How do you drum along with music?

I like to play along in the car.

I found this new jazz station that plays a lot of Frank Sinatra, Michael Blublee, etc. My right hand on the steering wheel is the ride cymbal and my left hand on the steering wheel is the snare. These can also be brushes for softer tunes. My right foot is, of course, the hi hat. My doctor and my lawyer told me to quit practicing bass drum. The doctor says I have symptoms of whiplash and my lawyer says I'm getting too many tickets. :-(
 
REALLY? you need to hear yourself? I know what each drum sounds like when I hit it so whats the point of hearing it?? the point is trying to hear the music to learn the song! and btw, shove your picture up you *&%!

Then if you practice th
You need to hear your drums to know what your playing? thats pretty sad, someday mayube youll be as good as me, untill then, keep stinking it up with the amatuers!
Well, if you practice that way your dynamics on drums will not be as good as other drummers. Wish you bad luck in your practices!
 
You need to hear your drums to know what your playing? thats pretty sad, someday mayube youll be as good as me, untill then, keep stinking it up with the amatuers!

And technically, you're the amateur who thinks that drumming doesn't require you to hear your own playing, and correct your timing and all. Drumming is not all about just knowing how your drums sound like. It involves dynamics, and feel for the song. Playing drums without hearing yourself drum is like running in the forest without looking at what obstacles you might hit.
 
Yeah, I want to hear accents and most cymbal noise, so most headphones work about half right, while other block out too much of the drums, but no problem with those in hearing the music tracks, its a love hate relationship at this point. I actually use about 4 or 5 different types as of now, some in the ear, some gaming over the ear, and some cheap that I can hear the drums, but have to crank up the music full blast, with equalizer full blast as well. Oh then their is just not playing along to music at all, which I get pretty bored fast with, different strokes for folks hugh..
 
Some of the 30-40 dollar headphones i use, block out most of the drums sound anyway, so they are essentially hearing protection when the music is turned down. Im not sure about the headphones that allow you to hear your drums, usually these just dont fit over the ears well imo...And I have small ears...For many years I was using loud ass stereo with sub woofer, with cds, and never had trouble hearing either, but then everyone hears you closeby, lol...

So conclusion for me has been to use some of the older ones that fit like crap over the ears and offer less hearing protection with volume-eq turned up, the best of both worlds in the garage band world.
 
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Are the vic firth headphones 'tuned' any better than a normal pair of defenders?

I often use ear buds (for playback) with defenders over the top, but (as has been said) the drum sound is very dead.

I have some hearing damage already, so I'm keen to preserve what I have left...
 
Headphones, but the kit is miced up through a mixer.

Sometimes I don't have that setup and the I just try to use a set of phones that isolate an appropriate amount for the room I'm in.
 
I haven't practiced my drums without mics in over 6 yrs. I'm wearing noise-canceling over-ear headphones connected to the output of my Focusrite Scarlett 18i20, configured with a mix of mic'd drums and either:
(a) an mp3 song from my DAW (Ableton Live 8 running on a Macbook Pro) or
(b) a YouTube video (running on a Chrome browser on same Macbook)

Option (a) isn't attempted until option (b) has been exhausted (YouTube playback isn't the best).
 
I just recently went through all of this.. i had for years worn headphones to listen to music but they didn't isolate the noise from the drums enough and started hurting my ears.. i ended up buying 4 mics and a interface...

The way i play is i have a projector setup hooked to a computer which the mics/interface go to, and i wear GK ultraphones and pipe in my drums+youtube vids for hours every night.. i can keep the volume low and play fine..

The upside is, i am hearing songs much better thatn i used to since my own drums aren't drowning them out. (sucks to notice you are playing some things wrong after years) :)
 
Fortunately, I have a room where I can make all the noise I want. I play songs from my phone through a large monitor in front of the drums. I can sort of replicate the the sound of a live performance. it’s great fun
 
I use a pair of decent in-ear monitors (IEMs) connected to my iPhone. I'll play along to music or drum backing tracks that way I can protect my hearing and still hear the drums and music well.

When I'm not listening to music and just freestyling for practice, I use a pair of EarPeace earplugs that are designed for musicians. They have three different filters with each pair that control how much noise comes through. I have the medium filters in and I can hear all of my kit clearly without all of the excess noise.

Seriously, folks. Protect your hearing.
 
Mic’ed kit going into interface, along with iPhone and computer playback so I can listen to everything via one headphone output. I use IEMS too. Never tried headphones.
 
You don't play music, music plays you!
- a variant of Carlin's "Of course you can't tell time, time tells you"
 
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