Drums discussion

[tmanrocks]

:O I want to discuss the drums

I can play anything on hard mode which is fine and all

But what really messes me up is

this stuff

(The blue is simply for explaining it.. it could be any of the colors)

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I mess that up everytime ^

I get a natural urge to hit the pad again when I hit the bass again , however I can do that backwards if its
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I can do that^


What also screws me up is
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Empty bass kicks with no colored note attatched in the middle of notes... those screw me up pretty bad too... I kind of naturally think I have to hit some color at the same time as the bass pedal (because it happens so much that I got used to it) so having empty bass kicks between notes just throws off my rythym :(

I also suck at these :
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(Ill just tap the red a lot and it will break my chain and say I missed one or a few somehow ... obviously thats intended to be the drum rolls on hard/expert but I couldnt make them that tightly spaced lol)

Do any of you have these problems with the drums?

Discuss these and any other drum problems and stuff

Give me some tips on my problems... mainly the problem about empty bass notes

[tmanrocks]

I'd also like to add that my drums on and off keep killing themselves... sometimes they won't turn on and they turn on sometimes

I actually sent in for the warranty thing so now I have an empty cardboard box on the way to my house that I may or may not need.... I don't know why my drums only turn on SOMETIMES

[psyborg]

I do alot of the same stuff as you but I'm getting the hang of it more and more as I play.

The drumrolls are sometimes easier if you use both hands on one drum.

[tmanrocks]

Yeah I roll with both sticks but it still says I missed like 1/3rd of the whole line of notes somehow :/

[AMartin56]

I also have trouble with quick repeated hits on the snare (red) drum. Seems to be a couple of issues:

I can't seem to find a good seating position and drum height that allows for a nature strike on that drum...

My left hand follows my right (dominant) hand well enough when they hold the same beat but has trouble working on it's own.

Your other issues are pretty much the same for me as well. I can easily coordinate a bass pedal strike with my right hand, but have trouble otherwise.

What it boils down to is we both need to work on limb independance. :)

[firestrike]

yeah i can only play on medium. eveytime i get a beat then there is another and i try to keep the same bass pedal beat.

on the Green Grass and High Tides song i have stamina issues it really takes alot out of you !! But yeah i cant find a good seating position either.

And some how i set the drums up medium from the tv and they move closer i guess because i get to excited and use the bass pedal to hard

[tmanrocks]

I hate green grass and high tides too... that stupid song hurt my leg for an entire day

[Tender-Surrender]

I hate songs that have the one bass with no note, then a note with no bass

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like that,

you get the point.. If it is a slow song.. I can do it.. but reptilia.. and here it goes again.. I just start having a spaz attack lol.

[jq715861]

I hate green grass and high tides too... that stupid song hurt my leg for an entire day

Seconded. I failed on medium 3 times between 92-95 percent and it was the only song I failed.

I have trouble with the pattern where it would be a red and blue note at the same time on the same line, then a bass line by itself then back to the red/blue together, back to bass and repeats for maybe 15-20 seconds.

[tmanrocks]

I beat green grass and high tides on medium on my 2nd try but man my leg hurt so bad for the rest of the day that I stopped playing after that

I don't plan to EVER play that song on ANY instrument for fun... only when I'm trying to beat the game

That songs an annoying lil piece of crap on expert guitar too

[firestrike]

yeah it does hurt your leg i get kinda tired after playing the who also.

run to the hills is pretty hard on medium though

[Driver]

We've got a full band and swap around a bunch since we all can sort of play all the instruments...anyway, last night I played drums most of the night and GGHT came up. It was the only song on medium we'd had trouble with (due to the drums part) but this time we rocked it (were in the 30s overall on the leaderboard) ... big high fives all around afterward. Hilarious fun...I love this game.

Anyway, yeah...after that song and then a few more hours of drumming, I'm sitting on the couch today and not going jogging cause my leg hurts. I spent some time googling drumming techniques today to figure out how to keep my leg from falling off in the future. :)

[Bakkster]

Best tip: go into practice mode and slow the song down. If you need to, play only the kick part until you have it, then add the right hand, then add the left hand.

For rolls, play slowly with just your right hand at a steady rhythm. Then play the same speed with your left hand, landing exactly in the middle of the other hand's notes. Feel the beat with your right hand, and play the second note with your left. The reason you miss notes is because you are playing too fast or too slow.

For alternating hits and kick, I lift my foot on the hit, then lower it between for the kick. Think of raising your foot as the same beat as your hands are playing on.

And again: practice. No shame in going into practice mode to learn a complex rhythm.

[tmanrocks]

Since this is a completely random discussion of all drum related things in rock band

I gotta say

:O

"And justice for all" is really fun on the drums

and "Welcome home" is really stupid sucky and repetitive on the drums

and... I sometimes play "Won't get fooled again" just to do the drum solo improv (Since they give us a fill section I try to make the real solos sounds during the fill and it works pretty good :D)

I did that the other day and the solo sounded basically just like the real solo... and I like it better that way cause you don't have to read the notes for it

But you can play it by the notes in practice if you wanted to make the exact noises

OH and guys you gotta try this

Go into practice mode... pick "Welcome home" on any difficulty pick the intro section only at 50% speed

and just make up any beat you want because you can play anything before the song actually starts so its like free drumming mode :O

[davidshek]

Ok so I've been playing drums for 16 years now, and I've got some tips for you guys if you want to minimize strain on your right leg.

1) Make sure you're sitting at the correct height. Your knee should be at a 90-degree angle, or as close as you can get it. If you have to sit higher than that, that's better than sitting lower.

2) Don't use your whole foot to hit the pedal. Your heel should be up ALL the time, just use your toes/ball of your foot to hit the kick pedal. Again, your heel should be UP at all times. (Make sure you have your heel up when you're adjusting your seat height) This is going to feel really awkward at first, but if you're sitting at the right height, you'll get used to it and you'll never go back to doing it the 'wrong' way again.

3) The proper leg movement should be exactly that; a LEG movement. Not an ankle or knee movement. Don't try to lift your foot with your ankle and then bring it back down again. You'll KILL your ankles doing that. You should be lifting your whole leg at the hip and then bringing it down again, with your ankle and knee at the same constant angle the entire time.

4) If you're just starting out with this kind of movement, take breaks, and take them often. Don't try to power your way through 10 songs in a row. Playing drums is full body exercise and you're likely using muscles in ways they've never been used before.

5) This isn't for your leg, but still a good tip: Don't hold the drumsticks like they are weapons. Search Google for techniques on how to hold drumsticks correctly and you'll greatly minimize strain on your hands as well.

6) These are electronic pads, not real drums. You don't have to slam them to make them work, and doing that will only make them break faster.

Other than that, I have to say, I tried this game out at a friend's house on the 21st, and had similar problems with the red pad that people were describing in this thread. When it came a 'free play' section, the red pad would stop responding after a very few hits...

My only other beef with this game so far is when the drum lines in RB have a [Green] crash hit with no kick hit at the same time. Any real drummer will tell you that this almost NEVER happens.

[i5hawn]

for off beat kick notes i wind up the kick so to speak with the colored pad hit then kcik when the line comes down. tricky but its been working for me.

[Driver]

1) Make sure you're sitting at the correct height. Your knee should be at a 90-degree angle, or as close as you can get it. If you have to sit higher than that, that's better than sitting lower.

2) Don't use your whole foot to hit the pedal. Your heel should be up ALL the time, just use your toes/ball of your foot to hit the kick pedal. Again, your heel should be UP at all times. (Make sure you have your heel up when you're adjusting your seat height) This is going to feel really awkward at first, but if you're sitting at the right height, you'll get used to it and you'll never go back to doing it the 'wrong' way again.


That's kind of what I was picking up off of the newb drummer sites I was reading...thanks for spelling it out though. I think I was sitting to low...and I was kind of stomping (heel up, but a big step). Going to have to learn to make a smaller motion. Am kind of wondering if I should try real drumming soon...am really loving this. :)

One thing I found kind of helped me rest was taking my foot away from the pedal when there's no need for it and just resting it on the floor behind the pedal...I'd bounce it a bit to keep time still (sometimes bounce on, bounce off, bounce on, bounce off, etc), but it let me relax the muscles for a while at times at least. I'm sure that's horrible technique, but it let me last longer at least.

[davidshek]

Am kind of wondering if I should try real drumming soon...am really loving this. :)

Glad to hear it! If there's one thing I've seen consistent about every area I've ever lived, there's always a plethora of guitarists but very very few (decent) drummers :)


One thing I found kind of helped me rest was taking my foot away from the pedal when there's no need for it and just resting it on the floor behind the pedal....

One thing you can do about that is just keep the kick pedal held down after a note and leave it there. You don't have to lift it up after every note unless you have another note to play right away. Just leave it pressed down and that'll let your leg relax. That would be better than moving it off and on the pedal constantly.