moving around the drum set

[maddog24]

Hey

Ive been watchin a lot of youtube, and i've been trying to figure out the easiest way to move around the drumset. When the pros do it, it looks like they arent even trying, which made me think theres a technique to it that i dont know. i've been tryin to find a lot of videos on crossovers too, but i still think theres a much easier way.

Any tips for me?

Thanks

[PumaPhreak]

Make sure your kit is set up as ergonomically as possible. Other than that I think it comes down to playing the same configuration a lot to become more fluid in your motion. Maybe others have some suggestions.

[vdrummer20]

Pros make everything look easy. You want to achieve a natural flow with all of your strokes, be it on one drum or moving between drums. This comes with years of practice. A kit set up correctly for you will facilitate this as mentioned before. It comes with time. Keep practicing and have fun.

[Michael Render]

which made me think theres a technique to it that i dont know.

There's probably more than one. It's amazing how you pick up more and more "tricks" as you go on. The pros have their rudiments down cold and play complex patterns across their drums effortlessly due to years of muscle-memory training. You just need to start that training. Practice things like paradiddles and double stroke rolls across the toms. You will eventually get it.

[stickinthemud]

Stick control!

I have found the easy way to move the set around is to break it down into manageable sections. What? Oh! Move around the set! Sorry...

Vdrummer said it simply - practice.

Once you have the kit set up to your liking, practice those patterns you want to master again and again and again, night after night, week after week. Use a metronome. Start slow, then work up to faster tempos. Gradually, you find you can do it with less effort and greater accuracy.

For instance, I use my drums to work out. 45 to 60 minutes of hard playing to fast tunes gets my heart rate up, so I get a decent aerobic workout. Problem is, I'm expending less effort playing the same songs, so I have to keep finding more demanding songs.

When I watch drummers who make it look easy, it looks almost like they are throwing their hands and sticks around the kit, as opposed to striking the drums as one would strike a nail with a hammer. Start at low volumes. Control comes before speed and power, and you can't have control unless you are relaxed.

[M_C_M]

As metioned its all about finding path ways around the kit, they can be in the form of rudiments or more free form patterns. And remember you play the stroke from the wrist and the arms get you around the kit...

['lectric drumma]

I've set my kit up in a way that I only have to turn around to hit all the thoms, with my right arm staying in the exaxt same anlge... Maybe you could try it that way too?


Stijn

[maddog24]

Does anyone have some examples of the rudiments they use to move around the set. I know the paradiddles and stuff, but like any tips on double stroke rolls between drums, and crossover patterns? Ive been tryin to work some out, just to get some speed goin from drum to drum, but none of them sound very good lol.

[vdrummer20]

check out some of the instructional videos from drummerworld.com, under drum clinic. Great resource.

http://www.drummerworld.com/drumclinic.html

[drumslinger50]

Here's another 2 penny suggestion. Find a group of patterns that you use in a song and play whole songs with your eyes closed. This developes "sound zone associations". Your brain will put SZA together with your "muscle memory" and eventually your arms and hand will just go to the sound you choose.

[Navare]

And here's the stupid answer but works for me, I play a certain amount of the time with my eyes closed, it's hard at first becasue if you threw your head in your hands you'd miss but it's amazing how it focuses you to play with your eyes open, It just tends to flow.

Also correct seating position relative to your kit setup so you're not throwing yourself round the kit to reach certain parts.

And practise practise practise

Good luck fella
N.

[oldmandrummer]

Hey

Ive been watchin a lot of youtube, and i've been trying to figure out the easiest way to move around the drumset. When the pros do it, it looks like they arent even trying, which made me think theres a technique to it that i dont know. i've been tryin to find a lot of videos on crossovers too, but i still think theres a much easier way.

Any tips for me?

Thanks

a good book for coordination and getting around the kit. I have this book - an earlier edition, and it is amazing!

Rhythmic Patterns (Full Drum Set Studies for the Modern Drummer) By Joe Cusatis

many 16th patterns and triplet patterns.

[JimFiore]

Personally, I think "flow" has a lot to do with balance. By balance I mean cross-body symmetry. Whatever motion or rudiment-across-the-set you practice, try to do the same in reverse. If you lead with your right hand, try leading with your left going the opposite way. You may eventually take this to the extreme (as I did) and make a symmetrical kit layout.

But ultimately as already said, it's all about practice. Some people call it "muscle memory", but of course muscles don't really have memory. What you're doing, quite literally, is rewiring your brain. You're fine tuning the firing of your neural network to smoothly and effortlessly trigger muscle contractions. That takes a little time. Eventually, you'll pare down the motion and any opposing contraction will disappear. You'll get faster, yet do so with less effort as you aren't "fighting yourself". You just relax and let it flow. If you don't believe that, try doing something that is very easy but with the opposite hand, for example, banging out an uninterrupted string of 16s on the ride with your left hand (if you're a rightie). The tension will be apparent after a minute or so. It's difficult not because your left hand/arm has much lower aerobic conditioning than your right, it's because of inefficient neuro-motor response. Lots more of this on my blog if you're interested. Here are some you might like:
http://scienceblogs.com/bushwells/20...etry_exper.php
http://scienceblogs.com/bushwells/20...nts_part_3.php
http://scienceblogs.com/bushwells/20...ordination.php


Finally, some people think it's kind of a Zen thing: "Be the drum, Danny. BE the drum. Danny. Naa na na na na..."

[Herl]

Namaste Jim

Anyway, being the drum involves feeling right about the way the toms respond to your strokes, their angle, the distance of them, their sound and responsiveness. The most important factors in that respect seem (to me) to be the tuning, the angle and position of the parts, and the sticks. The sticks are very important to me ... with the right sticks for the right song, I can play anything. Needless to say, I change sticks depending on the song.

"Good sticks" is very hard to define ... you will need a whole arsenal of them and experiment your way around. On an e-kit, it may be less of an issue because you have so many other ways of adapting the kit to the drummer, but on a-kits, I am usually stuck with having to adapt to the kit and the song ... my tricks are the sticks.

[wannab]

JimFiore please explain ..

JimFiore, what does the article http://scienceblogs.com/bushwells/20...ordination.php mean by this?

** A triplet is three notes in the normal space of two. So, a drummer will have one hand doing the twos, and the other doing the threes. Imagine a repeating sequence of six equally spaced notes, say one per second. Your right hand may be hitting on 1, 3 and 5 while your left hand is hitting on 1 and 4. Try it. As he was relatively new at this, my student was having some difficulty doing it the opposite way (left = 1, 3, 5 and right = 1, 4). **

Thanks