Questions tagged [drums]
Drums are a subset of percussion instruments played by beating a "head" stretched over a hollow "shell."
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What is the way the drumsticks are held in this video called?
The drummer in this video holds the drumstick in a certain way. I'm certain there is a name for that drumming technique. What do you call it? The grip on his left hand, to the right side in the video.
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What is this drum breakdown called?
The Show Goes On by Bruce Hornsby and the Range (Spotify, YouTube).
At about 45 seconds into the song, some familiar drums start playing. For lack of a better word, I called this a "drum ...
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What is the timing of the first two drum beats
This is a snare only measure taken from
What are the timings of first two beats? [1-e-&-a-2-e-&-a]
If first two beats are not there,rhythm would be
1-s-&-a 2-...
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Paradiddle Control
I've been working on one of the rudiments of drumming - paradiddles. Get so fast, and they're regular, but get past that tempo, and they go out of shape and time. What hints can I use to improve?
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Can a 12-inch depth floor tom be retrofitted as a snare drum?
I recently acquired a new drum kit that includes two floor toms, one of which has a 14" diameter and 12" depth. I would like to modify 14 x 12 drum to make it a hybrid floor tom/deep snare, ...
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Timpani roll help
I have 2 days until my concert and I still can’t figure out how to do a timpani roll, and no one will help me. Can anyone help me with how I do the roll? (because I am struggling a lot)
I’m struggling ...
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Tuning a snare drum
I can tune tom toms all day long (sometimes it takes me less..!) but I haven't found an effective way of tuning a snare drum. What are good methods for effective tuning?
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rhythmic stress double check please?
Lately I am reading Jack Perricone's Melody in Songwriting, and in it there is a chapter dedicated to 'rhythmic stress'.
His opinion is that rhythm is a skeleton to a song, the most basic part, and I'...
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Can I Treat A Practice Pad As A Tom?
I have an idea of buying a practice pad with a pedal and hi-hat stand. I was wondering if buying some more pads to treat as other parts of the drum would work? Like I use one pad as a snare and ...
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Determining counts of semiquavers that are joined to quavers
I was given a 4/4 bar, and I'm trying to figure out what's the exact time at which to play the notes using these counts: 1-e-&-a-2-e-&-a-3-e-&-a-4-e-&-a
My attempt is written in grey ...
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What is "vertical sticking"?
I was browsing through cadences for my drumline and I stumbled upon "Trade Off" by Cassidy Byars. In the sheet music, it mentions vertical sticking at the end of the snare feature. However, ...
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Why is there a debate over whether or not percussion instruments are pitched?
Here is an excerpt from Introduction to the Study of Musical Scales by Alain Danielou.
The important part is in bold. I included the rest of the passage only to provide context:
It is the loss of ...
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Notation for cymbal choke and cymbal stop?
First, what's the difference between a cymbal choke and a cymbal stop? Is it that a choke is immediate (as soon as possible) and a stop is after the predetermined length of the note (i.e., eighth note,...
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Drumming bridge/crescendo
Do drummers have a name for this particular kind of bridge/crescendo, for example:
Life in the Fast Lane - Eagles (3:57)
Who We Are - Camel (4:22)
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Drum machine options for worship team (non-drummer) [closed]
Our worship team is in need of a mechanical option for a drummer. I have looked at several options but, as a non-drummer, I don't know which of those options would be a good match for our needs. As a ...
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How can I use an extra tom microphone when using the Scarlett 18I20?
I need to be able to use an extra tom microphone for my Scarlett 18I20 interface. The problem is that I already have microphones for inputs 1-4 (Bass Drum, Snare, Tom 1, Tom 2) and then I have 2 ...
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What does this diagonal line in the drums sheet music mean?
As the title says, what does the indicated line in the figure mean in a drum sheet music?
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Can you help me analyze this approach to laying down a drum beat?
In this article music producer Rami Yacoub says the following while discussing the mixing console at Cheiron Studios:
“[Max Martin] said ‘this is the magic…’ and he routed the kick on one, snare on ...
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Purpose of window in kick drum [duplicate]
I was at a jazz concert tonight and the kick drum was facing the audience. It had a circular "window" on the lower right (from the audience's point of view), with a microphone in front of it....
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Best strategy for tuning a 4 piece kit?
I recently got an acoustic kit after playing an electric kit for a while. There's a lot to learn, but one thing that I keep getting hung up on is how to tune my kit.
I've read a bunch of guides, and ...
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How to count polyrhythms on the drum set?
I've been playing drumset for over 20 years. What I'm trying to do is play 3/4/5/6 where one limb (arm or leg) will be 3/8 time, one limb will be 4/4 time, one limb will be 5/4 time, and the last ...
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Ground floor flat and electronic drum kit: is noise better isolated on the ground floor?
I am looking for a new flat in my city and I want to take my electronic drum kit into considerations when choosing the flat.
I was wondering if going for a ground floor flat would solve the problem of ...
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How often should I change tom heads (batters and resonants)?
I have had my current tom heads on since February.
I only play on my kit for an average of once a week, and not long when I do.
Should I replace them all, batter and resonant heads? I feel like I ...
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Why don't most high-tension marching snares have an inner hoop or any reinforcement on the snare side?
High-tension marching snares have an inner hoop where the batter head is placed to prevent its shells from collapsing—due to the high tension from Kevlar heads being tuned to higher pitches.
If this ...
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How to transition from a swing feel to a straight feel
I'm working on an arrangement that has a Reggae PreChorus moving into a Rock beat similar to what's known as a "Half-Time Beat". Now my problem is moving from the swing feel of the reggae to ...
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Drumming rudiments & distribution
I have recently gotten into rudiments in order to gain better grip control. My practice pad works great for this and I can sit and watch tv or listen to music while going over the 40.
This has me ...
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Is there proper terminology for the fundamental elements / layers of a drum beat?
In many musical styles a drum beat is composed of three main elements:
Bass drum
Snare
Hi-Hat
... but more fundamentally, three separate functions that can be performed by other parts of the drum ...
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Why can't velocity information be extracted from this kick drum loop?
I wanted to apply the groove of a downloaded kick drum loop to my own kick sound. The plan was to convert the loop’s audio, which happened to be in stereo, to MIDI and then simply hot swap the ...
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Is burying the beater a bad thing?
I've been playing the drums (acoustic set) for almost a year now and I tend to lightly rest my kick foot on the pedal in-between notes.
This means that my beater is on my drumhead in these cases.
Is ...
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Is timing with left foot (weak foot) a fundamental skill?
I have been playing drum for years (not but close to 8 years), self-learning most of the time, with really not enough practicing. Yet I am able to play some intermediate songs without much pressure. ...
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What do the labels on drumsticks (5A, 7B, etc.) mean?
There are different letters and numbers that different drumsticks carry, such as 5A, 7B. What do they represent? Does the material used (different woods, aluminium, etc.) have a bearing on the ...
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Should my drum sticks be the same size?
I bought a snare (which came with drum sticks) on craigslist. It turns out one of the sticks is fatter than the other one, and heavier.
Is this a "thing" or did they just give me mismatched ...
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It is possible to get the drum progression only by listening?
I want to get the drum progression from this
song on youtube at the minute 3:24, but I am unable to get the things very clearly, I can hear a Hi Tom on it, but no much more?
It is possible to get the ...
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Did percussion instruments communicate spoken words in click languages?
There are a number of click languages in Africa where 'clicks' function as part of their language. It seems like it would be possible to communicate some words with percussion instruments (maybe a ...
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What should be key considerations when splicing drum loops?
In this post, I asked you all about isolating individual hits from a drum loop. This was important to me because I wanted to actually edit the drum loops to create my own version of the original.
...
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How to make Big beat drum from scratch? [closed]
As a beginner producer, I am having trouble making drums for my records.
I usually go to YouTube to learn how to create drum beats, but when I came across Big Beat, there was no detailed tutorial for ...
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Yamaha DTX500 snare drum volume is much lower than the other drums
I know that there is a dial under the snare drum to control its gain, but even when I turn it all the way up, the snare drum sound is still barely half that of all the other pads and cymbals.
Is there ...
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DTX402k eDrum kick sounds opaque into PA SPEAKER
I was wondering if I need a mixer between my DTX402k and my BEHRINGER B112 PA speaker in order to get the sound of my kick pad right.
When I connect my headphones it sounds perfect but once I try to ...
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Should I keep forcing my very left-handed body to learn drums with the typical right-hand kit setup?
I got a beginner mesh drum kit for Christmas and set it up according to the picture and have been trying to learn the basics on my own. I’m very left-handed in life. I always start out with my left ...
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Recording technique: not letting the crash cymbals ring out
I listened to the following song this morning on the way into work. I heard something I hadn't heard before.
Each of the crash cymbals were very minimal, almost gated, or maybe miked from a distance.
...
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Separate drumkit into hands and feet in Musink music maker
I'm writing drum and percussion exercises in Musink music maker software. It's going well except when I write the hands and feet the notes 'join'.
I would like them to be separate. I read about voice ...
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What instrument in a drum kit is played on the second and fourth beat of a song during a verse or pre-chorus?
I've tried to locate this particular sound in a drum kit, but I can't figure out what it's called. It's equivalent to hitting your drumsticks together on every second and fourth beat of a song during ...
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Meaning of drum TAB notation: horizontal line with upward stroke
I came across the following notation which I couldn't find in any guides to drum TAB notation:
It resembles a small x note lying directly on the 2nd stave line from the top (i.e., a D4 in the treble ...
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Why do snare players only have one drum?
In marching drum lines, like Blue Devils, it's common that there are some tenor drum players with 4-6 drums, but the snare players only have 1 drum. To me, that seems like a waste. Sure, more drums/...
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Drumming. Beginner. The value of practicing limb independence
I'm teaching myself to drum.
I've zero background in drumming.
My thinking is to focus on limb independence, instead of the paradiddles in the entry-level drumming book, so I can more easily learn any ...
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How to generate MIDI of a drum score in Lilypond?
I am beginning to experiment with Lilypond, trying to see the possibilities for writing drum scores / lead sheets.
So far I have found the \drums notation, as well as \midi { } command. However, when ...
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Drum and dotted notes
I am trying to practice Smell like a teen spirit on drums and there is something I don’t understand with dotted notes.
Here is the sheet:
I don’t understand the use of dotted notes in this sheet. If ...
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How effective is a "glancing blow" technique at preserving crash cymbals?
I've heard it said hundreds of times that hitting a crash cymbal with a "glancing blow", rather than straight on, will extend its life and help prevent it from cracking.
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Vibration Modes of Drums
I just learned in the context of a PDE course how the various modes of vibration arise as solutions to the 2D Wave Equation. I am curious as to how many of these describe the motion of actual drums.
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How to get faster and better on bass drum pedal
When I drum I constantly struggle to keep the beat on the bass drum pedal for faster songs. Are there some practice techniques someone could help me with? The song I struggle with is Build Your ...
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