Drumming by yourself...

Construct

Senior Member
I can't seem to play anything when I'm behind my kit by myself. Any beat that sprung from my mind, I can't remember. Translating all that stuff in my skull to my hands is ridiculous. But the second our guitarist picks up his B.C., and cranks out a riff, it just flows through my arms to the heads. It's there. I've brought this up before, and the solution I keep coming back to is maybe I should obtain a metronome.
 
I can't seem to play anything when I'm behind my kit by myself. Any beat that sprung from my mind, I can't remember. Translating all that stuff in my skull to my hands is ridiculous. But the second our guitarist picks up his B.C., and cranks out a riff, it just flows through my arms to the heads. It's there. I've brought this up before, and the solution I keep coming back to is maybe I should obtain a metronome.

Can you read? If so there are many grooves written out. Plus loads of exercises.
 
Playing with a click is a great thing to practice.

You can also put on headphones and play along to CDs.
 
Are you confident enough in your timekeeping to be able to play a steady beat without any reference of time or can you only play when your guitarist is keeping the beat? Without any actual human beings to play with you can use drumless tracks or play along to CDs but I think playing just drums without any instrumental backing is also important so you can focus on how your drumming sounds and keeping independent time. Practicing with a metronome is great too. Practice grooves, exercises, practice anything that you can later apply while playing with a band.
 
Dethcake

Drumming by yourself...

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I can't seem to play anything when I'm behind my kit by myself. Any beat that sprung from my mind, I can't remember. Translating all that stuff in my skull to my hands is ridiculous. But the second our guitarist picks up his B.C., and cranks out a riff, it just flows through my arms to the heads. It's there. I've brought this up before, and the solution I keep coming back to is maybe I should obtain a metronome.


Dethcake,

I think the issue might be songs. If you can think of songs and not drum beats then I think you will be happy with what you come up with. That is why when your Guitar player is playing you can follow. He is playilng a song. Try not to think of beats only songs...

Hope this helps,
 
Dethcake,

I think the issue might be songs. If you can think of songs and not drum beats then I think you will be happy with what you come up with. That is why when your Guitar player is playing you can follow. He is playilng a song. Try not to think of beats only songs...

Hope this helps,

Awesome! Simplicity at it's best. I'll have to keep that one. Thanks Jamn!

Are you confident enough in your timekeeping to be able to play a steady beat without any reference of time or can you only play when your guitarist is keeping the beat? Without any actual human beings to play with you can use drumless tracks or play along to CDs but I think playing just drums without any instrumental backing is also important so you can focus on how your drumming sounds and keeping independent time. Practicing with a metronome is great too. Practice grooves, exercises, practice anything that you can later apply while playing with a band.

Can you read? If so there are many grooves written out. Plus loads of exercises.

I can read the basics. Funny that this has never occurred to me. I'll definitely look into some endurance/reading exercises.




These responses are an overbearing testament to the friendliness and quality of DW. These have been a big help, thanks!
 
well how many people can play on one set at a time?....geez....i would want to be by myself..

haha =P....just messin with ya..

i kinda strugle with the same problem...but, i just start thinking of beats from other songs, and then put a bunch of them together and just have fun..

Alex
 
I can't seem to play anything when I'm behind my kit by myself. Any beat that sprung from my mind, I can't remember. Translating all that stuff in my skull to my hands is ridiculous. But the second our guitarist picks up his B.C., and cranks out a riff, it just flows through my arms to the heads. It's there.

It would appear that you can't perceive grooves melodically -- instead, you approach them as pure coordination puzzles. Hearing a guitar riff gives you a musical reference, and suddenly you can play melodically and the coordination happens automatically. When playing alone you should try singing a melody or a bass line. This will help develop a musical (or melodic) approach to drumming.
 
I can't seem to play anything when I'm behind my kit by myself. Any beat that sprung from my mind, I can't remember. Translating all that stuff in my skull to my hands is ridiculous. But the second our guitarist picks up his B.C., and cranks out a riff, it just flows through my arms to the heads. It's there. I've brought this up before, and the solution I keep coming back to is maybe I should obtain a metronome.
Yes, even something so simple as the tick, tick, tick of a metronome will inspire you to "jam" and try ideas in the tempo you're set at. Just move the tempo a bit and new ideas will pop into your mind giving you endless possibilities.
 
Awesome! Simplicity at it's best. I'll have to keep that one. Thanks Jamn!

I can read the basics. Funny that this has never occurred to me. I'll definitely look into some endurance/reading exercises.

These responses are an overbearing testament to the friendliness and quality of DW. These have been a big help, thanks!

MD and other magazines have loads of exercises and groove studies. The English mag' Drum even comes with a CD. One good way to get more into reading is reading a chart while listening to the drummer play it. It also helps with counting so you know where you are. These days there are many books covering nearly entire albums. Blink 182 has a great book. So do the Chilli Peppers with their Stadium arcadium book which transcribes all the instruments. Tools such as these are invaluable. And they are great fun.
 
I'll second jamndrummer. Think of songs. Get a song in your mind and play with that. Even sing/hum/scat/mumble/etc. the song out loud. I do that when I'm alone and it works for me. And as others said: drumless tracks, CDs, whatever. It all helps. Good luck.
 
I know the feeling. You sit down behind your kit and nothing happens. Your mind goes blank. I like to first loosen up on my pad. Next I move to my kit and I play with brushes or Blaststicks for a while. I just casually riff for a few minutes to loosen up further. I usually play my itunes on mix play until a song inspires me to work on something that sticks in my mind. After about half an hour of this ritual I lock into a zone and the creative juices get flowing. Once that happens I can go for hours all alone and try new things or find something that I'm not doing well and run with that. One adult beverage also is needed sometimes for lubrication. Depending on how stressful my day was.
 
Give yourself a breaktime or time-out, and apply the power of silence.
 
try listening to music and see if any songs inspire an idea for a sweet beat in your head. that happens to me sometimes. and i'll jump right on the kit and play it, and if its night time and i can't play then i'll just get on the kit anyway and kind of go through the motions.
 
Try working up solo ideas, compositions with a beginning, middle, improv, then back. Doesn't have to be complicated, but make it interesting and dancible. Comp on one idea till it leads to the next, and use your ears more than the brain.

I've been trying on my primitive roots kit, check out 'Jingo' or 'Elephant'

www.youtube.com/bongodoggie
 
I know the feeling. You sit down behind your kit and nothing happens. Your mind goes blank. I like to first loosen up on my pad. Next I move to my kit and I play with brushes or Blaststicks for a while. I just casually riff for a few minutes to loosen up further. I usually play my itunes on mix play until a song inspires me to work on something that sticks in my mind. After about half an hour of this ritual I lock into a zone and the creative juices get flowing. Once that happens I can go for hours all alone and try new things or find something that I'm not doing well and run with that. One adult beverage also is needed sometimes for lubrication. Depending on how stressful my day was.

Sitting behind my kit and I too just go blank! Only having my kit now for a few weeks I already began lessons. My first week every time I got behind it no matter how badly I wanted to play it just would not come out, so I quickly realized I will get lessons. Tomorrow I go to my second lesson. I have been practising my first lesson and when done just mess around the kit getting use to moving around. Even this basic stuff to me is a HUGE THRILL!
 
when I'm playing by myself, I usually have a guitar riff or bass line in my head. My problem is that I don't play either instrument so there there can be hours of me bitching at my guitarist/bassist to play to riff/line that i want them to write for the groove that I have
 
Dethcake,

I think the issue might be songs. If you can think of songs and not drum beats then I think you will be happy with what you come up with. That is why when your Guitar player is playing you can follow. He is playilng a song. Try not to think of beats only songs...

Hope this helps,

I'm gonna get behind this post too, this is what I do when I play on my own, I just think of a few guitar riffs and take it from there. Either that or I start with a beat that I know well and just play around with it and let it evolve.
 
It's not a bad thing. Drummers aren't much without the rest of the band so only being able to play when the guitar starts whaling is not all bad... i guess??
 
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