Just landed on the drumming planet and wondering if you have advice for a new drummer since I’m a synth/modular guy.
My goal is to give life to my synth using a one sensor on a snare+ a kick pedal, so manly triggering my module.
I don’t have plans in more drum module/sensor at the moment.
I would like to develop some drumming techniques that could be helpfull keeping in my that I’m not really going to be a “real drummer”, any ideas/recommendations on rudiments or where to start?
Thanks for writing in! That’s a broad question, and I can only really answer as to what has helped me along in my musical journey, and others certainly will have different opinions.
Starting out, I would definitely try to take at least a few lessons from a drummer in your community. Being in the same room with someone who can watch you play and show you stuff is so helpful.
It’s also good idea to search for drummers you admire (and who you think you can learn from) on the internet and see if anyone has analyzed their playing in videos or otherwise. You should bring up those drummers and grooves and playing styles you like with your teacher and see if they have any advice.
As far as rudiments go, l think single stroke rolls, double stroke rolls, and paradiddles are a great place to start. Practice accenting each individual beat of the rudiment in four beat repetitions. For singles that’s:
Do the same thing for doubles and paradiddles. Try to make your accents nice and loud and your non-accents extremely soft.
Because you have Sensory Percussion, you can have fun practicing those rudiments on the different zones. It’s pretty fun to split them up across some of the zones, too: the right hand part on “damped” and the left hand part on “cross-stick” is super fun on doubles and paradiddles.
Going between “center” and “edge,” as well as “center” and “rimshot center” is super fun, too.
Going slow and counting out loud has been extremely helpful to me.
And then my last advice would be to record yourself playing often and listen back to see if you sound how you think you do (and how want yourself to).