- 3 quick beats I recorded a while back for a journalism project. Figure maybe I'll find another use for them someday.
But for now, check them out, feel free to re-mix or add instruments or whatever. And let me know what you think!
Fellow septuplet (technically they are sextuplets, but no one called them that during MY childhood...) lover here. Drum on, bro.
Paradiddle-diddle inverted cheese pataflafla swiss army triplet paraflammmmm cough Don't move to an apartment and give your drumset away. Because that's what I did, and it still hurts. DDS* is real. *Drum Deprivation Sydrome P.S. When "diddled" became a term used to describe molestation, things got a whole lot weirder.
I had mine in a dorm room for a little while, my parents hated the things, and couldn't cope with the drums inhabiting a room of the house no one ever saw. But they did fund 11 years of piano, so that was nice. Thanks guys!
Oh yeah, but it was more performance oriented. I learned a good bit of theory, but not enough improv. I was always best at the rhythmic portion of piano, so drumming should have been a no-brainer, but I ended up stumbling on it when I learned what a drumline was. Next, you should pick up guitar. Then bass. Then music mixing/mastering/composition/production. That's been my personal progression, and I have to recommend it. You're so young, you don't even know! It sounds like a lot to do, but the years will go by quick, and if you keep putting in time towards music stuff, you'll keep developing past what you ever thought you could accomplish.
That's cool. When I took lessons I was disappointed by the lack of technical instruction. Basically all I learned in terms of theory were how to read notes and rhythms, so when I started getting into jazz I didn't know any of the scales or chords to improvise with. And the only thing about learning guitar next is it's so many strings! I dabble in ukulele and mandola (alto mandolin), so 6 strings just seems like craziness. That's why I'm inclined to go for bass next. But yeah, I'm really glad I got into this young. I've been drumming for just over a year and a half, but it still feels like forever. Kinda blows my mind to think I can keep playing music for the rest of my life :)
Either of you (the other being am_Unition) have any advice for someone who is just starting to learn how to play Piano? And by play Piano I mean play a keyboard with about three octaves worth of notes. I've played guitar for a while but haven't ever touched anything else, bass notwithstanding. At the very least I'm looking forward to getting a lot better at reading sheet music.
Scales are the best way to learn how to play in different keys, an invaluable skill. Get some good exercise books, I recommend Schmitt. These will teach your hands how to move your fingers around the keys in complex patterns. Three octaves may be a bit limiting for some of these though. There are several other useful books that escape my memory... Next time I go back to my parents' house, I'll see if I can dig up some other old books that served me well. Visualizing scales / key signatures on the piano is the most convenient and standardized way of thinking about music. It's a worthwhile cause, so good on you for pursuing this. All of galen's advice is great. Sightreading complex music will take years of practice, unfortunately. It was never my thing, I'd learn a complex piece and polish it into oblivion. Then I'd forget it and move on. In hindsight, there more practical methods of learning piano that apply more effectively to your overall musicianship. Theory is #1, hands down.
Learn scales first. Practice them so much. Learn the most common ones (C, F, G, etc.) first, then learn the less common ones. Once you're totally solid on all your scales, start learning chords and chord shapes. Start with normal chords, then go for 7s, major 7s, half-diminished and diminished 7s. Once you've got all that down, you can move into learning songs (melodies, bass lines, etc.) and you'll have a super solid framework for improvising, accompanying other people, or playing solo. Oh, and as far as reading sheet music goes, honestly the best way to get better is just to read a lot of music. If you know all the fundamentals intellectually, it just takes repetition to really get it ingrained. Bonus - if you read a lot of music, you'll get faster at reading music, and eventually be able to sightread most things. Disclaimer - I wish I had done this when I was learning piano, but I didn't, and I probably wouldn't have had the patience to do it. But this is (IMO) the most effective way to learn.
Sounds like the same deal as learning how to play guitar then. Thanks for the input galen and am_Unition. The thing with guitar is I haven't been the best at visualizing the key signatures and that side of it, which is a big reason why I'm taking this up. To get a better grounding on the theory and plus, who doesn't want to learn piano/keyboard/what have you. I'll be checking out that Schmitt book and look into whatever else I can find. I've got some sheet music laying around here somewhere, I'll have to dig it out.
Speaking of exercise books, check out Hanon's The Virtuoso Pianist too. As I understand it's pretty much the standard for piano exercises, and it's certainly the most useful book I ever worked out of.
I actually just found a pdf of that! After taking a quick look through it, that's something that I'm definitely going to have to work my way up to. Beyond my skill level, but it will be useful in the future.
Good damn drumming. Are you in on the Hubski Music Club stuff?
No, for now I just listen to it all. But I did add some drums to a riff thenewgreen posted a while back: