Still working...

I've been hitting the drums a lot lately, I'm still enjoying the heck out of it!

I was sitting in a meeting yesterday with the entire team, 15 or so people, and after a making a comment I found myself doing a drum roll with my pen and a crash on my water glass. I guess it's becoming second nature! :)

I still haven't rigged up something so I can record myself. I need to get that done.

I still need to adjust my left double pedal, it's a little lower than the right.

I've been working on a combination of things. I've been doing a few of the Thomas Lang exercises, playing a long with some Roland patterns and just getting a feel for things, feeling the groove. I did worry about not pushing myself or setting goals, just mashing around and having fun is good, but I want to progress. So the other day I started focusing on rudiments and freedrumlessons.com. I'm going to make my way through the Rock Drum lessons. I found one play-along-song that I just love and I've been listening to that over and over again.

Moddern Drummer Festival: 2005

I watched disc 1 over the weekend and it was awesome. I watched parts of it a couple times actually! :) Lots of great stuff. I hope to catch disc 2 today and disc 3 later this week.

I'm not looking to copy anyone and I understand being your own player and original. But I'm at the stage where I'm just learning the alphabet and a few words. I think as I learn more words from others I'll learn how to make my own or put them together. It's great stuff!

Thomas Lang's Creative Control

I got this DVD the other day and wow, I love his sound and style. I've just started on his first exercise and I can tell a difference already on the second day. My feet are a lot better, especially my left foot. I like his theory that your feet should be able to do anything your hands can do. His opening song "Dog" is awesome!

My lower back has been hurting a lot though. Using both feet at the same time requires you to balance on the throne and requires a lot of core strength. I think it's just a matter of building that corre strength.

I missed my practice yesterday because we had a friend in town but I'm anxious to get back at it tonight! I can't wait until I can do some of his other practice techniques and when I develop enough speed to do even the basic ones at his speed.

Music Clinic with Willy Porter

Over the weekend my son and I attended a music clinic with Willy Porter at Cascio music. I've been a fan of ever since I found some of his music. Unconditional is a great song.

I was amazed at all the sounds he was able to generate alone, by himself. It definitely brought back my yearnings to learn to play the guitar. But alas, I don't think it's for me.

It was interesting to hear how some songs progressed and tips on playing. My son was very interested, which is great. I'd rather he spent more time on music than just playing video games.

New Personal Monitor - Simmons DA200S

I've been wanting to get an amplifier for the drum set so that I don't always have to wear headphones and I can rock out especially when I have the house to myself.

I haven't had much luck hooking up the drums to the stereo. I'm currently getting quite a buzz, and not a good type of buzz when hooking up to the stereo. So I started looking at options for a personal monitor.

Uncle Bob's pushed a keyboard amp. Cascio the Roland PM10 or PM30 and Guitar Center the Simmons. I did a little research and found a lot of options out there from PA to Keyboard to PMs for drums. They all vary in price obviously.

It came to a point where I just wanted to try something and see what I thought. While I would like to have JBL Eon G2, that's not realistic with my budget. Since Guitar Center had a sale going and they told me I could return it within 30 days if I didn't like it, I figured I might as well give it a shot.

The DA200s was a little bigger than I expected. It's heavy, but I carried to the car by myself. I took it home and hooked it up. I would have liked a few more controls and I didn't get a manual. But it did sound pretty good. I thought I might have popped an ear drum at one point with a snare hit.

Overall I like it. It's nice not having headphones and being able to listen a little better. The downside is now I want stereo. Having it come from one side isn't that great. Behind or upfront would be good but that doesn't jive with my current drum location.

I still might give the stereo another try. I have some large tower speakers I might be able to find a spot for and they might actually be okay for bass.

Enter Sandman

I started working on Enter Sandman the other day. The song is a lot of fun and rocks. So it's a lot of fun. I don't think it's as tecnically dificult as the slower song Creep. But it is very busy in parts. I got some parts down pretty good. It's fun to see it come together.

I found the sheet music on the Web awhile ago. But it looks overly complicated. I don't really understand why it seems some sheet music uses one note position for the snare, while others use different positions. I ended up just playing around, using a combination of the sheet music, Rock Band tab and the Rock Band game itself.

The Rock Band practice area is actually really nice in that you can pick various sections of the song and practice them at various speeds. Unfortunately there isn't a one-to-one correlation between what notes they show and the actual drum/cymbal to play--which makes it a little difficult. But it sure helped learning the song.

I need to try recording some of my playing. I know it's still not good, but I need to do it. If nothing else to show my progress over the next months or years. :)

I've had fun going off on a tangent and trying to learn a couple songs. I think I learned a lot of different things, trying to put it all together. But I need to get back to focusing on fundamentals and practice. I might alternate between practicing songs and fundamentals.

Creep Continued

I've been working a little more this weekend, when I wasn't enjoying the beautiful weather. A half hour here and there.

I've been having a lot off difficulty getting the bass pedal quick notes consistent. I looked at the pedal Saturday morning and made some adjustments. I noticed a day or two earlier that the sprint attachment on the beater has slipped a little, and that resulted in my pedal lower and the beater when at rest closer to the head.

I figured if I could adjust the beater back from the head a little, that would benefit a few things. One, the pedal felt too light. It didn't return fast enough. I figured if the beater started farther away from the head that traveling more distance cause the spring to stretch more and provide more resistance and a little more speddy return. Second, when I was making that adjustment I noticed the face of the drum could be adjusted a little to be farther away as well. I reduced the length of the supporting feet and that caused the bass pad to tilt a little more away from the pedal and beater.

Win-win. The changes gave me a lot better feel. I was able to get more resistance and after working on not burrying the beater I got a good feel where I could let the beater return each time and hit the notes a bit more consistently. It still has taken a lot of practice, but it's getting better.

I've found working with drums that it helps me to practice and then step away for awhile and come back. For me it just takes time. When I return, things seemed to have sunk in. The muscle memory is there or something, and what I was trying to learn I can usually do, at least better after a little break.

Of course, the bass pedal for me has always been hard. And this rhythm for this song and the quick notes take a bit of effort and I feel I have to develop my muscles a little more. But it's all getting there.

I've been continuing to play along with the music both with and without drums. I spent a little time recording the drums with the drum module and listening to them back. I need more practice with the rhythm, and the interdependence between the hi-hat hits and the bass pedal quick hits. This is no surprise, just need more practice.

It's been fun, but a little like work. I've been pushing myself to get this song done so that I can post it on a drum forum I visit. I'm afraid I'll get some poor feedback no matter how well I do for my first song. That has taken a little fun out of doing this, but I need to complete the cycle so I can continue to move on and keep learning.

Oh, I found a card for a music teacher here in town. It might be a nice less expensive alternative and maybe someone I could at least visit to make sure I'm not learning and bad habits.