Learning rudiments.

What kind of music are you planning on playing?

Billy Cobham is so incredible. I have seen him a few times. Once I even got to interview him for a local music magazine when he played Blues Alley in D.C. He is an extremely intimidating person with a huge physical presence. He wasn't in the best of moods having to talk to a young drummer/journalist but answered all my questions.

I asked him about how he approaches playing songs and what level of improvisation he brings to each song and he said "it's all about how you feel that day." I always remembered that.

Have you checked out the new Neil Peart drum solo from Grace Under Pressure tour boxed set? This solo was not included in the original video. I have been waiting 40 years to see a pro-cut version of this ferocious solo.

Are you in Carson or up in the NW?

I can get by on drums for making my own demos ( I play guitar) but what I struggle with is separating my bass drum foot from my right hand . like when I'm playing the high hat or ride .

Oh hell yeah! My friend came back from the GUP tour with a bootleg cassette tape he recorded from the crowd. We listened to that drum solo for hours on end back in the day.

Chance, I can't give you great advice, because I'm not truly a drummer (I do play, though). I've watched some really great instructional stuff from Jimmy Chamberlain; he's one of my favorites. I like the way his jazz background changes the approach to hard rock (Smashing Pumpkins). Here's an insight he gives to his style:

That's a good set of rudiments to get the hands moving. Speed comes from training the hands to move the stick efficiently, evenly, and in a relaxed manner, and also training the mind to actually synchronize that technique to get accurate note placement and timing. Playing to recordings is good because you're internalizing musical pulse, which will help you actually apply those rudiments to the kit in a way that's in time. 

Just remember that you perform what you repeat. Practicing at the fringe of your capability brings with it the risk that you will engrain tension and technical collapse into your muscle memory that will show up any time you approach your edge. Low and slow work is the name of the game, only increasing the tempo if you can relax into it, not just if you can play it for 30 seconds. 

Foot technique. I play heel up and heel down depending on the context. Heel up gives you power and allows you to direct the footboard in some cool ways (slide, heel-toe, etc). Heel down allows for more coordination, delicate playing, and control since you're planted on your heels and don't have to use as much core stabilization. With heel up, you mostly want to make sure that your ankles are doing the majority of the movement. A lot of people recruit quads/hip flexors and kind of stomp with the whole leg. Here are a couple of videos that I like on pedal stuff. [https://youtu.be/-6vIZO85fBI?si=wgFlnxe_Y5tKs56k] and [https://youtu.be/JFWnMiRhq-U?si=TeRd5fpk6PhLDU5q]. The latter is long but I got a lot out of it. Matt Garstka is one of the most technically advanced players in the world. Jojo Mayer also has a DVD on foot technique, although some of it was pushing his kick pedal design at the time (still a ton of info in the video). 

As far as shoes, shoeless is nice but gigging I got tired of taking my shoes off. Stages are gross haha. These days I drum in everything from zero drop barefoot shoes to cowboy boots. 

Brooks Wackerman of Avenged Sevenfold always posts clips of him practicing various rudiments on his IG and YouTube channel. That guy is one of the most technically sound drummers I have ever seen.

This guy is pretty good.

You're welcome. I will say, being someone more into the John Bonham realm of drumming, practicing rudiments with the feet isn't totally relevant to pulling off more rock n' roll stuff. To me what makes them strong has a lot to do with the kick drum and the left hand. 

Much of jazz drumming at that point fully integrated the kick as an expressive voice beyond just marking time or emphasizing downbeats of measures or phrases. 

An exercise that I really like (and that you might get a lot out of) is this: 

RRLLRRLLRRLLRRLL
RLLRRLLRRLLRRLLR
LLRRLLRRLLRRLLRR
LRRLLRRLLRRLLRRL

It's just a double stroke grid. 
The first line (RRLL) is a standard double stroke roll. 
The second line (RLLR) is an inverted double stroke roll (it starts with the 2nd stroke of the roll so it offsets the rudiment slightly)
Third line (LLRR) is a left hand led double stroke roll. 
The fourth line (LRRL) is the same as line two just opposite hands. 

The first goal is to be able to play the whole exercise straight through, and then repeat it, which requires learning each line and the transitions between them. 

The 2nd goal is to replace each "R" with a kick hit, so...

KKLLKKLLKKLLKKLL
KLLKKLLKKLLKKLLK
LLKKLLKKLLKKLLKK
LKKLLKKLLKKLLKKL

The third goal would be to make it groove, so essentially just add 8th note timekeeping to the exercise. 

Being able to do doubles with the kick while keeping time on a ride or the hats is huge for this genre, moreso if you delve into the batshit insane Billy Cobham stuff. 

I’d love to be able to play the drums. But, like the OP, I can’t ever imagine being able to hit different rhythms with each limb. They all want to fire at the same time. 

But then again, we can all (well, most of us!) drive a manual (stick shift) car, lift off the throttle, press the clutch, shift the gear, blip the throttle, let the clutch up and hit the gas again, all while steering, changing the radio volume, talking to the passenger and eating a Twix.  

At the same time…. 

So maybe there’s a chance?

100% on the bass drum. It's hard to realize what he had going on until you play an unported kick, let alone an unported 26" inch one. If you're burying the beater at all you'll be met with lots of dribbling and bouncing. I ran a 24x16 kick for a few years and it was fun, but unforgiving. Plus wide open sounds don't work well on a lot of stages, and a lot of times you're starting off on the wrong foot with the engineer if you don't have a hole in your kick reso head. 

Clyde is the man! Respect to your Unc for putting you onto him. John was hip to all sorts of stuff. Some other names you might dig that are part of his family tree of influence: 

Earl Palmer (did pretty much ALL of the OG rock n roll stuff)
Papa Jo Jones (famously would solo with his hands)
Max Roach (listen to his solo "The Drum Also Waltzes", you might recognize some motifs)
Elvin Jones, Philly Joe Jones, Tony Williams, and the other golden era jazz cats
Alphonse Mouzon (gnarly jazz fusion guy that Bonzo supposedly blasted in his hotel rooms on occasion)
 

There's definitely a chance! It's like what you described, or like riding motocross bike. Once you get to a certain point, you aren't thinking about the clutch, throttle, front brake, rear brake, and shifter as isolated things, but rather you coordinate each limb to operate them as a system. 

Drums are like that. Like, with a rock beat, telling a beginner, "okay the right hand is playing 8 eighth notes, the left hand will play on 2 and 4, and the kick on 1 and 3". 

Instead you break it down into chunks.

To start, you gotta be able to count 8th notes, ie "1-and-2-and-3-and-4-and-1-and-2-and-3-and-4-and..." 

then, 

1. Get the right hand to be able to play an even series of even 8th note strikes ie R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R... (R= right hand)
2. Get the left hand to play in unison with the RH, ie B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B... (B = Both hands)
3. Coordinate the left hand to only do unison hand hits on the "backbeat" of a rock beat, ie R-R-B-R-R-R-B-R-R-R-B-R-R-R-B-R...

4. Get the right foot to play in unison with the hands ie. hands>> B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B
                                                                                          Feet>> K-K-K-K-K-K-K-K-K-K-K-K-K-K-K-K

5. Get the right foot to play in unison with the rock beat part of the hands, ie: hands>> R-R-B-R-R-R-B-R-R-R-B-R-R-R-B-R...
                                                                                                                              feet>> K-K-K-K-K-K-K-K- K-K-K-K-K-K-K-K...

6. Then you coordinate the right foot to only do certain notes, like 1 & 3 for example . I'll bold where they line up together. 
R-R-B-R-R-R-B-R-R-R-B-R-R-R-B-R
K            K             K            K


So basically you're just coordinating when your limbs either play by themselves or together. You grind one thing until it's easy, and then you change a tiny variable until it's as internalized as operating a throttle, clutch, and shifter at the same time. Once you have that down, you change another thing. You could change when the "backbeat" is from #3, you could change when the kick hits from #4, and all sorts of stuff. 

Anyways, I have difficulties hitting my off-switch with drum discussion, so my apologies for the wall of text haha. 
 

Hey Chance, learning set is a good way to spend your time now. I'm not a drummer but I've been fooling around on friends sets since I was 16. Last Christmas I bought an electric set so I could get my kids banging around on drums. Electric sets are amazing for practicing compared to acoustic sets. It's not the same but you can put headphones on and play on the best sounding set, play along with songs, and no one else can hear you it's great.  I got the Alessis nitro set from guitar center for around 350, it looks like they are closer to 500 now. Good luck!

After years of looking for places to have band practices because it's so loud because everything had to play over top of the drums playing, on an electric set with headphones is simply amazing. They are always in tune, they sound great and you have a bunch of different kit sounds with nice reverb and electric kits too. 

Mine has bluetooth connection so you just hook up your phone and put on some songs and play along to at least the timing, you can just play a straight beat to keep time if you dont know the drum part. Playing will get you hearing drum parts in songs differently too. 

Idk if anyone has suggested it but playing along with a metronome is good practice. You can get free metronome apps for your phone.

Dude sick. Those little Alesis kits are so impressive. Even then you could tell they were gonna make some cool stuff. They released an Octopad type thing a few years ago and I preferred it to my SPD-30 a lot, at least from demo-ing it. Basically an e-kit built into a pad, but just more musical than mine. Your kids liking it? 

Yes it's hard to beat a well tuned kit in a nice room, but being able to set up something rad in seconds, plug in, sit down, and play is huge. Especially with drumming where you'll have all of these banger ideas at like 2 in the morning but live near neighbors. 

Haha you're speaking my language right now. 

Here ya go, signature ADHD creative mess lmao. Watch your step with the cables. Credit to my roommate on the studio, that's been his project for several years. 

That's my weird Ludwig/Tama Frankenstein kit. 

13x9 1970 Ludwig Classic Maple rack tom with a funky vinyl imitation black leather wrap 
16x16 Ludwig Neusonic Cherry floor tom (highy suggest this series for affordable midrange kits)
20x14 Tama Starclassic Birch/Bubinga "Yesteryear" Bass Drum
6.5x14 Ludwig Lm402k Hammered Supraphonic

Early 1960's 22" Zildjian Avedis Ride (with the dremel cut out of it. Did that myself and only lost two eyes.)
22" Zildjian K Con Bounce Ride
16" Zildjian Avedis Reissue Hi Hats
20" Timothy Roberts Versa Stack (steel variant of the popular B20 Bronze ClapStack)

Also pictured is my 24" Paiste Giant Beat which is my main ride cymbal. Super glassy but vintage vibed. Famous for tons of Led Zeppelin, Dark Side of the Moon (debatable), and some other stuff like The Raconteurs. Either way I'm a die hard on that one.

Oh and some friends stuff for opening wormholes or whatever. 

Here's my set-up. I recently recorded a four-song demo with it and also did lead vocal (first time doing that!). It's clear acrylic by Crush Drums. The big 18" floor tom is actually vintage Ludwig and I stuck an 8" Pearl Export tom on there for this session. Got a great sound in the studio. Maybe I'll upload some tracks when it's mixed. Snare is a 14" Mapex piccolo that was super-cheap but sounds good when cranked up. Cymbals are Zildjian A Customs and a 20" Sabian jazz ride.

Awesome setup! I've liked every Crush kit I've sat on. Bonus points for the mix-and-match "find what works and rock it" mentality. 

What's going on with that 18"? Is that a black suede head with an e-ring or just the lighting that's making the head look dark? I bet that thing thwops though. Acrylic can sound so good with the right heads and tuning. 

Does anybody else see the thread title and think the topic will be about deer hunting?

Anyways, cool that you are learning a new skill Chance. I used to play trumpet from about 5th thru 8th grade. I could play notes but not make music. If i put one to my lips now i can't even play a note. 

You mention Jimmy Chamberlin, and I assumed it was the same Chamberlain that did the drumming on Fiona Apple's "Fast as you Can", but I guess that's Matt Chamberlain.  

I don't know anything about drumming, but I always loved the drumming in that song.  It seems like all the time changes would be difficult to do.

 

The 18" floor tom actually belongs to a friend of mine who keeps his kit at the studio. I call it "The Boomer." The head is just a black dual-ply head. He got this huge vintage Ludwig acrylic kit for like $500 or something. Classic situation where some woman didn't know what she had. Ludwig acrylics are some of the most expensive drums out there. Crush was a great alternative, although you can see there is some cracking around the lugs on the 12" tom on the stand. Hasn't affected the sound. I think Crush is done as a company though.

My guitarist gave me that 8" Pearl tom and I just tried it out. I was surprised how well it meshed with the other toms, probably because we have really good mics on them. I'll upload some recording when we're done- the toms sound freaking awesome.