Play Drums...?

[usndocjaysin]

O.k. If there any drum players out there I needs a lil help. I'm not an future drummer or just picked up new skins or anything. What I have come up on is that game RockBand. I dig the drum aspect of it but am not too cordinated with it apparently:mad. So before anyone says "practice" is there like any "drills" I can do to get faster/more cordinated?

[kneeslider16]

get some sticks....learn how to roll....start with a single stroke roll....seems simple (not easy for total beginners)...anyway...doesnt seem like much but will drastically help....google druming...youtube is your friend...
goodluck

[PorradaVFR]

Practice man...muscle memory is developed.

[timsar4]

Saw your posting and thought this might help you.

1. Think as you have 5 separate limbs; R&L hands, R&L feet, and your brain.
2. Get yourself a used but good metronome. You’ll be amazed how many drummers out there do NOT understand how to count and how to be on time.
3. Learn how to read music. Know what time signature is and where the accents, bridges, etc…falls in. A typical straight 16 pattern can sound completely different if you accent it in various locations.
4. Practice the rudiments (26 patterns) religiously very slow with one limb on straight time, i.e. half note, quarter note, full 4, and 8, 16, etc…
5. Then the same with another limb and build up on that with rest. If you can master the rudiments, you can play any combination, whether Rock, Fusion, Jazz, R&B, Latin, Reggae, etc…even odd times (3/4, 7/8, 13/16, 17/18, 21/24, etc..) but that requires different thinking and will take you a while to master the odd time signature.
6. Practice on surfaces that do not bounce back. A typical drum head gives, what you want a surface that does not give like coach pillows because that forces you to bring the sticks back up which ultimately builds muscle.
7. Practice with bare hands on drum heads very slow. This will help you to locate and understand where each drum is at and how it sounds.
8. I used to have a set of solid aluminum metal sticks that weight about 10lbs. I would practice with them very very slow for about 1 hour as a warm up and then move to a regular 5A sticks. Remember the key here is practicing very very slow. If you try to practice fast you will injure your wrist for sure.
9. Use French grip at first and then move to a traditional method.
10. Also, used to wrap a 10lbs weight each around my ankle for about an hour to warm up and practice and then take them off. Remember the key here is practicing very very slow. Again, if practice fast you will injure your ankles for sure.
11. Use hill to toe rocking motion to get the most with the least effort. ==> watch Steve Gadd's clips on youtube.
12. Watch some of the masters such as; Steve Gadd, Neil Peart, Buddy Rich, Art Blakey, Billy Cobham, Elvin Jones, Tony Williams, Stewart Copeland, Dave Weckl, Max Roach, Terry Bozzio, Lenny White, Alex Acuna, and many others to see how they play and how they separate their upper body from the lower body. In reality you have two independent players that are playing on one instrument.
13. This might be an stretch but it worked great for me, cover your eyes and turn off all the lights and start playing the rudiments for about an 1 hours. Some will think this funny but remember on the stage you can’t see a thing since all the lights blind your view. So to feel and know how to play, what to play and which surface to hit gives you the edge over other drummers, i.e. why do you think these masters play with their eyes close?
14. Try to attend free drum clinics that are given by music stores around the bay. You’ll be amazed how much you learn and appreciate once you see a drummer up close playing.
15. Be patient. Playing drums or percussion the way it should be played takes many years to master and requires many hours of practice. I used to practice about 8 hours a day.


BTW-if you need some old sticks to practice let me know. I have many pairs which you can have for free.

Good luck!

[USARMworker]

Use your whole leg for the bass drum pedal, not just your toes. ;)

[Ktzero3]

Which difficulty level are you having trouble with? Medium? Hard? Expert?
What part of the drums are you having trouble with? Bass pedal? Fills?

If you do the single player 'campaign' Rock Band ramps up the difficulty slowly. If you are having any trouble with particular songs you should try to do them in practice mode at a slower pace. Once you get the motions down its fairly easy to speed it up.

[BatskyStarman]

use cheats.

[kushkommander]

if you want some real drums let me know :teeth

[Variable]

Real drummers have a hard time playing the drums with rockband.
Listening to the music and playing along is different than hitting the diffferent colored pads in synch with the dots coming down. ie: hitting the red pad for the closed hi-hat part, then hitting the blue pad for one beat for an open hi-hat part.
It's all about muscle memory for this game.

For the OP: I think what your talking about is gaining independance for each of your limbs, maybe everytime you want to use your right arm, you also hit your right foot on the bass pedal? If that's the case, pick-up a basic rudiment drummer book and that will teach you some limb independance!
Rock On and GL! :thumbup

[Godsdarling]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B63I1fFfFpY
Then get a good DVD to watch. Then just keep playing. I play the jembe, I suck with sticks.