Sucking this bad should be illegal.

Jesus Christ. I've been learning for 6 months now. I purchased a Samson 7kit, and for now set up the overheads only. I then this weekend recorded myself playing along to a song I've been obsessed with learning (Muse's Hysteria).

I knew I didn't play it well, as I'm such a noob still. However, I never imagined how badly I sucked. It's bad. I heard that recording myself would be an eye opening experience, but I never thought it would be like this.

For a moment I second guessed this whole thing. What the hell was I thinking when I decided to start this whole drum thing at 33 yo? What was I smoking? I'll never be good, it's been 6 months and the amount of suckage I produce is huge.

But then I gave it a try for a couple of hours, and repeatedly recorded myself playing the different grooves in the song, and tried to fix things slowly. I actually improved more in this couple of hours of recording myself (as far as jamming to this song) than I had in the past month.

I am trying to see the light in this whole situation and realize that now that I see how bad I am, I can try to fix things.

Did you ever have such a revealing moment when you were learning (or later)?

Watching and listening to yourself play is one of the most important things you can do, during your regular practice when you're not recording, try setting up a mirror near your set so you can watch the whole time, that will also speed up your progress!

Don't get discouraged, just keep working at it! You saw yourself how you can improve noticeably in just a few hours, keep that up for another year and you'll be a killer drummer :D
 
I began playing drums 6 years ago (at 11 y/o) and the drumset about 2 years ago. When I got my IPod Touch, I found the "Voice Memo" feature on it, and started recording anytime I played a piece for band. Then I'd listen to the professional recording and compare the two.

Let me tell you, recording playing sessions will really improve listening skills and keep you aware of what your abilities are. For a short time, I thought I was better than I actually was. That's not a good mentality to be walking around with. I mean, I'm still above average for a high school student, but I thought I was great. Being exposed to more talented drummers fixed that problem and helped me to improve faster. I'd rather be bad and aware of my faults than good with a wrong impression of my abilities.

Don't be discouraged. Use that suckiness to motivate yourself! All of us here sucked at one point (or currently) in our musical journey, but good practice can change that. Keep holding yourself to a high, but reasonable standard, and you'll see progress in no time.
 
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Haha! Been there done that myself. I remember the first time i recorded myself and i'll swear for a second i thought about just putting the sticks down and learning another instrument.lol As the others have said, your just 6 months into drums so it's not going to sound all that great. I've been playing for over 5yrs, a bit of a newby also, and to this day i still find things wrong with something i've played after i listen to it. It's not a bad thing in fact it's perfectly normal. Just stay with it and no matter how bad you think you sound now as long as you keep practicing you'll only get better. In the future you'll start playing things back and it will sound nice and smooth...that will be your reward for all your hard work. Good luck to ya!!
 
What sounds good on the recordings? It can't be all bad. Are the grooves in time? Do you fall apart during fills? Is it possible you're trying too much/difficult material at once? Play a few straight grooves, listen, and take it from there slowly. If you can't even play those consistently in time then work on that first, aided with metronome. Build up from there.
 
I remember making a school project about rock, and rock musicians. I decided to do some covers and show them as somekind of creative product. It sooner became more than a challenge. I had to find a camera and shiet. When i finally started recording i remember screwing up a totally easy song about seven times. When i've done it 2 days ago with no failures. Shiet it sounded like shit. I also had to put in the music afterwards, and it was almost impossible to find the right spot. Spend about 4 hours per song.

I also have no mics, but it actually went pretty okay. Anything but the toms sounded okay in the recording.

I will NEVER make such a school project again. From now on, i'll ony do it for the fun of it, if i can find any fun...
 
What sounds good on the recordings? It can't be all bad. Are the grooves in time?

not consitently, as I just found out :)
A few things, like the intro groove, was waaaay off. I fixed that (I just didn't hear it like that until I recorded myself). Other grooves in the song are not way off like that, but not on time all the time. I fall apart from time to time. The good thing is I didn't notice that until now, so I plan on working on it.

Do you fall apart during fills?
Actually the fills, and transition back into the grooves are OK.

Is it possible you're trying too much/difficult material at once?

Not only possible, but a sure thing! :) I know this material is over my head. I just became obsessed with it right when I got the coordination part down. I then, for some reason, started to think that I could actually pull it off. So, now it became a mission.

Play a few straight grooves, listen, and take it from there slowly. If you can't even play those consistently in time then work on that first, aided with metronome. Build up from there.

Thank, that's actually what I have been doing from the start. The thing is, after I turn the metronome off and play along to the song, I just couldn't hear myself making mistakes. I practiced like that (metronome, than play along) for a month. Then now, when I recorded myself, I saw that even though I was doing OK with the metronome, when the metronome was off, I couldn't hear myself well during the song itself. Now I can.

Thanks everyone for the positive words. I trully see this recording thing as a very positive thing in my development, and I am actually glad and thankful I had the opportunity for this reality check so early in my learning, as many people, like you all pointed out, don't do this until much later.
 
Jesus Christ. I've been learning for 6 months now. I purchased a Samson 7kit, and for now set up the overheads only. I then this weekend recorded myself playing along to a song I've been obsessed with learning (Muse's Hysteria).

I knew I didn't play it well, as I'm such a noob still. However, I never imagined how badly I sucked. It's bad. I heard that recording myself would be an eye opening experience, but I never thought it would be like this.

For a moment I second guessed this whole thing. What the hell was I thinking when I decided to start this whole drum thing at 33 yo? What was I smoking? I'll never be good, it's been 6 months and the amount of suckage I produce is huge.

But then I gave it a try for a couple of hours, and repeatedly recorded myself playing the different grooves in the song, and tried to fix things slowly. I actually improved more in this couple of hours of recording myself (as far as jamming to this song) than I had in the past month.

I am trying to see the light in this whole situation and realize that now that I see how bad I am, I can try to fix things.

Did you ever have such a revealing moment when you were learning (or later)?

Hey dude, that's why I've been recording every practice for the last 3 weeks. I noticed I improve the most by listening to my playback. But yeah, some days I play like an ass. Like, my arms are noodley or something lol.
 
There was literature in New Scientist a few years ago saying that if you want to be GREAT at something, it takes about 10,000 hours of practice.

Yep, and that's no taking into account the quality of practice.

Haroldo, at 6 months you are a beginner. How can you judge yourself at this stage?

Improvement is not linear where you get steadily better and better. It's a plateau by plateau by process where physical and mental information (and the integration of the physical and mental) can take time to bed down.

So you may find yourself going for months without apparent improvement (although connections are being made at a deeper level). Then one week you suddenly find you've made a big leap forward. But the improvement actually didn't just happen in that week ... those unrealised improvements were happening while you fumed and grumbled about not getting anywhere, struggling clumsily through patterns and contemplating quitting drums and taking up knitting instead.


I've been playing for years and am amazed at how much I can suck on any given day.

PFOG already got to +4 so I'll add another ... +5.

Good days and bad days ...
 
Yep, and that's no taking into account the quality of practice.

Haroldo, at 6 months you are a beginner. How can you judge yourself at this stage?

Improvement is not linear where you get steadily better and better. It's a plateau by plateau by process where physical and mental information (and the integration of the physical and mental) can take time to bed down.

So you may find yourself going for months without apparent improvement (although connections are being made at a deeper level). Then one week you suddenly find you've made a big leap forward. But the improvement actually didn't just happen in that week ... those unrealised improvements were happening while you fumed and grumbled about not getting anywhere, struggling clumsily through patterns and contemplating quitting drums and taking up knitting instead.




PFOG already got to +4 so I'll add another ... +5.

Good days and bad days ...

sometimes you can suck and improve at the same time.

it´s like all of a sudden you can play something you never thought you´d be able to play...but not well.

next step (after that giant leap) is to play it well.

then, on to the next plateau.
 
Ha Ha Ha, love it...It 's all good and just remember the proof is in the pudding. Hearing recordings of yourself will do one of two things for you. It will either make you a better drummer or it will make you stop playing. You have not been at it long enough, so don't get too discouraged just yet. You will not become a proficient drummer in a matter of months/years. It is going to take quite a bit of time and numerous periods of frustration. What made you choose drums in the first place, I am hoping the love of the instrument, give it time, plenty of time before you give up. I use a Tascam DR pocket recorder when not actually recording, very cheap and very easy to record your sessions. Obviously the quality is non existent but it is a fantastic tool if used and used correctly. Hang in there. Just want to add that recording and knowing you are recording tends to imtimidate quite a few musicians, in turn sometimes making them try to play too good, being relaxed as you possibly can is an added plus and will also come with time and experience...
 
OMFG!!!!

Last night as I was practicing, I turned on the mics, and for the first time, instead of playing along to the song, I just tapped my sticks together to see how it sounded "live" in my headphones. There was, what I guesstimate, a quarter second delay between me tapping the sticks together and actually hearing the sound on my phones!!!! (could be half a second? not sure, but it's an extremelly obvious space in between)

The whole time, I was about a quarter of a second behind in the recording due to the way my setup works. That's why it sounded so horrible. I'm SO RELIEVED!!!!

Of course, I still suck, just not as bad as I thought! WHOHOOO!!!!

PS: I plan on buying a Tascam US-1800 16 channel USB interface, but for the time being, I am only using 2 condensers going into a 4 channel beringer mixer, than going into the line in of my laptop. My laptop takes about a quarter of a second to "process" the line in sound (or that's what I figured). I was using Audacity to play the song AND record myself onto an adjascent track. The problem was, it was recording my drums with a quarter second delay.

What I should have done, and will do next. is to record my drums, then manually line the song and drums track together.

What is funny is that for the past days I have been trying to fix this without knowing, so I have effectivelly been learning to play "ahead" of the song by about a quarter of a second. As if I weren't confused enough.... :) :) :)
 
OMFG!!!!

Last night as I was practicing, I turned on the mics, and for the first time, instead of playing along to the song, I just tapped my sticks together to see how it sounded "live" in my headphones. There was, what I guesstimate, a quarter second delay between me tapping the sticks together and actually hearing the sound on my phones!!!! (could be half a second? not sure, but it's an extremelly obvious space in between)

The whole time, I was about a quarter of a second behind in the recording due to the way my setup works. That's why it sounded so horrible. I'm SO RELIEVED!!!!

Of course, I still suck, just not as bad as I thought! WHOHOOO!!!!

PS: I plan on buying a Tascam US-1800 16 channel USB interface, but for the time being, I am only using 2 condensers going into a 4 channel beringer mixer, than going into the line in of my laptop. My laptop takes about a quarter of a second to "process" the line in sound (or that's what I figured). I was using Audacity to play the song AND record myself onto an adjascent track. The problem was, it was recording my drums with a quarter second delay.

What I should have done, and will do next. is to record my drums, then manually line the song and drums track together.

What is funny is that for the past days I have been trying to fix this without knowing, so I have effectivelly been learning to play "ahead" of the song by about a quarter of a second. As if I weren't confused enough.... :) :) :)

beautiful.

____________________________
 
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