Let's talk about drums!

[madMUHHH]

Hi there,

I'm thinking about getting myself some kind of drums, because, well, I like drums. And I know that there are lot of exotic sounding, super cool drums out there, but unfortunately I really don't that much about those.

 

So, basically I'd really appreciate it if anyone here who knows anything about any kind of drums whatsoever would introduce them here, perhaps with some YouTube videos or whatever.

 

Personally I'm looking for drums which are not overly expensive and which have a decent dynamic range, so that you can create a lot of interesting sounds with it. But this thread doesn't have to be about me exclusively, so just post whatever you think is worth sharing and in some way related to drums. Let's make this the ultimate drum thread!

 

And to start things of, here's some music. This may not be a fitting video for this thread, but the drum parts are awesome enough for me to use that as an excuse to shove some Tool in your face.

 

Edit: What I personally have in mind here are "single drums" if you can call it that. Tablas, bongos, whatever, there's so much stuff out there. Anyways, any posts regarding full conventional drum kits are still welcome.

 

Edited April 7, 2013 by madMUHHH

[joeblast]

we,, a crappy drumset with new and well tuned heads will sound better than a superlative drumset with old beaten down drumheads that arent in tune - actually a crappy drumset wont sound bad in the least if you have good heads on 'em, but re-heading an entire set gets to be expensive in and of itself.

 

some things to consider...

 

-do you have somewhere to play them - drums are LOUD - so if the db level isnt a problem, cool - if it is, then you may want to consider some quieter options, although those electronic sets can get very expensive. I wound up buying some nylon mesh drumheads for my other drumset, this was I can go play them and not have it be loud - the only problem with those is it is relatively easy to tighten them very tightly to give great bounce, but then it is unrealistic in that if too tight, natural drumheads will never be that tight, they'd sound funny, so you wind up not being trained for the real thing. I also have a set of ddrum piezo transducers that can plug into a midi box - so you can combine the signal coming off those mesh heads and fire it into a drum program. while its acceptable for the drums themselves, cymbals get tricky in this instance.

 

-learn to love rudiments - go to www.vicfirth.com and go to the learning section there, they have tons of rudiments. all of those little pieces are what you put together to make fills etc - or even a good drum beat, if you're creative. so check out something like steve gadd's beat on paul simon's 50 ways to leave your lover for an example along that lines of thinking. I usually wind up practicing rudiments on my mesh heads - and I also bought a set of corpsmaster sticks for training (I've always been a fan of drum corps, go check out switzerland's Top Secret drum corps for some good performances...those guys make me want to get creative with bass drums on my set and add in a 20 and a 24 or 26 in addition to the 22 I use as my main bass drum. I figger I have a double pedal on that, can add the 20" on a single pedal to the left (and then my two hihat pedals, I bought a remote one to go over the right side of the set but the pedal is still on the left...I dont think 4 pedals on the left would kill me and to finish that off I'd probably have to use my old double pedal to run a large bassdrum off to the right, hah! but that would make my set preposterously large and way too much of a pain to bring anywhere. my buddies call my gibraltar rack Megatron as it is since it is kind of a pain to fold up and 'transform' into something that fits in a vehicle )

 

-a good tip for tuning drums - when putting a new head on, it is absolutely imperative you take your time and seat the head evenly and incrementally tighten the lugs in an even manner. otherwise you wind up with areas of the drumhead that will not get in tune no matter how much you try and you'll wind up having to remove and reseat the head. with that said, once you start getting close, put a finger in the middle of the drumhead, press down just a bit, and then lightly hit the head in front of each lug to get a more accurate "local tuning"...the increase in pitc will help tamp down some extra resonances are you'll be able to get relative pitch between lugs easier.

 

-*ALWAYS* strike cymbals at an angle, NEVER perpendicular to the cymbal itself. past a certain amount of movement per unit size of the cymbal you will induce significant enough vibrations in the metal that it will start to crack. maybe its because I pay particular attention to that, I havent broken a cymbal in the last 15 years or so. spread that attack out along the cymbal by hitting it at an angle and you greatly lessen the chance of breakage. it takes some extra skill to be able to get the desired attack perfect on any given hit...so that's just a practice thing...so in other words a lot of times its easier to get the desired level of attack by hitting the cymbal perpendicularly...but for reasons stated above, dont do that, do it the right way, practice well enough that you can simply use your skill to impart the desired attack and still hit the cymbal in a long-life friendly manner.

 

that's just some blurbs off the top of my head, if you have any specific questions, ask away

[madMUHHH]

Alright, thanks for that!

 

Actually what I had in mind wasn't a whole drumset, but something simpler akin to tablas or more traditional drums. Don't get me wrong, I'd really love to have a whole drumkit and am also playing around with the thought of getting that sometime in the future, but that really isn't practical in my current living conditions. So first of all, sorry if you now feel like your post was in vain. It was not. I still found it to be valuable, because as I said, I certainly would like to own a complete drum set at some point. And besides, if this is supposed to be the ultimate drum thread, then it still fits in quite nicely.

 

But I guess I should have clarified this a bit more. I didn't really think about that, because in German there are two seperate words for that anyways. I guess posting a video of a "rock" song if you want to call it that, didn't help either. ^^ Guess I should update my original post.

Edited April 7, 2013 by madMUHHH

[Harmonious Emptiness]

Sounds like you'd be best off with a ceramic doumbek. They are usually the cheapest (around $70US and less) of any hand-drums and they have a really versatile sound with big bass and cool sounding rim and treble. I find the ceramic ones actually have a lot more versatility than the metal and vinyl ones - lot's more overtones can be found in the ceramic. I'd say they have most Eastern mystical tone which judging by your music choice is probably more what you would use it for. Just be careful not to tip it over or it can crack.

 

The big wooden African ones you see at drum circles are djembes (Gem-bay). They are extremely vesatile. Only buy them if they have real African goat skin, and preferably made in either Mali, Ghana, Senegal, Gambia, or Ivory Coast. The other skins don't have the same sound, will go out of tune, and you'd be better off with a $60 ceramic doumbek. Good djembes go from $250 to maybe $600US, depending on the size, type of wood, design work, and origin.

 

Congas are not as versatle as doumbeks or djembes, which is why you generally need two of them (as with bongos). If you find an inexpensive one ($200) with a thick bison skin head, it will sound better than all the medium, non pro-level, stuff. One really nice conga will cost you the same as a full drumset.

 

Here's a ceramic doumbek/darbouka:

 

[madMUHHH]

Yeah, that definitely seems to go in the direction of what I am looking for. Thanks for that!

[Harmonious Emptiness]

You're welcome. You can probably find some good lessons on youtube too. Doumbek technique is traditionally a bit different but you can use all kinds of techniques on any hand drum.

 

Start with learning how to hit the bass and rim properly to get the natural tones out of the drum, before getting into rhythms.

 

It's kind of like dribbling a basketball - more of a bounce/slap/whip rather than a smack. Also keep your fingers together (at least) at the start so they are not too loose.

 

Basic rhythm:

 

1 e & a 2 e & a 3 e & a 4 e & a (repeat)

 

bass on the 1 and 3 / rim on the 2 and 4 / ghost notes (light touch) on the "e & a"

 

to get better timing, find an online metronome. Once you get used to it, I suggest setting it at half speed, like 40 beats per minute, so that it only clicks on the 2 and 4 and your own groove and ghost notes fill in the rest. This way your ghost notes will keep the time steady and your rim shots will be tight.

 

Let me know if you're interested in more.

[joeblast]

hehe, well, I kinda inferred by the tool vid

 

still go check out vic firth and rock out on rudiments - http://www.vicfirth.com/education/rudiments.php - its the best way to get the doubles and triples down for each hand and blend them together. so that one HE spelled out there, that's how they teach you to count to learn the single paradiddle

[Harmonious Emptiness]

I'd add to those rudiments: just practice the paradiddle (RLRR LRLL) and change the accent to fall on different beats:

 

Rlrr Lrll repeat

rLrr lRll repeat

rlRr lrLl repeat

rlrR lrlL repeat

[joeblast]

heh, that's actually pretty fun to do and sounds cool all strung together

[Harmonious Emptiness]

yeah, learned it from a Ginger Baker instructional video. He said it used to be part of the requirements to get into the musicians union as a drummer.