A question or two.

[Learningthebasics]

Hey I'm new to the site, pretty new to drumming as well. I've been having some trouble and I stumbled upon these forums and figured i'd as another drummer as in my town there arent many. I've been playing for a few months, I can keep a steady beat and all, but heres my problem:

I listen to music, in attempt to learn some songs to play, but i find myself at a loss with the bass pedal, i can do some simple beats with the bass pedal, but when attempting to try to play a beat with multiple sixteenth notes on the bass drum, i just fall apart. I can do sixteenth notes when there's one or two of them in a measure, but when you get mostly all sixteenths for the bass drum i get off beat easilly and just fall apart. I've been trying to play the song Misery Business by Paramore, i'm not a big fan of the band, but I'll say they have quite a talented drummer, at least in my opinion anyways. Any tips on how i can improve my bass drum skills? My other question would be is that too hard of a song to learn to start with.

Edit: for those who aren't familiar with the song, I've got a tab here: http://www.ttabs.com/tabs.php?id=254918

[Glum]

If you want to learn something and gain control of it, start playing slow keep playing slow and then speed it up slowly =)

[donv]

Never heard of them, but you're right. He's a good drummer. The singer's a little doll also! haha

If you're just starting as you say, It's going to be a while before you're playing that song as he did. I'll tell you this though, He's a lot more relaxed then he looks. As for helping you with the bass drum it's hard to say without seeing you play. Is your technique preventing you from picking this up? Are you one of those drummers that sets his drums in some riduculous configuration because you're convinced it looks "cool" and that's what really matters. Have you really played with the adjustments on your pedal to find what's best for you? etc. etc. etc.

Wha does your coach\teacher tell you?

[Learningthebasics]

I set my drums up in a pretty normal fashion i guess, having multiple cymbals confuses me a bit as i don't quite know where they're all suppose to go, multiple chinas, splashes etc. But as for a teacher, i don't have one i'm just teaching myself for the most part, and im thinking i just need to slow it down like you said with the bass drum.

[donv]

As much as I hate Guitar Center, Sam Ash and the like, they are good places to network. If you don't have a teacher\coach, spend some at the stores and ask other drummers for help. Most are willing to share everything they have if you ask.

[dairyairman]

oh by the way, there are no sixteenth notes on the bass drum in that song. i hear sixteenths on other drums, but not the bass. what i hear in the song and see in the tab are eighth notes.

but anyway, just try practicing the beats/grooves that give you trouble at a slow speed with a metronome, then gradually speed up. that intro groove would be a good place to start.

[Learningthebasics]

Oh my mistake, thanks for the correction. I put that song on hold for a bit until i can speed up my bass drum. I decided to go with Smells like teen spirit, after a grueling few hours i got it finally, there are sixteenths on that song right?

[Unevil]

as far as cymbal position goes, people arrange them differently, but I find that most drummers have them with splashes to your left, above and to the right of the hi-hat, crashes towards the center and at either ends of the group of toms, (or one tom XD) ride tends to be right of the crashes, and china right of the ride. There is no 'right order' this is just how I see it the most.

[dairyairman]

Oh my mistake, thanks for the correction. I put that song on hold for a bit until i can speed up my bass drum. I decided to go with Smells like teen spirit, after a grueling few hours i got it finally, there are sixteenths on that song right?

that sounds like progress. if you're ever having trouble with anything, remember to slow it down. you can play anything if you slow it down enough. i mean, what if you were only playing one beat per minute? you could probably play anything at that tempo, so the idea is to find the fastest tempo you can play your beat comfortably, no matter how slow that is, and work up from there.

i think there are some 16th note bass drum doubles in smells like teen spirit in the chorus.

[Learningthebasics]

Thanks you guys are great help :) Any tips on learning songs by ear, this may sound stupid but some songs i have trouble distinguishing the snare and bass drum from each other, especially if they're hit at the same time.

[dairyairman]

sometimes you can hear the details of a song better if you listen to it with some good headphones. headphones can give you more stereo separation, which might help a little, and they generally have better clarity than speakers, which also helps.

look on youtube for drum covers of popular songs. a lot of times other drummers will post videos of themselves playing a cover song. you can get ideas from them, assuming they don't suck too badly.

but if it gets to the point where even with a careful listen you can't tell which drum is being hit, then when you play it, it probably won't matter which drum you hit either.

[Learningthebasics]

Thanks again, yeah i've been watching a bunch of covers by a guy name chaserrr he seems good, it makes thing much easier as well, just some of the speeds he plays at get a little hard to understand

[dairyairman]

sometimes if a song is really complicated and fast i'll use my audio editor (audacity) to slow it down without changing the pitch. usually i can figure it out once it's slowed down. i'll save a copy of the slowed down song so i can play along to it. that's my secret weapon of last resort.

[R Furb]

sometimes if a song is really complicated and fast i'll use my audio editor (audacity) to slow it down without changing the pitch. usually i can figure it out once it's slowed down.

I do the same thing for transcriptions, only I use Windows Media Player.