Questions tagged [drums]
Drums are a subset of percussion instruments played by beating a "head" stretched over a hollow "shell."
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Best strategy for tuning a 4 piece kit?
I recently got an acoustic kit after playing an electric kit for a while. There's a lot to learn, but one thing that I keep getting hung up on is how to tune my kit.
I've read a bunch of guides, and ...
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How to count polyrhythms on the drum set?
I've been playing drumset for over 20 years. What I'm trying to do is play 3/4/5/6 where one limb (arm or leg) will be 3/8 time, one limb will be 4/4 time, one limb will be 5/4 time, and the last ...
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Ground floor flat and electronic drum kit: is noise better isolated on the ground floor?
I am looking for a new flat in my city and I want to take my electronic drum kit into considerations when choosing the flat.
I was wondering if going for a ground floor flat would solve the problem of ...
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How often should I change tom heads (batters and resonants)?
I have had my current tom heads on since February.
I only play on my kit for an average of once a week, and not long when I do.
Should I replace them all, batter and resonant heads? I feel like I ...
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Why don't most high-tension marching snares have an inner hoop or any reinforcement on the snare side?
High-tension marching snares have an inner hoop where the batter head is placed to prevent its shells from collapsing—due to the high tension from Kevlar heads being tuned to higher pitches.
If this ...
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How to transition from a swing feel to a straight feel
I'm working on an arrangement that has a Reggae PreChorus moving into a Rock beat similar to what's known as a "Half-Time Beat". Now my problem is moving from the swing feel of the reggae to ...
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Drumming rudiments & distribution
I have recently gotten into rudiments in order to gain better grip control. My practice pad works great for this and I can sit and watch tv or listen to music while going over the 40.
This has me ...
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Is there proper terminology for the fundamental elements / layers of a drum beat?
In many musical styles a drum beat is composed of three main elements:
Bass drum
Snare
Hi-Hat
... but more fundamentally, three separate functions that can be performed by other parts of the drum ...
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Why can't velocity information be extracted from this kick drum loop?
I wanted to apply the groove of a downloaded kick drum loop to my own kick sound. The plan was to convert the loop’s audio, which happened to be in stereo, to MIDI and then simply hot swap the ...
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Is burying the beater a bad thing?
I've been playing the drums (acoustic set) for almost a year now and I tend to lightly rest my kick foot on the pedal in-between notes.
This means that my beater is on my drumhead in these cases.
Is ...
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Is timing with left foot (weak foot) a fundamental skill?
I have been playing drum for years (not but close to 8 years), self-learning most of the time, with really not enough practicing. Yet I am able to play some intermediate songs without much pressure. ...
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What do the labels on drumsticks (5A, 7B, etc.) mean?
There are different letters and numbers that different drumsticks carry, such as 5A, 7B. What do they represent? Does the material used (different woods, aluminium, etc.) have a bearing on the ...
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Should my drum sticks be the same size?
I bought a snare (which came with drum sticks) on craigslist. It turns out one of the sticks is fatter than the other one, and heavier.
Is this a "thing" or did they just give me mismatched ...
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It is possible to get the drum progression only by listening?
I want to get the drum progression from this
song on youtube at the minute 3:24, but I am unable to get the things very clearly, I can hear a Hi Tom on it, but no much more?
It is possible to get the ...
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Did percussion instruments communicate spoken words in click languages?
There are a number of click languages in Africa where 'clicks' function as part of their language. It seems like it would be possible to communicate some words with percussion instruments (maybe a ...
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What should be key considerations when splicing drum loops?
In this post, I asked you all about isolating individual hits from a drum loop. This was important to me because I wanted to actually edit the drum loops to create my own version of the original.
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How to make Big beat drum from scratch? [closed]
As a beginner producer, I am having trouble making drums for my records.
I usually go to YouTube to learn how to create drum beats, but when I came across Big Beat, there was no detailed tutorial for ...
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Yamaha DTX500 snare drum volume is much lower than the other drums
I know that there is a dial under the snare drum to control its gain, but even when I turn it all the way up, the snare drum sound is still barely half that of all the other pads and cymbals.
Is there ...
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DTX402k eDrum kick sounds opaque into PA SPEAKER
I was wondering if I need a mixer between my DTX402k and my BEHRINGER B112 PA speaker in order to get the sound of my kick pad right.
When I connect my headphones it sounds perfect but once I try to ...
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Should I keep forcing my very left-handed body to learn drums with the typical right-hand kit setup?
I got a beginner mesh drum kit for Christmas and set it up according to the picture and have been trying to learn the basics on my own. I’m very left-handed in life. I always start out with my left ...
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Recording technique: not letting the crash cymbals ring out
I listened to the following song this morning on the way into work. I heard something I hadn't heard before.
Each of the crash cymbals were very minimal, almost gated, or maybe miked from a distance.
...
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Separate drumkit into hands and feet in Musink music maker
I'm writing drum and percussion exercises in Musink music maker software. It's going well except when I write the hands and feet the notes 'join'.
I would like them to be separate. I read about voice ...
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What instrument in a drum kit is played on the second and fourth beat of a song during a verse or pre-chorus?
I've tried to locate this particular sound in a drum kit, but I can't figure out what it's called. It's equivalent to hitting your drumsticks together on every second and fourth beat of a song during ...
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Meaning of drum TAB notation: horizontal line with upward stroke
I came across the following notation which I couldn't find in any guides to drum TAB notation:
It resembles a small x note lying directly on the 2nd stave line from the top (i.e., a D4 in the treble ...
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Why do snare players only have one drum?
In marching drum lines, like Blue Devils, it's common that there are some tenor drum players with 4-6 drums, but the snare players only have 1 drum. To me, that seems like a waste. Sure, more drums/...
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Drumming. Beginner. The value of practicing limb independence
I'm teaching myself to drum.
I've zero background in drumming.
My thinking is to focus on limb independence, instead of the paradiddles in the entry-level drumming book, so I can more easily learn any ...
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How to generate MIDI of a drum score in Lilypond?
I am beginning to experiment with Lilypond, trying to see the possibilities for writing drum scores / lead sheets.
So far I have found the \drums notation, as well as \midi { } command. However, when ...
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Drum and dotted notes
I am trying to practice Smell like a teen spirit on drums and there is something I don’t understand with dotted notes.
Here is the sheet:
I don’t understand the use of dotted notes in this sheet. If ...
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How effective is a "glancing blow" technique at preserving crash cymbals?
I've heard it said hundreds of times that hitting a crash cymbal with a "glancing blow", rather than straight on, will extend its life and help prevent it from cracking.
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Vibration Modes of Drums
I just learned in the context of a PDE course how the various modes of vibration arise as solutions to the 2D Wave Equation. I am curious as to how many of these describe the motion of actual drums.
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How to get faster and better on bass drum pedal
When I drum I constantly struggle to keep the beat on the bass drum pedal for faster songs. Are there some practice techniques someone could help me with? The song I struggle with is Build Your ...
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How to fix the drum part's staff in the correct form in Sibelius?
I wrote the drum part in DAW, exported the midi and imported it to Sibelius. It recognized this track in this form:
How can I quickly transform it into the correct form and remove these polyphony?
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Replacement for Experienced Drum Teacher?
I live in a smaller city with <25,000 people. There are no drum teachers here (I've looked everywhere), and I want to reach a higher level of drumming. What replacements are there for a good drum ...
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how do you arrange a drum part for piano?
I'm currently trying to transcribe Come As You Are by Nirvana, for piano. I've got the melody right, but I'm struggling with the drum part, and without the beginning sounds it's really boring. Any ...
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Why everybody say that percussions like drums or whispering does not have notes? [duplicate]
Nevertheless I think each time there is one sound, there is one fundamental note and harmonics ?
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How to notate a double stop for snare drum music
I'm just writing some stuff out by hand, and wondered how to indicate a single note where both hands play in unison, called a double stop. Or perhaps how to indicate a few bars will use double stops.
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Is it OK to watch TV while practicing speed?
Two of my teachers recommended me to practice something like speed or a certain repetitive technique, e.g. drum double strokes, while listening to music, watching TV, paying attention to something ...
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two hands playing different things - how do you feel or hear or pronounce it?
I'm playing djembe for 4 years, and now trying to play dun-duns. Basically, it's two sticks and two drums or a bell+drum for now.
I'm trying to learn some rhythm in which the bell on the left hand and ...
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How to close the gap between the engineered drum sound and the live drum kit?
Firstly, a remark- I am not expecting to make a live drum set sound just like a recorded drum set. Also, let's restrict the scope of this question to certain pop/rock/funk/metal/country types of drum ...
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What's the genre of beat in the song [closed]
I found a great song that I liked a lot and wanna reproduce the beat in it however don't even know what is the genre.
Can you please help me to reproduce it in FL?
I ...
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Inverted Paradiddle
I've been learning paradiddle variations and I've come across one called the "Inverted Paradiddle".
I'm not sure if this is a standard naming convention but what it means is instead of a ...
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Is there a name for this simple drum pattern/fill?
I had meant to ask this question for some time. This question triggered the thought to ask.
I am a drummer of many decades. I feel I am competent, but have never bothered to learn how to read. And ...
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I cannot connect my e drum to pc
So i bought an electronic drum Roland TD1DMK last month. Until now i don't know how to connect to my PC. I bought the jack and plug it in. It says that my drum just connect but when i check on my DAW, ...
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How do I draw ghost notes in ABC notation?
Fairly straightforward question. I can't seem to find it in the standard or the docs. Perhaps it's just a matter of terminology.
Basically, what I'm looking for is this:
Or, more precisely, the ghost ...
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How to select and organize samples of electronic drum sounds?
I'm familiar with programming realistically sounding drums. Many programs include sampled real drum instruments organized in kits, such that the included drum samples sound good together. All that's ...
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Is it bad to make a drums double stroke roll using the rebound?
Watching a lot of YouTube videos about how to make a clean double stroke roll, and I was wondering why so many people on the videos say "do not rely on the rebound"!
Is it a bad habit to ...
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How can double-stroke rolls be faster than single-strokes?
How can double-stroke (RRLLRRLL) rolls be faster than single-strokes (RLRLRLRL)? If someone can hit 2 notes with the same hand, surely they'll get faster if they intertwine this with the other hand ...
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Drum chart standards
I'm currently notating a drum chart in Sibelius. The song is "Best to You" by Blood Orange. It's an R&B/Electropop/Afrobeat song. I am not a drummer, and I have only just figured out ...
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Why are drums considered non pitched instruments?
Aren't the different parts of it having a different pitch? Can't this be used to play a melody?
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I am trying to setup my roland td-3 drum kit as a MIDI controller
So far I've setup the kit in ableton live 10 as remote control and turned local control off on the kit itself. I've been following the guide in ableton step by step so far but failing at 'verifying ...
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