I started working on the second drum rudiment today: the Single Stroke Four. This is another pretty simple one which I picked up pretty quickly. It seems to be incredibly useful though as I’m running into it quite a bit in the songs that I’m learning, particularly some of the My Friend Of Misery fills. I’ve got most of that song down, now I just need to work on the outro part which has quite a bit going on. I was looking to try something new in between working on that though so I decided to give Don’t Tread On Me (also from the Black Album, of course) a try. It’s in 12/8 so it will be my first time playing something in a meter other than 4/4. I’m used to odd meters though from my time playing Dream Theater and similar stuff on guitar. I actually picked up the intro, verse, and chorus pretty quickly but I need to really polish it up now that I have a rough idea of what’s going on. Other than the time signature, the whole song seems to be simpler than Sandman and Misery but we’ll see how it goes. ‘Til next time…
Rob
Well, I’ve finally started working on some rudiments starting of course with the first one: the Single Stroke Roll. As I mentioned in my last post, the Drumming System I ordered presents the 40 rudiments in a very useful fashion, providing you with a video of the rudiment being played on its on, in a beat context, and then as a fill. The Single Stroke Roll is pretty simple so I didn’t have much trouble at all playing the examples. I’m going to continue to work on it for a bit and then move onto the next rudiment: the Single Stroke Four.
I’m working on the outro of My Friend of Misery which has quite a few cool fills in it and I can already see how the Single Stroke Roll can help me play them better…the Single Stroke Four is also in a quite a few places as well so that should be very useful as well. I’m hoping to have the whole song down pretty soon.
Well, I’ve got most of My Friend Of Misery down…the intro, verses, chorus and solo (well sorta). I say “well sorta” because there are a couple of fills at the end of the solo that I haven’t gotten yet. One of them has a double bass roll (?–I’m not exactly sure of the terminology) and without a double bass pedal I’ll have to customize that one a bit. The other one is a series of triplets which I think will just take some practice to get down. I’ve had to rearrange things and customize the fill a bit since I’m lacking a 4th or 5th tom but I’m pretty happy with what I came up with.
However, working on that fill has instilled in me the need to start working on those drum rudiments I’ve been talking about since I started this blog. I’m unsure of the best way to play the triplet fill (i.e. which hands to use when) and I think that the rudiments will help me be able to do what I need to do more effectively. So, tomorrow I’m going to start working on rudiments 1-3…the Drumming System that I recently bought gives you a video demo of the rudiment and then plays it in a beat context and a fill context so I’m going to be making good use of that. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Well, after a brief vacation, I’m back behind the drum kit and ready to start playing again. I’m currently working on My Friend of Misery by Metallica and Cry Tough by Poison but I still run through Back In Black and Enter Sandman when I play. Sandman still hurts my shoulders so I’m trying not to aggravate the problem until it totally heals. I received that Drumming System I mentioned in my last post and I’ll try to write a better review of it in the near future. I’ll hopefully be back to posting regularly now so stay tuned.
I’ve decided to take the plunge and order Michael Michallow’s Drumming System. I’ve heard so many great things about it and I think it should provide sort of the total package to enable me to do the drum lessons totally at home. I’ve been doing pretty good on my own but I’m sure as I progress I’m going to need some additional guidance. I’ll let you know how things go once it arrives.
My shoulder is still bothering me but I’m too addicted to the drums now to stop playing entirely so I’ve been spending my time slowly learning drum beats from the Rock Drum Basics book
So, my wrist/hand pain cleared up just a few days after it started (and I’ve now got a bitchin’ callous on my right hand to boot) but I’ve developed some shoulder pain over the past couple days so I think I’m going to take a couple days off from drumming. I workout a lot as well so I think the weights and the pounding on drums for hours a day was causing a problem. Hopefully, this’ll clear up as quickly as my wrist issues. Status report thus far is basically the same: Back In Black is down though I run through it a few times each time I sit down and play; Enter Sandman is complete except for the last 20 seconds or so of the tom outro; I’ve learned My Friend of Misery up through the first chorus but it’s still shaky on some parts. Once I get back to playing I’m going to add in some of the more “boring” technical stuff like rudiments and playing various beats to a metronome in addition to continuing to work on the songs. ‘Til then…
Not a ton to report today although I did start to learn My Friend of Misery a bit. I’ve learned up through the first chorus as of now. This song has always been one of my favorites off of the Black Album
Not much to report today. I’m continuing to go over the two songs in my massive (haha) repetoire, refining Back In Black and Enter Sandman. I need to learn the tom outro part and then I’ll have Sandman totally learned…not that I won’t f*ck it up while playing it but I’ll at least know all the parts. I also decided that Holier Than Thou is probably too tough for my next project so I’m going to try My Friend Of Misery which is another one of my favorites off the Black Album and seems to have an easier (and slower) drum part. We shall see. I’m still waiting for The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Playing Drums
I didn’t get to post yesterday but I’ve still be playing on a daily basis. I’m pretty psyched about my progress. I’ve been continuing to work on ”Enter Sandman” and have learned everything up through the final outro section (where things switch back to toms). I’ve also found that I’ve been entering that cool zone which I’m familiar with from practicing guitar where your body just kind of takes over and does what you’ve taught it to do instead of making you think about everything you’re doing. It seems that’s when the best performances happen. After I get Sandman down, I think I’m going to try “Holier Than Thou”. It’s one of my favorites off the Black Album
One other thing that I’ve noticed is that after about 2 hours of practice, my bass drum work starts to get sloppy. I’m using the heels up technique because 1) it seems easier for me and 2) I read that it is the preferred method for rock and metal music. Anyhow, after practicing for awhile, my shin and leg start to kind of get like jelly…it doesn’t feel fatiqued really, just sort of like I’m losing some of the precise control I had at the start of my practice session. It makes doing faster consecutive hits (like two eighths in a row) difficult to keep tight and precise. I’m assuming (and hoping) this is just a matter of practicing more and building up endurance. I’ll keep at it. ’Til next time…
, it's the exact same drum kit that I am teaching myself to play on. Check it out if you want to learn to play drums at home too...it's awesome and Amazon always has the lowest price for it. I did a ton of research before I bought it.