Drumming Technique

Are you a student taking drum lessons or are you a drum teacher of music lessons?  Playing drums can be fun and you can learn (or teach) drums in a short while, or be a much better drummer, by following two (2) golden rules of drumming.  If you want to learn drums more effectively and efficiently, then this article is for you.

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So, what are the two (2) golden rules?  They are:

1. Technique

2. Stick Heights

The first golden rule is Technique.  In drumming, this is how you hold your drumsticks or keyboard mallets while playing a pattern of sticking that is suitable for a particular drumming exercise or drum music.  The way that you hold the stick is called grip.  There are two types of grip in drumming.  They are:

Match Grip

Traditional Grip

Each grip is really a matter of preference.  Sometimes, the type of percussion instrument you play will determine the type of grip you should use.  In many cases it is good to know how to play drums with both types of grips.  This will allow for you to always be prepared no matter the situation.

If you are beginning drummer, recommendations are to begin with the match grip.  Match grip is exactly what the word match describes; the hands are holding the drumsticks exactly the same.  It is kind of like holding bicycle handle bars with a few adjustments to angle and thumbs.  This grip is generally held by many concert percussionists, jazz drum kit players, rock band drummers and by marching percussions tenor drummers and bass drummers.

The next grip, traditional grip, is a technical drumming hold that if done properly, can approve your drumming abilities in terms of speed, endurance, accuracy, finger and hand agility and overall aesthetics.  When teaching drum lessons, drum teachers should instruct their students to include door knob turning as part of their daily exercise.  The reason for this is because the motion that the forearm performs is the same turn that that is used when playing drums with a traditional grip.  Furthermore, the fingers are place properly on to the stick.  Two fundamental notes to having better control of the stick when playing with the traditional grip:

Never release the thumb from the index finger

Keep the pinky and the ring finger together working as one (this can be accomplished by taping the two fingers together)

Make Beats Like A Drummer

Traditional grip is often used in marching percussion by snare players.  Many jazz drummers, like Buddy Rich performs with the traditional grip as well as Drum Corps drummers like the Concord Blue Devils.  There are also many drum videos and drum DVD’s that portray the traditional grip.  A great example can be seen at Drumex.com, where the drum video shows a snare drummer auditioning for the UCLA Drumline.Â

The second golden of drumming is stick heights.  In marching drumlins and percussion ensembles, the focus is on uniformity.  Meaning everyone needs to look the same including their hand positions (grip) and levels of heights.  There are two types of stick heights that should be required for anyone playing drums, especially when playing snare drum rudiments.  They are:

Accents

Taps

There is a distinct difference between the two.  Bottom line is accents are played higher than taps.  Drum teachers usually explain this by saying taps are all the inside notes, the low notes.  Accents are taught to be played vertically.  The common misconception is that accents and taps is just for marching drumlines, but it can also be played by drum kit drummers too.  The benefit to playing drum music with proper stick heights is that it sounds and it looks good.  One of the best books that could teach you how to play proper stick heights is Accents and Rebounds by George Lawrence Stone.  Stone is well-known for his first book

Drumming Technique|Beat Drumming|Make Beats Like A Drummer|

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Because I love southwest decorating, I recently added ceremonial drums as part of the rustic, southwest decor in my new home. I was so happy with the unique, rustic look that the Native American drums brought to my home, that I started researching and reading about the history and the significant role they play in tribal cultures.

If you are like me, you have probably seen how important ceremonial drums are to the Native culture but do not know their importance in Native ceremonies or how exactly they are used. Every tribe is unique in how they use ceremonial drums but one similarity between each tribe is that the Native drums are very significant and part of the main focus of the ceremony. Throughout my research, I have come to find that learning about these drums truly gives you a great appreciation of the Native American culture and their customs.

As you begin learning about ceremonial drums, you will find it very interesting that the native people consider the ceremonial drum to be sacred. They are most often used in powwows, Shamanic ceremonies and honor ceremonies to come in contact with the Spirits and to connect with their creator. It is believed that each drum holds a spirit and that the drum beat signifies the heart beat of Mother Nature.

Since the drum is believed to connect the people with the spirit world and guide the a healer in helping his people, you will find that they are commonly used by the healers or Shaman to enter the state of mind, known as the Shamanic journey, needed to come in contact with the Spirits. Also, as you learn about the importance of ceremonial drums in modern culture, you will see that Native Indian drums have a significant role in the preservation of native tribes such as the Tarahumara.

Making and selling these rustic style drums allows them to earn a living, through selling and trading their cultural hand crafts, and helps them spread the knowledge and traditions of their culture to those who buy them. The drum making knowledge, passed on from generation to generation in these tribes, teaches the drum makers how to design durable and long-lasting ceremonial drums with elements from the Earth and the environment around them such as pine wood and natural rawhide.

Today, American Indian drums are not only used in Indian ceremonies such as Indian drumming groups and as Indian musical instruments, but they are also gaining popularity as pieces of decorative art, instruments used in school music classes and even as canvases for Native American art projects and southwest paintings.

Some types of ceremonial drums are also used as rustic style furniture and western decor, such as the larger powwow drums and pedestal drums that are used as decorative tables.

Today, it is very easy to buy these unique Native American ceremonial drums online and in stores that sell southwestern, western and rustic home decor. However you choose to use your ceremonial drum, whether for drumming groups or in home decorating, you will no doubt be drawn to the rustic charm and Native American style of ceremonial drums.

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Thinking about playing the drums? The best way to get started for less money is with a practice pad. You don’t have to go out and spend a fortune on a full drum set and accessories right off the bat. Here’s everything you need to know to get started.

Practice pads are soft, bouncy pads that you use to practice drumming patterns or rudiments. Advantages of practice pad’s is that they are extremely light weight, portable and best of all, quiet. This let’s you practice you technique anywhere and at any time of day. Including late at night.

Most practice pads are made out of a high density rubber, similar to some computer mouse pads. The pads are sometimes mounted on a base made of wood or plastic. This lets you use the pad right on your lap or on top of any table. Some are also double sided. The other side provides a different feel and less rebound, making it more of a challenge to play on.

You can even purchase a practice pad that is made from a real, tunable drum head. These are much larger and are more expensive than other models.

You can purchase practice pads in a variety of different sizes. You should try to purchase the largest one you can. This will let you move around a bit and give you slightly different sounds depending on if you play near the center of the pad or close to the edges. You’ll also be more comforable playing on a real drum kit if you are used to playing on a larger practice pad.

You can buy practice pads at any drum shop, music store or online. If you go to a local music store they will have demo pads that you can play and test out. This will let you find the one that feels the best to you.

Drum pads are normally used for practicing drum rudiments. Rudiments are a particular set of drumming patterns used in music. They are great for learning stick control and rhythm. Rudiment patterns can be found for free from many sources online. There are also free videos available that show you how to play each particular pattern.

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We’ve all heard pianists who make us drool with musical jealousy when they play, using a tool box full of lighting-fast runs and clever fills that have us clamoring for more.

I well recall hearing Errol Garner play “I’ll Remember April” when I was about 14. I had no idea a piano could be played like that, and I was absolutely fascinated by all the interesting and exciting runs and fills he added to his improvisation of those standards.

If you’re anything like me, you would love to learn how to “fill up the empty spaces” with scale fragments, chords, broken chords, and so on. Techniques such as 8th note runs , 16th note runs, 32nd note runs, triplet fills, and many combinations thereof — some so fast you can’t even see which notes are being played. Techniques such as “cascading waterfall runs”, the fabulous “pro straddles”, the exciting “tremolo-fired runs” and lots more. Learning how to “fill it up” with runs and fills would certainly take your piano playing to the next level.

After listening to countless pianists in all genres, I compiled a list of six types of runs and fills that they often use:

1. “Cocktail” runs –The lightning fast runs used by the great “show” pianists. One hand runs, two hand runs, open-octave runs, tremolo-blasted runs, cascading waterfall runs and more. Made famous by such names as Eddy Duchin, Carman Caballero, Liberace, etc., but also used tastefully by many others, such as Roger Williams and many “pop” piano players.

2. Embellishments — Mordents, inverted mordents, trills, turns, tremolos, grace notes, glissandos, etc. These are the “finesse” techniques that give your piano playing class and grace. Virtually NO amateur piano players use these, so the pianist that learns these is putting herself or himself in a class usually reserved for professional pianists.

3. Piano tricks — How to make your piano sound oriental, or make it sound like a drum or a music box? A bell? Latin? Country?

4. Evangelistic runs — These are the octave runs and fillers used by the great gospel pianists of past and present such as Rudy Atwood and other evangelistic piano players.

5. Jazz & blues runs — Using the “blues scale” up and down the keyboard, blue note-crunches, slides, etc. These runs are very useful not only in jazz and R & B, but also in “black gospel” (I hate to use that term because it sounds racist, but people use it to describe a certain type of gospel music, so I reluctantly use the term…but only in that sense of the word), fusion, and many rock-pop songs. 6. Fillers galore — Filling up an empty measure with a counter-melody; creating an intro; creating an ending; developing “turnarounds”, plus chromatic fillers, fillers based on the Dorian and Lydian scales and other “church mode” scales used by contemporary jazz and fusion artists.

It is exciting for any pianist to picture himself or herself playing those LIGHTNING FAST runs up the keyboard and back down in time for the next chord, or playing CASCADING RUNS down the keyboard for a WATERFALL of wonderful sounds, to say nothing of using mordents, inverted mordents, trills, turns, tremolos, grace notes, glissandos, fillers galore, cocktail-piano runs, plus gospel-style runs as well as “blues runs” based on the blues scale!

Is it worth the effort to learn some or all of these techniques? It certainly has been for me, but every pianist will have to make that judgment for himself or herself.

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