The bashing impulse

Part of the reason I play drums is because sometimes it's good to bash out some things.
I am not a light jazz player but I am not as heavy handed as say Vinnie Paul.

I used to be a more explosive forceful player. Now it is in measured instances.
 
I've been very consciously working on dropping my overall volume for a couple of years now. Part of it is technical, but part of it is artistic - most of the stuff I want to play happens down close to the surface. The players that blow me away do so much within 8" of their drums. I also work with my students to drop their volume. In large part because I find it helps them relax and find their way into good technical habits.

Jojo Mayer said something really great a few years back in Modern Drummer. He said (paraphrase) that the next frontier in drumming isn't speed or independence, it's texture.

And as he spoke about more recently in the same magazine, that really gave me a paradigm shift. It articulated something I'd been ruminating on for a long time.

How did he define texture?
 
I try to avoid places with lots of ambient noise. That way, I say "wha'?" less often.

I play quietly now but the damage was done a long time ago. I didn't know about musician ear plugs back then and the generic ones I used spoiled the sound for me.

Agreed. I don’t know if Westone made ear plugs back then but it’s the only things I’ve been using for the last 15 years whenever I pick up any stick or brush.

For sure though my right ear is shot. Can’t use it even for a phone call. Left ear is better but still some hearing loss there as well.

That's why this forum is so great isn't it?, you can hear everyone chatting, no problem :))

Too funny… Though now that I'm middle aged - the eye sight struggles are there for this forum stuff.
 
I've found that getting the right dynamic level between the limbs has helped my groove and feel tremendously. As I play, I try to get the right balance between limbs, and then take that overall setting louder. I've never been a hard hitter, but rimshot backbeats using the butt end of the stick helps me put the snare up front in my dynamic mix, in a rock band situation.

This exercise has been extremely helpful to me:

http://www.rhythmelodic.com/RoachExercise.pdf
 
I've found that getting the right dynamic level between the limbs has helped my groove and feel tremendously. As I play, I try to get the right balance between limbs, and then take that overall setting louder. I've never been a hard hitter, but rimshot backbeats using the butt end of the stick helps me put the snare up front in my dynamic mix, in a rock band situation.

This exercise has been extremely helpful to me:

http://www.rhythmelodic.com/RoachExercise.pdf

Yeah, that's so true and you don't hear it mentioned much. Getting the individual drum/limb dynamics is key to a successful groove.
Then it doesn't matter what 'master' volume you play at it'll work for the most part.

Back when I first started playing and was young, full of energy and had genuine enthusiasm for life I remember the school drum teacher pointing out I needed to work on my limb dynamics.
I was hitting the hi-hats like my snare!
I think that was the best thing he ever taught me, I'm conscious of it always.
I play loud, my drums drown the band next door out! they hate us, unsuprisingly but, I barely hit my cymbals. I personally like that 'record' kit sound where the drums are big and the cymbals slightly to the back, and that's how I try to sound when I play.

I got a few nice compliments of people back at college saying when I played the same basic beat as this other guy mine sounded great and his was crap. He was playing probably just as tight as me but, the individual dynamics make it groove.

Like I said earlier on here though, some things only groove at their designated volume. I only ever groove latin beats and jazz at lower volumes. The drum god just says 'NO'! When I try to increase it.
 
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