More tap than Bonnie Langford (nearly)

I was small and musical
Originally uploaded by Queen o' Hearts.

So this week I was doing.. er, well I'm not sure what to call it.
Hitting.
Largely.

It was technique.
Stick and wrist technique.

The principal was to teach control and to learn some handy little 'ghost beats', as my tutor called them.

So we started off with standard beats on the snare drum and we covered what was considered a 'down' beat (which is where you beat the drum but the stick stays close to the skin) and 'up' beat (which is a slight tap as you move your wrist up and the stick down slightly as you raise the stick up for the next beat - I covered this the other day slightly on the high hat (and was miserable at it)).
Then we did 'taps' which is when the stick starts close to the skin and is a beat and stays close to the skin of the drum.

Then it was all about combinations. Both one hand and two hands.
Such as (one hand):
Down Up
Down Tap Up
Full Down Tap Up

Two hands (alternative - so the left is always playing the second word - which is the taps for example):
Full Tap Down Tap Tap Tap Up Tap
Down Tap Up Tap (this sounds like a stereotypical Red Indian beat type thing)

The Ups and the Taps tend to be less hard than the full (aka normal) strokes and the downs, so you get more emphasis on the full and down strokes and then the others are 'ghost' beats - in that you don't really notice they're there but they flesh out a sound.
Or that's the theory, anyway.
Whether that is actually what it sounds like when I play it, is another matter.

Much slower lesson this week. Far more lethargic feel to it.
We talked about buying a full kit online and how much that would cost and stuff.
And he said I should try and find a band to play with (ha!).

To be honest I still feel really self conscious when I'm given a task because it often takes me a while to get into it and get the feel of what I'm going, then I'm busy correcting things as I go along and I can't HELP but be ultra aware that this must be REALLY boring for him sitting there.
So I tend to kind of fob things off.

He's also obsessed with getting me to play along with CDs/music.
I mean I do - especially on weekends but at the moment I'm ultra aware that I'm not even on the beat when I'm on the metronome (I'm trying to stick at 100 at the moment for most things).
And I just don't feel 'ready'.
I had this problem before in other hobbies. When I did karate my sensei wanted me to go for my belt and I just didn't feel ready, you know?
Maybe I'm a bit of a perfectionist, in which case I'll never feel like I'm good enough regardless but I still think it's important to feel comfortable and have belief in your abilities before jumping into things.
Even if that's something as small as playing along and feeling confident that I can do that to a suitable level.

Maybe guys have it a bit easier because they don't care and are happy to hit away and sound shit.
Maybe that's not just a gender thing.
I'm not much of a spontaneous type and I am well aware that this does not make me a good musician.
In fact it doesn't make me a good anything.
But it would be easier if I had a certain level of self confidence in my own abilities which would then lead to feel more comfortable behind some drums.

I find the heart but then I hit the wall. Crash! Boom! Bang!

cymbalmonkey
Originally uploaded by thermion7.

I was on the high hat this week.
I was playing that like it was a snare drum with both sticks.
Then I had to hit the snare with the right stick on the two beat and then back to the high hat quarter notes.
Bass drum was on 1 and 3 beats.
And he threw in high hat pedal on the 4 and then got me doing some fills and a crash cymbal too.
I took longer to get it this week. Especially when he started throwing in high hat on the 3rd quarter note along with an odd bass drum beat - and even now, after a week of trying to do it, I still can't even start.
I can't even build it up.
My bass drum foot just does not like that off beat and my left foot is a spazz when I actually have to count the place to put it.

In sort, I was rubbish this week.

At home I've been trying to make sure my left hand particularly is palm down because I seem to be doing a more half and half thumb up, sideways hand hold most of the time, which isn't helping me keep the downstroke straight.

And I've been trying to work on keeping up with the metronome and especially trying to keep my left hand in time with that.

I do find the hour lesson goes too fast.
And sometimes I think he's moving me along too fast.
But I appreciate he's trying to keep it interesting for both of us.

Finding suitable practice time is difficult.
Today was the first time in days I've actually managed to squeeze in an hour's practice.
I don't think I'll be joining a band any time soon.

He said my bass drum was still off, and that's been hard to adjust because at home I can't hear the bass drum very clearly, so it's hard to know when I'm off the beat.

I should work more on my bass drum foot really, especially as it was only last week that I worked out I've been doing it all wrong.
Instead of pushing up from my ankle and toes and using my calf muscle to beat the bass drum, I was lifting it from my hip. Which doesn't sound too bad until you try and keep it up for a few minutes.
I had wondered why my groin was aching so much and why I was toppling off my stool constantly. Turns out my butt was off the seat a lot because of it - hence my toppling off the stool/balance issues.
I still catch myself doing it. Especially when I've got double bass drum beats or odd ones, so I've got to watch that.
It's just all a bit much for one small brain to cope with.
Seemingly I have a tendency to hit the high hat a bit too hard, which is true - I get carried away and it gets loud and drowns out everything else.
And that's funny because I STILL balk when I hit a proper crash cymbal.
Maybe I'm too used to my tiny splash one but I find the suddenness and volume of it and then the length of reverb completely puts me off whatever I am supposed to be doing after hitting it and I stop.
Obviously I'm not good with other noise and keeping the beat at the moment - which means I'd be rubbish with other musicians around.

Still, mustn't try running before I can walk.
I actually turned the beat down on the metronome. I had been attempting to play at 120 but I lowered it to 85/90 and have only really got up to 100 comfortably. 110 freaks me out. 120 is just asking a bit too much with all this high hat switching business.
Still, practice makes perfect, if I can get the time to bloody practice!

[picture of cymbal monkey stolen off thermion7's photostream at flickr after doing a search on 'cymbal' in tags]
[post title is from the lyrics to the Roxette song, Crash! Boom! Bang!]

Hit me with your rhythm stick

Last week I was learning accentuated hits on the high hat and cymbal.
That meant I had to hit the hi-hat quite hard and then instead of lifting the wrist to tap in the same way, you flop your wrist so that the end drops and hits the hi-hat lighter, so you hear a TAP tap TAP tap TAP tap TAP tap (if you do it right).

I was having trouble with this.
But then that was hardly surprising considering it looks like I've been holding the stick all wrong anyway. And if I'm not hitting the drums with the right hold and the right wrist action then naturally, everything else isn't going to be working right either.

We lowered the hi-hat for me and I've still not found the place where I don't feel like I'm toppling over when I'm playing. But of course since I was used to a higher hi hat, I'm now clunking into my left hand which is playing the snare more.

But yeah, I'm finding the wrist drop hard because it tends to just merge into a sawing movement and I'm finding it hard to hear whether it's accented or all sounding the same.

Seemingly my bass drum needs working on (everything needs working on - I'm a beginner!).
It's not strong enough and seemingly I'm not on the beat frequently.
I'm finding it hard to practice without a real bass drum though as my practice pad doesn't make enough noise (ironically) - especially if you've got the metronome earplugs in and are hitting a real high hat and cymbals etc.
Maybe it's time to ring that bloke who said he potentially could get me a real drumkit for £50....
(Although I personally thought it was just 'one of those things people say').

And anyway, my neighbours have done something to piss me off so I'm a lot less bothered about making horrendous amounts of noise.
Bah ha ha ha.
This is why you shouldn't fuck off your neighbours.

So. So I've been trying to work on my fills - just 4 basic ones to improve my timing and get me used to stopping and changing the beats etc and then re-starting the groove again. Which is actually really hard - I'll get it once or twice but then I'll lose it. I doubt I'd be able to keep it up for a song length at the moment.
No wonder all the best pop songs are so short - they wanted them over before they started doing them wrong...

And it took me a while to work out why I was only doing three bars of groove and then filling on the fourth - because the songs I was listening to didn't seem to conform to that formula.
But maybe music doesn't have a formula anyway.
I just assumed drums would be less 'do what the hell you like/what you feel you should be doing'.

My teacher is obviously cottoning onto the fact that I am square and like the structure though because he gave me a handout on drumming and how to hold the sticks.
But with a lot of these things it's hard to describe unless you have pictures and someone sitting there saying 'no, here, you should be doing it like THIS'.

Thankfully there was no 'play along to this song' this time (let's face it - if I can't keep up a groove with just a metronome then there's not much point in me trying to play along to a song I've never heard before).
I was having terrible trouble finding time to practice last week. When I got home it was often late and I was starving, and by the time I'd finished making and eating dinner it was too late to be hitting things. I started trying to squeeze in 15 minutes in the morning after the neighbours leave for work but again, sometimes I'm running late so I can't spare that 15 minutes.
And there is always that thought in the back of my head saying 'if you were a neighbour of this you'd go spare'.
But then I keep telling myself that they do just as worse things and don't even have the consideration to not do them after 9pm.
It's just reassuring myself that it's OK to make a bit of noise.
But yeah, whenever you think it will be OK to make some noise, like the weekend, you never get the time to actually make the noise.
And even when I practice for an hour, it's hard to know if you're getting any better.
I was thinking of using an old dictaphone to play back so I can hear if I'm off etc.

But what's a good metronome speed to be practising at?

Plus, I keep licking my lips or something because after each drum session they feel like I've been licking at them for ages.
It is possible it's the vibrations making me lick them - or maybe I'm just concentrating and biting them a lot or something but I'm not aware of it.
This could be that classic 'drummer's face' you see all the time. That look of concentration....

We've got a metronome and we're going to use it.

Drum lesson on Thursday was a bit of a disaster.
I don't think I'm cut out for music, you know.
I have no 'feel' for it.
Oh sure, I can bang in the right places if I'm told to but when they say 'make it up' I can't.
He put on a Green Day track and told me to play along but I couldn't.
My spontaneity triggers in the wrong places, my brain is trying to concentrate on keeping time and it all just ends up sounding rubbish.
Plus I keep missing the cymbal when I go to hit that as well as frequently finding myself hitting the bottom of the high hat by accident.

I'm very disheartened by the whole process.

Maybe I need more direction.
More structure.
We aren't following a curriculum as such and I'm beginning to think I'm the sort of person who needs one.
I'd like some basic exercises to do for starters.
And warm ups.
Things I could run through first to get me in the frame of mind.
Oh yes, so anyway. I'm probably not cut out for music.
But then you'd think I'd remember that from my refusal to practice when I used to play the piano.

We spent most of last week's lesson trying to get the set up right on the drumkit.
Lowering the seat, moving the snare and high hat.
All in an attempt to stop my back hurting.
But I think I just need to build up one big buttock on the right side to balance it out.

The 'heel up' technique is going reasonably better than I expected but I think my teacher is annoyed that I'm not much better.
I shouldn't have practised that first week before starting, obviously.
Now he expects me to speed along and be a proper drummer in no time.
When in reality he's going to realise that he shouldn't have tried to show me to use a high hat to keep a beat.
When I tried, it sounded like a dog running with cymbals on its feet.
Only with less rhythm.

Fills are still my main downfall.
I have no clue what to hit and when.
With piano lessons it's there - there is sheet music and you play it.
It's simple.
Once you learn the patterns you can put some personality into it and make it yours.
Whereas I'm just being told to improvise in the places where I think it needs it.
But I have no clue.
I keep wondering if there's a science to it.
And I keep trying to find it.
Cymbal on the 1. High hat on the '4 and'.
But I know people will say that's music by numbers and not giving it 'soul'.
But frankly I'd like to learn some basics before having to deal with the soul of music.
Basics before the complicated matters.
Maths before religion.

I never was any good at practical subjects.

[Today's picture is of Tina from Fuzzbox aka 'We've Got A Fuzzbox and We're Going To Use It']