Respect your drums and your fellow players

Perhaps when some of us hear the drums, we have a spiritual experience. When we touch it for the first time, it feels good and we can (or at least think we can) express ourselves immediately. It really does feel great to play for the first time. Experts from the music field always recommend learninghow to play some basic rhythms and how to hit the drum correctly at the bare minimum.There is just no getting around the fact that no matter what you want to do on the drum be it djembe, dununs (djundjun), congas, bongos, dumbec or whatever, you still have to spend some time learning how to play it correctly.It is amazing when I go to certain places I travel to every year and the same drummers are there and they have not improved at all and they are playing the same rhythms they have been playing for years and years. And maybe it is just the same rhythm. And why do people get so offended when a more experienced drummer tries to give them a pointer at a drum circle? What makes us think we know it all already before we have any clue what is really going on? I have had many experiences and there are countless stories I have heard over the years of this situation. Someone tries to help out or show someone a part and the person being shown the parts gets offended. We all need to be open minded. The givers need to be gentle and the receivers need to be open minded. All I mean to say is that learn and keep learning if you want to play drums like a rock star!

I am a big fan of djembe drumming and talking about djembe drumming, the djembe is about unity and community. That is the actual meaning of, “djembe” or “djembe bara” meaning “unity of the drum” according to the djembe legend AbdulyeDiakate . Djembe is about support. It comes from and out of a system where the drum is interconnected with a dance, a song, a village or place. Studying drumming like this can actually be fun and interesting. You just need to find good resources like drum teachers Swansea, Neath.

The first thing you would learn in any of the good drumming classes is that respect yourself, the drum and others. One of the many great things they teach you in traditional drumming is respect. Respect your teacher, respect your drum, your fellow player and respect the rhythms and then only you can learn and become a pro!

Broaden Your Knowledge Of Latin Music And Drumming

What kind of drumheads is being used? Is it single ply or double ply?Tuned low, mid or high? Muffled or open?Where is the drummer hitting the snare drum? Centre or with or without the rim?When playing the bass drum is the drummer “burying” the beater in the head? Heel-up? Heel-down?Is he/she using the rebound of the sticks? Or playing each note with the wrists and into the drumhead to get that sound? These are some of the things you have to be aware of while you study the style of a certain drummer.And most important of all is to listen to the music, the song, and all the other musicians involved. Because if you miss out on that, you’ll miss out on understanding what was the impulse that led that drummer to play that groove, fill or drum solo the way they did. It is the music that always dictates what should, and even more importantly, what should not be played. So listen, observe, study, emulate until the moment you feel it becoming part of you. Then build on it and enjoy!

Latin music and Latin drumming is a big mystery to a lot of drummers; mainly because of how rare they are played on the radio or on other popular sources. Learning how to play Latin music is very beneficial for any drummer. The truth is that this style of music is very popular in other parts of the world. In fact, Latin music has been around a lot longer than rock, pop, country and most other styles of music. Its’ origins come from Latin America, and consists of many different styles and tempos. Some common types of Latin music are: Salsa, Samba, Bossa, Beebop, Cumbia, Rumba, Afro-American, and Brazilian. As a drummer, it is good to learn the theory and history behind these styles of music to broaden your skills and knowledge.The biggest problem for rock drummers when trying to dive into Latin music is that rock drumming is a totally different style and it has a different feel than Latin. Latin music uses different tempos, feels, and rhythms, some that you may never use in rock music. Latin drumming has a totally different approach than rock. All these concepts can be cleared when you take drum lessons Swansea, Neath. Learn whichever drumming style you want and become a pro at it!

Feel The Pain And Your Heart Beats When You Play The Drums On Certain Beats

When you talk about drumming, you should also know about drums and various kinds of drums. The drum set is unique among musical instruments. Its individual parts originated from all over the world over thousands of years. Percussion and drums can be defined broadly as an instrument that must be struck with a mallet or shaken to produce a sound. The surface can be made of animal hide, wood, metal, or really anything that produces sound. The mallet or beater which is used to produce the sound can be pretty much anything including a human hand. Drums include a variety of instruments that make similar sounds to a piano; such as a xylophone, marimba, glockenspiel, etc. Percussion instruments that must be shaken are mostly made up of contained beads or metal. The most famous percussion instrument, the snare, also has beads with adjustable tension along with metal disks for additional sound. All of these instruments go back thousands of years to around 6000 B.C., and it is believed that percussion instruments were the first musical instruments ever invented. Ancient Africans used drums as a form of communication, to send signals. When drums were first invented, they were made out of natural materials such as animal hides. Since drum sticks were not around then, people would simply use their hands. From there onward drums have evolved by the people and cultures that made them and the styles of music they were designed to play. Today, advancements are still being made in what was once a very simple instrument. There is a wide variety of drums, which vary depending on their purpose.

There is one interesting story about the origin of drums and this story is so old it surpasses the title ancient. Of course, there are those that say the drum is merely a tool to help those that cannot hear the beat in the world that was always there. That may be so, but the reason the drum came into being wasn’t to help those that couldn’t hear the cosmic beat; it came as a gift of grief. The characters in this story didn’t have names because they didn’t know words. They didn’t know much, in fact, except that in the wide, wild and fearful places there was comfort in each other. As the story goes; two of these creatures got separated from their troop and could not find their way back to the others. From then, they started living together until one of them died and this is how the other one felt the pain and started beating his chest in utmost grief. To know more about this heart breaking story, you must ask your drum teachers  Swansea, Neath.

Seek A Good Drum Teacher For Learning Snare Drum Technique

One essential metal drumming sound is the cymbal choke where the decay of the cymbal is stopped short to create an aggressive punctuation in the music. The choking action is usually done using the opposite hand to that which hits the cymbal. However, as you get more proficient it is possible to crash and choke with the same hand, and for maximum effect it is worth practising this using either hand. Choking the cymbal is usually done over individual bass drum hits. However, it can also be very effective when played over double bass drum patterns. As hi-hats have become more openly and aggressively played, so the dynamic of the rest of the drum kit has had to increase, to the point where simply moving over to the ride cymbal is no longer enough to achieve a lift in the music.As a result, most metal drummers now frequently play the ride part on a crash cymbal or sometimes even a china cymbal in order to create an appropriate shift in dynamics. This is best done on a larger cymbal, usual 18" or upwards, so as to create desired wash or spread.

There are a number of effective methods for learning basic snare drum technique. So, seek a good drum teacher Swansea, Neathto help guide you through the fundamentals. For starting with the stand assembly and instrument position, spread the base of the stand far enough to create a stable platform. Then, insert the top into the base of the stand. Place the drum into the basket while avoiding contact with the snare strainer. The drum should be at about waist level and slightly angled for your comfort. Tighten all stand wing nuts.   Now it is time to tune the drum for the best possible sound.Have your teacher help select snare sticks that work for you. Something equivalent to a 2B or a 5B usually works fine. The balance point is 1/3 of the way up from the butt end of the stick. Grip the stick near this point for the best response and bounce. Learning to hold the sticks properly is essential for improving technique. Fulcrum (thumb and first two fingers), finger contact (comfortably wrap all fingers around the stick; not too tight), bead placement (as close together as possible for an even sound) and then striking area (centre of the drum head), wrist motion (down position and up position), all these play an important role in maintaining the right grip.

Learn the popular form of music through drumming

In traditional West African drumming, there are compositions, arrangements and actual pieces that have several different interconnected parts, much like an orchestra or even a pop band with bass, rhythm and melody and these pieces or arrangements have meaning and intention. Furthermore, they were and they are still used for celebration, harvest, marriage, coming of age ceremonies and many other reasons in different cultures. For some time, it was hard for people to get itbecause the only exposure to djembes or drumming these people had beenwild drum circles on the beach. Even though they were meditators they had trouble understanding the concept of drummers actually holding parts, a meditation in and of itself.Here is another example of what I am talking about in terms of fusion or combining two or more different elements to make a new style of drumming. In India and other places, there are Indian master tabla players fusing Indian tabla rhythms to djembe and it is super cool. They are playing their traditional Indian rhythms and advanced super relaxed hand techniques on the djembe. It is really quite interesting. It is very impressive if you are looking at it from the outside and observing the techniques, speed and finesse. But it is missing something. To me, the spirit of the drum is not there. I want to hear a traditional rhythm mixed in somewhere. I want to hear the combination of Indian and African mixed together. For some strange reason, none of the great drum players and teachers bother to learn even the most basic djembe techniques, how to make the correct sounds (slap, bass, tone) or any traditional West Africandjembe rhythms. In my opinion, if they did it, it would be awesome and there would be true fusion.

People have different reasons for drumming and no one reason is right or wrong. We all are expressing ourselves in different ways through music. If you too want to express yourself, learn drumming lessons  Swansea, Neath.The proper etiquette is to go and watch a class before you try to play for it, no matter who you are. If you are not ready to play, then you are actually (or could potentially) be holding the class back. The weakest link in the chain makes the chain break and for drumming despite popular opinion it is not the more the merrier. It is about quality not quantity. Also, if you are playing for a dance class, you should know the pieces or material they are playing. And most importantly, learn arrangements and how to play in harmony with others.