Mapex P710W double kick pedal, Mapex 2 legged hi-hat, Behringer 8 channel USB mixer, Tascam 144MK AI, Samson Expedition Escape powered speakers

Offline Iggford

Re: New to drumming! I stink!
« Reply #13 on: November 08, 2018, 02:27:26 PM »
I'm getting the double bass down more when I'm already on the ride.  I'm doing the same thing as you and working on moving from the hat pedal to the double kick and back.  I played single for so many years, I'm finding old habits hard to break!


--
Shawn.

Offline AlanK

Re: New to drumming! I stink!
« Reply #14 on: November 08, 2018, 03:35:07 PM »
Totally, Shawn. Sometimes I go onto the ride just for the sake of using the double kicks, or leave the hats opened and ream on them with double bass going.. so much fun. I only got my first double pedal about four years ago when I bought the DM10X and quickly found it to be an incredible improvement, now able to do quads and some fast thrashing (I'm not really into heavy metal or thrash, but if the boys or someone rips into anything super fast or hard, I can at least try to keep up).

But I also realise that sometime I'm overdoing the double kick, and some tempos or music genres it's just too much kick (cuz like a sports car, you wanna instinctively drive fast) with the double, even on the same standard rock beat or pop, you just start throwing in quick doubles and back beats! So sometimes I have to force myself to stick with old school single pedal, and often the result is a lot more pleasing to the ear. I read that on one tour (or for a couple shows) Bonham put on either a double pedal or used two bass drums and Page told him to quit it, it was just too much and too loud.. don't know if that was true, but I can understand now.. there's a time and a place. Most of my jamming and performing with the guys I stick with single pedal, and only go for the double on endings or some fun fills or if I solo a bit.

Reminds me back in about '79 when I bought my first brand new drum set and still had my used crappy kit, we were practicing up in the bass players attic hangout and I set up a double kick drum kit.. we all dropped acid and were just experimenting on grooves and trying out some Hendrix and other freaky shit.. man, we tranced into some crazy shit and I'd never used two bass drums but for some moments things were just coming together, it was completely out of body, out of mind type of musical experience and I don't know how we even managed to play, we were so screwed up but the music was phenomenal (or at least "we" thought so).. for at least a couple of songs I felt like I always was meant to have double bass and I thought I had conquered it.. I recall vaguelly a few songs in we all looked at eachother melting away and said screw this, can't even feel our hands or feet, lets roll one up and give up the jam.. LOL  ah the good ol' daze
DM10X with Addictive Drums 2, Pro X hi-hat, 4 crashes, foam cone conversion w Roland mesh heads, Laurin Drums snare and kick, Mapex P710W double kick pedal, Mapex 2 legged hi-hat, Behringer 8 channel USB mixer, Tascam 144MK AI, Samson Expedition Escape powered speakers

Offline iCe

Re: New to drumming! I stink!
« Reply #15 on: November 13, 2018, 08:19:45 AM »
Back to the hi-hat discussion :p
What i do a lot too is just accenting the after beats. That really felt awkward the first weeks, but now i like it more that you get a more audible and distinctive sound when i play it that way.

About double bass... been playing that for years now and feels like second nature (still no Virgil Donati skills though haha). I use it for fills and grooves as well, mainly accenting guitar and bass licks. But i also like to do a fill and that the last couple of notes are just on the bass (with the double pedal), makes a strong statement as well.
I've also come to realize over the years that you can use double bass to 'cheat' on very busy single pedal parts, but it sounds 'off' most of the time. So i just play the single bass part and just practice, practice and practice ;)
Always disliked when playing double bass my hi-hat is way open, so i always use an extra set of hats on a X-Hat. Yes, more gear to haul around and is more expensive than using a drop-clutch. But i like the sonic difference and feel of a hi-hat on the right side when playing double bass. And ofcourse really cool to play the down-beat on the x-hat and accent the up-beats with your foot on the main hi-hat. Aaaahhhhh, the possibilities are endless  ;D
Alesis DM10 Studio kit with 682drums mesh heads
Asus F551MAV-BING-SX1008B - Laptop