To Narrow it Down a Bit.
(My kit up above ^^)
Funny, one day I heard in a video that tapping your feet can help build rhythm and time management when listening to music, or even without music. Ever since then I've tapped my feet to music whether it be in the car, on my couch, or behind the kit, I'm always moving to the beat of rhythm in some way or another.
It's hard to catch me not tapping my feet to music, it's always in the back of my mind, it's become habit, second thought. I've gotten noise complaints and concerns but I continue, it truly does build rhythm. This habit is extremely useful in building an ear for music, as in, being able to distinguish what is being played in any song. For almost a year now I've built an ear for music and it's a real handy tool to use when you want to learn a song but can't sight read / don't want to go print sheet music, as is the case most of the time. I've learned patterns in music such as a trend in beats from Linkin Park songs, for example, most songs on their first verse have a 4/4 8th note rhythm with complicated bass drum notes, then a 16th note rhythm on the second verse with simplified bass drum notes, and finally, the chorus mimics the first verse yet has an open hi-hat or a crash as a beat keeper. All of this stays mostly within the 80-100 BPM range. Knowing this trend in music through an ear for music, I'm able to learn Linkin Park songs easier. Numb, In The End, What I've Done, and Crawling are all in my library of songs
Other fun artists to play include Kings of Leon, Skillet, Rise Against, Green Day, Toby Mac, Zach Williams, Newsboys and much more! I've a playlist over on Spotify that includes all of the songs I can play, like to play, or am working on, it's called 'My Drumming Workshop' under my profile: Levi Goings. In other news I had my world turned upside down when my teacher added a twist to one of my basic rudiments, (for context, guitars and pianos have scales, drums have rudiments.) this rudiment is the simple paradiddle, try to do this on your thighs or on a table etc., lets call a right hand hit R and a left note hit L just like in sheet music, and smack this rudiment:
R L R R L R L L that is the basic paradiddle that I have practiced for a year now. My teacher said to invert it, so now I have to go R L L R L R R L that's the inverted paradiddle. Now once you've got that, play two bars of the inverted and then two bars of the regular paradiddle ON TIME, 90 BPM. My brain farts every time!
Another thing I'm working on is my double stroke rolls, these are as follows R R L L R R L L and you just practice that over time until it is as fast as you can play your singles ( R L R L ). And of course your triple stroke rolls R R R L L L R R R L L L, quad rolls R R R R L L L L R R R R L L L L and so on, but mainly doubles. There are funnier names for a rudiment than the paradiddle, like the paradiddle-diddle R L R R L L R L R R L L, or L R L L R R L R L L R for lefties, or even the paradiddle-diddle-diddle and so on, you can add as many pairs of diddles as you want! If you want a more difficult paradiddle if the original paradiddle was too easy, let K be a foot tap and close together letters be played together as is in sheet music: KR L R R KL R L L. Here's what I've been trying to perfect these past couple months, let ^ be accented notes (loud notes) and () indicate ghost notes (quiet notes):
KR^ (L) (R) (R) L^ (R) K(L) (L) R^ (L) K(R) (R) L^ K(R) (L) (L). It's a lot to take in right?!
I think that's enough of specifics for today, don't you think? I hope you tried out your rudimentary skills today! Trust me, that paradiddle groove above with accents and ghost notes is only the beginning when put in perspective! Crazy!!
~ Levi, the showoff
(P.s. don't be discouraged if you couldn't play along, those rudiments are intermediate to advanced level stuff, that's like jumping into the deep end of the pool without warning! However, If you were able to follow along, hats off to you!)
