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eachann
Joined: 09 May 2006
Posts: 1340
Location: Michigan
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 Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2007 8:29 pm Post subject: A few drum technique questions |
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I've never played drums before at all, even messing around, before Rock Band so the drums are a completely new animal to me and after playing them for a while I have a few questions...
My biggest problem is separating my foot from my hands. I have a very hard time with patterns where i'm beating the bass with my foot on a beat while hitting a drum, and then sticking other drum beats in between the foot/hand beats. ( I hope that description makes sense ) .. or doing double bass kicks where one has a drum beat on it and the other does not. There are lots of patterns that are really difficult but they all come down to the same thing, making my foot work independantly of my 2 arms. Any advice for how to break the dependancy i have right now between them?
Another problem I have is on songs or long sections that have a rapid bass foot beat... an example of this is the last several minutes of GGAHT (I play on medium but I assume this holds true on higher difficulties). Normally I try to hold my foot down on the pedal all the time in between bass notes to keep my foot from getting tired and my play improved a lot when I discovered that... but when it's beating constantly and quickly my ankle really starts to hurt pretty rapidly and GGAHT just about kills me because it goes for so long. The pattern there is very simple, but the rapid bass pedal work makes it absolutely impossible for me to play. Is this a technique issue, or do I just have to keep playing to build endurance in those muscles?
Another one... how do you do drum rolls? I've just started working on hard, and already I've seen sections popping up where I will need two hands rolling to hit the rapid streams of notes but I can't seem to do it. I might alternate right-left-right for a few notes but inevitably the sticks start landing together. I don't know at all the proper way to do this.
Finally, the drum tutorial says to hold the drums sticks with a couple of inches sticking out behind my hands, and to hold them loosely and let the sticks rebound off the drums naturally. I read the same in somebody's advice post on here in another thread but I don't know exactly what that means. I seem to get the best results with the ends of the sticks somewhere in my palms, but that's probably just because I don't know how to play and when I get to higher levels my bad habits are going to bite me in the ass. holding them though with the ends sticking out feels kind of uncomfortable. And how do you control if they are bouncing naturally off of the drum. And what do they mean when they say "use the natural bounce of the stick to your advantage"?.
Thanks for any and all thoughts on these questions. I know they are somewhat involved questions, so even partial answers are appreciated 
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nextlevel88
Joined: 11 Apr 2006
Posts: 573
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| Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2008 10:58 pm Post subject: Re: A few drum technique questions |
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First off, I'm no expert either, but hey, I'll tell you what I'm doing. And for the record, the answer to all of these will probably be -more or less, and for better or worse- to practice a lot.
| eachann wrote: |
My biggest problem is separating my foot from my hands. |
I would start with something basic back-and-forth. Wave of Mutilation chorus is a good one. And Here It Goes Again, Verse 1A & 2A (Both songs on Hard). They have you going back and forth from Kick to Pads. I read somewhere on here before (sorry, I can't give credit cuz I don't remember, but suffice to say it wasn't me) that a good way to learn these is to do a 1-2 count in your head, or out loud even. After a while of doing that, it just becomes natural. No, really, it does. Honest. As for the double Kick with one pad, get the double kick first. Concentrate on telling your leg that when it kicks, it should kick again. Personally, I've gotten to the point that I don't really see 2 or 3 Kick notes any more. Instead, I see them as a "set of 2 or 3". My leg just kicks, and the notes just seem to land in beat after that. In other words, practice will be the only thing that helps. No shortcuts, I'm afraid.
| eachann wrote: |
or do I just have to keep playing to build endurance in those muscles?
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Um, I think so, yes. Try to be as efficient as possible, but for the most part, you just have to get used to it.
| eachann wrote: |
Another one... how do you do drum rolls? I've just started working on hard, and already I've seen sections popping up where I will need two hands rolling to hit the rapid streams of notes but I can't seem to do it. I might alternate right-left-right for a few notes but inevitably the sticks start landing together. I don't know at all the proper way to do this.
Finally, the drum tutorial says to hold the drums sticks with a couple of inches sticking out behind my hands, and to hold them loosely and let the sticks rebound off the drums naturally. I read the same in somebody's advice post on here in another thread but I don't know exactly what that means. I seem to get the best results with the ends of the sticks somewhere in my palms, but that's probably just because I don't know how to play and when I get to higher levels my bad habits are going to bite me in the ass. holding them though with the ends sticking out feels kind of uncomfortable. And how do you control if they are bouncing naturally off of the drum. And what do they mean when they say "use the natural bounce of the stick to your advantage"?. |
I think these last two kinda go together. First off, I wouldn't worry too much about how much of the stick shows out the back of your hand. The important thing is how tightly you hold the stick. That natural-bounce-back-thing they talk about doesn't really happen if you hold the stick too tight. In other words, hold the stick tightly and hit the pad, then hold it loosely. When you ease up on your grip, the stick bounces off the pad much easier than if you hold it tightly. That's what you're looking for, and it will pay off a ton.
First, it's the key to fast rolls, which helps answer your other question (the rest of that answer is -you guessed it- practice. But here's a hint, be careful you don't go too fast on rolls. Maybe you dont, but I've seen it happen a lot). Another advantage to loosely holding the sticks is hand fatigue. Nothing like playing the drums to give your fretting fingers a break from the guitar, only to end up more cramped than before. Also: Arm fatigue, especially on later difficulties. If you have to keep lifting the stick up with your arm or wrist when you're belting out 16th notes on the hi-hat, you're going to wear out quickly. All in all, it just makes things easier, I think.
Finally, as far as drums go, find the rythym. Sounds dumb, but sometimes it's hidden pretty well. Most of the time (that is MOST of the time), you'll find something in there that's "keeping the beat". Find it, and everything else kinda plays off it.
And in Harmonix, we trust. They did a pretty fabulous job on the drum difficulty curve, just like they did with Guitar Hero. I said it before, but do the career, starting on whatever difficulty you can. Chances are, by the time you finish the hardest song on that difficulty, you'll be ready for the easiest on the next difficulty. Really. Well, usually....
Good luck. |
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brian0153
Joined: 31 Dec 2007
Posts: 108
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| Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2008 8:48 pm Post subject: |
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Heres how i conquered my problem with hand/foot seporating or whatever its called the first thisng to keep in ming is that there not really seporate and it folows a consitant beat for example
(jsut think of orange as kick pedal k?)
   the patern is
Foot Foot-hand foot hand foot then it repeats a problem coms into play when you think like this
foot foot-hand -reapeats foot hand foot is diferent tehn you meess up and do this
hope i could help
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~someware thares a 5 year old who whould fc that |
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