Can you play EVERYTHING you can mouth or tap?

[aydee]

On the drum set. Can you?

[crdirtRider856]

Of course not!...but I like to think I can. I m currently listening to "Mother and Child Divided" by P. Tree. Now I can play it on my steering wheel and in my head, but thats about it. Its gettin there though, I swear!

[Dawson49]

No, of course not. Can you?

That's always been a source of frustration for me.

Where are the smilies when you truly need 'em?

[crdirtRider856]

Where are the smilies when you truly need 'em?

Here- - - : ) : ( : P =D : O o-0 D : ......Did that make any sense? I usually feel #6 lol (its 4:40am, sorry)

[Dawson49]

Thanks, crdirtRider856, but I was thinking more about ones such as these, for example:

http://speakeasy.jazzcorner.com/speakeasy/images/smilies/eek.gif http://speakeasy.jazzcorner.com/speakeasy/images/smilies/cool.gif http://speakeasy.jazzcorner.com/speakeasy/images/smilies/rolleyes.gif http://speakeasy.jazzcorner.com/speakeasy/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

[Jeff Almeyda]

I asked Mike Mangini this and he said that NO he can't play everything he can conceive. No one can. That is because if you change just one note of a pattern, it can become something entirely different to play.

[aydee]

I asked Mike Mangini this and he said that NO he can't play everything he can conceive. No one can. That is because if you change just one note of a pattern, it can become something entirely different to play.

I was hoping you'd bring in a Mangini perspective on this, Jeff.

What prompted me to start this thread was the fact that what I can do sitting in a chair using the 2 palms of my hands on my knees, and my 2 feet tapping the floor, I can NEVER DO on the drum kit.

I haven't understood why not.

I can also 'play' mind-blowing licks, vocally, but on a drum set?....No chance in hell..

[larryace]

That's the goal. In fact I'm pretty sure that's the definition of mastering your instrument, to effortlessly play whatever you hear in your head. I'm not even close ha ha.

[Toby_Jackson]

Interesting thread. This is actually a concept I use to test myself regularily. I'll just starting beatboxing a groove, then try to play it and get the same sounds/feel/accents on the kit.

Then I'll start voicing out some licks and trying to come up with the right orchestration and phrasing around the toms or cymbals. This part is usually much more involved and takes some slow coordination practice. I'll often voice the fill into a voice recorder so I can reference it over time and make sure I'm not forgetting some little part of it.

It's really a great exercise, and I believe it's been one of the strongest for me personally with phrasing naturally and playing "what I hear in my head." It's helped me so much with improvising freely and just letting the licks flow. Highly recommended!

[Tutin]

Obviously I can't play everything I can mouth, but usually yes. Funnily enough I find that I can tap with my hands a lot faster than I can with sticks.

I think that's a lot more mental though, because when you're tapping with your hands you see that you only need to move a small distance. Due to rotational dynamics you should only have to move your hand the same amount to get a decent volume out of the sticks but I feel that playing with sticks makes me think I should be playing louder, or with more motion. I've noticed that in a lot of the WFD guys, there hands are moving relatively small distances compared to the volume or stick height they are achieving. This is displayed pretty well in the WFD video of Tom Grosset hitting 1194 when the camera slows down. It's all control and endurance I guess.

[Toza]

I'm also a beatboxer, of course no one in the world can't play this staff that i drum with my mouth;););)!!!

[k3ng]

I won't say everything.. but I surely try to.

I think it's one of the best ways to seriously improve your playing especially your soloing. I've often had all sorts of imaginary beats in my head and after alot of patience and exercise I tried voicing them down on the kit. Didn't seem so easy after all.

Now a long time after I started that exercise I'm quite able to play out what I imagine or tap or mouth out.. More so the short little phrases that I use when trading fours or something.



*on a side note.. i was taught to do the exact same thing with my piano phrases. I think it's still one of the best ways to learn is to force your hands and feet to play what your mind hears. You can become your greatest teacher... or at least a great teacher if not the greatest.

[caddywumpus]

I studied Indian classical percussion for a while, and I transferred the idea of speaking or singing a rhythm over to the drum set. I can play everything I speak, but I can't speak everything I can play. Some of it's just too darn fast, and I'm not the Micro Machine Man.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzbUPfoveok

[MattRitter]

[QUOTE=caddywumpus;504438] I can play everything I speak, but I can't speak everything I can play.[QUOTE]

I was gonna mention this idea, but you beat me to the punch! Nice one! I think being able to sing what we play can be more important than being able to play what we sing. Sometimes a person will attempt to learn a physical pattern as just a physical pattern, but they won't have a solid understanding of what the actual rhythmic phrase is. Therefore, they can't play it very musically, and sometimes not even accurately.

In my teaching studio, students tell me all the time that their lack of physical coordination is why they can't play a specific drum pattern. I say, "Oh really? Then, let's take your physical coordination out of the equation. SING the phrase to me. What is this thing supposed to sound like?" Nine times out of ten, they can't sing it. At this point, we put down the sticks and spend time practicing singing the rhythm. Once they can sing it, we go back to playing, and the "lack of physical coordination" problem is normally solved.

[British Boy]

I think I can play everything I can sing or champ out with my teeth. There are things I can play on the drums that I can't do with my mouth though.

No rebound strokes with my teeth.

[darkstar442]

half the time but the other half im taping way to fast for my feet to move, i can move my hands way faster than my feet(of cource)

[LeeLovesSabian]

Just about.
But when I mouth it, it sounds stupid.

[PBW]

On the drum set. Can you?

Of course! If you can say it, you can play it!

[LeeLovesSabian]

Of course! If you can say it, you can play it!

Very True.
Awesome pic by the way.
I love Awesome-O 4,000!
South Park Rules!

[samthebeat]

Going against the grain a little, i aint no beat boxer and aint that good at with my mouth, much better with the drums. As for tap, there are a lot things which i can only play on the dumset, independence things, where it becomes so much easier being able to play with the sounds of the drumset. In terms of hand control. I think i can pretty much play everything with my sticks that i can play with my hands. As for concepts and my mind, i can play imagine so much more than my body can play, its annoying, my concpts are definetley ahead of my skill level.

[GRUNTERSDAD]

I do a lot of deliveries in the hospital where I work....no not babies, but boxes, and since I started again playing drums I have the dream of playing singles with my sticks as fast as I can tap my fingers on those boxes. Everyone knows I play the drums by some of the patterns I tap on the boxes.

[maddrummr]

I wish.

I have some crazy tap sessions in US History. Not much of a fan of that class.

[Deathmetalconga]

I was hoping you'd bring in a Mangini perspective on this, Jeff.

What prompted me to start this thread was the fact that what I can do sitting in a chair using the 2 palms of my hands on my knees, and my 2 feet tapping the floor, I can NEVER DO on the drum kit.

I haven't understood why not.

I can also 'play' mind-blowing licks, vocally, but on a drum set?....No chance in hell..


I have the same problem and I don't know why. I think it's because we spend lots of time every day making sounds with our mouths and using our hands for things, so those are the parts of the body that render ideas best and easiest.

But vocalizing and tapping are great ways to lean and analyze.

Yet another fascinating thread topic from Aydee.

[aydee]

This man don't needs no drums!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTxfu9fWGAY

mindblowing!

[crdirtRider856]

[QUOTE=Deathmetalconga;504741
But vocalizing and tapping are great ways to lean and analyze.

Yet another fascinating thread topic from Aydee.[/QUOTE]

LMAO! Hehe, I always wanted to be able to play that damn Seinfeld tune...

mmm pop pop mm bwar bow, ung pop pop ung braw maw... LOL

[TheGroceryman]

no way. I'm an INSANE lap drummer. Probably cause i get so much practice during the school day... I do some crazy stuff. but i'm definitely faster with sticks as opposed to hands. Whenever i try to translate what i do in school on the kit, it just doesnt work. Like i might get the rhythms down, but the feel is just so off. It doesnt feel natural at all....strange.

[stasz]

I can't play everything I can sing and I can't sing everything I can play. I totally agree that it can do nothing but help your playing to sing your parts aloud. Simply put, it detaches you from any technique or coordination required by your limbs and allows you to come up with musical ideas without worrying about what your technical limitations are. If you learn how to sing parts well then you can understand what they are supposed to sound like musically and then transfer that to your limbs on the drum set.

[diosdude]

I can play everything i can mouth but in no way can i mouth some of the things i can conceive. Watching Terry Bozzio doing some crazy four limb independece thang with a crazy ostinato on the toms with his left and something totally different with his feet and right hand just blows me away, Also watching a cat like marco minneman keep a wicked fast single handed roll on his gong drum while laying down a groove on the rest of the kit keeps me humble. =)