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Thread: Making a Band

  1. #1

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    Question Making a Band

    Ok I know the title says making a band and that IS my main question but I have a couple of other ones as well. I'd like to apologize for this dreadfully long read, you don't have to read the intro you can just skip to the questions if you wanna.

    As far as introductions go I've been here before and its been a while and I don't recognize most of you so I'm Crateis, real name's Victor (Vic for short). I've been playing drums since roughly the middle of last November, so a little under half a year. I do take drum lessons, I can read pretty basic music, I have a nice ear for music (figuring out toms frustrate me sometimes but I'm sure that's a universal thing lol). Some of the bands I listen to are (please don't gag) Paramore, Linkin Park, System, Coldplay, A Day To Remember, and a bunch more. I have a really open mind to music so if you have any bands that are good (and have some epic drumming in it) feel free to hit me up.

    Oh yeah I'm 15 years old (16 on the 16th :D), I just joined my church youth band recently and I haven't played yet but I will this coming Wednesday if I get the songs down (2/3 so far). I have a dream of mastering the drums and performing in front of thousands of screaming fans, adrenaline rushing. My musical influences as far as drummers go is John Bonham, I adore that man...that's basically it lol I needa expand...anywhooo on to the questions:

    1. When do you know you're good enough to join/make a band? Like I know there's no set requirement of things to know but what are things that help out in the long run, like techniques and such?

    2. TIME. I know time is #1 on the drummer's list, and I can't keep it worth crap. I kinda already know the answer to this, buy a bloody metronome, but is that it? I know metronomes help but when you're live you won't have a metronome, is keeping time a learned thing or what. Oh and as for buying one, I wanted one that I could plug my headphones in (keep in my I AM on a student's budget) and I can kinda hear over my drums (I was thinking http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...0_Dr_Beat.html) and if you could recommend some nice headphones you use that cancel out the noise, my current ones aren't really cutting it.

    3. What do I learn first? I mean if you youtube 'drum lessons' you'll get tens of thousands of videos, I start looking at one and then another and pretty soon I'm overwhelmed with all these techniques and junk. Like I said I have a teacher but all we're doing is reading music and working on limb seperation, covering the occasional song if I need. Any advice on that?

    4. I know you guys get this question A LOT but I've been working on rudiments, basic ones such as diddles, doubles (and variations), flams, rolls (I still suck at these), etc. and my speed seems to have gotten to a certain pace and just stopped. It's not even that fast...so do I just keep trying to work out the wrist, change to a pillow, or what? Oh and I know there's a bunch more rudiments but I wanna know how fast I should get with these ones I have before moving on to rudiments that build upon the basics.

    Please and Thank You for all the help, I'll be a lot more active on here...it's about time I got serious with my drums, I love them but I've been lazy. Time for that to change. I also apologize for the lengthy read, it was more of a hassle to type lol.

    On a COMPLETELY unrelated note I just got COD:MW2 yesterday on my PS3, PM for PSNID if you wanna get owned :P

  2. #2

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    Default Re: Making a Band

    Quote Originally Posted by Crateis View Post
    Ok I know the title says making a band and that IS my main question but I have a couple of other ones as well. I'd like to apologize for this dreadfully long read, you don't have to read the intro you can just skip to the questions if you wanna.

    As far as introductions go I've been here before and its been a while and I don't recognize most of you so I'm Crateis, real name's Victor (Vic for short). I've been playing drums since roughly the middle of last November, so a little under half a year. I do take drum lessons, I can read pretty basic music, I have a nice ear for music (figuring out toms frustrate me sometimes but I'm sure that's a universal thing lol). Some of the bands I listen to are (please don't gag) Paramore, Linkin Park, System, Coldplay, A Day To Remember, and a bunch more. I have a really open mind to music so if you have any bands that are good (and have some epic drumming in it) feel free to hit me up.

    Oh yeah I'm 15 years old (16 on the 16th :D), I just joined my church youth band recently and I haven't played yet but I will this coming Wednesday if I get the songs down (2/3 so far). I have a dream of mastering the drums and performing in front of thousands of screaming fans, adrenaline rushing. My musical influences as far as drummers go is John Bonham, I adore that man...that's basically it lol I needa expand...anywhooo on to the questions:

    1. When do you know you're good enough to join/make a band? Like I know there's no set requirement of things to know but what are things that help out in the long run, like techniques and such?

    2. TIME. I know time is #1 on the drummer's list, and I can't keep it worth crap. I kinda already know the answer to this, buy a bloody metronome, but is that it? I know metronomes help but when you're live you won't have a metronome, is keeping time a learned thing or what. Oh and as for buying one, I wanted one that I could plug my headphones in (keep in my I AM on a student's budget) and I can kinda hear over my drums (I was thinking http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...0_Dr_Beat.html) and if you could recommend some nice headphones you use that cancel out the noise, my current ones aren't really cutting it.

    3. What do I learn first? I mean if you youtube 'drum lessons' you'll get tens of thousands of videos, I start looking at one and then another and pretty soon I'm overwhelmed with all these techniques and junk. Like I said I have a teacher but all we're doing is reading music and working on limb seperation, covering the occasional song if I need. Any advice on that?

    4. I know you guys get this question A LOT but I've been working on rudiments, basic ones such as diddles, doubles (and variations), flams, rolls (I still suck at these), etc. and my speed seems to have gotten to a certain pace and just stopped. It's not even that fast...so do I just keep trying to work out the wrist, change to a pillow, or what? Oh and I know there's a bunch more rudiments but I wanna know how fast I should get with these ones I have before moving on to rudiments that build upon the basics.

    Please and Thank You for all the help, I'll be a lot more active on here...it's about time I got serious with my drums, I love them but I've been lazy. Time for that to change. I also apologize for the lengthy read, it was more of a hassle to type lol.

    On a COMPLETELY unrelated note I just got COD:MW2 yesterday on my PS3, PM for PSNID if you wanna get owned :P
    Welcome to Drum Chat! I'll do my best with these questions haha....

    1. I would say whenever you can keep solid time and can learn songs quickly then you could join a band. But like you said, there is no set time when a drummer is automatically "ready" to be part of a band.

    2. Yes, its as simple as buying a metronome and practicing with it. Again as you said, timing is a "learned" thing, the more you practice with a metronome, the better you'll get at keeping time without it.

    3. I'll let someone else take that one lol.

    4. Practice a lot. You won't suddenly get faster, it takes lots of time. The more you practice, the better. My drum teacher tells me he pretty much brings a practice pad and a pair of sticks everywhere. He'll practice rudiments when he's watching TV etc., that way you don't need to be behind the kit all the time and ou can still practice the rudiments.
    Matt

  3. #3

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    Default Re: Making a Band

    Buy a metronome immidately, or download tracks and put them on your mp3 player. Play the rudiments with them at a certain speed over and over and over and over and over again until you can flawlessly. Than increase the speed.

    Repeat.

    :P In all seriousness, talk to your teacher, tell him your goals and what you want to achieve, and if he is a good teacher and a good person he will steer you in the right direction, just make sure its the direction you want.

  4. #4

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    Default Re: Making a Band

    Vic, are you in the band at your highschool? If you aren't, you might want to consider joining. You are basically getting free drum lessons everyday. You will also learn how to play with other musicians and get some performance experience under your belt. Marching band is especially good for learning rudiments, as all of the material will be heavily rudimental. If your dream is to be a pro musician, this is the first place you need to start. Get as active as you can in it, marching band, concert band, jazz band, solo and ensemble, etc. If you're really serious about it, HS band can prepare you for college music programs and even help with scholarships. This is the ONLY chance you will have to take advantage of all the free information, once your graduated you can't go back. I dropped out my junior year, and I kick myself everyday for doing so.

  5. #5

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    Default Re: Making a Band

    Thanks a bunch for the help guys, as for your question Gretsch I am not currently in the marching band, never really saw myself in it...but I will definitely look into it, I'll talk to the band director before the year's over. Jazz band seems especially interesting because their current drummer just left, so that's a definite possibility.

    Thanks for all your help :D

  6. #6

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    Default Re: Making a Band

    Someone already mentioned this, but I'll say it again. RUDIMENTS! The rudiments are a percussionists vocabulary. The more words (rudiments) you know, the better sentences, paragraphs, essays, etc.. (beats, rhythms..) you can write. (play)

    Definitely the first things you should learn are the basic 40 PAS rudiments. And play them with a metronome.

    If you're like me, it's going to be extremely boring starting out and you'll want to get to the "good stuff". But you will be very happy in the long run if you don't skip this step!

    Each and every rudiment can be applied to your playing and it will make your playing SO much more interesting and fun.

    I've played in several ensembles [see sig] over the past 5 years and rudiments are definitely key to great playing.

    EDIT: Stick control. Period. Buy it. It's a $10 book max and worth every penny. George Lawrence Stone.
    Last edited by Mike_L; 05-12-2010 at 12:20 AM.
    Drums:
    Ludwig Classic Maple
    Tama Starclassic Performer

    Cymbals:
    20" K ride
    20" K custom dry ride
    16" A custom crash
    14" New Beat hats
    14" K custom dark crash
    Ensembles
    Oregon Crusaders (DCI) 09 - bass 4
    OC Indoor (WGI) '10 - Snare 3rd place PIO
    OC Indoor (WGI) '11 - Snare PIW FINALIST!
    University of Oregon marching band '09 '10 '11 - Snare

  7. #7

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    Default Re: Making a Band

    Quote Originally Posted by Crateis View Post
    Ok I know the title says making a band and that IS my main question but I have a couple of other ones as well. I'd like to apologize for this dreadfully long read, you don't have to read the intro you can just skip to the questions if you wanna.

    As far as introductions go I've been here before and its been a while and I don't recognize most of you so I'm Crateis, real name's Victor (Vic for short). I've been playing drums since roughly the middle of last November, so a little under half a year. I do take drum lessons, I can read pretty basic music, I have a nice ear for music (figuring out toms frustrate me sometimes but I'm sure that's a universal thing lol). Some of the bands I listen to are (please don't gag) Paramore, Linkin Park, System, Coldplay, A Day To Remember, and a bunch more. I have a really open mind to music so if you have any bands that are good (and have some epic drumming in it) feel free to hit me up.

    Oh yeah I'm 15 years old (16 on the 16th :D), I just joined my church youth band recently and I haven't played yet but I will this coming Wednesday if I get the songs down (2/3 so far). I have a dream of mastering the drums and performing in front of thousands of screaming fans, adrenaline rushing. My musical influences as far as drummers go is John Bonham, I adore that man...that's basically it lol I needa expand...anywhooo on to the questions:

    1. When do you know you're good enough to join/make a band? Like I know there's no set requirement of things to know but what are things that help out in the long run, like techniques and such?

    2. TIME. I know time is #1 on the drummer's list, and I can't keep it worth crap. I kinda already know the answer to this, buy a bloody metronome, but is that it? I know metronomes help but when you're live you won't have a metronome, is keeping time a learned thing or what. Oh and as for buying one, I wanted one that I could plug my headphones in (keep in my I AM on a student's budget) and I can kinda hear over my drums (I was thinking http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...0_Dr_Beat.html) and if you could recommend some nice headphones you use that cancel out the noise, my current ones aren't really cutting it.

    3. What do I learn first? I mean if you youtube 'drum lessons' you'll get tens of thousands of videos, I start looking at one and then another and pretty soon I'm overwhelmed with all these techniques and junk. Like I said I have a teacher but all we're doing is reading music and working on limb seperation, covering the occasional song if I need. Any advice on that?

    4. I know you guys get this question A LOT but I've been working on rudiments, basic ones such as diddles, doubles (and variations), flams, rolls (I still suck at these), etc. and my speed seems to have gotten to a certain pace and just stopped. It's not even that fast...so do I just keep trying to work out the wrist, change to a pillow, or what? Oh and I know there's a bunch more rudiments but I wanna know how fast I should get with these ones I have before moving on to rudiments that build upon the basics.

    Please and Thank You for all the help, I'll be a lot more active on here...it's about time I got serious with my drums, I love them but I've been lazy. Time for that to change. I also apologize for the lengthy read, it was more of a hassle to type lol.

    On a COMPLETELY unrelated note I just got COD:MW2 yesterday on my PS3, PM for PSNID if you wanna get owned :P
    Hey guess what? I'm 15, and playing in my youth group band too! Welcome to the forums! First off, here's some good bands to start drumming to that I think you'll like...

    -Breaking Benjamin- May be a bit out of your skill level. Good band anyway.
    -Emery- They have a fantastic and creative drummer. His riffs are relatively simple.
    -Skillet- GREAT place to start. Very simple drums to some wicked sweet guitar riffs. They're also a Christian band.

    Ive been playing for about 5 years, so I'll give whatever advice I can.

    1. Jump right in! The sooner you join the better. Playing in a band will increase your skill dramatically. Learn to play WITH the guitars, not do you're own thing. Make sure your kick drum, your bass player, and your rhythm guitarist can hold down the groove.

    2. Let your music be your metronome. Play along to songs constantly, and eventually it'll become second nature.

    3. PLAY TO MUSIC. That's all I can say. The more you listen to real drummers playing real music, the better your will get.

    4. Keep practicing.

    Hope this helps! ROCK ON!
    I am currently suffering from gear acquisition syndrome. Will trade soul for drum gear. Donations accepted.

    -Tama Superstar Hyper-Drive 5-piece
    -SP Hardware
    -Gibraltar Avenger DB-Pedal
    -PST5 Cymbals

    "Uncontrollable urticaria drivel spurting" -a sentence spawned from the half a word story.

  8. #8

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    Default Re: Making a Band

    +1 on practice and time= muscle memory. I had beat my drums up for 5 yrs before I even heard of ruds or any other learning tool. And when I started to work with them it was about 6 months of frustration building up muscle memory. sounds to me like your on a good track, remember crawl before walking. All the best to ya. F/T

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