RLR

Still going strong on my rudiments. Still got my streak going. Let’s talk about what that takes and what I’ve learned in this short time.

Sure that is only nine days, but after today I’ll be a third of the way to my goal. I’m proud of myself for sticking with it because rudiments can be boring. Life gets in the way and you are tired and ready for bed, but you haven’t done your rudiments yet. Guess what? You gotta do them before bed.

I’m also proud because I haven’t bought a kit yet. That doesn’t mean that I am not shopping/looking/drooling every day over drum kits. But no trigger has been pulled and I’ve learned more by being patient.

So for now I have what I described earlier: a throne, a snare stand with a practice pad, “Stick Control”, a metronome, and a couple pairs of sticks. It’s enough to continue to learn even though it is definitely not as fun as playing/learning a song. What have I learned?

None of the new entry level kits that I’m looking at include a snare. Another reason to buy used.

Rudiments can include your feet. Learned that yesterday afternoon, then incorporated my feet into my rudiments last night. Let me tell ya: it’s a good thing I’m still working at 60BPM. Tapping along on the steering wheel to “I Want You To Want Me” is very different from trying to stay on time with the proper limb with a metronome and a basic rudiment. I won’t say my mind was blown when I read that you can (and should) include feet in rudiments, but it certainly put me back on square one.

Over the weekend I worked like a dog to get the gym area squared away. [I really need to get some pictures showing the area] I was so tired Saturday night that all I wanted to do was get in bed, but I needed to get at least 15 minutes of practice in. Just the minimum. I did it partly as a commitment to myself, but to be honest even though no one is reading this blog, I wanted to be able to write this post.

I don’t have any issue with starting the clock again; I’ve done that a number of time with lifting weights and my workouts. But I just wanted to be able to keep the countdown counting down.

What if someone does read this? Do I advocate starting your own blog to keep yourself accountable? No. This is an exercise for me as my hobby is collecting domain names. I had the name, I had the hosting, I had an objective, so it was a no-brainer to start this journal. If you do want a journal of some type, reach out to me and we can work something out to where your journal is here on sylub.com.

Back to the topic of snares. I’ve read that metal snares are better, sound-wise, for Rock-n-Roll, and Heavy Metal. Whereas the wood-sided snares make a softer sound more suited for Jazz, Country, and Latin music styles. I’ve also read that the snare sound is (like all drum sounds) is personal but should also suit the style of music you want to play. Many drummers only play the snare that came with their kit. Many, many drummers start a snare collection. From what I can tell this snare collection becomes akin to an addiction. I have a feeling that I will start off with a wooden snare, get a metal one sometime later, and if the difference is noticeable, I could end up with a snare “problem”.

On the subject of musical styles, I like a multitude of music styles. I’m not unique in that regard. I tend towards Rock-n-Roll and Western Swing, but with a Old Skool Rap chaser. This is the type of music I listen to everyday. Occasionally some 80s Synthwave, some Flaminco guitar-based music, some Punk, some Big Band-era and Crooner classics just to keep it interesting. I bring this up as learning to play all of these styles is daunting right out of the gate. So I won’t.

I’m most excited about learning Classic Vinyl era Rock-n-Roll and 90s Grunge (which seem very similar to me from a drumming perspective) So I’ll start there. Led Zeppelin and ZZ Top are my top of mind today. Then I want to learn some Steely Dan and Foo Fighters. Finish this off with some Rush and Tool. But, I’ve read that learning all these styles is part of the fundamental journey that any drummer considering playing in a band should take. Not that you’ll play them in a gig (but you could) but that learning these styles helps you express yourself musically. More on this later as I feel like I haven’t fully internalized this lesson so I’ll put a pin in this here.

I’ll also want to talk about my goals for learning to play. Is it for playing in a band? I’ll save this for the next post as it’s a doozy and tends towards the Philosophical.

Thanks for reading.

/s