Drum progress
It’s been a couple weeks since I got my drum set, and almost a week since my drum teacher came over and fixed up my mess to actually be set up properly. I learned a lot by just watching him set things up. For example, on the hi-hat stand, you don’t want the middle of the stand to be touching the ground. Otherwise, when you go to step down, the momentum will carry the stand forward and make it tilt. If you take the pressure off, when you step down, the three legs will instead catch the weight and the momentum goes downwards. It will likely take me getting a new kit for me to actually apply those things again, or maybe sooner since I am definitely buying new hi-hat and crash stands soon (out of the box ones are flimsy, spend $80-90 on a great stand), but I definitely feel a lot more confident about setting a kit up than I did two weeks ago.
I played Rock Band drums off-and-on up until about last year. Actually playing isn’t difficult for me, but going on my own is where practice is required. This made me want to write this post because I have been extremely fascinated by how the brain works as I’ve been practicing recently. I’m going to write about some of those.
I was playing “My God is the Sun” by Queens of the Stone Age today (link below). There’s a lot to unpack here. First, Dave Grohl is on drums so you know it’s a fun part. Second, this is an ambitious 2ndor 3rdsong to learn, but like I said, having played RB drums it’s not as difficult a curve as one would think. It’s just learning how to play the song, and then knowing where everything falls into place in terms of timing.
With regards to the timing part, this is where I was going off on a tangent in my mind. Some drummers are super tight and stay within the confines of the time signature. Their mind is counting constantly, and they don’t really think outside of the box. This isn’t saying they’re bad, it’s just the way they play. Other drummers listen to the rest of the band and fit themselves into that. In the first instance, you’re doing that too, but it’s like the rest of the band is playing over a drum machine. In the second instance, you are the one keeping everything together and organized. Each limb might be playing a different time signature, but one limb is holding the count down or maybe you’re just keeping count in your head.
The way Dave Grohl plays drums to me is essentially make noise first, figure out perfection later. This is the style I want to adopt. For example, in My God is the Sun, this is in 3 / 4 time for the most part and 6 / 8 in some spots. However, when you’re listening to the intro, what you hear is straight ROCK. The chorus? That build! And also, Dave’s fills in the chorus are interesting too. I am wondering how in the rest of that build he is playing what makes sense for 3 / 4 and then his fill is very 4 / 4 esque, but then goes right back into 3 / 4. But this is what I’m talking about, play first, figure out later. (Also, I hope to one day get better at analyzing drum parts!).
I do not want to be Dave Grohl, though. I want to be Jon Fishman. And what I mean by that is, I want to be able to technically play a lot of difficult things and know how to do all the time signature stuff and always be learning, but I also most importantly want to keep the right ear and listen for what works best for the song at that moment. What is everyone else doing? I want to listen to that and make sure they’re accented so it brings their sound forward without the listener recognizing it. How do I play something technically difficult but also easy on the listener’s ear to where they don’t even recognize the difficulty but the beat is catchy? Things like that.
As for my 2019 drum goal, I am confident I can play "Phantom of the Opera" by Iron Maiden. I could do it next month. I'll see if I feel like doing it just to cross it off the list or if I want to do other things for now.
My God is the Sun - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFca32_7YUU
Phantom of the Opera - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8IuFl3sMhk