Dynamics

If you learn to think of playing a little less vertically (playing notes in time), and more horizontally (playing a sequence of notes in a melodious way, and how each note leads to the next and came from the one before), then you can work on feel AND dynamics at the same time.

Think of a solo pianist playing. Now, picture them playing in time and in the same way on a drum kit. Wow! music...

Along this line of thinking, it should be beneficial to grab any music score and emulate the main melody line on the drumkit, using a voice (e.g. snare) to represent one or more pitches. Right? Anyone is doing this?
 
In terms of technique, think of different stick heights corresponding to the various dynamic markings, for example, stick height of 15 degrees = pp, 90 degrees = ff.
Practice moving seamlessly between stick heights - that will require using up and down strokes as required. Be strict with the stick heights.
Worth looking at Gary Chaffee's Rhythm and Meter Patterns book for this stuff.
 
Okay, this is something that I've been having trouble with for a while. How do I improve dynamics in my playing? The problem's that with my band, as my guitar player says, I'm always way too loud, so that the hard parts really don't seem that hard and the soft parts don't really breathe. The musicality, in short, suffers. Please help me.

Sorry if I am going too far back to basics, but for me my use of dynamics started when I learnt about full, down, tap and up strokes for accents, in that I got to grips properly with soft and loud. If you haven't come across these then they are a very good - nay essential - starting point
 
Sorry if I am going too far back to basics, but for me my use of dynamics started when I learnt about full, down, tap and up strokes for accents, in that I got to grips properly with soft and loud. If you haven't come across these then they are a very good - nay essential - starting point

Shldn't be sorry at all, those are things that are coming to terms with slowly :) it's always a great thing to get back to the basics and work up
 
Sorry if I am going too far back to basics, but for me my use of dynamics started when I learnt about full, down, tap and up strokes for accents, in that I got to grips properly with soft and loud. If you haven't come across these then they are a very good - nay essential - starting point

I only begun to take lessons in the last few months after years of just slogging away without really knowing what I was doing, and my teacher recently went through these strokes with me. If only I'd known about them sooner!

(ofc, it is so obvious, but I just didn't think like that when I was "self taught").

I have also found rudiments to be easier at louder volumes, and that I could play them quicker and with less effort, after I spent time practicing at very low volumes, and at lower tempos. If that makes any sense...
 
I also been having trouble with dynamics, being a rock/blues drummer, they say i have a great backbeat, but also been told i play to loud. I have been working on playing quieter on the pad but soon as I get on the drums, it seems like my hands freeze going around the drums, the rolls are terrible the double strokes are terrible, do i need to just play the snare, or all the drums and work on the finesse stuff? Thks
 
Larry... I'm taking your 'thesis' on dynamics to band practice... you said clearly what I've always tried to to me mates. Sometimes its better recieved from someone from the outside. Thanks...
 
Larry... I'm taking your 'thesis' on dynamics to band practice... you said clearly what I've always tried to to me mates. Sometimes its better recieved from someone from the outside. Thanks...

Thanks man, you made my day! Dynamics are a group effort. It really doesn't work well otherwise. They are very powerful when the whole band gets it. And as a drummer, it's one of the main things we can manipulate for the betterment of the song... Educate your bandmates and if you can find any YouTube clips where dynamics are at the forefront, you can point to it and say, "See what they are doing? See how it transforms that part? See how powerful it can be? Can we all be aware of this tool and use it appropriately?"

It adds a whole new dimension to songs you already play. It's like going from 2D to 3D.
 
Thanks man, you made my day! Dynamics are a group effort. It really doesn't work well otherwise. They are very powerful when the whole band gets it. And as a drummer, it's one of the main things we can manipulate for the betterment of the song... Educate your bandmates and if you can find any YouTube clips where dynamics are at the forefront, you can point to it and say, "See what they are doing? See how it transforms that part? See how powerful it can be? Can we all be aware of this tool and use it appropriately?"

It adds a whole new dimension to songs you already play. It's like going from 2D to 3D.


Whats especially frustrating is the cats I'm with are PRO'S. We've all been around a loooong time, and I consider them fairly great in their own sense. Yet... there are soooooo many times when a 'certain' player gets on a jag (too many trips to the parking lot??) and, even though well known regionally, and quite good, exits orbit earth often taking the others (except me of course... ahem) with him... and just like that (snap) the song is suddenly and unnecessarily thundering, leaving the singer or soloist left somewhere in the midst of the rumble. Bye bye dynamics... sigh...
 
Posted pretty long back in this thread and I'm back again with a new query!
I recently played on a fairly gruelling rock record session. I have been playing to a click for over a year and have been working on my dynamics, but what I discovered this time around is that I tend to hit my crashes harder in the mid dynamic range. While this works for the crescendo passages, some of the hitting did take away from the drums, making some cool fills sound not so cool. Help me out with this, folks!
 
Okay, this is something that I've been having trouble with for a while. How do I improve dynamics in my playing? The problem's that with my band, as my guitar player says, I'm always way too loud, so that the hard parts really don't seem that hard and the soft parts don't really breathe. The musicality, in short, suffers. Please help me.

I play mostly classic rock and my rule of thumb everytime I play is keeping in the back of my mind, If i'm playing to loud I have nowhere else to go. When it's time for an accent you can't really do it because your already to loud, you need the dynamics.
 
Never be the loudest guy onstage is a good rule of thumb. (listening and awareness are a requirement here) Some observations which may or may not be the case: The thing that jumps out at me the most from what you've said is perhaps you're not blending your volume well enough with the others, which comes down to listening and being more sensitive. Get bigger ears. Your guitar player is trying to help you out it sounds like. You probably are too loud. Maybe you're trying too hard? Relax with the music, don't try to make the drums the most important thing. Get the bigger picture. Defer to the song.

While drum beats and fills are important, blending with the proper intensity...applying the beat or the fill with just the right volume, is where the artfulness comes in. The song is the objective not the drum part. Play your part in the whole, don't play it like your part is the whole. Because it's not. It's not about the drums, not at all. You're just a support piece of a larger picture.

I record myself religiously and I distinctly remember hearing myself early on and cringing thinking certain fills stuck out way too much. I was simply playing them too loud. So the next time I would do it, I didn't change the fill at all, I just played it with less volume and it worked perfect on playback. The fill wasn't wrong, the blending of the fill was wrong. I wasn't listening, I was thinking, OK my turn to show off a little. How effing dumb to think that. Ever since then I know that by default, fills sound better when played at the same volume, not "stuck out".

I consider dynamics to be advanced. You have to spend a lot of time with the instrument before you're ready to tackle good dynamics, for they require control. For instance, when ramping a song down in volume to a whisper from a roar, the common tendency is that the tempo lags. Being able to play a steady unwavering beat while going up and down considerably in volume is a good exercise. Being able to play really quietly, and I mean quiet enough where normal conversation is louder...should be a part of your abilities. I wouldn't have the gig I do now if I couldn't. I have to be able to groove, all night long, at 1" stick heights in a lot of these rooms. It seems like I play rooms devoid of soft surfaces most of the time.

It's a lot more restrictive when you must play with purpose but can only tap your drums. It's much easier to play when you can hit them normally without having to keep the output volume stupid low. But it's all about control. I am forced to play differently in every single room, depending on how "loud" each room is, and within those confines, make it so the music still has it's ups and downs, volumically speaking lol. When a singer is on mic and your beat is just too loud...it ruins things. Back off, play the background, not the foreground. It's real easy to ruin songs with rude drumming.
 
Wow, Really great advice here in this thread. Purely enjoyed reading through it. Nice work everyone this should be a sticky!
 
Work on your stick control.

Dynamics are all in the wrist- Turning your wrist to a deeper angle to bring the stick up higher will result in playing louder. So, turning your wrists less will give you a lower dynamic. Work on developing your control of that motion and you'll have the skill of dynamic control.

Then, apply those skills. Practice everything at different dynamics. Add dynamic crests and troughs to everything as necessary. Try to play so that you can always clearly hear what your bandmates are playing. I find that to be a pretty good gauge for dynamics.

Finally, sound awesome.
 
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