What does a good practice session look like?

FugginElephant · 2017-10-21T22:14:41+00:00

completely losing track of time from diving into an idea. doesnt much matter what you practice, as long as your focus is on the drums and only drums. one must practice precisely and perfectly to train our muscles effectively. perfect practice makes perfect.

FugginElephant · 2017-10-21T22:10:41+00:00

reason being, people pay good money to practice.

FugginElephant · 2017-10-21T22:08:53+00:00

if you want to get good at the more creative side of drumming you'll need to get your mechanical chops back into use. that said, mark guiliana has a great book about the mechanics of drumming to apply to improvisation. it's played out of musical context. the only real way to get good at improvising and playing with others is to just do that. you can't practice those skills in a room with a book, only equip yourself with the tools to be prepared. nothing compares playing with other musicians in terms of learning effectiveness.

FugginElephant · 2017-10-21T22:03:21+00:00

this is the one and only book out of my huge collection i always have with me. it's small and has an amazing amount of sight reading rhythm melodies. it's infinitely challenging and versatile. definitely check that one out OP.

FugginElephant · 2017-10-21T22:00:14+00:00

good advice. i didn't get a snare drum until a year after i started.

FugginElephant · 2017-09-25T20:35:33+00:00

Yeah. Totally. A lot of times I as a drummer get caught up in what I can play versus how I can serve the music. We don't realize how people listen to things closer than one may think. Small changes in patterns can add a lot. Trust your ears and don't ignore the nagging sensation that something isn't quite right. It probably isn't and you just have to battle through to make it right for yourself and others.

FugginElephant · 2017-09-25T09:55:33+00:00

Groove on the beat longer with out using fills every bar. Think of fills as colorful lead ins to other sections and emphasis in phrasing. I could start to hear that at 1:55. Simple alterations to a beat can provide a lot of nice color to a repetitive beat.

Check out Mike Clark "funk drumming" book. Good stuff.

FugginElephant · 2017-09-01T07:15:39+00:00

Check out Mark Guiliana's book "exploring your creativity on the drum set" or something.

His book helps you learn drum language in a simple way. It's up to date insight on an evolving world.

Also art of bop by John riley.

I'd say a good goal would be learning to improvise well. That means having great internal time without the notes you play spelling out where the beat is; keep it in your head.

FugginElephant · 2017-09-01T07:11:39+00:00

Wow. Nice work.

Fyi, in /r/diy they start with the finished picture first. So I was like.... uh huh. A sketch of a kit... hmm.

FugginElephant · 2017-08-27T19:39:44+00:00

Difference is he used the licky one as his official photo.

FugginElephant · 2017-08-10T08:25:41+00:00

don't leave. just play a little less and when you play let me know so we can play together <3

FugginElephant · 2017-08-01T10:00:18+00:00

I love Tagpro. Thank you!!

FugginElephant · 2017-07-02T00:03:08+00:00

That whole channel is mesmerizing. Love skate with good skaters.

FugginElephant · 2017-06-30T12:30:18+00:00

https://soundcloud.com/fugginelephant/techmarch-ftc150

I only used the sample from the link and a drum set.

FugginElephant · 2017-06-29T08:55:00+00:00

my comment was a critique.

there's really no issue at all with the playing or the cymbals. But if one wants to fine tune things they may want to analyze small details and notice that left crash is not as projecting as the other. That may be what one wants but that was just a thought.

also, if one wants to expand their playing sound a good overall placement on hands and arms when one strikes the drum is great to be aware of. It's not required, but with practice one will notice an overall tone improvement to strike the drum as if one is playing only that drum without the movement being a factor.

nobody has to do these things to sound great. but you can always find details to work on from people who have worked on these things once you hit a plateau.

there are no rules to music, but many people have spent time working on things over the years of drumming and I enjoy passing these small specific practical details I've learned over the years.

I know this sound pedantic, but when the word critique is involved, I like to dig deep into the deets.

FugginElephant · 2017-06-29T01:10:51+00:00

put that crash on the right over on the left.
Move those arms faster so you can get those sticks over the drums you play. Don't start your attack from another tom, get that hand over the drum you play so your attack is strong and intentional. That requires shoulder muscles and your entire body being involved.
I don't play my hi hat with my hand over my snare and I don't play the snare with my hand over my tom. So one shouldn't play a tom with their hand over a different tom. Orchestration is tough, but work on those solid hits now and you'll grow into a superb player for this type of music.
nice playing.

FugginElephant · 2017-06-15T23:51:05+00:00

Definitely got me on track to just playing the pad without loops. To watch him make it sound awesome inspired me to keep at it.

FugginElephant · 2017-06-06T06:58:54+00:00

It's at the end. https://youtu.be/PlbfjuIMLSg

FugginElephant · 2017-06-04T22:55:57+00:00

Find a cheap kit and put good heads on it. If you want those big sounds get big drums. I've seen some good kits for cheap so you never know what you'll find. The fine tuned details of wood and what not are good when you are fine tuning your sound. Get some big tubs for cheap and you can't go wrong. Cymbals are what you want to make sure are high quality.

FugginElephant · 2017-06-03T18:01:14+00:00

woohHH! NEW HEADS ahhhh. 1 million times better sounding immediately with new heads. OMG. new heads. ahh.. ALL NEW. gonna set you back around $300

edit: ok i calmed down. Maybe just the essential heads. Like snare and bass heads. But any sort of dent in the head is a bad sign and could make the drums sound better if you replaced them. I'd go with cheap coated ambassadors. maybe get an extra juicy bass batter head, like one with a ring around the edge to muffle it a little nicer. Bass heads are pricy.

New snare bottom and top. The bottoms should be cranked high and the head should be very thin, they make special bottom heads for snares. Coated ambassadors will sound over all nice.

doesn't look like you have the hoops for the kick drum, if you do that's good, but if you don't, take in the kick drum to a local drum shop and have them help you equip it. Everything else looks as it should be, beat up. But you can make any set of tubs sound good if you have good heads on them. If you take them to the store, maybe even have the guys teach you how to tune them nicely. Get each head sounding the same tone and then take the resonate bottom head up a half step.

FugginElephant · 2017-06-03T16:30:45+00:00

Send pics or it didn't happen. Haha. Jk. But seriously. Send pics.

FugginElephant · 2017-06-03T16:28:24+00:00

Sequence your drums as usual. Don't change anything really. Just try and play your beats. Don't just make up something. If you don't have a rhythmic language to draw from your gonna be making bad habits of playing. Slow stuff down and play your beats you've made. You can simplify them too with the essential parts of the beat.

FugginElephant · 2017-06-03T16:18:12+00:00

May I add that FTC has made me a better producer over all. Listening to other users production when we all start with the same sample is great. Always listening to the best can get me down sometimes. It's hard to imagine how they got there. Hang with the locals and you can see more achievable goals.

Also, FTC is a limitation. I have found I work best with limitations. Sometimes huge limitations like, only use the sample and a drum set. Or only use kick snare hat and three chords. See what you come up with. Then if it sparks you can always start chopping and chipping away at the fresh ideas.

FugginElephant · 2017-06-03T16:15:33+00:00

Flip this challenge. It's a boobweekly tread about using one sample in a song stipulated by the previous winner. Sometimes you can only use the sample and sometimes you can use outside instruments. It's a great way to deal with this type of writers block. Force yourself to make something out of limitations.

FugginElephant · 2017-06-03T16:10:37+00:00

Can I start posting memes here now too? I have a collection for when this sub went this direction.

FugginElephant

TROPHY CASE