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I have an 18” Zildjian Avedis thin crash coming soon.
Tempted to grab a 16” A Custom
I dig it. 18 on the left or right?
About 3 years ago my son (who is the player) and I went to the UK Drum show with the intention of trying out all the cymbals on show and making a purchase on what we found.
He plays in several bands ranging between ska, progressive jazz, punk and metal. The most successful being the punk band, he plays many gigs and always hard, and cymbals seem to struggle to last longer than 12 month. We settled on the sound of Istanbuls Agop range, they sound great but they don't last, in all fairness to Istanbul we had a few replaced under warranty, we now decided to go with Paiste Rude range as they are meant to be more in keeping with the majority of the type of music he plays, they have a considerably thicker gauge than the Agops. We'll see.
At this years Rebellion Punk festival, a german guy approached my son to tell him he thought he was the 2nd best drummer he'd seen there over the weekend. I'd love to know who was 1st. We have had some t-shirts for the band made up which on the back say in German "Wir haben den zweitbesten Schlagzeuger im Punk" (We have the 2nd best drummer in punk), while my sons says "Ich bin der zweitbeste Schlagzeuger im Punk" (I am the 2nd best drummer in punk)
We used to struggle with sticks that would last too until we found the Promark Firegrain.
18 on the right
The Shop
Luxon 4-Post Bar Mounts
$189.95 - $239.95
DeCal Works Huge Plastic Inventory of UFO and Polisport kits.
So far….
Damn
Thats a huge crash!!! The sustain must be amazing.
Dude…I’m gonna make my way there to see that 💪🏼
Optical illusion. It’s higher than the ride. The ride is 21”. The crash is an 18”…
I was checking out Remo Rototoms today when I grabbed the crash. I kinda like them. Very tempted to get a set of the 6, 8 and, 10”…
Get’em. They’re a lot of fun and you can create a lot of tones and fill a lot of holes with them.
Got em’.
Beautiful, Chance.
Did you end up getting your set yet?
Not yet, man. hoping to by Christmas.
Picked up a 12” Zildjian Z splash cymbal today. I couldn’t pass it up after seeing how cheap it was. Was pretty dingy at first glance but, cleaned up nicely. Pic doesn’t do it justice.
How do you guys separate your right hand from your right foot? I notice every time I’m doing doubles and, triples on the bass pedal, my right hand follows while hitting the hi hat.
I know it’s a long learning process that never stops but, damn. This has me baffled.
Stylin. I had a 10 or an 8 Z splash for years and really liked it. It (along with my harmonica set) got nicked from my college rehearsal space.
The kits looking good. You're directly responsible for me setting google alerts for a set of rototoms 😆
I turned it against the wall to face my neighbors house. Wanna party late? OK!!! 😂
Slightly better view of the setup anyways.
And, Rototoms are awesome.
I have struggled with this a lot! It’s like they’re wired together.
Pit Row
20+ years later and I still get baffled by it sometimes. It's an issue that always manages to show up in new and exciting ways lol.
My approach:
This is perhaps more granular than you're looking for but to me it's all related and helps get over this hurdle sooner. Each step is aimed at the final goal of understanding wtf is happening and then getting it down well enough to grind reps until it's in my muscle memory, and then practice going into it from other easier grooves (to train recall), increase speed, etc...]
1. Slow it down. If it's in a song I'm learning (or a beat influenced by a song I like) I use youtube's video speed setting to make it easier to understand what's going on. Sometimes just lowering the tempo is enough for me to play it roughly, at which point I move to grinding reps. If not I move to the next step.
2. Count out loud. Not just "1, 2, 3, 4" but the subdivisions too, which would be "1 e + a 2 e + a 3 e + a 4 e + a" (or whatever counting system you're using). If I'm working with a slowed-down recording I count to the recording. If I'm not, it can get tricky trying to count along to a beat that I can't play yet, so I move on to step 3. However sometimes just trying to count to it makes me realize what my issue is and I can start to play it roughly enough to grind reps. If not I move to the next step.
3. Separate the groove into parts and take stock by writing it down. You can notate it if you want (or know how). I have my own rhythm grid process since I find it visually works with transcription type stuff better (plus my music journal is graphing paper so it works well with quad ruling). It looks like this:
Count
1
e
+
a
2
e
+
a
3
e
+
a
4
e
+
a
Hi-Hat
Snare
Kick
Start with the easier parts and move from there. If it's a variation on the 8th-note Rock Beat (which it is about 80% of the time) then the hi-hat will be on the beats (1, 2, 3, 4) as well as all the "ands", and the snare will be on "2 and "4". I mark dots for kick/snare and x's for hi-hats (or cymbals in general) since that's how they're commonly notated in sheet music. So to fill out the grid:
Count
1
e
+
a
2
e
+
a
3
e
+
a
4
e
+
a
Hi-Hat
❌
❌
❌
❌
❌
❌
❌
❌
Snare
⚫️
⚫️
Kick
For the sake of this I'll choose Immigrant Song by Led Zeppelin. It just has kick groupings of 2's and 1's but it was the groove that gave me this issue back in the day. This is the first hard part because you need to listen in pretty hard. You could also probably find a transcription on google but then you would miss an opportunity to learn a valuable skill that'll increase your drumming IQ. This is a good opportunity to highlight how a lot of coordination works too. Instead of counting out each individual hit, you can pay attention to where that (kick) hit lands in relation to easier/more emphasized notes. It'll either hit at the same time (unison) or in between (off-beat). This is helpful bc you can utilize both the alignment of the notes AND counting things out to move you along.
In the case of Immigrant Song, there's:
1. A very clear kick hit on "1".
2. Two sequential kicks right before that first snare hit.
3. One kick right after that first snare hit.
4. If you listen close you'll notice that the groove repeats itself halfway through, so you can copy what you just did over to the second half.
5. There's a sneaky kick that happens right before the unison kick/hi-hat hits on "1" and "3".
So it would look like this. I numbered each kick hit to match my little list above, although normally I'll just do a black dot
Count
1
e
+
a
2
e
+
a
3
e
+
a
4
e
+
a
Hi-Hat
❌
❌
❌
❌
❌
❌
❌
❌
Snare
⚫️
⚫️
Kick
①
②
②
③
⑤
④
④
④
④
⑤
This isn't THE way to transcribe it, just a way. Sometimes just transcribing it is enough for me to comprehend it and play it roughly, at which point I start grinding reps. If not I move to the next step.
![]()
4. Isolate the issue. In the case of your question, you run into issues with the kick and the hi-hat. So for now, we can just remove the snare from the equation altogether. I usually write this out too (or just erase the snare hits). When I'm isolating a coordination issue, the first thing I look for is any unison hits (ie anything vertically aligned or in the same column) since these will act as my anchor point (this is helpful when you get into really tough stuff). Then I look at notes that fall directly after/before others. Below is how I think of this groove (the first half with markings, the second with just the anchors).
From here I can generally work my way through it and begin to grind it into my muscle memory.
However, if it's continuing to give issues, you can further isolate the issue. Almost always the problems will arise with sequences of unison & off beat kick stuff, which in this case is the section that happens at "+ a 4 e". You have a weird both - kick - hat - kick which is almost like an inverted flamadiddle split between the hi hat and kick. The challenge on your end will probably be avoiding a hi hat hit on the "and" of 4 (ie a unison with that second kick hit there). So I would isolate that and run it until it's easy, then put it back into the context, and then finally begin to reconstruct the whole beat by adding the snare again.
Of course adding the snare back may require you to run that same "+ a 4 e" since there's another layer to break the brain lol.
I'll do a follow up because I have a general exercise for kick groupings, but I gotta pack up drums for a load-in at 4! Cheers!
Welp, it didn't like my column lines or the image I posted. I'll try the image here:
Edit: Success!
Just read your message. Thank you for taking the time to explain it.
Heading into work. I’ll dive into this tomorrow morning. Once again, thank you
Anytime man. Getting to talk drums with some moto dudes is cool. Combining my two worlds so to speak lol
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