Rabbit & Pork

In a weak attempt to motivate myself to practise some drum rudiments, I fell back to purchasing a gadget - the Roland Rhythm Coach.

It’s simple, but has everything you need for quick-on-the-spur practise sessions. In particular, I find the Rhythmic Notes and Auto Up/Down exercises most interesting as they take you through an ever changing pattern/tempo.

The mesh head (Remo) is superb, but a back-light is missing.

Overall though, it’s a neat gadget and I’d recommend to anyone wanting to practise on the side.

For Christmas, I received Colin Woolway’s Drumsense Vol 1 & 2 DVDs. Surprisingly, I’ve already had a chance to view them both.

I would highly recommend them to anyone starting out on the drums. Each DVD is a no-nonsense production concentrating on simple, but effective exercises, each building on the previous. In conjunction with his complementary Rhythm magazine tutorials (which provide tabs for the exercises), you can’t go wrong getting to grips with the fundamentals.

For motivation, there’s a chapter where Colin plays a drum solo consisting of only patterns learnt in the Vol 1 exercises. Now, I can play most of those exercises in isolation, but never thought I might be able to play something akin to Colin’s demonstration. Of course, I am much less experienced, but there’s no reason why I can’t do something similar, so I shall have to try and pull it altogether in a musical context

In DVD Vol 2, my only (slight) negative point is that I would of liked to have seen more time spent on introducing rudiments (for example, demonstrating technique & some daily exercises to improve doubles etc). I guess this is exaggerated for me, as I’d like to venture into this area soon.

9/10.

I was recently made aware (by Hudson Music) of two new instructional drum DVDs called Drumsense Vol 1 & 2. They are created by Colin Woolway, the guy who writes an excellent monthly drum lesson column in Rhythm Magazine, which I’ve been pursuing, time permitting.

I couldn’t actually find the DVDs on Hudson’s site, nor on Drumsense.com so assume they’re not released yet. A quick Google found the following site who claim availability on 13th Nov 2006 whilst Musicroom.com allow you to order now.

It’s a mystery as to whether they’re out or not, but I intend to purchase based on Colin’s other work.

Thanks to Will Abson, a fellow Alfrescan, who directed me to Audio Player, a fantastic plugin for Wordpress. From now on, I’ll present my personal drum recordings with this great tool - as an example, a couple of past recordings are presented here…

I’m now entering new territory in Colin Woolway’s series of drum exercises. Introducing off-beat eights on the hi-hat and ride…

The ride bell is kinda groovy

In all of the above, new forms of independence are introduced. The right hand and right foot hardly ever strike at the same time.

All recordings are of myself playing on a Hart Dynamics/Roland TD-8 electronic drum kit - raw and unedited.

I’ve hit a sticking (no pun intented) point with one of the drum exercises in Colin Woolway’s series. Basically, it involves a tricky bass drum pattern with various hi-hat patterns over the top.

The bass drum pattern is as follows:

1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a
x x  x xx

For the record, here’s my progress so far. Note, I’m not particularly happy with it - the sixteenth hi-hats accent with the bass drum, and the left foot of the open/close sixteenth hi-hats wanders.

Rather than stall, I’ve decided to move on. Over time, I’ll get it.

All recordings are of myself playing on a Hart Dynamics/Roland TD-8 electronic drum kit - raw and unedited.

Some days, however much you try, you can’t seem to flow. This is particularly true for drumming. Yesterday, I tried to record myself, but failed miserably. The result was stiff and uninspiring - it was getting towards the end of the day - I was tired and getting increasingly fustrated. Today, I try again and it just worked - you can hear the result in my previous post.

The difference? Today’s been much more relaxed - a lie in, a walk with the dog and a decent dinner. Just goes to show that state of mind has a major impact on how you play.

Recently, I posted on Colin Woolway’s series of drum lessons published in Rhythm magazine. Attached to that post is a recording of myself performing one of the lessons. Remarkably, Colin himself commented on my work! The power of the internet.

So, I’ve decided to keep track of my progress by recording each lesson and posting here. It’s incredibly revealing listening to yourself - you become your own worst critic. Also, hopefully, I’ll continually be motivated by realising there’s some improvement over time.

All recordings are of myself playing on a Hart Dynamics/Roland TD-8 electronic drum kit - raw and unedited.

A while back, I posted some photos of my home drum kit setup. Since then, things have moved on, including the location of where I practice at home. Now, I get to play in the conservatory overlooking the garden (when it’s not too sunny for the blinds to be open). It’s basically the same setup (except for the introduction of a double-bass pedal, which I haven’t really explored yet).

I’m experimenting with seating position - currently, I’m sat to the right of the snare facing the hi-hat and crash, hence the pedal locations.

One issue with this room is ensuring the kit does not slip on the tiled floor when used. Although you can’t see from the photos, everything is actually sitting on anti-slip rug backing cut to shape. Cheap, but it works.

Recently, I’ve been making my way through an excellent series of drum tutorials by Colin Woolway entitled Getting Started. They’re published in Rhythm magazine where each month introduces a progressively more difficult challenge.

I find the exercises in this series particularly beneficial. Each exercise builds upon its predecessors in a way that seems natural, but it wasn’t until the lesson “Hi-Hat Conversions” that I understood why - this piece of advice is given:

“The process is as important as the end result… try to persist with getting to the final result by process rather than going straight for it.”

I’ve purposely been patient with this series, ensuring that I don’t rush ahead, and it seems to be working - here’s my homework for “Hi-Hat Conversions” - it’s played on an electronic drum kit and recorded straight to a laptop.

I intend to write to Colin to see if there’s any plan/chance of being able to get a single book/CD of the lessons - that would be much easier than trawling through many magazines!