No one can be working, creative, successful, admired and in demand
all the time. We all have periods of transition, depression, insecurity,
frustration, etc. where nothing seems to be happening. Don't think that
you are the only one that goes through this. The times where nothing
seems to be happening are actually periods of subconscious activity and
growth, or a sort of cosmic alignment where things you are going to be
doing or people you are going to be working with are all coming around
to the time and place that it's going to happen. So don't force it.
Sometimes it's best to take advantage of these times for friends,
family, hobbies, and other enjoyable activities.
In 1933 a
group of drummers in Chicago, Illinois formed the 'National Association
of Rudimental Drummers'. They originated thirteen basic roll patterns to
function as a guide in teaching beginning drummers. They called these
rolls 'The Thirteen Essential Rudiments of Drumming'. Later, they
designed an additional thirteen rudiments, which brought the total to
twenty-six. The American public school system adopted these 'rudiments'
as the teaching standard nationwide for elementary, high school and
college drum squads.
When practicing, keep a notepad nearby.
Write down any thoughts that may cross your mind concerning the rhythm,
motion of the sticks, sound of the drums, etc. At the end of your
practice session, review your notes. Apply any changes that you may want
to make to your next practice session. You will gradually notice
improvement in your performance.
Don't procrastinate with your
music. Like exercising, if you relax too long you will lose some of that
hard earned ground that you worked so hard to gain. Try to practice
every day, even if it is only a few minutes. Practice never makes
perfect; it only makes you better. You can always improve your
abilities. Even though we may think there are some "perfect players" out
there, they usually know their own flaws and are trying to improve as
well.
"To be early is to be on time, to be on time is to be
late". Keep this thought in mind when leaving for a gig. It could
possibly make the difference in getting future gigs.
When
looking for new drum grooves to apply to the drum set, look to the
south, or South America to be more precise. Afro-Cuban, Caribbean, and
Brazilian are just some of the rhythms available to aspiring drummers
and percussionists.
Duct tape is essential in the drummer's
arsenal. In addition to a variety of other tasks, duct tape can provide
the drummer with a better grip upon his sticks. Take a small amount of
duct tape and roll it into a ball, sticky side out. Then roll it around
in your hands. The sticky residue will enable you to better grip your
sticks. Just remember to wash your hands after the gig.
Networking is one of the most critical and often overlooked aspects of
being a professional drummer. Get out there and play, jam, or sit in
with others as much as you can. Word of mouth spreads fast and one thing
leads to another. Join the Musicians Union, Musicians contact services,
go to clubs, rehearsal complexes, music stores, watch for ads and
auditions in local papers. Your phone won't ring if no one knows who
you are.
Bands or individuals should write, rehearse and record
their own CDs. Take advantage of cheap, high quality technology that was
unheard of 5-10 years ago that make it possible to do a great sounding
recording at home. Then pursue local college radio and record stores to
play it and sell it on consignment at gigs.
Consider organizing
your practice sessions into 15 or 20 minute segments, i.e. 15 minutes
for reading, 15 minutes for rudiments, etc. This will allow you to
concentrate on many areas at once. You can often accomplish a lot more
by practicing this way.
Here's a thing that we all can do at a
minimum of time and expense. As an additional warm-up before a
performance, listen to CD's or tapes that inspire you. You will usually
play better as a result of the motivation you feel from the music.
Don't forget to practice fast tempos. It's not enough to know
how to play drumbeats at moderate tempos. Before you know it, someone
will throw you a tune that's blazingly fast. You need to be prepared
when the time comes.
Brushes are so soft that the subtlety of
what you are playing (the pattern) can be lost or less precise unless
each hand is playing a shape that relates to a rhythm. White noise,
texture, and color may be desirable or
appropriate within certain sections of tunes. The defined musical
outcome determines how strongly you want to imply time, or if one or
both hands are actively shading time, color, and textures.
One
advantage to having a double pedal is you'll always have a spare.
Conversely, a very real disadvantage is the overuse of this pedal
arrangement. Doubling up on every other beat will make it impossible
for the bass player to lock in to you. Then other thing is that you can
unwittingly create a low-end rumble that destroys the foundation of the
groove you are trying to create.
The speed of your drum
rudiments is only as fast as your left hand (or right hand, if you're a
lefty) will allow. Practice your weak hand diligently. You'll then
notice all the rudiments becoming easier to play.
Some of you
use a house drum kit when you record. Whether it be your own kit or one
you have access to, accurate tuning can make your recording experience a
pleasant one. It's the last thing a drummer learns if at all and it's
the most important thing in recording. If you have garbage as your
source, even the best signal path won't help you.
Each shell of
a drum kit has a resonant frequency. The frequency can be found by
removing all the hardware, suspending the drum and tapping it to find
the tone. This can then be matched to a tuning fork etc. as a tuning
source. Once you find the resonant tone you use this to tune the
drumheads.
The important thing is that no two drums of
different sizes overlap each other's timbrel frequency range. Ultimately
you want a set that's matched in tone. The intervals far enough apart so
the drums complement each other without the sympathetic vibrations
causing problems. Bigger drums such as the kick and low tom should be a
fifth apart where as you get smaller and smaller it can be a fourth
apart.
In order to enjoy any level of success as a drummer in
the music business, it is vital that you be absolutely clear about your
goals. Do you want to be a studio musician, rock, jazz, or country
musician? Do you want a sideman gig? Do you want to play original music
in a band? Do you want a job in a symphony? Search your soul, talk to
people, and write your goals down on paper. Then simplify and focus on
what you can do now, just for today to work toward your goal and do one
little thing at a time.
Don't burn bridges. Try to secure your
next career or employment move before canceling your current one, and
when you move on, try to do it honestly and remain on good terms. You
never know when you might need a former colleague's help.
The
drums are the second oldest instrument known to man, the first being the
human voice. Even that assumes that the earliest man sang before he
began beating a stick against a hollow log. Drums and drumming still
awaken a primal instinct in all humans. Participating in and listening
to drumming are still a major part of our rituals in America today, from
Theater to Parades to Football games.
Reasons for
becoming a Drummer: # 1. You have a good sense of rhythm. If
you are good at keeping time, that's a good start as the drummer is the
timekeeper of the band, but remember this fact. Keeping the pulse going
is just one of your responsibilities. However, as a drummer in a band
you will need to do more than just keep the pulse. You will need to
develop the ability to play intricate rhythms based upon the pulse that
you're keeping.
Reasons for becoming a Drummer: # 2.
All your friends tell you that because you can't carry a tune
you should become a drummer. Not only is this insulting to other
drummers, it's just plain wrong. When you seriously begin to play, you
will discover that all of the drums in a five-piece kit have a pitch,
and they all can be tuned. Playing the drums will increase your exposure
to music, and actually help you to improve your sense of pitch.
Reasons for becoming a Drummer: # 3. When you listen
to music, be it rock, jazz or classical it's the sound of percussion
that gets your blood moving. This is actually a good reason for you to
pick up this instrument, as an interest can easily turn into a passion,
and a passion is something that you will stick with.
Reasons for becoming a Drummer: # 4. You like music and
the thought of making it, but you don't like showboating and would
prefer to be in the background. This is true of drummers, most of them
sit behind the other instruments, but it's a bad reason to pick up the
drums. The drummer may not be the one who takes the flashy solos, but
he/she is one of the most important
members of the band. Everyone is
depending on the drummer to keep the beat and keep the momentum moving
forward. And, if you should make a mistake, guess what? Spotlight on
you!
Reasons for becoming a Drummer: # 5. You
like music and the thought of making it, and the thought of getting all
the glory really turns you on. Again, this is not a good reason for
taking up the drums (in fact, it's not a good reason for doing much of
anything, in my opinion.) Being a good drummer is about being part of a
team and creating a whole that sounds bigger than any of it's parts, and
if one part stands out larger than the rest, the band and the sound will
suffer.
Reasons for becoming a Drummer: # 6.
You have a lot of energy and pent-up aggression and you're looking for a
new way to blow off some steam. This is fine, as beating the hell out
of a poor defenseless drum is great way to rid yourself of some
aggression, but it doesn't lead to making great music. Drummers, like
all musicians need to learn to play with tenderness and expression, as
well as Agro and volume. Except if you're in a Punk Rock band
What is the role of the drummer in a band? #1- Within a
band, be it Jazz, Rock, or Pop music the function is first and foremost,
to keep the beat. The drummer is the pulse of the band, and it is
his/her responsibility to keep time and to make sure that everybody
else stays in time. In order to accomplish the latter, the drummer
needs to be as solid as a rock with the tempo, not speeding up when
he/she gets excited. And not slowing down when the rhythms get
complicated.
#2: It is also the job of the
drummer to add color and variety to the music. If all that were
required was a solid beat, drum machines would soon replace live
drummers. The way to learn how to add color and flourish is to listen
to other drummers. Imitate what they do at first. Before long, you'll
find your own voice.
#3: As a drummer, it will
be vital for you to be able to complement and interact with the other
players in your band. This means hat it's not enough for you to keep
just a solid beat; you also need to listen to what's going on around
you. For example, when the guitarist is soloing, you need to listen to
his solo and anticipate where he is going with it. This will allow you
to insert the appropriate fills, accents and crashes that make the
entire band sound fantastic.
The 'Traditional
Grip', favored by drummers who learned their trade at the hands
of a crafty Jazz veteran, consists of holding one stick in your right
hand with all four fingers wrapped around the stick and the thumb
supplying the grip. In your left hand, you will hold the stick between
the 2nd and 3rd finger with the thumb relaxed. Some drummer I know will
switch between grips, as the musical feel that they want to get
requires.
Older Jazz drummers favor the "Traditional Grip",
while some of the younger monster Jazz drummers use the Matched
Grip to hold their sticks. This is because it used to be
thought that a drummer could coax more expressive or sensitive notes
from his snare drum by using the Traditional Grip. Nowadays, this is
not so any more as it's common knowledge that either grip will suffice
in terms of left-hand control.
If you have ever watched a live
drummer in concert. You may have noticed that playing beats and rolls
are his two major functions. The pro drummer will normally hold a steady
beat through the vocal parts of the song. Between verses he/she will
often let go with a thunderous roll burst around the toms, and return to
the beat again at the beginning of the next verse. In this way he will
tend to 'fill' the holes, or lulls in the music. These short roll bursts
have become known as 'fills'. Many different types of roll patterns will
function as 'fills'.
Many of the techniques drummers use to get
their signature sound are things that are difficult or at minimum time
consuming to do with midi sequencers. For example: Cymbal chokes, flams
inside of rolls, playing light "ghost hits", playing cymbals with soft
mallets, rim shot in the middle of a roll, exploiting the timbrel
variety of a drum by going from soft to hard hits, tapping back and
forth from the center of a cymbal to its periphery, playing the snare .
slightly ahead or slightly behind beats 2 and 4 often
differently for each bar, playing with brushes on toms and cymbals,
double hitting a drum with two sticks, one slightly behind providing a
"snap". And the important thing about good drummers is that they don't
repeat these accents all the time. They put them in whenever they think
they can get away with it, not only at the fill.
Many drummers who trigger from acoustic (hybrid) drum kits are
blending both the acoustic and perfectly processed electronic drum
sounds. This will commonly "color" the sounds and "fatten" your overall
sound up. Electronic drum sounds can't "go out of tune" like an acoustic
drum. Drummers also commonly use a mix of acoustic and electronic drums
to add sound effects or the exact sounds they had previously recorded in
the studio.
Defining Strokes and Rhythm
Use recognizable shapes to begin experimenting with strokes and
patterns. Circles, heart shapes, and Xs are three shapes that you can
use with almost all tempos and grooves (ballads, medium, fast, Latin).
Brush Effects and Rhythm
Each hand
should play a discernible rhythm unless you want color or texture.
Experiment with New Strokes
To
develop fluidity and facility with brushes, practice less familiar
motions. This will help you strengthen the strokes that feel natural or
comfortable. It is the best way to discover new strokes and develop
variations on established patterns.
Use Your Feet to
Feather the Bass
Brushes can be less rhythmically
defined and need greater support, definition, and bottom than sticks.
When using brushes, feather the bass drum. Use the hi-hat to provide
bottom and support.
Feathering the bass lets you play very soft
quarter notes or half notes to provide bottom and support, with the bass
player in a lower harmonic range. However, the hi-hat can overpower the
brushes, particularly on ballads where you need a softer execution or a
one-quarter foot stroke (cymbals one half-inch apart). Play on the Tips
of the Brushes
When playing patterns or time, play on the tips
of your brushes, holding the brushes at a 45-degree angle to the snare.
Otherwise, you will lose the contrast essential for pulse, nuance, and
soft shadings in accenting, embellishing, and filling. A lower angle
gives you a more legato sound. A higher angle gives you a more staccato
sound.
All brushes are not created equal. Before you buy
brushes, take them out of the container to inspect them. Make sure that
they retract easily and that the shank of the brush is made of a
material that feels good in your hands. Plastic corrugated shanks,
metal, and rubber are materials that, with repeated use, may feel
uncomfortable. Check the balance and weight to see if they are light
enough to play very fast tempos.
"Multi rods," "Rakes,"
and "Blas-Stixs" are not brushes. They offer an infinite
variety for experimentation of new sound sources and color, but you
should never use them as a replacement for brushes. Practice Without
Brushes
Practice brush strokes using only your hands and
fingertips on the drum (without brushes).
It is much easier to
capture the shape and flow of a pattern with your hands. Once you have
perfected the stroke, it is easier to move to the brushes.
When
creating and maintaining a time feel and flow, brushes are similar to
sticks. For example, when playing time with sticks, the right hand
predominantly stays on the ride cymbal to create a cushion. The left
hand and right foot are used in supportive, accent roles underneath the
ride cymbal. When playing time with brushes, both hands are, for the
most part, on the snare together. It may be disruptive to the overall
time feel or cushion if either hand leaves the snare often. It is easier
to embellish, accent, and fill within the original stroke or pattern by
maintaining the original shape. Rhythm table and coordination exercises
strengthen this concept further.
Implying
Rhythm: To create greater fluidity between transitional
strokes, and to discover your own personal strokes, experiment creating
variations of shapes to imply a rhythm. Transitional strokes include
circles, heart shapes, and Xs. They may be played as quarter notes,
eighth notes, triplets, sixteenth notes, and so forth.
Copyright 2001 Berklee Press, Implying Fills, Accents, and
Metric Modulation