Acoustic gig, your thoughts

Bokatron

Bokatron

Member
Hey all,

Tomorrow night me and my band are doing an acoustic set, this is the first time we have all done an acoustic thing. Really looking forward to it because its our favourite place in town and they havent held any live music nights in over ten years so we know its set to be a good one, very pleased they asked us. We will be playing our own stuff plus will be doing a couple of porcupine tree covers, sentimental and drown with me.

At first i thought id take the whole kit then thought well whats the point, bit overkill.
So ive narrowed it down to the bass drum, snare, hats, ride and 2 crash and possibly the floor tom.

Will use brushes ,maybe mallets and ill stick this foam eq pad thing i have over the bass drum to tone it down a bit.

Ill be playing most of the songs the same as we do normally but will drop some of the fills and simplify things a bit. Will be a much more laid back approach

Does anyone have any tips or pointers for this sort of thing? Just want to make sure ive covered every base :)

Thanks
Damien
 
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At the last acoustic gig I played, I used hot rods. Brushes would not of worked for the kind of music I was doing. Oddly the headlining band still used drum sticks.
 
Didnt even think of hotrods, good shout.

Ill still use brushes for a couple of tunes but hotrods could be in order.

Thanks Mark

Damien
 
I play in an acoustic duo and in small pubs i use my 16" floor tom as a bass drum and 8" and 10" toms. I would suggest brushes and put some tape round them (up to about half way) to stiffen them up. They will be louder than regular brushes but quieter than hot rods.

Have fun
Kevin
 
Thanks a lot Kevin helpful stuff.

Me and the guys are having a rehearsal tonight so ill give that a go.

Someone we know is filming the gig so ill post some videos in the playing section at the weekend. Looking forward to playing the porcupine tree covers, huge fan of Mr Harrisons work though i know hes way out of my league haha.
 
hot rods for your sticks and kick rods or the vater vintage bomber beater!!!
 
The vater beater looks great, never seen one before. Ill try my local music shop tomorrow, hopefully have one in stock. I have that EQ foam pad thing just in case though
 
sometimes I just bring a snare and play it with my hands

sometimes I bring a kick snare hat and ride and use rods and my hands

sometimes I just bring the Cajon

depends on the setting
 
We play a lot of small venues with acoustic only sets of several hours. I use almost exclusively brushes, and often leave my high tom at home. You'll likely want some extra muffling for your bass drum if it's normally boomy. It has a tendency to get in the way of the brushes lighter sound.
 
Last month I went to the music store to buy brushes, but the salesman steered me to hot rods. What a great recommendation - those things are perfect for quiter songs, especially at church.
 
I've had a lot of fun playing a water cooler jug for smaller, more "intimate" acoustic sets where space can be at a premium. You can get some pretty neat sounds by striking your palm in the middle and slapping the hard plastic around the edge. You could also get creative and use mallets or sticks as well, just dont go crazy or you'll ding it up (learned that lesson the hard way, lol).

You could also experiment with wrapping a washcloth around your kick beater. That'll help take some of the thud out, and give it a less offensive bwoom, but it could also sound terrible, depending on your drum, head, tuning, etc...

I love doing acoustic sets every once in a while, they really give you a chance to explore and experiment in ways that maybe you've never done before. I look forward to seeing how it goes!
 
go minimalist. why not distill your kit down further to just one crash/ride cymbal, hats, snare, floor tom, bass. very cool.
 
Any thoughts on using a Cajon? Personally I don't like them, but am coureous to read others' opinions.
 
Thanks for the advice and help everyone, much appreciated.

Love the watercooler idea, need to get my hands on one of them haha.

Im gonna go with snare, bass drum, floor tom, hats, ride, 1 crash.

In rehearsals last night it was all used, might take an extra crash as backup though :)

Never used a cajon Rogue, id like to have a go but couldnt see myself doing a whole set with one, though depends on the the songs i guess, if it lends itself well.

Ill let you all know how it went tomorrow, hopefully with the videos too :)
 
I use a 14" djembe and my hi-hat stand for small acoustic gigs. To me it is very versatile. The djembe gives a very rich bass sound when you hit the middle and the edges are nice and tight sounding with a variety of tones in-between, so bass + snare + tom fills are covered by just one hand drum. Then I add the hi-hat chicks with a tambourine mounted on top. Brushes work very well with the djembe if I need a jazzy vibe or want to do a shuffle beat on the hi-hat.
 
Occasionally I'll play my congas with my hands and operate the high-hat with my left foot, sometimes attaching the tamborine to the HH to help keep a beat. I may add a splash cymbal as well.
 
There were many great suggestions here. The washcloth around the beater works great (as does a tie, incidentally.) Have the hot rods there, the brushes with tape, and mallets. You will be grateful to have the options. I think that if you wanted to bring your full kit that's fine, however that does bring me to my next point.

I find that with acoustic gigs one must also play economically. That is to say, with only the most important primary beats. Instead of playing the full part, imply the full part with fewer notes. This has worked out well for me with acoustic gigs.

Break a leg!

-Kyle
 
I love using the cajon an small acoustic sets. Something I like to do with the cajon is place a condensor mic a couple of feet away in the back (mine doesn't have the built -in mic). This allows you to really lay back and not have to slap so hard. Also, using brushes on the cajon. Has a nice effect.
 
Taye-Dyed said:
I use a 14" djembe and my hi-hat stand for small acoustic gigs. To me it is very versatile. The djembe gives a very rich bass sound when you hit the middle and the edges are nice and tight sounding with a variety of tones in-between, so bass + snare + tom fills are covered by just one hand drum. Then I add the hi-hat chicks with a tambourine mounted on top. Brushes work very well with the djembe if I need a jazzy vibe or want to do a shuffle beat on the hi-hat.
Click to expand...

I think these are some great ideas. Small acoustic sets bring with them the opportunity to experiment with a whole range of different sounds, sticks, percussion instruments, heads, and tunings. it's a great way to see drumming from a slightly different angel.
 
Hey guys sorry for the delay on letting you know how it went.

It went great! Loved every minute of it. We had a lot of friends come and it was generally busy anyway so made it very special.

A friend of ours recorded a few songs, heres a link to our cover of porcupine trees sentimental, our bass players harmonies were a little high but overall a good effort i think.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3rB...DvjVQa1PpcFNpkKZcvoWRbSus-aSiftOp7DijCM_T730=

Theres a few other videos on the channel aswell

Thanks guys
Damien
 
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