DRUM SET AND PERCUSSION MEGATHREAD: Wait, there's more than just drums?

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > No Music Discussion > Musician's Lounge > DRUM SET AND PERCUSSION MEGATHREAD: Wait, there's more than just drums?

reversefungi: Nov 27, 2003; Master of the high hat!

Question for all you metal drummers out there. Now that I have some space in my parent's basement, I can practice drums again whenever I'm home, so I've decided to try to clean up my playing over the summer. I am a fairly decent albeit messy player, so I'm going back to the basics and just working on rudiments with a metronome, instead of just trying to bang out songs while listening to my iPod. I know the single stroke roll is pretty huge for metal, but I'm wondering how often you find other kinds of rolls as well? Like, I'm having trouble figuring out how drummers manage to do those super fast fills that bounce from snare to different toms. Take for example, the first 20 seconds of this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65BvhDrbmLA. Is he just playing single stroke rolls and has developed the dexterity to jump between the different drums that fast, or is it feasible that he might doing something like playing double stroke rolls in order to afford him more time to jump between snare and toms?

# ¿ May 20, 2013 10:47

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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 19:32

reversefungi: Nov 27, 2003; Master of the high hat!

killerllamaman posted:

Both methods are viable and have their benefits and drawbacks, but in that intro he's definitely just playing fast singles. You could play it with doubles but it'll be less intense unless you have totally perfect doubles, it's just hard to be both consistent and loud for both strokes at that speed. There are tons of places where you could play doubles in metal, you just have to decide if it's worth trading power for efficiency (or whatever other concerns arise) in the particular situation you're in.

He's actually playing the fills exactly as fast as the weird blast-beat thing he's playing, so his left hand is basically at the same speed all the time, always at 8th note rate, sometimes on the downbeats during the groove but usually on the upbeat 16th notes (and the right hand takes over the on-beat 8th notes, making it a single-stroke roll). Getting your chops to that point is like developing an athletic skill as much as a musical one. It just requires a lot of endurance sessions, stretching, and technique refinement. But mostly just time at a practice pad or drumset. Once you can play single strokes cleanly at that speed it won't be as much of a leap as it seems to play them all around the kit (it'll take some practice, but not as much as getting your hands up to speed in the first place). None of this is to say it has to take 10 years to play that fast - if you practice every day for a good chunk of time and work up the speed of your singles gradually, but keep pushing yourself a little bit at a time, you can make incredibly fast progress - just make sure you're always double checking your technique and you're not tensing up to get more speed. Faster playing is more relaxed playing(sorry if this is obvious but it's important to remember).It's also much more important to be able to play with consistency and control for a long period of time at a slower tempo than try to play faster in short bursts, which can end up teaching you to tense up for bursts of speed which is dangerous and will slow down your progress.

Thanks man! I could not have possibly asked for a better response. Looks like I'll start working on my single strokes more with the metronome.

# ¿ May 21, 2013 01:08

reversefungi: Nov 27, 2003; Master of the high hat!

Hey guys, thinking about getting back into drums. Used to play super casually back in high school and loved it. I still air drum and play other instruments, so I have some measure of limb control/Independence and overall music ability.

I was thinking of getting a drum practice pad, a rudiments book, and just plopping away with a metronome. I live in a large apartment complex, so I don't think an acoustic or electronic drum set is feasible for the moment. There are some places that you can rent a drum room for a few hours so I might try to do that a couple of times a week.

Anyone have any other suggestions for ways I can start to practice and get involved? YouTube series to watch/books to buy/etc? I'm mainly interested in playing metal drums, but I also do enjoy a bunch of other genres and want to keep my horizons open. Open to any kinda of suggestions!

# ¿ Mar 18, 2019 01:07

reversefungi: Nov 27, 2003; Master of the high hat!

Thanks for all the recommendations guys! I'm thinking of getting something like a DD75 to make practice sessions a little more interesting. I also have carpet on my bedroom floor so I'm thinking of getting an actual kick pedals + an electronic bass drum pad. I'm wondering, are electronic bass drum pads interchangeable? If I buy a Roland kick drum pad (like a Roland KD-10/KD-9), can I use that with the Yamaha DD75? Or are all the connections/signals vendor specific?

# ¿ Mar 26, 2019 23:49

reversefungi: Nov 27, 2003; Master of the high hat!

Is there a certain technique that drummers use to do extremely fast one handed rolls? In the song "Reign of Darkness" by Thy Art is Murder, for example, there's a really fast blast beat that I can't even begin to fathom playing. I know that there's the trick of using the rim to do gravity blast style things, but the youtube covers I found online weren't using that technique. Is it just incredibly fast finger motion, or is there something more to it? Alternating fingers?

# ¿ Apr 8, 2019 17:24

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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 19:32

reversefungi: Nov 27, 2003; Master of the high hat!

Jazz Marimba posted:

Technique is my specialty!

This guy is using mostly finger technique, with a little radial-ulnar rotation.

This guy is using almost entirely wrist (and will likely develop an RSI)

This guy is using mostly finger technique with a little bit of wrist.

This gal is using elbow and fingers (and is super tense in general, yikes!)

I'm guessing this is the original drummer? He's using mostly fingers, with a little bit of wrist, and maybe some rotation. Great technique and looseness.

Thanks! Is there a video or a resource that explains how to use some of these movements, like radial-ulnar rotation? It sounds like getting to those speeds is just a matter of hard work and practice and there's no special technique used to get rapid fire one hand rolls (outside of the gravity blast technique).

# ¿ Apr 8, 2019 20:13

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