[Muso] Drums 'n' Equipment

[Bobby Spatchcock]

I've found this website very useful: http://www.freedrumlessons.com/ - the drum lessons cover a wide variety of beats, fills and techniques and can be downloaded for free. The instructors are also very personable which is important when trying to pick up something new...

Just for the record, I started out with one of these: http://www.firebox.com/product/1573/USB-Drum-Kit - in hindsight I found it useful in picking up a sense of timing and the most basic of rock beats but little else. After a couple of months I realised I wanted to take it a bit further so I went for the Roland TD6-KW. I've been playing drums for about a year in total now and still can't get enough of it.

I've been learning the drums myself so it's probably taken me longer to pick things up, but now after about 8 months with a 'proper' kit, I'm at a stage where I'm pretty comfortable with 16th note beats and have only just managed 4-limb independence (using the left foot to choke the hi-hat being the last limb!). I'd say it took me about a couple of weeks with the USB kit to be fully comfortable with the most basic of rock beats, but that could be down to the kit itself :)

My advice when you're starting out is to count each note out loud when you're learning a beat for the first time. You might feel a bit silly at first but it really does help! Eventually, the whole sense of rhythm becomes second nature and you'll probably find that you can pick up different beats easier the more you practise and mess about!

[The Boston Crab]

Sorry I missed your post crab, did you decide to get it, I'd say it might be worth it, if you do ever think you'll get to move into a proper house and for the time being you can just have compromised practice sessions, by dampening the hell out of the snare and bass drum and just playing it quietly.
In a way it might be better to learn that way, as you can just focus on learning the basics with less temptation to bash around.

You'll probably find the first real stumbling block when learning is seperating your arm and feet movements. when playing

I didn't actually because I spoke to my landlady who said she didn't want any trouble from the apartment management. That said, I'm going to buy them this week. You've just given me the impetus I needed. Thanks!

Edit: I had a good day down at the cop shop. The pigs rushed my foreign expert certificate renewal through with smiles on top. I'm gonna buy the drums in an hour!

[The Boston Crab]

I'm probably going to throw them out the window if I can't set them up within the next hour.

[The Boston Crab]

BOOM B-BOOM BAP!

Now just to wait for the apartment building management to throw me out!

[The Boston Crab]

Well, I've been playing these drums for a few weeks now and I'm getting pretty comfortable with them. I absolutely love settling down in my occasional free half-hour and getting stuck into a bit of a groove and very slowly learning to modify what I'm playing to mix up time sigs/rhythms. I didn't have the patience or desire to follow the online lessons I downloaded because it all seemed a bit oom-pah-pah. Anybody got any tips/links to some more interesting or unusual beat training? I want to get more into some 'tribal' stuff, not just hi-hat patterns now. Can you play this shit on a regular drumkit? Also, any ideas on how to modify drum sounds without boring holes into the buggers?

[The Boston Crab]

BONK

No advice here? Well, I wrapped the toms in the folds of this thin monk costume I got, muffles them almost dead but still a bit of 'spong' in there, you know? Doesn't completely kill the reverb, just makes them sound a little more neanderthal. The snare is still a bit of a boring bugger so I just pad it like hell and hit it harder. The hi-hats and crash, dunno yet. I'd just like a more unusual combination of sounds. Any ideas?

[dmillburn]

Well there's only so much you can do with tuning, dampening and changing heads to change the sound - you're not going to get your kit sounding wildly different to how it does now no matter what you do. A bit of time invested in learning to tune them properly will pay back though, you can normally get even the cheapest kits sounding alright with a new set of heads and a bit of time spent tuning - there's loads of tutorials on the net to follow.

If you think you'll be playing drums for years to come and really can't get to grips with tuning, and some people just can't, then invest in a Drum Dial or Tama Tension Watch (about £50 over here), basically a tension meter that measures the tension on the drum head near the lugs. It's a great teaching tool when you are learning to tune drums initially and also great for gigs and stuff when you are short on time or can't hear properly. It's not a substitute for learning to tune by ear but it's a really handy thing to have when playing out.

However having said all that, if you really want to get unusual sounds then get yourself an electronic kit - half the fun of playing for me is playing stuff that sounds nothing like a conventional drum kit and mucking about with completely over the top effects and stuff, so if that sort of stuff interests you it's the way to go. If you got yourself a cheap Roland or Yamaha kit second hand you'll not only have a huge variety of sounds to play with but it would also help with keeping the noise down. At the budget end of the price range you are looking at rubber pads rather than mesh heads which won't feel quite like acoustic drums, although as you are currently dressing your toms up in monk outfits this probably won't be a problem!

[The Boston Crab]

Thanks, that's brilliant. I owe you a pint. It should have been obvious but good to know the limitations too.

As for tuning: yep, totally. I've not done a thing about that apart from mess with them for an hour so every drum went 'perrrmmmffff'. They sound 'all right' to me but then again, I'm a total amateur.

'll definitely look into an electronic kit once I've got bored of these. As with everything, it's my usual 'run before walk' shit. I should learn to play them properly first but I prefer to just get a good feel by simple practice and messing around with whatever comes into my head.

Just about to run out but thanks and thanks.