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).
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…
Today marks the end of 1 week of drum lessons at home. In addition to having an absolute blast learning to play, I’ve accomplished the following:
- set up the Alesis DM6 Kit Performance Electronic Drumset
- learned several basic rock beats
- learned “Back In Black” by AC/DC in it’s entirety
- learned “Enter Sandman” by Metallica through the guitar solo
- generally improved my overall technique and timing
Not bad for a week’s work of at-home drum lessons I’d say. This week I’m going to try to knockout the rest of Sandman (or at least most of it) and start working on some rudiments, assuming I get The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Playing Drums
Got in some good practice time today and am now pretty comfortable with “Enter Sandman” through the verse and 1st chorus. I know the 2nd verse and chorus beats as well but the little part in between where the main riff plays again has a fill in the 4th measure that for whatever reason is proving a little tricky for me. It sounds so simple on the record and I’m sure it is…just getting myself to hit the snare on 1 as opposed to the kick has me cursing. It’s that limb independence thing again I guess. I’ve also worked in the open hi-hat in the fill at the end of the “Back In Black” verses so that just leaves me the measure leading out of the interlude to nail down and I’ve got the whole song. Not bad for just a week I think. I ordered
The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Playing Drums
module a bit more. They give you 10 preset kits and then you can save 5 of your own kits in provided slots. I’ve found the snare is not loud enough in general on this kit so I ended up adjusting the volume of that in the module Voice menu (you can do this for all the drums and cymbals, which is pretty cool) and that improved things greatly. After tweaking all the volumes to the way I wanted them, I saved that as my kit. I also wanted to figure out how to turn the ride cymbal into a second crash because during the tom part of Enter Sandman I was breaking my back trying to get to the lefthand side one. It turned out to be incredibly simple so now I have two crashes in my saved kit.
“Back In Black” gets more and more refined the more I play it and the intro to Enter Sandman isn’t quite as raggedy. The verses and prechorus are pretty simple and I basically have them. I’m hoping to tackle the chorus next…it seems pretty complex to me but I’m sure it’s child’s play to anyone with more than a few days experience like yours truly. I really need to start buckling down on drum rudiments and other fundamentals. My flams in the AC/DC tune aren’t consistent at all and I know the other rudiments would help me as well. Soon, I promise, soon.
In other news, my drum tablature book for Metallica’s Black Album
