Old cat, new tricks

Monkeypunch

Junior Member
Hey folks,

I'm a brand new member (found the site looking for some suggestions on upbeat ride tips) and had a few questions for people. Some background -

I'm an entirely self-taught drummer and have been playing for 19 years. I've toured and recorded and am pretty much done with that as I'm 37 now and hate life on the road. However, I've played punk rock all these years, and while I still listen to some that I find inovative (The Refused and others), my real passion has been, always will be, and is... jazz.

All these years I've just beat the Hell outta my drums, and not until a few years ago did I find some interest in actually getting some emotion and and subtlety out of my kit. So, it goes without saying that I have a ton of bad habits (poor grip technique, no rudiment training, poor hi-hat foot discipline, etc).

The last year my kit has been in storage, and now she's out and set up and I have all the time in the world to practice. However, I've sworn to use this hiatus to prevent myself from going back to bad habits. To burn the ships on the shore, so to speak, I traded some of my old rock cymbals in for a Sabian 21" Crossover ride, and a pair of Sabian 14" HHX Groove Hats, both of which I love.

A few years ago I picked up John Riley's 'The Art of Bop Drumming' and am slowly following the exercises in the book. I'm really sticking to the first few pages for the these important first weeks back to my kit though, as I'm a firm believer in slowly building a great foundation. It's a bit frustrating to move so slowly when I know I could just go back to beating on my drums and being quite good at it. As of today, one week into my conversion, I've got a good handle on track 3 of the CD, for anyone familiar with this fantastic book/CD.

So, basically, I'm looking for a few tips or bits of advice to really get the basics down while eliminating any bad habits. This could mean anecdotal advice, links to videos, or suggestions for books, CDs, or DVDs.

At the moment I'm working on developing a firm triplet groove in my right hand, and being able to keep a light four on the floor beat with my kick, pumping 2s and 4s with my hi-hat, and beating out a light tempo of accents with my snare hand using a traditional grip. If you're familiar with John Riley's book, I'm trying to follow it to a T, and will move on to comping in a few weeks once I get these basics down.

I'm also reflecting on my likely need to simply spend about an hour or so a day just in front of my ride working on triplet groove muscle memory. Any advice here? I'm spending about two hours a day practicing at the moment, and have the time for more.

Does anyone have any sagely old wisdom for this old-timer trying to learn some new tricks?

Thanks to all of you in advance!
 
Well it sounds like you're an accomplished drummer... but since you're trying to "start over" and relearn the instrument with a new approach, taking lessons might be a good idea. An instructor would be able to see your technique and catch some of the bad habits you have.
This would be a good time to do it since you already know how to play drums and have had a lot of experience, you'd be working with the instructor on technique instead of grooves and stuff.

Also, playing in front of a mirror or making a video of yourself playing may help you to analyize your technique and find things you can improve on.

Obviously using a metronome would be good too.

Good luck,
 
Back
Top