Can I trust you with this?

Yamaha Rider

Platinum Member
We're all friends here, right?
I can trust you to keep this amongst yourselves, right?
I have a nagging, potentially serious problem to confess ...
I don't seem to have much ability to 'visualise' a drum pattern in my mind to begin a song.
If there is a bar or two of intro - I'm there. That triggers my memory. What I struggle with is plucking a beat out of thin air.
I mentioned this when I was having tuition - and my tutor kindof shrugged it off as if it was no big deal. When I pressed him on it he said he imagines the intro.
Can't really see me pulling that off tbh. Especially under stress.
Anyone have any tricks that might help?
Or am I just mentally unsuited? Do musicians just have superb memories?
(Don't be too harsh - got my 1st ever gig coming up when the pubs reopen!)
 
It’s something that comes with time, but you could practice getting better at it. You could get a pair of dice or use a dice-rolling phone app, and roll the dice and play the first few measures of the song that corresponds to that number from your set list. Keep doing this until you can instantly remember the beat as soon as you see the number.
 
I don't have any hints on memory (mine is terrible)...but...Peter Erskine relates a story in his terrific book "The Drum Perspective" (a GREAT read btw):

He was hired to go do a tour with Boz Scaggs. He was not familiar with much of the music. So what he did was he got hold of all the CD's that contained the music on the set list, and wrote out sketches of the grooves/beats. Nothing fancy...just basics.

I've used that "trick" a number of times...believe me...it works.

So all you need to do is write out a couple of bars of the tunes...just enough to jog your memory.
 
My d
I don't have any hints on memory (mine is terrible)...but...Peter Erskine relates a story in his terrific book "The Drum Perspective" (a GREAT read btw):

He was hired to go do a tour with Boz Scaggs. He was not familiar with much of the music. So what he did was he got hold of all the CD's that contained the music on the set list, and wrote out sketches of the grooves/beats. Nothing fancy...just basics.

I've used that "trick" a number of times...believe me...it works.

So all you need to do is write out a couple of bars of the tunes...just enough to jog your memory.
My drum notation reading is very poor unfortunately.
I do have a notebook where keep the basic groove tho. Maybe I need to seriously practice reading it without referring to the recorded tracks!
 
If you are not visually oriented, are you better with letters so that if you wrote out note letters like C-B-E, that would be more memorable to you? Some memory systems would further changes it to Cab-Bridge-Elevator but usually those are themselves visual cues. If you remember tastes well, you can try food related mnemonics like cake-blueberry-eggs. What do you remember best? Names, numbers or what?
You're overestimating me!
I don't read or understand music notation other than some basic drum I'm afraid.
I can see how this deficiency denies me a 'handle' to assist my memory.
 
This goes back to the thread about Mental practice. See the parts in your mind, and hear them over and over until you can transfer that to your hands and play it on your drum.
 
My d

My drum notation reading is very poor unfortunately.
I do have a notebook where keep the basic groove tho. Maybe I need to seriously practice reading it without referring to the recorded tracks!
So is mine, but i started writing my own little charts in ,in my shorthand style and it really helps to remember the beats.
 
I’ve always had an issue of starting songs-I think mine came from being self-taught and playing along to recordings . So you tend to follow than lead and if i didn’t nail the start I’d always catch up and be fine. So “starts” I didn’t pay much attention to till I started gigging again. All of a sudden everyone is looking at me to start off and I’m waiting for them to start playing LOL. Playing in an orchestra helped because more disciplined and have music to follow. Still every once in a while like a deer in headlights as my mind reels with what song and how does it start as I blank out.
 
I’ve always had an issue of starting songs-I think mine came from being self-taught and playing along to recordings . So you tend to follow than lead and if i didn’t nail the start I’d always catch up and be fine. So “starts” I didn’t pay much attention to till I started gigging again. All of a sudden everyone is looking at me to start off and I’m waiting for them to start playing LOL. Playing in an orchestra helped because more disciplined and have music to follow. Still every once in a while like a deer in headlights as my mind reels with what song and how does it start as I blank out.
Yep,and i find that happens more as we get older
 
I’ve always had an issue of starting songs-I think mine came from being self-taught and playing along to recordings . So you tend to follow than lead and if i didn’t nail the start I’d always catch up and be fine. So “starts” I didn’t pay much attention to till I started gigging again. All of a sudden everyone is looking at me to start off and I’m waiting for them to start playing LOL. Playing in an orchestra helped because more disciplined and have music to follow. Still every once in a while like a deer in headlights as my mind reels with what song and how does it start as I blank out.
You have just described my problem with uncanny accuracy! ?
Recorded music was my way in too.
 
I’ve always had an issue of starting songs-I think mine came from being self-taught and playing along to recordings . So you tend to follow than lead and if i didn’t nail the start I’d always catch up and be fine. So “starts” I didn’t pay much attention to till I started gigging again. All of a sudden everyone is looking at me to start off and I’m waiting for them to start playing LOL. Playing in an orchestra helped because more disciplined and have music to follow. Still every once in a while like a deer in headlights as my mind reels with what song and how does it start as I blank out.
In a similar vein, my lack of musical training has come back to bite me when playing live because I've never learned to count repetitions, choruses etc before. If I got it right 4 times out of 5 through intuition playing along to records, fine. Now though, it's not fine!
 
As a suggestion use both your notebook and the recorded tracks to practice the intro to the songs on the playlist your going to be playing and make a note in your notebook using whatever symbol , or number that stands out to you to remember, write that down on a small piece of paper and tape to the top of your bass drum nobody's really going to see it and your band mates would surely understand as long as you get the songs right.
Then of course is
Repetition - Practice
Repetition- Practice
Repetition- Practice
 
In a similar vein, my lack of musical training has come back to bite me when playing live because I've never learned to count repetitions, choruses etc before. If I got it right 4 times out of 5 through intuition playing along to records, fine. Now though, it's not fine!
Well,now its time to start working a little harder for the total band output of the song. On a positive note : this shows that you are Listening better now to whats going on in the song, and that will help everything. i started out the same way as you,i have been playing in rock cover bands over the last 15-20yrs,but i just really learned how to LISTEN,over the last few yrs,and started writing my cheet sheet charts and i am playing better now than i ever have,also practicing my technique alot more.But the clock is ticking, and with age these little things that happen in your mind show up at our door. Oh well goes with the teritory,keep working at it ,you will get it.
 
As a suggestion use both your notebook and the recorded tracks to practice the intro to the songs on the playlist your going to be playing and make a note in your notebook using whatever symbol , or number that stands out to you to remember, write that down on a small piece of paper and tape to the top of your bass drum nobody's really going to see it and your band mates would surely understand as long as you get the songs right.
Then of course is
Repetition - Practice
Repetition- Practice
Repetition- Practice
Good points , Rayl
 
If you need notes, write notes. Don't read music? A quick chart usually doesn't involve that, but it would be useful to learn.

I do mostly one offs with very limited practie time, so I definetly write charts then, but they're never more complicated than they have to be.
 
We're all friends here, right?
I can trust you to keep this amongst yourselves, right?
I have a nagging, potentially serious problem to confess ...
I don't seem to have much ability to 'visualise' a drum pattern in my mind to begin a song.
If there is a bar or two of intro - I'm there. That triggers my memory. What I struggle with is plucking a beat out of thin air.
I mentioned this when I was having tuition - and my tutor kindof shrugged it off as if it was no big deal. When I pressed him on it he said he imagines the intro.
Can't really see me pulling that off tbh. Especially under stress.
Anyone have any tricks that might help?
Or am I just mentally unsuited? Do musicians just have superb memories?
(Don't be too harsh - got my 1st ever gig coming up when the pubs reopen!)

Do you mean at a gig trying to remember how to start a song?

Or do you mean designing a part to start a song?

Problem 1 really just comes from repetition - especially if you aren't a reader. You have to think of the drum part at the beginning of a song as part of the song rather than isolate it as a drum thing....what I mean is: You have favorite songs that you can probably sing a long to or could probably air drum the part to right now if you wanted. You need to internalize the drum intros as a melodic part of the song so it becomes a part of what you hear when you think about the tune...just like the collective conscious has with a fill from "In The Air Tonight" - people know that fill as part of the song and the same can go for the intros you need help with.

You can also develop a little shorthand note system like mentioned above - I did a tour and had like a day to learn all these tunes I'd never learned before with no charts right before COVID killed music and these were Redman and Stern tunes....I distinctly remember grabbing a note pad and finding the tunes on youtube and having all these notes that someone someone like Vinnie would laugh at.

"Chromazone - Fast fusion, drum break is BAP BAP, DIGA DUH DIGA DUH DIGA DUH, BAP BAP" something ridiculous like that - but it got me through the rehearsal with no charts haha.

That's kind of how the whole nashville method of charting was born - learning tune structure quick without music.
 
Back
Top