So, it’s been a few months since I last posted. It’s not that I’ve been slacking off on my blogging, it’s that I haven’t been playing drums due to a shoulder injury. I ended up with what my doctor told me was bursitis in the shoulder and had to rest it as well as get a cortisone shot to clear it up. Thankfully, I’m now back to playing and I’ve started stretching out for 5 minutes or so before I sit down to play so I avoid reinjuring my shoulder. It’s also important to not overdue things which I think is what caused the problem to begin with (3 hours of Enter Sandman when I wasn’t used to drumming was a recipe for disaster). Anyhow, I’ll be back to updating the blog with my progress regularly now. I had to sort of relearn some stuff but was happy to see I had retained the general skills I had developed. I’ve got Back In Black, Enter Sandman, and My Friend Of Misery down and will be jumping into the rest of Metallica’s Black Album starting with Don’t Tread On Me. I’ll also of course be getting back to working on more exercises from Michael Michalkow’s Drumming System (by the way, if you want to read my review of this drumming system, you can check it out here).
To try something different, I’ve been working on trying to write some of my own beats for fun. These are relatively simple of course but it’s a lot of fun to make up original stuff. I’ve played guitar for 20 years so I’ve been writing some riffs, recording them and then trying to put a simple drum beat to them using my admittedly limited drum knowledge. It’s definitely pretty cool and I always think it’s important to try to create something musically in addition to simply copying everyone else. Of course, the influence of what I’ve learned from the Black Album is undoubtedly coming through in the beats I’m writing but hopefully I’m adding something of my own as well. I’d encourage even beginners to give this a try…you might surprise yourself.
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…
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
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…
In other news, my drum tablature book for Metallica’s Black Album
, 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.