What Type of Laptop to Record With

Another Email question came in. I've decided to post all of the questions I get...hopefully some of the answers will help others that are wondering the same thing.

Question:

Recording
Hey Stephen
I am beginning to look into staring my own recording setup and i pretty much found everything i need but a computer. Do you know of any other laptops that are good for recording, other than mac (to save money)?
Thanks,
Aaron

My Reply:

What's up Aaron...

That's awesome that you're thinking about getting a recording rig up and running...I can tell you from my own experience, it's the best! The amount you learn in the process, the ability to just walk in and record yourself, and the decision making power you will have over your playing and songwriting is priceless.

Here's the deal about a Mac...who cares. I use one, but you don't have to. Here in Nashville, if you walk into the top of the tops studio, they'll have Macs. That doesn't mean they're any better than a PC. It just means that they've become popular. I would check out Dell...they make some great products. On top of that, I would check out the Dell refurbished department (gasps of disbelief!). You'll save a little money and get a computer that's just as good as the others. The Mac I currently run my recordings off of was bought refurbished. Whatever type you decide on, there are just a few things to look out for:

1. Make sure that whatever recording program you're using will run on a PC or Mac (whichever you choose to use). Also, make sure your hardware (interface, etc) is compatible with the system you'll be running.

2. Make sure it's powerful enough to run all of your programs. This is really your biggest concern when picking a computer.

In the end, it doesn't matter what you use. I was choosing between a Dell and Mac...just so happened that I was going to use iMovie (a program that comes free on a Mac). The savings from not having to buy a video editor justified it in my mind.

I hope this helps...let me know if you need to know anything else. That's why I'm here! I'll let you know anything that I know...and tell you when I don't know the answer. Let me know what you decide!

-Stephen T.

Rolls and Finger Control

Had a couple of questions on Facebook about rolls (single and double) and finger control...

Any tips on developing good drum rolls? Ive been practicing and I can do pretty some cool stuff but i just cant seem to get my drum rolls down. both single and double stroke rolls.

Thanks,
Mario

What's up Mario...man, you'll be striving for a better double and single stroke roll your whole life (I know I still do). Every drummer I know that's worth their beef still consistently works on them.

Here's two lessons I did...

Double Stroke:




Single Stroke:




See if those help out a bit. If they're not the answer you're looking for or you need more info, let me know and I'll hit you up with an answer tomorrow morning!

And the next morning...

Thank you for the videos. Those videos will really help me. One more questions it seems that when i speed up my finger on my left hands start to kick in, but the fingers on my right hand will not. Any tips on how to get better control and speed with fingers?

Thanks
Mario

Ask and you shall receive...lol...Here's a lesson on finger control...one is on finger control with traditional grip and one is on finger control with matched grip...let me know if that helps or you need more info...

Matched Grip:



Traditional Grip:



Hope those help!

-Stephen T.

Keeping Consistent Time

Had a question come in about keeping consistent time. GREAT topic.

"Dear Stephen
I want to know what is a good exercise in working on keeping a consistent tempo to music?

Not keeping a consistent tempo with the music really bugs me like an insane amount, I used to play smooth and very consistent and now I drag subconsciously.
I really would appreciate the advice and tips, it is literally killing me and this is holding me back mentally, it discourages me in becoming a great drummer. I have been struggling with this for a while. I could play with a metronome consistently before and I don't understand why I continue to drag with music, it's like a drummers worst nightmare. I really really would appreciate the help."

What up...

Great question. This is THE job of a drummer...to keep consistent and comfortable time while the band is playing. To often we get so caught up with trying to learn the latest fill or hot lick, we forget what our real job is.

I wish I had an "Easy" button for you, LOL! There's no shortcut for good timekeeping...you just have to work your butt off! There's also no fancy exercise I can show you. Here's what has worked for me in the past.

-The metronome is your friend! From now on, EVERY exercise you play will be to a click. I don't care what you're working on. Hand and foot exercises...to a click. Rudiments...to a click. Groove exercises...to a click. Get the point? You need to listen to a click so much that you're hearing it in your sleep! This is the only way I learned.

When I was in New Orleans, there was a time that I was pulling doubles 5-6 times a week...that's 10 hours of stage time EVERY DAY! Plus I was practicing outside of my regular gig. The club I played at had a click right by the drumset. I played every song to it for months. I sucked hard at first, lol...it was pretty bad! But as time went on, I got more and more comfortable with it.

-The best exercise for learning solid groove with a click is to play to one for long periods of time. Best exercise I've found (notice I didn't say most interesting). Set your metronome at a certain tempo. Pick a groove you've been working but that you've already mastered. For this exercise we don't want to be worried about the mechanics of the groove. You want to already have those mastered. You're simply worried about consistent time. Start the click. Set your stop watch for 5 minutes. Start playing. Focus on keeping solid and comfortable time with the click. NO FILLS...just the groove. Once you get comfortable with that, set your stop watch for ten minutes and do it again. and again. and again...until you're so sick of it you can't stand it! Now start to add a fill. Not many. Watch your stop watch and everytime the minute marker goes by, play a fill. Make sure it's in time and that you come back in on the proper beat. Repeat this over and over.

-I also suggest playing to music. Make it current music for this particular skill. Older music (motown, James Brown, classic rock, etc) wasn't always recorded to a click. 95% of new music today is. Focus on staying with the drummer on the track, emulating his groove and feel. Learning to have groove with and without a click is fundamental to a drummer.

These are just some suggestions that have worked for me in the past. The most important thing is to find ways to make it interesting and fun. This is one of the hardest skills to learn. It's a very mature thing for a drummer to realize...that his or hers time sucks. The good thing is, it's a skill that can be taught with repetition. So there's hope for you!

Thanks for the question...seriously, with a little hard work, you'll be a time keeping rock star in no time. I know you can do it bro. Let me know how it's going!

-Stephen T.

Practicing vs. Rehearsing

Had another e-mail come in that I thought you guys would like to see...


Got a question!
I love the new material you always post. How do you (or more importantly how would I) go about balancing new practice material vs getting ready for the upcoming gig?

Love the beat displacement vid. I play hip hop and I never thought to do that. I am always looking for a different way to use the kick and snare since that is so important in that genre. Do you have the written music for that or is it in the book? If it's in the book don't bother, I am buying it here soon.

Thanks,
Jason
ps July 22nd you are at the NAMM in Nashville?



What's up Jason...

So sorry it took me a day or so to get back to you. I wanted to make sure I had enough time to fully answer your question...and a GREAT question it is!

I struggled with this so much while I was in college. I was playing in a ton of groups and going to school at the same time. It seemed like I was always having to learn new material for a gig as well as keep up with the ensembles I was in and my private lessons (I was taking from two separate teachers. Not only did I have to keep up with my drum set studies, I had to practice the vibes, marimba, and tons of auxiliary percussion). I actually found a few ways to have it all work to my advantage. I would learn what needed to be learned for the gig, keep up with my lesson studies, challenge myself in new ways, and make money with it all at the same time.

First things first...THE GIG IS THE MOST IMPORTANT!!! The whole reason we get into playing in the first place is so that we can take those skills and entertain (hopefully at least) people. To play with other musicians, to create...not to sit in our basement and hack out cool licks by ourselves (although I have just as much fun doing that). Whatever material has to be learned for the gig comes first. Period. If rehearsals with the group you're gigging with takes away from your practice time, that's just how it has to be. When you get onstage, you should know the songs backwards and forwards.

Now, that being said, I think you can do both at the same time. Practice for the gig as well as further your skills that is.

For a long time I separated what I practiced in my personal practice time from the gig material. I had the stuff I practiced and I had the stuff I played on the gig and never the two would meet. Thinking back it seems so stupid to do it that way. I just never thought to incorporate practicing for a gig into my practice sessions. The only reason we practice is to learn skills that will make us better on the gig. Your gigs and the material you learn should regularly mix with the material you have fun practicing.

It started while I was playing in NOLA. I was playing at least 5 hour shifts, sometimes 10 hours...6 days a week...now that's alot of playing! Needless to say, it was alot of the same material, and not overly challenging material might I add. I would practice for 2 or 3 hours before I went into the gig. It dawned on me one day that I had the perfect situation to try out alot of the stuff I had been practicing. I would take a fill idea I had been working on, or a groove idea, and I would look through our song list. I would find the best place to stick the fill in..."I'll play this fill going into the 3rd chorus of Jungle Boogie", or whatever. Or maybe it was a groove that I would stick into a solo section of a song. In other words, I was using the gig to apply the skills I was learning in my practice time. This is one way I made the most of my time.

The other one takes a bit more creative thought, but is alot more fun and has endless possibilities.

Take 3 or 4 songs that you'll be performing. They are now going to be put on the table to be dissected. First, find out what tempos they are played at. Write those down. Next, pick your regular warmup (if you have one...and if not, now's a great time to get one) or maybe just a section of a method book that you've been working on. Pick one of the tempos and instead of playing the exercise at the fastest tempo possible, play it at the tempo of that song. Make it groove and repeat it until it's perfect. I found that alot of the performance tempos I played at were slower than the tempos I was playing some exercises at. This allows you to work on the song indirectly. When you go to play that song, all of a sudden you'll have a ton of ideas start to spring into your head because you've been concentrating on that tempo all week.

Now that you've done that, pull the actual recording of the song out. Grab some headphones and have some fun! Put the song on repeat and play the exercise to the actual song. It doesn't have to make musical sense at the time, this is just practice. I've stumbled upon so many cool applications of things I had been studying just by randomly playing the exercise over a new song. "Oooh, I love the way that sits over that groove!", "Man, that sounds killer when I do that right before the bridge!".

We're just getting warmed up with this...

Ok, so we've practiced that songs tempo until we're blue in the face. Now lets dissect the song. Take the groove that you play to that song. Pull out a book like Gary Chester's "New Breed". Go to the section of bass drum exercises. Keep the hi hat and snare the same as they are in the song and play the bass drum exercises over that. Now keep the hi hat and kick drum the same as they are in the song and play the bass drum exercises, but this time play them with your left hand on the snare instead of the kick drum. Now keep the snare and kick the same as in the song and play the exercises on the hi hat...or tom...or ride cymbal...or whatever...no rules here! Are you starting to see what I'm getting at with this?

Next, take 3 of the fills that happen during the song. Learn them as they are played on the recording. Then mess with them. Start them on beat two instead of 1. Just use the sticking for the fill and put every note on a different drum...Play the fill on the cymbals...play the fill between the left hand and the kick...again, it's a game, just have fun with it.

Grab some popcorn, I've got a story...

I picked the setlist out for my senior recital 6 months before it was to happen. Then, I went through each song and decided what concepts I wanted to explore. I took all 6 months and came at those grooves and concepts in every way possible. It was some of the most intense and rewarding practicing I've ever done. By the time I played my recital, I had a virtual encyclopedia of stickings, grooves, and ideas to pull from.

This is the way I approach it. When I do this, I'll get to the gig and what seemed like challenging music when I first looked at it was now quite simple. And I found I wasn't just "getting through" the gig anymore...I had endless ideas that I could try. And I knew they would all be in the pocket because I had been practicing those ideas to that song for weeks.

Another way...

Get out your practice log (and I know you have one)...decide on how long you have to practice that day and how long you have until the gig (i.e. a week? a month?). Spend half of your practice time working on the gig material, and the other half working on your own stuff. As long as you slot out a time frame, you should be able to learn it in plenty of time for the gig as well as expand your own stuff.

As far as the displacement vid...so glad it helped! And yes, that material is in the book. If you haven't checked these lessons out that I did as well, you should. I think you'll dig them too...

DRUM & BASS


MOVING A LINEAR PATTERN



And yes, I will absolutely be at NAMM...and you? If you're there, let's hook up!

How To Audition

I had a comment left on my Facebook page (btw, if you aren't my "friend", you're more than welcome to find me. I stress this all of the time, but I answer any and all comments, questions, emails, messages, smoke signals, letters, bird calls, and tweets. I love talking drums, teaching, and sharing the knowledge that I've stumbled upon due to the massive amount of mistakes I've made over my career...there were some successes, but I didn't learn near as much from those, LOL). The comment had to do with auditioning, how to prepare, how to handle nerves, what if I get rejected...you know, the usual plethora of emotions and anxieties we experience anytime we have to "prove ourselves" to other musicians. I thought it was a great discussion, so I'm posting it here. These are just my thoughts on the subject...feel free to add your own to the discussion...

Hi!
I have sort of an "Audition" in two weeks for a marching band here in Austria. It's a group of 12 men and women and they play at local festivals here in Carinthia.
My problem is- I don't know how to play stuff in traditional grip.. my rolls just sound terrible.. but when we are marching I need to play in traditional because of the snare hanging sideways... My other fear is that I will just fail miserably at the Audition... Have you got any tips? Please?
Greetings and thanks in advance,
Lucas






I absolutely have some tips bro. First of all, that's awesome that you're even thinking of auditioning! Seriously, an audition is stressful, nerve wracking, makes you doubt yourself, fun, hard work...and lots more all rolled into one. It takes alot of guts to put yourself under that kind of scrutiny. Here's a list of things to watch out for in general on auditions...

1. Identify any problem areas

You already told me your problem area. Double strokes and rolls in your left hand suck. Great! Now that you know what your problem is, you can go about methodically fixing it. Anytime I have an audition coming up, I try to find my weakest areas and work on them. Sit down with a pencil and a piece of paper and write out a practice routine. How much time each day do you have to practice? Schedule your practice time just like you would school work or a job. Every minute should be accounted for in your day and any spare seconds should be devoted to practicing. Every last minute that you have scheduled to practice should be planned out, with additional topics to be practiced in case you have extra practice time. If you really want this gig, then take the audition that seriously. Treat every audition and gig like it's Wembley Stadium...like it's the most important thing in the world...because it is. Take your practice pad EVERYWHERE with you! You should be working on that left hand in your sleep. People should be begging you to stop playing diddles on your left hand. They should be petitioning the local authorities to have you banned in public places due to noise violations. You're a man on a mission! Act like it! (Ok, so maybe that's a bit overboard, but you get the idea!)

2. Try to find out what material you need to play ahead of time.

3. Go to any shows they have in the next couple of weeks. Let them know that you're not just wanting to play for the sake of playing drums. Let them know you're really interested in the group, that you really and truly like what they do. That goes a long way.

4. Whether you get the gig or not, it's worth it. I can't tell you how much improvement has come in my playing in the past due to audition preparation. And you know what? Every one of them gets easier. You'll find that you aren't as nervous at the next audition. Practice improves you...and so does practicing your auditioning skills. Unless you're Steve Gadd or Dave Weckl, people are going to want to hear you play before they make a decision on inviting you into their musical world. That's only fair.

Again, I can't tell you how stoked I am that you get this opportunity. If you get the gig, great! If you don't get it, great! Ask them what you can do to improve yourself...that way, if they have another audition down the road, you can come back and show them just how committed you are. There's a big chance that you could screw up...there's a big chance they won't like you...there's a big chance that you might embarrass yourself...SO WHAT! There's also a chance they might like you...that you'll blow them away...that they'll see potential. Don't judge your worth as a player and human being on the outcome of one audition.

Whew...I got a little long winded, sorry. It's just a great opportunity...you should definitely take advantage of it.

-Stephen

E-mail Question: Samba and Mambo Song Examples

Had a question come in wanting to know some good examples of the samba and mambo. These are by no means the best, they're just what I dug up on You Tube as examples.

Question:

"Hey man ! Recently I've been living off a healthy diet of your youtube lessons, I've spoke to you a couple of times about the Mambo when I was struggling with it, but I've nailed the Basic Mambo with the cascara patterns 1 & 2. I've played around with switching between the two patterns and also switching the parts of each ride cymbal pattern. I still feel a little stiff and I need to start incorporating some basic fills.

I'm actually struggling to find any good mambo music to play along to, I'm having the same trouble with Samba. I've got an app for the iphone with allows me to tune into various south american radio stations, but the groves I've been practising rarely seem to fit to the music, especially with the Mambo rhythms. They either seem too slow or I can't quite find a grove to lock into. I was wondering if you know any good music I could check out, to play the Mambo/ Samba along to. Any particular artists or websites or drumless music tracks. Anything !?

Thanks for your help, and thanks for all the endless help with the drumming, I've started to improve so much more since working my way through your videos and expanding my drum skillz."

And my short answer...

Dude, I'm so glad the lessons are helping you...I love knowing that you guys are getting something out of them!

You're tackling a HUGE topic...you can study for years and never get to the end of latin rhythms and their many different mutations...mambo in particular. That being said, it's one of the best things you could be studying...not only does it take you out of your comfort zone, it drills you on four way coordination.

To the topic of listening...One thing you should know is that when we learn and dissect rhythms, they tend to be isolated and by themselves. When you place them in the context of a song, however, that song could have many different sections, all calling for different grooves, particularly latin styles. I dug up a few of my favs and a few that I thought illustrated the styles. These are just a few examples though, and by no means are they even the best ones...their just the ones I dug up on the fly.

Chick Corea

"Spain" Go to the 1:15 mark and it'll pick up to samba speed...




"Samba Song"




This is also a GREAT video for sambas...several different genres and styles, ranging from electronic to traditional (the samba is traditionally played by a group of people in parades...think of a latin drumline)



Mambo

"Mambo No. 5" (The original 1950 version)


Tito Puente- "Mambo Diablo" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esa-jpG8Muo

"Hong Kong Mambo"




I hope all of this helps man. I can't tell you how much it makes my day to know you're improving so much...and that I had a small part in it.

Cheers!

-S