Spare a thought for the guy at the back
You know, now that I've been learning drums for a bit (adding it to guitar, ukulele, mandolin, bass guitar and the rest), I can honestly say I think the tub-thumper at the back of the band (which they usually are, unless one's name happens to be Dave Clark) is often the most maligned and undervalued member.
Fine. So drummers don't play a melodic instrument as such—oh, and what a debate we could have there!—and some of them do tend to fit the "Animal" stereotype, if we're honest—but with the exception of the keyboard player, it's unlikely that any other band member will usually be playing two, three or even four independent parts at the same time, as the drummer may be doing.
That's what I've found most difficult to get used to when learning the drums, especially when some patterns might (say) require you to play quarter-notes on the hi-hat, whilst playing a combination of quarter- and eighth-notes on the kick and snare. And doing this whilst keeping accurate time and doing so over the full duration of a song...
...well, all I can say is: don't wheel out the drummer jokes until you can prove you're able to play what they can! And if you think about it, a good drummer can potentially save a bad band, but a bad drummer can kill a good band...
Whilst I'm here, I might as well mention that I've made no progress on either the original CD project I've referred to in the last month or two, and am even thinking of dropping it entirely, in favour of moving on to new material. I can't see there's much prospect of me being able to work on the old stuff for the rest of the year, not least because I have a couple of other short-term projects which are likely to take me up to Christmas (of which I may post more in due course).
Thanks for your patience in the meantime, and please keep an eye on the blog...
Labels: demos, drums, music
Just like riding a bicycle!
To follow up yesterday's "round-up"—where I revealed how I was having trouble with one of my drumming exercises—I'm most pleased to bring some good news...
Yesterday evening, I was sat down (and I won't say where), when I thought I'd see if I could do the exercise (crotchet beats, alternating left and right hands, with "bass drum" on beat 1 and "hi-hat pedal" on 3) without the sticks and practice pad. Whilst before, the exercise turned me into an uncoordinated mess, this time to my amazement, I found I was suddenly able to do it. Yes!
Moreover, I barely had to think about what I was doing. This is good, as it's important that I don't think much about it, if I'm ever going to be able to play drums to even a reasonable standard. It's rather like when you learn to play any other instrument, or ride a bicycle—when you can stop thinking mechanically about what you're doing, and just do it, you've made a breakthrough.
So, it looks like I've passed a milestone on the road—just thought you'd like to hear the good news :-)
Labels: drums, music
Thursday round-up
Just to reassure you all, dear readers, that I am still alive here (!), and to reward you for your patience, a couple of quick updates:
- Managed to squeeze in a bit of vocal recording for the CD project track "When The Sun Goes Off To Sleep" last night; however, I wasn't pleased with either my performance or the sound quality of the recording (of which more in the next point), so I'm going to give it another go in the next couple of days. After all, if I'm actually going to do anything with these tracks in the end, I'd rather they were the best performances I can manage—one great piece of advice I picked up from a more experienced recording musician I know.
- I have got to figure out the effects section of my 2488mkII, and quickly. At the very least, I need to know how to get the noise suppressor working, to cut out the hiss and extraneous noise when I use the mike and external compressor, as there's no way I can leave such distractions on record if I'm going for a 'proper' CD recording (as opposed to demos which only friends/family will hear). It's just a shame that compared to my previous multitrack (a Boss BR-8, which admittedly was designed to be utterly idiot-proof), I find the 2488mkII's effects facilities rather impenetrable, but I'm going to have to get the hang of them pretty rapidly if I want to make progress with the CD project.
- The drum lessons have hit their first snag: I'm having trouble getting my arms and legs to act truly independently. Granted, I have the rudiments down fairly well already, and I think I could, at a pinch, knock out a straight 4/4 pattern. However, my teacher has set me a particular exercise (alternating right/left single-stroke rolls on beats 1-4, with bass drum on beat 1 and hi-hat pedal on 3), and suddenly I turn into one of those clockwork robot toys that kids used to get for Christmas in the 1960s, except without the precision. I'm trying to practice this in the evenings (and I'm increasingly realising I'm just not used to practicing at musical things, so it's not easy), but overall I suspect I'm going to have to work quite hard at this before I get it right. And I'm starting another OU course module next week...
- Drum-related note (sorry): I'm quietly hoping to have amassed sufficient moolah by Christmas, to be able to add a Roland HD1 electronic kit to the Sidingsound studio for Christmas. Fitting it into the room may require some shuffling-around of the current furniture (even though it's probably the most compact electronic kit out there that you'd want to own), but at least I have a bit of time to figure that out.
- And just to round all this off, I'm thinking of posting a quick 'tour' of the studio soon, though at about 10'x6', a single article should be enough...
Labels: drums, music, recording, studio
Sticks and carrots
One of my more unusual musical activities of late (at least, compared with the rest of my musical 'career') is that I've been taking some drum lessons on Saturdays with a friend of mine.
It's something that I've wanted to do for some time, not least because drums is the one instrument in the conventional rock band lineup that I don't have at least some measure of ability with. I've been playing guitar to what I'd call a reasonable standard, for twenty years now; I can handle bass guitar competently enough; my keyboard skills are at what I'd call "John Lennon" level (i.e. I just about know where the notes are!); and I'd say I can pick up a few other instruments (e.g. mandolin, ukulele, recorder) and get acceptable results out of them.
This has meant that I've been able to record multitrack demos over the years, playing most if not all the instrumental parts myself. However, when it has come to drum parts, I have either had to program them into a MIDI sequencer, use sampled drum loops or basic drum machine patterns, play other kinds of percussion parts, or just do without them altogether.
My hope is that I will soon be in a position where I can 'play' drums on my recordings, if the need arises. I'd really like to buy a Roland HD1 "V-Drums Lite" electronic drum kit in the future, which would allow me to play drum parts into my MIDI sequencer, or record the actual sounds from the kit onto my audio multitrack, whichever was the best approach.
Although I doubt I'll end up drumming for a live band, I just thought that being able to play kit drums would be a useful skill to have. I don't know which direction this will take me in, but it should be fun finding out.
(Oh, and in case you were wondering where the 'carrots' part of the title came from... well, I did roast some vegetables for dinner last night, but that's about as far as it goes!)
Labels: drums, instruments, music
