Youtube/practice question

J.D.

Active Member
When I need to learn new songs, I typically go to Youtube and find a few drum covers/drum cams, then play along with my headphones. What do you do if 1) there aren't any, 2) the ONE recording of the exact arrangement isn't loud enough? Is there a trick to boosting the volume? Specifically this song. Not my normal gig, but a Bucket List item has been to play with my youngest brother, and I'm flying to FL in NOV to do this (and a couple others), and I want to 100% nail it. EDIT: Apparently we can't post Youtube vids? Well...it's Let The Church Rise - Prestonwood Choir & Orchestra
 
If you have the audio do what Meytal Cohen does, use a digital audio workstation (DAW) to place your audio there, then select the first say.. 30 seconds and place it on a loop, play along to it until you cannot make mistakes, then go back to the DAW, add another 30 seconds to your original selection, play along until you make no mistakes, add the remainder in 30 second increments until you have now the entire piece, play the entire piece from beginning to end and you should be able to nail ANY drum piece this way.. You can slow down parts that you don't understand in order to hear what is going on and of course looping will create repetition which will embed the song in your memory, committing movements to muscle memory is not that hard either. Don't overthink it.

A quicker way is to listen to the song, write down the main parts and play using that, for example:

Intro: play pattern 8 times then singing starts.
1st verse: pattern 3 times
chorus: (chorus pattern [if different] 2 times)
2nd verse: pattern 4 times
And so on...

I never done either one of those, I just listen to music in my car on my way to work and on my way back, roughly a 350 song playlist on a thumb drive.
Never have played most of those songs, but I could because I got the parts committed to memory.
A lot of my YouTube videos I have never before played the song ( I have heard it many times but never played it) I pressed record and winged it hence a few mistakes here and there but they were one take videos with no prior practice like this one:

 
Yeah...don't have that capability. I normally just make a set list for gig on Youtube and then just listen to them 1,000,000x. Then I'll play along with headphones. This particular video just isn't loud enough to do that. For church, we use Planning Center, which is amazing. When I *really* want to dial something in though, I'll watch a bunch of drum covers. I'll find something I like (or hate) even with the crappiest drummers. But there doesn't seem to be any for this. I always figure it out, as I'm sure I will here, but I REALLY want to nail this. Been trying to do something with my brother for decades, and they're flying me down to sit in with some pros and a big choir. No pressure! And I'm not sure how/why you posted a vid and mine said "NA".
 
Yeah...don't have that capability. I normally just make a set list for gig on Youtube and then just listen to them 1,000,000x. Then I'll play along with headphones. This particular video just isn't loud enough to do that. For church, we use Planning Center, which is amazing. When I *really* want to dial something in though, I'll watch a bunch of drum covers. I'll find something I like (or hate) even with the crappiest drummers. But there doesn't seem to be any for this. I always figure it out, as I'm sure I will here, but I REALLY want to nail this. Been trying to do something with my brother for decades, and they're flying me down to sit in with some pros and a big choir. No pressure! And I'm not sure how/why you posted a vid and mine said "NA".
No excuse there are a lot of Free Daws you can find (or very cheap like Reaper $60 I believe) so you can do the loop/slow down thing.
Or pen and paper if you don't want to do that.
Or just memory if you don't want to even write some cues just play it a lot and practice air drumming to it.
If none of those work you may be better of choosing something else...

Not sure what you meant by your last sentence... are you saying you are not able to post a YT video here?
I only posted a video to show that I played the song for the first time when I recorded the video (on a lot of my videos) no prior practice other than just having heard the song before.
 
No excuse there are a lot of Free Daws you can find (or very cheap like Reaper $60 I believe) so you can do the loop/slow down thing.
Or pen and paper if you don't want to do that.
Or just memory if you don't want to even write some cues just play it a lot and practice air drumming to it.
If none of those work you may be better of choosing something else...

Not sure what you meant by your last sentence... are you saying you are not able to post a YT video here?
I only posted a video to show that I played the song for the first time when I recorded the video (on a lot of my videos) no prior practice other than just having heard the song before.
I normally have enough time to figure songs out, as I have been doing for decades. I never really need to do something 100% specific. I'll watch a bunch of covers, and incorporate whatever I like. I have 2 months to learn these songs, so I'm not concerned, I just really would like to nail it, and not only isn't there any drum covers, but the recording is too quite for me to play along to. So I guess that's my main question: how to raise the volume. It wouldn't post before. I'll try again. EDIT: It worked. And I may have figured out a volume boost. Can't do it from my phone, but may be able to run an extension from my PC.
 
If you get that video into Davinci Resolve (free) you can use the audio section to double the audio track and enhance it so you can heart it better.


Free DAW : https://www.audacityteam.org/

Not free but very cheap: https://www.reaper.fm/download.php
You can literally "evaluate" Reaper forever but don't do that, support the developers by paying for their work, Reaper is an outstanding DAW that rivals any other out there in features (yes we know that Logic looks a lot better but Reaper just works better IMO).
 
So I guess that's my main question: how to raise the volume.
I use a pair of Bose external speakers that are connected to my PC and then plug in my GK Ultraphone headset, so that I can practice my set lists. I have plenty of volume -never an issue- even though I'm hearing impaired, but I'm also not required to cover songs note perfect.

If you are being required to be 100% with the drum parts, is it possible to get the music or their arrangement from the church? Seems like they should be willing to do that, given what they are expecting you to do. JMHO.
 
There’s apps that isolate the drum parts, I think this this is the best way to hear the part for certain as the music can often conceal/distract. I think Moises is one app although I’ve never used it.

I have a Yamaha ead10, with the unit you can install the rec n share app, in that app you can isolate parts and change the volume/mute any part, very worthwhile little unit if you want to record some covers.

My multi pronged approach:
Search for drum chart videos
Search for isolated drum part
Search for drumless version
Check out other performances with the same drum parts e.g live clip
Find ACCURATE covers
Listen repeatedly
Adjust playback speed
Play along
Note the sections you get wrong and put energy into those rather than practicing all the things you get right every time
 
With the Moises app, you can isolate the drums in any MP3 recording, choose just drums, add in as much guitars and vocals as you want, slow it down, speed it up and add metronome. Son of Vistalite Black plays it through a small bass amp (or headphones) connected to the iPhone via Bluetooth.

 
I use a pair of Bose external speakers that are connected to my PC and then plug in my GK Ultraphone headset, so that I can practice my set lists. I have plenty of volume -never an issue- even though I'm hearing impaired, but I'm also not required to cover songs note perfect.

If you are being required to be 100% with the drum parts, is it possible to get the music or their arrangement from the church? Seems like they should be willing to do that, given what they are expecting you to do. JMHO.
Dude! I have GKs! LOVE them. Although my wife made me get IEMs recently for on stage. I'm on camera a lot now, and she thought I looked dorky. Normally, I get all arrangements from my church(es) through Planning Center, including isolated drum parts. Given the whole choir/orchestra thing, and that this is not my church, not thinking it's possible. But I should be ok. I can listen/play along through my PC.
 
There’s apps that isolate the drum parts, I think this this is the best way to hear the part for certain as the music can often conceal/distract. I think Moises is one app although I’ve never used it.

I have a Yamaha ead10, with the unit you can install the rec n share app, in that app you can isolate parts and change the volume/mute any part, very worthwhile little unit if you want to record some covers.

My multi pronged approach:
Search for drum chart videos
Search for isolated drum part
Search for drumless version
Check out other performances with the same drum parts e.g live clip
Find ACCURATE covers
Listen repeatedly
Adjust playback speed
Play along
Note the sections you get wrong and put energy into those rather than practicing all the things you get right every time
I do pretty much all of that. In this particular case, I can only find ONE *specific* arrangement that they want to do. (There's plenty that are *close*...but close can cause problems). And yes, I normally use Planning Center, which isolates drums, but they don't use it. I'll be fine. Pretty geeked about it. Have plenty of time. I normally have 2 weeks to lear new songs. I have 2+ months, and I'm probably 80% there already.
 
S
With the Moises app, you can isolate the drums in any MP3 recording, choose just drums, add in as much guitars and vocals as you want, slow it down, speed it up and add metronome. Son of Vistalite Black plays it through a small bass amp (or headphones) connected to the iPhone via Bluetooth.

Sounds awesome!
 
Another vote for Moises. About $40usd for a year. I use it extensively and it is a life saver.

There is a work around where you can get any song into the app without having to buy that song through the iPhone music app. For instance if you pay for Spotify you can put those songs on Moises.

Not sure I want to post that on a public forum but if anyone is interested, pm me and I’ll break it down.
 
Given the whole choir/orchestra thing, and that this is not my church, not thinking it's possible.
I know this is a bit OT, but I would directly ask about this and not assume that the answer is no. If they want you to play, they should be willing to provide the music (at their expense).
 
Check out “The Amazing Slow Downer“ from Roni Music. It’s like 15 bucks. Been using it for years.
 
the ONE recording of the exact arrangement ... and I want to 100% nail it.

Are you playing prog rock? For most anything else, you should drop this mentality.

Pros don't feel the need to learn songs note-for-note for the purpose of performance. It's not an efficient use of practice time. And for the audience it isn't that interesting (but that's less that they'd rather hear something new and fresh, and more that it's just extremely difficult to channel an engaging energy when in pure regurgitation mode). The drummer who plays with that band most likely isn't playing note-for-note for the recording either.

The main reason you might want to learn something note-for-note is less for the sake of performance, and more for the sake of learning—when applicable. For example, that lick in "50 ways to leave your lover" is something you might want to learn precisely even if you never intend to perform the song, because learning it would be generally helpful. If you do perform the song, you want that lick to be convincing and you'll probably hew close to the original sticking, but playing the whole song note-for-note the same way Gadd does in the recording would still be kind of lame.
 
Are you playing prog rock? For most anything else, you should drop this mentality.

Pros don't feel the need to learn songs note-for-note for the purpose of performance. It's not an efficient use of practice time. And for the audience it isn't that interesting (but that's less that they'd rather hear something new and fresh, and more that it's just extremely difficult to channel an engaging energy when in pure regurgitation mode). The drummer who plays with that band most likely isn't playing note-for-note for the recording either.

The main reason you might want to learn something note-for-note is less for the sake of performance, and more for the sake of learning—when applicable. For example, that lick in "50 ways to leave your lover" is something you might want to learn precisely even if you never intend to perform the song, because learning it would be generally helpful. If you do perform the song, you want that lick to be convincing and you'll probably hew close to the original sticking, but playing the whole song note-for-note the same way Gadd does in the recording would still be kind of lame.
I learn new songs every week, and I have *never* felt the need to learn in note for note. I'm talking this specific *arrangement* . This "gig" has been in the making for *decades*. I've never played with a conductor or choir, and *I* don't want to be the one to blow this.
 
I learn new songs every week, and I have *never* felt the need to learn in note for note. I'm talking this specific *arrangement* . This "gig" has been in the making for *decades*. I've never played with a conductor or choir, and *I* don't want to be the one to blow this.

Sounds like I misunderstood the context in that case. Sorry man.
 
Sounds like I misunderstood the context in that case. Sorry man.
No worries. I often don't make myself clear. <g> I did have my sound guy fix it for me so it's loud enough to play along with, so I should be ok. IF I can stop having gigs and new songs thrown at me lately.
 
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