Dizeee
Senior Member
Hi all...
Firstly glad to be on here and I enclose pics of my new setup - unboxed and built a couple of days ago. It follows 4 weeks of mucking about with a 90's Pearl Export I picked up for virtually nothing.
I started playing when I was about 10 years old, took to it, took Grade 5 after a couple of years and passed with honours, gained a partial scholarship to a private school, then at the age of around 15 and having been forced into orchestral / bog band music by the school I gave up and sold my kit at 17 when I started driving. I am now 34, and have just in the last 4 weeks started playing again. It's a weird old time for me as I have forgotten a lot- however, I have retained a bit too, and am currently trying to hold myself back and start from scratch without getting carried away with crazy chops and stuff that as a kid I used to find impressive. No idea if any of you guys know Darby Todd or Louie Palmer but they were both friends of mine at the time, they have since gone onto the pro scene whilst I just got on with life.
Anyway - I want advice now please on how best to proceed. I am a little older now, hopefully wiser, and what I am doing is trying to keep it simple. I am focussing on timing, rudiment perfection (all 40), timing, variation, timing again, dynamics and stick control. Most of my drumming skill was not from reading music (I am poor at that although I do understand it and can read it) but from relentless play along to music, ad libbing and general creativity of my own. My plan is to spend a long time not getting carried away and perfecting all these old skills before going mad. That said I have been watching a fair bit of Drumeo and picking up some good licks. I can play pretty much whatever is laid before me, however perfecting it and getting it tight enough to throw in sub conciously will obviously take time.
What I really want is some direction and advice on how a "returning drummer" should proceed especially after so long away from the kit. Also from the pics some opinions please. ( Please not my cymbal setup at the moment is incomplete - I decided to spend my money on better second hand cymbals rather than a shiny new lesser quality box set, and in that I ended up subbing a crash for a splash ).
1) What advice can you give me on what I should focus on. Have I got it right with rudiments / timing / repetition of basic grooves to perfect dynamics and flow?
2) I have purposefully setup the kit this time for easy so I can reach everything and there is less reach between the drums. It looks good to me -are there any glaring errors?
3) I know many on here will advise one to one tuition, in an ideal world yes would love to, but at the moment two toddlers, shift work and money make this difficult. I genuinely feel that for the first year I can teach myself via online vids such as Drumeo - build up a base, develop my own style and then seek tuition, with a much better technique and skills base than I currently have. Putting a hand foot paradiddle together with a ride triplet sounds great and impresses the inexperienced audience - but I have enough knowledge to know that I have become very rusty and want to get back to where I was before moving on and seeking out tuition.
It's hard to say what style I play, but I would say rock / modern / groove. I am into "complexity" and being creative. At the moment my limbs are writing cheques that my brain can't cash - I am fine when I start but pro longed flow is often interrupted by timing / gaps in knowledge of where to go next. That will come in time, but all I want to do now is learn learn learn.
Thanks in advance and don't hold back, I am eager for the guidance. If it helps I have recorded a couple of 5 min videos which I am doing for my own reference, that are currently on youtube. They are not going to impress many on here, but it gives an idea of where I sit currently. I intend to do 1 a month and see where I am improving.
Firstly glad to be on here and I enclose pics of my new setup - unboxed and built a couple of days ago. It follows 4 weeks of mucking about with a 90's Pearl Export I picked up for virtually nothing.
I started playing when I was about 10 years old, took to it, took Grade 5 after a couple of years and passed with honours, gained a partial scholarship to a private school, then at the age of around 15 and having been forced into orchestral / bog band music by the school I gave up and sold my kit at 17 when I started driving. I am now 34, and have just in the last 4 weeks started playing again. It's a weird old time for me as I have forgotten a lot- however, I have retained a bit too, and am currently trying to hold myself back and start from scratch without getting carried away with crazy chops and stuff that as a kid I used to find impressive. No idea if any of you guys know Darby Todd or Louie Palmer but they were both friends of mine at the time, they have since gone onto the pro scene whilst I just got on with life.
Anyway - I want advice now please on how best to proceed. I am a little older now, hopefully wiser, and what I am doing is trying to keep it simple. I am focussing on timing, rudiment perfection (all 40), timing, variation, timing again, dynamics and stick control. Most of my drumming skill was not from reading music (I am poor at that although I do understand it and can read it) but from relentless play along to music, ad libbing and general creativity of my own. My plan is to spend a long time not getting carried away and perfecting all these old skills before going mad. That said I have been watching a fair bit of Drumeo and picking up some good licks. I can play pretty much whatever is laid before me, however perfecting it and getting it tight enough to throw in sub conciously will obviously take time.
What I really want is some direction and advice on how a "returning drummer" should proceed especially after so long away from the kit. Also from the pics some opinions please. ( Please not my cymbal setup at the moment is incomplete - I decided to spend my money on better second hand cymbals rather than a shiny new lesser quality box set, and in that I ended up subbing a crash for a splash ).
1) What advice can you give me on what I should focus on. Have I got it right with rudiments / timing / repetition of basic grooves to perfect dynamics and flow?
2) I have purposefully setup the kit this time for easy so I can reach everything and there is less reach between the drums. It looks good to me -are there any glaring errors?
3) I know many on here will advise one to one tuition, in an ideal world yes would love to, but at the moment two toddlers, shift work and money make this difficult. I genuinely feel that for the first year I can teach myself via online vids such as Drumeo - build up a base, develop my own style and then seek tuition, with a much better technique and skills base than I currently have. Putting a hand foot paradiddle together with a ride triplet sounds great and impresses the inexperienced audience - but I have enough knowledge to know that I have become very rusty and want to get back to where I was before moving on and seeking out tuition.
It's hard to say what style I play, but I would say rock / modern / groove. I am into "complexity" and being creative. At the moment my limbs are writing cheques that my brain can't cash - I am fine when I start but pro longed flow is often interrupted by timing / gaps in knowledge of where to go next. That will come in time, but all I want to do now is learn learn learn.
Thanks in advance and don't hold back, I am eager for the guidance. If it helps I have recorded a couple of 5 min videos which I am doing for my own reference, that are currently on youtube. They are not going to impress many on here, but it gives an idea of where I sit currently. I intend to do 1 a month and see where I am improving.