Have you come to the conclusion that you're better at other things and you may suck?

Fishnmusicn

Senior Member
If so, did you get beyond this stage, and get better? I realize that I'm quite a bit better at composing music with keyboard and guitar. There really is not much pressure as you can wear your headphones and experiment and create on your own terms. I think I have enough talent in this area, that a lot of it just comes naturally, sometimes I don't know where it comes from but it seems to manifest itself.

Drumming, on the other hand, is quite a challenge and even though I'm a very rhythmic person in general, even with my other music, it's a lot harder to get it right. You don't have the luxury of doing whatever you want to do to create your piece of music - you are the drummer and need to get it right with the band and with total discipline if you're going to be good. You will be heard, for good or bad, and evaluated the same way.

Drumming is just a lot harder to me. I have good time but I definitely tend to overplay. I videotaped myself tonight, and though I'm in time I need a lot of work and I know it. So I'm contemplating whether I should continue or not. I live in a mobile home park and have a decent set of electronic drums, and a small acoustic set in my bedroom. I've been playing the latter on the weekends and realize now that as I get better if I do, I will become louder and as I build up my set, I will also want to get the most out of it, but I am concerned with the neighbors - I don't know if I'm ready to take the extra steps to get to the next stage.

It is also hard to play the keyboards when I'm working on the drums, hard to find time for both. Drums I definitely find to be work, but therein lies the challenge and the satisfaction as well, but I'm teeter tottering as to what to do. Just wondering if any of you have a similar or related dilemma... I have seemed to find a niche as far as putting my keyboard stuff in my fishing videos, there really is no worry involved, but drumming is another matter.

Fishnmusicn
 
Re: Have you come to the conclusion that you're better at other things and you may su

Nothing wrong with playing more than one instrument, and being better at one than the other.

But that doesn't mean you have stop one instrument over another.

Numerous well known drummers play piano/keys or other instruments. A few people we don't think of as drummers have played drums on their own albums at times.

Although I understand trying to find the time to practice different instruments. I'm working on learning guitar, getting better at keyboard programming and recording engineering, and it certain detracts from my ability to find time to just play drums.
 
Re: Have you come to the conclusion that you're better at other things and you may su

You know, you're right - it's not a black and white kind of thing - it's the process that counts and it doesn't have to be one thing over another. Still it's a little discouraging to me - I am somewhat far behind in the drumming department.

Fishnmusicn
 
Re: Have you come to the conclusion that you're better at other things and you may su

I find that being able to play guitar and bass is extremely helpful during rehearsals with my band. So much easier to make suggestions when you know what you're talking about. Instead of thinking of myself as "a drummer", I think of myself as "a band member". I'll create bass parts and guitar parts, and I'll let the other guys create drum parts. Of course, this sometimes leads to me thinking "I've got the perfect guitar solo for this song in my head, I should be recording it"! :p

About the "creating music on your own terms" part; when we write songs I lay out the basic skeleton of the drum parts during rehearsal with the band. I just focus on getting a good basic feel and having a good time. Then when I get home I use cubase to further compose my drum parts to get them perfect (keeping in mind what worked and what didn't, plus suggestions from the other bandmembers). I find that it's easier to relax and just let the creativity flow when there's no-one else around. Then I'll spend ages actually learning the parts I've written, lol.

If it's fun, keep doing it. If not, do something else.
 
Re: Have you come to the conclusion that you're better at other things and you may su

Fishnmusicn said:
Have you come to the conclusion that you're better at other things and you may suck?

All the time. I'm better at arranging than drumming and, especially, I'm better at cartooning and, God knows why, data and statistics. Trouble is, those things don't give me the fun times that playing in a band does. So I play as well as I can, at a standard I'd say is fair to middling.

For the record, I heard your stuff and think you're a good drummer, Fish, and I agree that your sequenced tracks are better still.
 
Re: Have you come to the conclusion that you're better at other things and you may su

Thanks Pollyanna for your feedback. I'm going to try and put a video together of my playing that I recorded (segments). Keep in mind that it was recorded with a video camera so the sound is lousy, and that I'm playing a set of Tama Stagestars with original crappy Tama heads, crappy pedal, and ZBT hi-hats and ride cymbal. I'm looking forward to getting a bass drum riser with better pedal, good drumheads, and very decent cymbals when finances allow. Until then I'll have to just play what I have. It's a start.

For some reason I feel very at home here - I went over to the Keyboard magazine forum and the stuff they talk about with equipment and so on is over my head. Plus like you, I just enjoy playing the drums, it just feels good.

I've made a decision on it, and I'm not going to give up - I won't be a super phenom, but I think I'll be decent and enjoy it, for me that's enough.

By the way, your Djembe playing was very good and fit the song nicely. I think you and I are in the same club. I really love playing the drums, and hope to continue to learn from what I take in on these forums.

I re-watched my video stuff and overall it wasn't too bad for what I'm playing on now. Don't even have a crash, geez it's tough, but it'll change.

Fishnmusicn
 
Re: Have you come to the conclusion that you're better at other things and you may su

You probably find it frustrating because its not as easy as pressing a key to produce a melodic note. Don't get me wrong I'm not undermining how difficult it is to make other instruments sound great, however with the drums its different, you have to work that much harder to make your playing sound melodic.

This comes with experience behind the kit and still may not be achieved by all, the way I see it, when I play the drums I try and tell a different story every song I play. This is how I've approached it in the last 3 years and it is working for me. Sometimes it means doing less sometimes more, but whatever the case I approach it from that perspective.
 
Re: Have you come to the conclusion that you're better at other things and you may su

You probably find it frustrating because its not as easy as pressing a key to produce a melodic note. Don't get me wrong I'm not undermining how difficult it is to make other instruments sound great, however with the drums its different, you have to work that much harder to make your playing sound melodic.

This comes with experience behind the kit and still may not be achieved by all, the way I see it, when I play the drums I try and tell a different story every song I play. This is how I've approached it in the last 3 years and it is working for me. Sometimes it means doing less sometimes more, but whatever the case I approach it from that perspective.

Good advice, thanks.
 
Re: Have you come to the conclusion that you're better at other things and you may su

Thanks for the feedback too, Fish :) I love playing that song, leaving the kit and just tapping. I seem to be naturally better at hand drums than the kit. I guess chalk that up as another thing, like the cartooning and stats.

Yeah, if you're not making a living out of it, it's easy to have crappy gear. You try to justify all the $$ you pour into it and the head's not that bad and can bear a few more plays before being replaced ... and just a few more again ... eventually we get there.

And yeah, playing drums feels good; that whole rhythmic, almost mediative, thing. You don't get that feeling from e-music, but it's super satisfying to come up with stuff that sounds great and to put ideas into practice without compromise - either with others or by lack of technique. I quit work for 6 months in 1987 to make e-music; some turned out good and some not so good. I stopped after my band's guitarist "borrowed" all my gear and skipped off interstate with it :( It's not easy to do either, just that the challenges are mental rather than physical. Nice to nurture both aspects IMO

veggo32 said:
the way I see it, when I play the drums I try and tell a different story every song I play

Inspiring attitude, Veggo. *noted*

Dairyman said:
there's been a bunch of times i had a song melody in mind or whatever and i have no way to express it

Maybe buy a cheap keyboard or guitar and work them out by ear? You know heaps about drumming so I'm sure you could get enough basics down on another instrument without too much drama.
 
Re: Have you come to the conclusion that you're better at other things and you may su

I won't be a super phenom, but I think I'll be decent and enjoy it, for me that's enough.

man! that is the story of my life, with drumming and everything else i do. you just have to keep chipping away at it and never give up, all the while realizing that you'll never be another buddy rich. you have to take satisfaction in knowing that you can get better and revel in small victories rather than winning the war outright, so to speak.

actually, i'm kind of jealous people like you who can play all these instruments and compose music, etc. i can only play the drums. that's it! i'm good at it, but there's been a bunch of times i had a song melody in mind or whatever and i have no way to express it.
 
Re: Have you come to the conclusion that you're better at other things and you may su

Your story sounds like the mirror image of mine. I have been playing guitar for about 20 years now, and it wasn't until about a month ago that I actually sat on a kit for the first time ever and tried playing the drums. To me drumming just came naturally, where as with guitar it's like I'm fighting my body each and every step of the way.

All my solos just sound like somebody practicing scales. I have decent speed on one string up and down the neck, but going up and down strings and I just fumble, regardless of how many hours/weeks/months/years I spend practicing the moves.

Another way I look at it is like a fresh perspective on music. I've been playing guitar for so long now that I find myself incapable of going back to basics to fix things I might have learned improperly the first time or two around. With drums it is different. I'm going into this knowing that I know nothing, so even the simplest of exercises is still immesurably valuable to me. So even though I may have studied alot of the same basic material before, the fact that I am now studying the same material in the context of a different instrument, opens my mind up to relearning concepts that apply to multiple instruments.

Perhaps the best advice I got can be summed up as follows: Music is not logical, it is an expression of ourselves. Don't interfere with what your heart is telling you to do by applying logic to the situation, becuase logic simply doesn't apply. You can reason about it all day, but until you *feel* happy about it, you won't be.
 
Re: Have you come to the conclusion that you're better at other things and you may su

Answer to your question: a very big YES

I hadn't done anything musical for decades before, on a whim, buying a small electronic kit. It was awesome fun, and I've progressed over almost three years to an intermediate kit. It's still awesome fun, but the progress curve has been getting flatter and flatter, which has been discouraging.

Looking for inspiration, I checked out some local gigs and approached the drummers, but they're all scary geniuses with the stick!! Ugh. No real encouragement there.

Looking in another direction for inspiration, I've signed up for some drum magazine: you know the ones - Modern Drummer and Rhythm. They are full of tales of the likes of Buddy Rich, Steve Gadd, John Bonham and a host of other drum gods! Scarier still.

What I really need is to go watch a whole bunch of drumming incompetents, and from the drum magazines, some articles on all those drummers that don't know what a double pedal is, and are indescribably bad, yet still somehow acceptable enough to some fans out there to be able to make a living out of the kit!!!

Where are you, all ye hopeless drummers. We need to see you to restore our enthusiasm for hours of swiss triplets and dreaming of polyrhythm orchestrations through the night. Hey, even if you can help has smack those skins for a few minutes more, we'd be forever indebted!!!

Have fun!!!
 
Re: Have you come to the conclusion that you're better at other things and you may su

It's become discouraging to me all of a sudden with the drumming - I had a lot of fun playing along with songs on the electronic kit, and it's kind of neat now to have an acoustic set, but now it feels stale and to take it to the next level is quite a bit of work. To be honest I don't have the desire to play out again in a band - so at times I don't know why I keep pursuing it - I hear so many good dedicated drummers here, the jazz stuff is great, but I'm feeling I don't want to take it to the next level and maybe I should just get back to what has worked for the last 10 years on the keyboards. I'm undisciplined there as well , though you wouldn't hear it in my music - it's like a writer with the muse, once it takes over you create and it channels itself through you.

I'm getting too attached to all this stuff - yes, I'm neurotic and I drive myself crazy with my artistic temperament. I saw more than a few drummers this summer in Philadelphia during lunch at outdoor concerts - some very good and some not as good, but I still admired the ones not as good making the effort and seeing their joy with what they were doing. I don't know if I can accept just playing in a limited way since I have no desire to get too overzealous at this point, but like you mentioned with the guitar that's how I feel with the drums sometimes.

I play the guitar too by the way and never could play leads, but I'm a good rhythym guitarist and enjoy playing open tunings and some strange stuff. I feel at this point that I'm still in a way stuck in the same box I was 10 years ago when I stopped and to take it to the next level is going to take too much effort when the other stuff comes easier. Thanks for sharing. I put my keyboard link in here just to show what I've done the last few years. Then again, I could always just enjoy the drums when I want instead of getting all crazy over it, but easier said then done.

http://www.myspace.com/fishnmusicn

Fishnmusicn
 
Re: Have you come to the conclusion that you're better at other things and you may su

I've heard your music, and it is terrific. As long as your music has an outlet.. keyboards, drums, paint buckets, how does it really matter as long as it comes out and hopefully people listen to it, feel good about it, and hopefully pay you for it.
 
Re: Have you come to the conclusion that you're better at other things and you may su

........Then again, I could always just enjoy the drums when I want instead of getting all crazy over it, but easier said then done.
Fishnmusicn

That's it in a nutshell man. If YOU'RE enjoying it, it's really all that matters. I'll take having fun, challenging myself to improve and gaining pleasure from what I'm doing, over trying to be the worlds greatest drummer any day. Obviously I'm always aiming to get better, but it has to be fun as well.

man! that is the story of my life, with drumming and everything else i do. you just have to keep chipping away at it and never give up, all the while realizing that you'll never be another buddy rich. you have to take satisfaction in knowing that you can get better and revel in small victories rather than winning the war outright, so to speak.

actually, i'm kind of jealous people like you who can play all these instruments and compose music, etc. i can only play the drums. that's it! i'm good at it, but there's been a bunch of times i had a song melody in mind or whatever and i have no way to express it.

Agreed. Certainly with you on the difficulty in expressing musical ideas. It'd be nice to be able to play a guitar or piano and convey melodies I have...instead of singing/humming out of key to the total ammusement of band mates!
 
Re: Have you come to the conclusion that you're better at other things and you may su

I´m the opposite. I´m better at drums and rythms than playing keyboard or composing(excluding drum parts). I´ve made some music to movies and such(on a non-proffessional basis) but when i try to play a guitar, theres always hilarious results.

Each time I´m at a party, people ask me to play the guitar, and they always end up laughing themselves half to death
 
Re: Have you come to the conclusion that you're better at other things and you may su

Looking in another direction for inspiration, I've signed up for some drum magazine: you know the ones - Modern Drummer and Rhythm. They are full of tales of the likes of Buddy Rich, Steve Gadd, John Bonham and a host of other drum gods! Scarier still.

What I really need is to go watch a whole bunch of drumming incompetents, and from the drum magazines, some articles on all those drummers that don't know what a double pedal is, and are indescribably bad, yet still somehow acceptable enough to some fans out there to be able to make a living out of the kit!!!

Where are you, all ye hopeless drummers. We need to see you to restore our enthusiasm for hours of swiss triplets and dreaming of polyrhythm orchestrations through the night. Hey, even if you can help has smack those skins for a few minutes more, we'd be forever indebted!!!

Beautiful :)

XOXOXOXOXOXOXO
 
Re: Have you come to the conclusion that you're better at other things and you may su

ok, just for a few laughs, here's a video of me playing guitar while my guitar playing friend takes over on my electronic kit. it's literally the worst thing ever posted on youtube. it's unspeakably bad. horrible in fact. i CANNOT play guitar AT ALL and he basically can't play drums either (although he's gotten better since this video).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZH-XF56vpw

now for perspective here's another video of the two of us on our correct instruments:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emzT1xkMt-0

i would LOVE to be able to play guitar, but I SUCK!
 
Re: Have you come to the conclusion that you're better at other things and you may su

Great responses and it's putting things into perspective for me, we can't all be good at everything we do and even if we enjoy the things we're less good at, that's all that matters. The funny thing is I've been putting in a few hours a day on most days but just playalongs, so I think it will be better if I put in less time and work on reading and skill work, even if just 1/2 hour or 45 minutes and then just stop, maybe I won't get so overwhelmed. You all have injected some levity into the discussion so I realize it's not life and death stuff but just a small part of a bigger life, and not so serious. This is a terrific forum with good people and I hope to continue to learn and appreciate.

Fishnmusicn
 
Re: Have you come to the conclusion that you're better at other things and you may su

ok, just for a few laughs, here's a video of me playing guitar while my guitar playing friend takes over on my electronic kit. it's literally the worst thing ever posted on youtube. it's unspeakably bad. horrible in fact. i CANNOT play guitar AT ALL and he basically can't play drums either (although he's gotten better since this video).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZH-XF56vpw

now for perspective here's another video of the two of us on our correct instruments:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emzT1xkMt-0

i would LOVE to be able to play guitar, but I SUCK!

Yes, quite a difference, though you both stay in time in the first video. The first video is so fuzzy that you look like Ben Stiller and Woody Harrelson heheh. Good job on the drums in the second one.
 
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