Drum & Drumming

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A drum
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When I am out and about, I get ideas for drum patterns. Sometimes I am without pen(cil) and paper, but I always have a device (phone, watch, etc.).

I could draw music notation in a sketch app; I can't do that on the watch. I could record the beat doing some sort of beatbox with a voice memo app, but I am not going to be doing that on a crowded train.

This means I need some way to get drum ideas out of the brain and into the inbox with plain text. Using R's and L's and any other characters to get them somewhere.

The patterns will live on their own page and there might be an RSS feed in the future. I am still trying to decide how to handle that.

Patterns

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A drum
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We are recording in a month which has my brain in recording mode. My vibe for this next recording is to try to document the place we are recording at. If we are going to travel all the way to a studio in the mountains of Kyushuu to track songs, the listener better be able to receive some of that mountain-ness.

How do we make a record that sounds "mountain-y"? We have about 30 days to figure it out.

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Music notes

Use for posts about your own band and other music.

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A drum
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The activities app that comes with the Apple Watch was recording when I play drums as an Outdoor Run. That was good enough for me to get some credit for the effort and didn't think any more of it.

I noticed the other day that a fitness tracker app I started using had "drumming" as a workout choice. That blew my mind because it was the first time I have ever seen that in any fitness related app.

Last night at rehearsal I hit the Drumming button for the first time. Today when I look back at yesterday's info, it's very cool to see the drummer icon.

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A drum
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A laptop

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Did the first rehearsal last night playing drums on iPad and the Koala app. I had to not bring drumsticks to force myself to not quit on the digital drum pads and jump on the kit 2 meters away. 60% of the songs were smooth and we both knew right away they worked.

The other 40% were clearly the wrong approach. Not a defeated vibe but more of a signpost to take this song a different direction. Also, the direction to take each song was pretty clear but I wouldn't have found it if we hadn't tried the original idea out.

I'm also glad I know to not try to force a music idea to get it to work. Try it, move on if it isn't happening, save your mental energy for the next song, and go rework back in the mental workshop with the notes from the rehearsal studio.

Image file
A drum
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I've been watching random tutorials about the sampler app I love messing around with called Koala. I'm not watching the videos to learn the app but more for triggering any ideas I can use for our show on 06/30. Two things stood out to me as a drummer:

Grid

The sequencer in the app supports not locking to the grid. This is cool because you can place snare hits slightly behind or ahead of the beat. You can drastically change the vibe of the song if you rush or delay the snare hit in the right context.

Tuning

It's easy to overlook tuning your kit in a drum sequencer because it's so fun to just jump into it and start beat-making. If you take the time to tune the kit to the project it is in, the results are a definite level-up.

For the guitar-only project I am working on, the drums become the bass. When I tune the kick and snare to match the dominant notes in the song, the boost to the feel and power is noticeable. Things lock together better.
 

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A drum
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Our next show is at a place with no space for a drum kit. A good chance to bust out the iPad and get things done with the Koala app. The only tough decision I am facing right now is what kind of drum sounds to use.

The cool/difficult thing about digital drums is infinite possibilities. You can load as many drum sounds and kits as you want. That level of choice can be very overwhelming if you go down the rabbit hole of trying out every kit.

I've settled on my favorite drum machine which is the Roland CompuRhythm CR-78. It was made in the late 1970s and was one of the earliest drum machines ever made.

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A drum
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I setup an Apple shortcut that randomly selects a drum rudiment from a list of 80 stored in Data Jar. It's cool to have one rudiment to figure out each day instead of a huge, daunting list of all of them. I have a drum pad and sticks in the office so I can zone out and play the rudiment a little bit all day.

I find that if you do a minute here and there all day, the practice time really adds up. A fifteen minute practice session feels like a task. One minute micro sessions fifteen times doesn't.

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A drum
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A laptop

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There is an old way to slightly dampen the ring of a drum using felt and a clip. You take a strong clip and clip a stack of felt to the rim. The stack is made up of strips. When you hit the drum, the felt flies up allowing the drum to sound like a drum. As the felt falls back down it gently cuts of the ring of the drum.

There are other ways to dampen a drum for sure like putting tape on the head or detuning one lug. Since I am using the house kit at clubs in Japan, it feels rude to get tape gunk on their heads or mess with the tunings.

Clipping on some felt from the local 100¥ store could be the solution to reduce some of the clanginess. It was also cool that when I went felt shopping, there was a wide range of color packs. The only things I am wondering about is which kind of clip is going to be able to stay on. Might have to go hunting for some tiny clamps.

 

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A drum
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I was thinking about what is the one sentence I would use to summarize January 2024 while watching bands at a show last night. This drum pattern kept coming up in my mind:

R L Both Both

This simple drum pattern blew my mind in January. It's a runway to get off the ground and reach other drum patterns.

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A drum
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Two weeks into my New Year's resolution to get my head around Jazz bop drumming. The hi-hat on the two and four is happening. I had to raise it up about 3-4 cm higher than usual to make it sound good.

A thing I noticed today is it is a lot easier practicing Jazz drumming alone than Punk, Shoegaze, or Psych drumming. It might be because it is new for me. It might be the swing thing is easier to play for a longer time.

Triplets are slowly starting to happen. I am rushing them but that is correctable for sure. When I do get a loop going, it's really satisfying. I've also been filling in a calendar I got at the ¥100 store with what I practiced. If I miss a day, it's no problem but having to write in "got nothing done" on a day is a kick to get something done tomorrow for sure.

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A drum