For years, I've been playing drums to amuse myself. Playing along to others' music is great fun, and it's better than not playing at all. However, now I need to play live, and whilst singing lead, and as with any skill there comes a point where you have to start taking it seriously in order to improve. With the drums, that can mean only one thing:
Drill. More drill. Then some drill.
This is my drumkit
Getting the kit setup right is taking forever, especially since I've started playing an acoustic drumkit at rehearsals. (Life's too short to cart the TD-12K plus extras around.) It needs to be set so that I can switch smoothly between kits. At the studios I have a badly-tuned, uncared-for Mapex kit, which has size-mismatched, barely-tunable toms on annoying, difficult-to-set brackets. I'm having to take in more and more of my own hardware to deal with it.
Meanwhile, at home I've had to make more space so I can set the TD-12K up as I want it, rather than the only way in which it fits. Playing 45 mins a day is ok, but I'm doing three-hour stints at times right now, and having a badly set kit is painful.
There are many like it, but this one is mine
Actually, there aren't many like mine, at least not that I've seen at gigs. Certainly not at rehearsal studios. It's a slightly jarring transition from crisp-sounding, predictable V-Drums, to crappy-sounding acoustic, as well as never quite getting the positions right. It's a shame, because it's another thing to concentrate on, when I have enough to think about already.
I must master it as I must master my life
Having to sing makes drumming a lot harder. Essentially, because I'm not a very good singer, when I'm singing the drums have to be on autopilot. Sometimes this is easy, when the beat is simple and the lyrics follow a somewhat normal rock pattern. Sometimes, it's incredibly hard, when the lyrics cut across the beat, or the beat has all sorts of accents in funny places.
I think that's enough of the Rifleman's Creed.
There really is no substitute for just doing the rudiments. So, whereas previously I might just have put an album on and challenged my fitness, now I sit with a metronome and a stopwatch, and crank out steady notes on various parts of the kit for a set length of time, to build strength. It's tedious, but it works. And it hurts. I need to do it, because the fact is I'm a bit shy. I need to know that it's all in order before I do this stuff live, otherwise I'll be tight with self-doubt, and I won't enjoy it. If it's not fun, what's the point?
So: Drill some more.
Drill. More drill. Then some drill.
This is my drumkit
Getting the kit setup right is taking forever, especially since I've started playing an acoustic drumkit at rehearsals. (Life's too short to cart the TD-12K plus extras around.) It needs to be set so that I can switch smoothly between kits. At the studios I have a badly-tuned, uncared-for Mapex kit, which has size-mismatched, barely-tunable toms on annoying, difficult-to-set brackets. I'm having to take in more and more of my own hardware to deal with it.
Meanwhile, at home I've had to make more space so I can set the TD-12K up as I want it, rather than the only way in which it fits. Playing 45 mins a day is ok, but I'm doing three-hour stints at times right now, and having a badly set kit is painful.
There are many like it, but this one is mine
Actually, there aren't many like mine, at least not that I've seen at gigs. Certainly not at rehearsal studios. It's a slightly jarring transition from crisp-sounding, predictable V-Drums, to crappy-sounding acoustic, as well as never quite getting the positions right. It's a shame, because it's another thing to concentrate on, when I have enough to think about already.
I must master it as I must master my life
Having to sing makes drumming a lot harder. Essentially, because I'm not a very good singer, when I'm singing the drums have to be on autopilot. Sometimes this is easy, when the beat is simple and the lyrics follow a somewhat normal rock pattern. Sometimes, it's incredibly hard, when the lyrics cut across the beat, or the beat has all sorts of accents in funny places.
I think that's enough of the Rifleman's Creed.
There really is no substitute for just doing the rudiments. So, whereas previously I might just have put an album on and challenged my fitness, now I sit with a metronome and a stopwatch, and crank out steady notes on various parts of the kit for a set length of time, to build strength. It's tedious, but it works. And it hurts. I need to do it, because the fact is I'm a bit shy. I need to know that it's all in order before I do this stuff live, otherwise I'll be tight with self-doubt, and I won't enjoy it. If it's not fun, what's the point?
So: Drill some more.
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