Punk Rock Drumming

Bradastronaut

Senior Member
Hey yall, is there any specific excersizes that can increase speed and power, like is needed in punk rock? Im talking about lagwagon, nofx, bad religion stuff. I can do the beats, but i find trouble putting the fills in and getting all the cymbal hits without losing rythm, power, and even dropping a stick D: And i just have trouble putting all parts of the song together to actualy make the song, if yous get what i mean. Bluhh i ramble haha oh and kit movement, how do i increase that? I think i have gotten so caught up in practicing rudiments ive forgot about many other aspects of drumming :/
 
First, you have to practice foot doubles to do the tipicall tu pa turu pa.
For fills, there's no way but practise, practise and practise.
Many years ago I was in a harcore band (our main influence was Snuff) and this is the way I did.
 
yeah i have the foot doubles down pretty well, i realised i was doing the slide technique at my first 2 months of playing without even realising! and its about as fast as american errorist by nofx now, im getting there! and ive also realised i can get more power but less speed using the heel toe technique, so i guess they both have their upsides and downsides. I sometimes combine the two when playing beats. I also found quick doubles while playing fills gives the playing a lot of energy and my teacher said if he saw someone using that on stage he would take notice and say "now thats a drummer" haha
 
Thanks for the help so far guys but now im all of a sudden having trouble keeping time while playing the punk beats, i wasnt like an hour ago but now all my fills take me into a completely different part of the beat and im confused D:
 
Always been a fan of cutting the tempo in half in my head when playing fast punk beats. If playing at 200bpm, in my head I'd feel 100bpm. Seemed easier for me to lock into a 100bpm pulse than one at 200bpm.

As for keeping time on fills, maybe try and make them less busy until you feel comfortable wailing at high speeds. Play a standard punk beat and play a fill of quarter or eighth notes, focusing on keeping the timing solid, not so much a crazy fill. Exercises like doing straight 16th around the kit with 1/4's on the kick with a metronome, starting at a ridiculously comfortable speed and slowing working up from there might also help with timing, focus on ensuring you are landing every beat 1 on the money, the rest should follow.
 
Well i never try anything too busy on the kit, i know im not very good and i never want to stray outside what i feel comfortable, so its simple snare fills at the moment, i guess i do have to just slow it down a tad so i feel completely comfortable with this stuff. Its just im wanting to play punk pretty quick as i know a couple of people into starting a punk band, and im the only person who can play drums they know, plus i can play the ataris stuff pretty well, its just this stuff is a lot faster.
 
One thing that might help is getting your toms as close to you as possible(if you don't have them that way already). That way you don't have to move around as much.
 
Well i never try anything too busy on the kit, i know im not very good and i never want to stray outside what i feel comfortable, so its simple snare fills at the moment, i guess i do have to just slow it down a tad so i feel completely comfortable with this stuff. Its just im wanting to play punk pretty quick as i know a couple of people into starting a punk band, and im the only person who can play drums they know, plus i can play the ataris stuff pretty well, its just this stuff is a lot faster.

Sounds as though you are on the right track. I found a lot of my punk drumming was based on muscle memory, something that doesn't happen overnight, comes with time and constant practice.

Keep 'er up!
 
One thing that might help is getting your toms as close to you as possible(if you don't have them that way already). That way you don't have to move around as much.

I have my toms very close to the snare in my kit at home, however i find when theyre to close i get an ache in my shoulder, its wierd.

What songs did you use to start playing punk jer?
 
What songs did you use to start playing punk jer?

Kinda funny enough, I was playing punk beats in my first high school band before I even really knew what punk was... I never really got into learning other's songs - however, when I figured out what I was doing and was recruited by a punk band, they got me into albums like Bad Religion's "Suffer", NOFX's "Punk in Drublic", Pennywise's "Unknown Road", Propaghandi's "How To Clean Everything" and Blink's "Cheshire Cat".

I'd give a more than honorable mention to Lagwagon's "Duh" and "Trashed" as being an albums that really steered the direction of my punk playing, Derrick Plourde was a helluva big influence, for sure.
 
Awesome, suffer is one of my all time favourite albums, i love playing along to that. And punk in drublic is great, i wanna learn lori meyers! And i gotta say, derrick plourde i have been listening to closely for a long time now, but mostly his work with jaws and bad astronaut, you checked out any of them? www.myspace.com/jawsmusic amazing stuff on that album.
I think im getting the hang of the punk stuff though, im keeping it all steady with the simple fills, and am getting the speed up slowly...if that makes sense. Im just too desperate to delve into the more advanced side of this genre D:
 
I would say you need to slow everything down. Punk and hardcore is basically really fast rock an roll, so practice the beats and fills you want to do at a slower tempo and then start to speed things up gradually making sure you have it all down nice and tight as you go.

I played in hardcore and punk bands for years and I ended up injuring my wrist because I wasn't relaxed when I was playing fast. I had to stop playing for a few years, so I would advise anybody to build up the speed gradually and avoid tensing up at all cost.

It's great music to play though, and loads of fun.
 
What songs did you use to start playing punk jer?/QUOTE]

Man check out Dead Kennedys Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables, Misfits Static Age, the Minor Threat Discography, Black Flag before Henry Rollins joined (sorry guys I can't stand Rollins). Ummm... oh yeah, Social Distortion Mommy's Little Monster is one of my favourite punks records ever and the drumming on that is amazing. You should really check out Fugazi too, End Hits is a good album to start with. Amazing band with and amazing drummer. There are so moany more but I will just stop now.

Good luck man, punk is a really beautiful thing but remember to keep cool and don't rush into things because you don't want to hurt yourself like I did.
 
Awesome, suffer is one of my all time favourite albums, i love playing along to that. And punk in drublic is great, i wanna learn lori meyers! And i gotta say, derrick plourde i have been listening to closely for a long time now, but mostly his work with jaws and bad astronaut, you checked out any of them? www.myspace.com/jawsmusic amazing stuff on that album.
I think im getting the hang of the punk stuff though, im keeping it all steady with the simple fills, and am getting the speed up slowly...if that makes sense. Im just too desperate to delve into the more advanced side of this genre D:

Almost forgot about your suggestion... Wow, I was quite disappointed with Jaws. Plourde on drums and Joe Raposo on bass... I had higher expectations.

Listen to this bass!... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfrngGUr_j8 (Dave Raun is also pretty insane, imo...)

Listen to these drums!... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyXXs7VeOgk, you'd think with the 2 of them, it'd be different...
 
What songs did you use to start playing punk jer?/QUOTE]

Man check out Dead Kennedys Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables, Misfits Static Age, the Minor Threat Discography, Black Flag before Henry Rollins joined (sorry guys I can't stand Rollins). Ummm... oh yeah, Social Distortion Mommy's Little Monster is one of my favourite punks records ever and the drumming on that is amazing. You should really check out Fugazi too, End Hits is a good album to start with. Amazing band with and amazing drummer. There are so moany more but I will just stop now.

Good luck man, punk is a really beautiful thing but remember to keep cool and don't rush into things because you don't want to hurt yourself like I did.

Not to sound like a know it all but i have all those records and they are great! Except for static age, who i will definately check out soon! Ive been going at it slow, im proud to say im getting there :D Please reccomend more!
 
One thing that can help you keep time and increase volume and power is cutting back with your beats. I play in a hardcore band now and often times instead of doing quick hits on the hihats i'll just bash them wioth the snare. super easy to keep time and volume. plus your hihat hand won't get nearly as tired. If you're thrashing it will probably sound almost identical too.

for example:
(this is a very quick 4/4)
typical:
1...2...3...4
x...x...x...x
.....s........s
b...........b

my suggestion:
1...2...3...4
.....x........x
.....s........s
b..........b...

the periods are to make it line up. hope this helps
 
Almost forgot about your suggestion... Wow, I was quite disappointed with Jaws. Plourde on drums and Joe Raposo on bass... I had higher expectations.

Listen to this bass!... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfrngGUr_j8 (Dave Raun is also pretty insane, imo...)

Listen to these drums!... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyXXs7VeOgk, you'd think with the 2 of them, it'd be different...

I know im bringing up an old topic here but i had to reply to this...
I thought the same thing when i first heard of them, expecting some amazing hardcore punk rock band, but i do think theyre amazing the way they are haha. I was wanting to know if any of you punk drummers here have been able to play mr coffee by lagwagon? Im thinking if i learn all the parts to that slowly, and get the speed for it up through time, punk will come a lot easier to me after. Ive been learning a lot of the stuff from war on errorism by nofx, starting to find it pretty easy now :D
 
Mr. Coffee is actually pretty easy. I think someone mentioned it earlier - slow it down and you'll get it. Practice, practice, practice - Nothing beats practice.
 
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