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.
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
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.
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Drum Lesson: Intermediate Samba
Monday, July 11, 2011
Something I Dug Up From College...
Since I write this blog, I get to choose what goes on it. I try my best to not make it about myself...but seeing as the only experience I have to draw on is my own, I wind up in alot of the posts. Sorry about that.
This is a recording (I believe from my senior recital). My arrangement of Afro-Blue. For you drum nerds, here's what I'm doing.
1. A 3 over 4 pattern in the feet with 4 being on the kick and 3 being on the hi-hat. This lays over 6/8 quite well.
2. A 6/8 cascara pattern (for the most part) in my right hand. I don't stick strictly to that (I think I start off differently actually), but that's what I base most of it off of.
3. 6/8 Clave in my left hand split between the rim of the snare and the toms. I was working on incorporating the different subdivisions of the 3 over 4 polyrhythm into my solo as well as my playing.
Funny to look back on these kinds of things.
Sunday, July 10, 2011
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!
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!
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Super Secret Drum Lesson: The Secret to Unbelievable Bass Drum Speed
I named it that because every time I would come across a lesson on bass drum speed online, it was lauded as some big secret. I'll let you in on the big secret...It's not. It just takes alot of hard work. Here's a lesson to help out. Let me know how it works out for ya!
Friday, July 8, 2011
Disappointment and Failure
I had something happen today that made me remember that feeling that I get every time I feel like I've failed. You know, that awful feeling in your gut when you know you just blew the audition...or the interview...or that first date...it doesn't have to be confined to music and drumming.
That worthless feeling.
Nothin' worse in my book. Not only did you not get the gig, or promotion, or whatever...now you get to deal with the overwhelming feeling that you're not worth the dirt you walk on everyday. That's tough to deal with...tough to deal with, but a valid emotion. I think to often we skip over it..."Just get over it", "You'll live to fight another day"...or cue any other cliche piece of crap that people will tell you just to get you out of the dumps. Fact of the matter...in your own eyes, you're a failure. And that sucks.
So what do you do? Well, I recommend relishing in the misery for at least a few minutes. Seriously. Let yourself fully embrace that feeling. Remembering what it feels like is what will push you to better places in the future.
I'm a big believer in destiny...fate...faith...whatever you like to refer to it as. I really do believe there is a "bigger" picture that we can't see. As hard as it is to swallow at the time...that position, or gig, or job...wasn't meant for you. If you would have been given the opportunity, you would have screwed it up...or at least not let the project live to its fullest. I've seen this play out time and time again in my life. So now I just accept it.
That doesn't make dealing with the disappointment of rejection any easier. That whole process sucks.
I will tell you that you'll wake up tomorrow and it'll look a little better. I'll also tell you that you're not near as horrible as you're making yourself out to be at that moment. And you should try again...and again...and again. Because that's the only thing that will separate you from the rest of the losers in the world. You only lose when you quit completely. Up until that point...that place where you quit...it's game on. I've never seen a team officially lose a game that's still being played.
That worthless feeling.
Nothin' worse in my book. Not only did you not get the gig, or promotion, or whatever...now you get to deal with the overwhelming feeling that you're not worth the dirt you walk on everyday. That's tough to deal with...tough to deal with, but a valid emotion. I think to often we skip over it..."Just get over it", "You'll live to fight another day"...or cue any other cliche piece of crap that people will tell you just to get you out of the dumps. Fact of the matter...in your own eyes, you're a failure. And that sucks.
So what do you do? Well, I recommend relishing in the misery for at least a few minutes. Seriously. Let yourself fully embrace that feeling. Remembering what it feels like is what will push you to better places in the future.
I'm a big believer in destiny...fate...faith...whatever you like to refer to it as. I really do believe there is a "bigger" picture that we can't see. As hard as it is to swallow at the time...that position, or gig, or job...wasn't meant for you. If you would have been given the opportunity, you would have screwed it up...or at least not let the project live to its fullest. I've seen this play out time and time again in my life. So now I just accept it.
That doesn't make dealing with the disappointment of rejection any easier. That whole process sucks.
I will tell you that you'll wake up tomorrow and it'll look a little better. I'll also tell you that you're not near as horrible as you're making yourself out to be at that moment. And you should try again...and again...and again. Because that's the only thing that will separate you from the rest of the losers in the world. You only lose when you quit completely. Up until that point...that place where you quit...it's game on. I've never seen a team officially lose a game that's still being played.
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