Drum Frustration :(

[S1lentStalker]

Okay, so I'm stuck on Expert on guitar on Green Grass & High Tides (or whatever that song is), so I decided to go to the drums. It's set up in my basement, and theres enough room, but I cannot, for the life of me do several things:

-Find a proper way to sit so that I'm comfortable
-Find a way to HOLD the damn drum sticks
-Find a height for the pads (which I guess falls under the first one).

I can barely do Tier 2 set songs on EASY. I miss notes that I shouldn't be missing. Help please!

[PHiNiX]

practice

and find a good drum chair of some sort i.e low barstool

or if you want a drum chair found at your local music store or guitar center ( which i guess is a music store)

and on the height thing. the drums should be a bit lower then between your chest and belly button (thats what i find comfortabl)

and hold the sticks like you are making a fist moving your thumb out the the center of the stick. then be loose with them

[DrEvyl666]

YOu can get a pretty cheap drum stool at Guitar Center or pretty much any other music store..

As for holding the sticks... the previous poster's advice is not correct, and that's a bad way to hold your sticks. This video I made for someone else might be helpful for you.. This is what they teach real drummers for technique.

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[S1lentStalker]

practice

and find a good drum chair of some sort i.e low barstool

or if you want a drum chair found at your local music store or guitar center ( which i guess is a music store)

and on the height thing. the drums should be a bit lower then between your chest and belly button (thats what i find comfortabl)

and hold the sticks like you are making a fist moving your thumb out the the center of the stick. then be loose with them

I'll try all that, thanks man. I have a feeling it's partly the chair I sit in. It's REALLY low to the ground and thus I have to reach up to hit the pads. Ill look for a higher chair in the house, haha. Thanks :)

[WiseOldUnicorn]

Find a chair that's comfortable and just sit normally, and try to relax. Alternatively, if you don't mind spending some extra money, you can always get a drum stool from a music store.

Height for the pads is more or less a matter of personal preference, I think. As long as they're not so high up you're hitting the rims instead of the pads, just experiment with it until you find something that feels right.

As for holding the sticks...I just kind of hold them loosely cradled in my fingers, with my thumb on top. You don't want to grip them too tightly; let them bounce a little in your hand when you hit the drums. And don't hold them in the middle, hold them closer to the end of the stick.

[dom93]

dude!!!!
1. sit in a chair that u cant lean back in. but still stay comfortable( i recommend a bar stool)
2.hold the sticks loose and at the ends wit ur thumbs up
3. the pads on the set should be set at about the top of ur rib cage

[S1lentStalker]

YOu can get a pretty cheap drum stool at Guitar Center or pretty much any other music store..

As for holding the sticks... the previous poster's advice is not correct, and that's a bad way to hold your sticks. This video I made for someone else might be helpful for you..

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I think its just a matter of preference, but ill try all the ways and see which feels most comfortable

[DrEvyl666]

I think its just a matter of preference, but ill try all the ways and see which feels most comfortable

You'd be surprised at what a difference it makes, actually... especially on a real drum kit. It's really imporant that you use your wrist and not the arm, and that you grip the sticks loosely and not like a club or something. You have so much more control and power playing that way, and it will help you avoid a repetative motion injury if you play a lot.

[Project_Mercy]

Positioning is based on your body size in all cases.

First, your leg needs to be (roughly) bent at a 90 degree angle with your leg directly over the kick pedal. (especially if you're playing heels up). The only way to adjust this is to adjust the height of the seat you're on.

With your seat adjusted correctly, let your arms rest gently at your sides and hold your hands out in front of you with the sticks. now move your bass drum leg up and down. Since your arms sould be loose and relaxed and wrists need to clear your drum leg, this determines the height of the drum kit. It needs to be such that the center of the pad is roughly at the level of your sticks when you're sitting in that position.

As for holding the stick, again that's slightly up to you. Though I'd have to say the guy in the video above is slightly wrong. He's not using his fingers as a fulcrum. It's especially important in Rockband, due to how little rebound there is on the pads.

I encourage you to watch this video.

http://www.freedrumlessons.com/drum-lessons/holding-the-drumsticks.php

[DrEvyl666]

As for holding the stick, again that's slightly up to you. Though I'd have to say the guy in the video above is slightly wrong. He's not using his fingers as a fulcrum. It's especially important in Rockband, due to how little rebound there is on the pads.

I encourage you to watch this video.

http://www.freedrumlessons.com/drum-lessons/holding-the-drumsticks.php

He's holding it almost exactly the same way that I do, he just explains it in more detail.. LOL I'm trained in Moeller method (what this guy is teaching), and I play the way this guy plays (he's just obviously better at it because he's been doing it a lot longer).

You're using your fingers as a balance point for the stick (or you can call it a "fulcrum" if you want, but the point is not to amplify the force behind the swing, but rather to use the balance of the stick to your advantage) - and I am most definitely using my fingers that way. You grip lightly because you don't want to kill the resonance of the wood, and you want the stick to be able to rotate freely in your hand so you can manipulate the bounce with your other fingers. With each hit, you should feel the stick vibrate in your fingers. If it's not, you're not doing it right. That one thing alone will totally change the sound of an acoustic drum kit when you play it. If you don't occasionally drop the stick when you're learning it, you're probably gripping it too hard.

The only difference between his grip and mine is that I use the middle finger to give me a little more control... and both grips are correct. I alternate between French (the back of your hand facing to the side) and German (the back of your hand facing up) style grips depending on what I play, and using the middle finger makes that a lot easier for me. He and I both hold the stick at the same point, in similar fashions, and play using the exact same method.

So no, it's not slightly wrong... it's a variation of what you just said is correct, and is also equally correct.

Here it is in action in Rock Band - If I didn't use Moeller, I wouldn't be able to play the fill at 4:53 (4:16 on YouTube's time) on the large counter so quickly. Not to mention... if you played as hard as I do in this video without using proper technique, you'd probably smash this little plastic drum kit to pieces. If you watch, on the snare drum fills on the end of the verses, I'm getting a full 90 degree swing out of the stick.
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[S1lentStalker]

Thank you for all the replies everyone. Especially whoever posted that How-To vid 2 posts above this one. Im still trying to get used to holding it like that, and sometimes I forget or just don't use my other 3 fingers and just hold it in the joint of my index and with my thumb. I know that isn't right, but its working for Easy and Medium, lol. Ill work on the other way though cuz I know that helps with power and speed (which I dont quite have yet). Ive noticed I'm terrible with fills or rapidly tapping one drum pad with more than one stick (like, rat-a-tat-tat kinda thing...if that makes sense). Thats probably just practice, but I can do it with my fingers on a desk or something, just not with drum sticks, so I dunno. And lastly, I CANNOT for the life of me find a stool or chair that works well. All the chairs and stools I have in the house are only 18'' or so above the ground and my back is still hurting from playing songs. I can only do like...3-4 songs before stopping, and I dont like that. I also dont feel like shelling out the money for a drum stool for this game either since im tight on money for other things right now. Suggestions anyone? Thanks!

[jrinck]

I have a drum stool, but I'm not daring to bring it into the living room or my wife will throw me AND Rock Band out of the house. :D

So I sit on the couch in an awkward position, which makes it difficult to nail the double bass notes, and which hurts my back over time. I'm currently languishing halfway through Hard.

If I had the stool I could probably be at Expert by now.

So get the stool unless you're married and want to stay that way. :D

[S1lentStalker]

I am not married, lol. Im just a 17 year old wanting to get better at this damn game :p. Ill think about it, haha. It just seems pointless and silly to go get a drum stool for a video game.

[davidshek]

I am not married, lol. Im just a 17 year old wanting to get better at this damn game :p. Ill think about it, haha. It just seems pointless and silly to go get a drum stool for a video game.

Well of course it's silly to buy a stool...that's why we drummers call them "thrones" instead. Sounds much cooler ;)

[jrinck]

I am not married, lol. Im just a 17 year old wanting to get better at this damn game :p. Ill think about it, haha. It just seems pointless and silly to go get a drum stool for a video game.

Some say it would be pointless to pretend to play music in a video game, but we all know how wrong they are. :)

Buy the stool, er throne. :D

[terRize]

I haven't watched those videos above and I'm no drummer but I'll pass along what I've read/been told that I think has helped.

The main thing I was told to do is not to hold them at the end. Instead, find the balance point on the stick and that is where you want to place your forefinger. Then lightly grip the stick so it rests down along your fingers along the first bend. This, I was told, should provide for optimal bounce back since your holding them at the balance point when you strike it should pretty much tip itself back up and then you use your wrist to push it back down. Though, I've also been told you can use your pinky or other fingers to do this as well by pushing them up on the stick.

Here, I just went and found a link for one of the places I read: http://www.drums-and-drum-sets.com/drum-sticks-balance.php.

Hope that helps.

[Stuff]

Some say it would be pointless to pretend to play music in a video game, but we all know how wrong they are. :)

Buy the stool, er throne. :D

hey jrinck whats up? :)

[dagware]

Buying a throne is certainly a good option. However I use one of our dining room table chairs (it's wooden), and I have a cushion on it -- a cushion designed to sit on, it was originally on a rocking chair. The cushion lifts me up enough that my leg has less weight on it, making it easier to do kicks with my preferred "heel up" style.

Regarding the drum stick technique, I want to emphasize something that has been mentioned, but not enough for my liking. :rolleyes: And I know I'll do a crappy job of explaining it, but that's not going to stop me.

When you have to do hits in fast succession, you want to make sure you use the "bounce" of the stick to help you with the next hit. So what you want is, when the stick hits the pad and rebounds up, your remaining three fingers can force the stick back down very quickly by just closing them some -- you don't have to use your wrist for the second hit, or at least not as much as the first hit.

This helped me a lot.

Dan

[kaiserkreb]

I have a drum stool, but I'm not daring to bring it into the living room or my wife will throw me AND Rock Band out of the house. :D

So I sit on the couch in an awkward position, which makes it difficult to nail the double bass notes, and which hurts my back over time. I'm currently languishing halfway through Hard.

If I had the stool I could probably be at Expert by now.

So get the stool unless you're married and want to stay that way. :D

Oh God how I feel your pain dude...

It was hard enough convincing her that I needed this video game to "teach me how to play drums" ;) , I don't think she'll buy into anything else. 'Cept for maybe Harmonix releasing an entire Bon Jovi album for DLC. That one bloody song is my saving grace at this point... Come on HMX, hook a brother up. I'll buy one crummy Bon Jovi album to keep my GF happy, or at least, not angry. lol


Oh and if you're still taking requests for DLC, aside from Bon Jovi to satiate my GF's rage, you can throw in some Sloan (Money City Maniacs would be fantastic) or perhaps some Tragically Hip (just off the top of my head, Little Bones or Poets would be great RB songs, regardless of them not being remotely their greatest songs.) I urge any US peeps to check them out as they are probably not very heavily played down there but they are definitely 2 of Canada's top bands IMHO. More Rush too, if we're on the Canadian theme. =)

[Electric_Mayhem]

It just seems pointless and silly to go get a drum stool for a video game.

Dude, I was so excited the week before RB released, that I went to guitar center.com and ordered a throne, a guitar stand, a mic stand, and a cowbell :D

Seriously, for 20 bucks, this one is well worth it:

http://www.guitarcenter.com/Universal-Percussion-UP197-Round-Double-Braced-Drum-Throne-443313-i1137347.gc

Go sell your sperm or something if money is that tight.... if it saves your back and arms from injury, it'll be the best $20 you've spent!

[davidshek]

Dude, I was so excited the week before RB released, that I went to guitar center.com and ordered a throne, a guitar stand, a mic stand, and a cowbell :D

Seriously, for 20 bucks, this one is well worth it:

http://www.guitarcenter.com/Universal-Percussion-UP197-Round-Double-Braced-Drum-Throne-443313-i1137347.gc

Well if by "worth it" you mean "worth spending $20 on something that'll collapse under you while you're sitting on it".

Seriously, just remember that you get what you pay for. That UP $20 throne is a piece of junk...I personally went through two of them a few years ago before I learned my lesson and ponied up the cash for a really good throne. If you're gonna buy a throne, spend $50 or so and get something at least halfway decent.

[S1lentStalker]

Hahahaa, we'll see. Ill look around the house for something else if I can. The nearest Guitar Center to me is 45-50 minutes away. Music & Arts Center might have something though.

[Electric_Mayhem]

Well if by "worth it" you mean "worth spending $20 on something that'll collapse under you while you're sitting on it".


I haven't had this problem yet.... been using it pretty consistently since 11/21. Maybe I'm just not rocking hard enough? :cool:

[davidshek]

I haven't had this problem yet.... been using it pretty consistently since 11/21. Maybe I'm just not rocking hard enough? :cool:

No, they're sturdy enough to last weeks, perhaps even several months. I never said they would collapse right away :)