DRUMMING for electronic music (first two weeks)

I figured it was time to learn to drum! I'm two weeks into learning how to drum, and this video are my first conclusions, the things I'm finding that either confirm my intuition, or things that are taking me by surprise!

Contents:
0:00 Actual instruments are underrated
2:15 Kick snare and hihat
3:06 Pulse and syncopation
3:59 Splash and fill
4:50 Rudiments
6:16 Dynamics and accents
6:40 I love this sound
7:09 Drum styles
8:25 Listening differently
9:40 Please give me advice

[SlaserX]

I'm glad you went full time, because this channel has the most and the best ACTIONABLE information I've found yet. You don't just talk about a concept, you show how to use it.

[JimJohnMarks]

Between 1990 and around 2010 I made the progression from being an entirely analogue musician (playing guitar, singing, being able to put out some basic beats on a drum set) to being an almost entirely digital producer some some hybrid projects in the middle which I believe were pretty powerful & I am humbled to have been a part of. Everything you’re saying here is super on point.

I still think about synth lead lines like guitar solos, or at least lead guitar sections.

Advice: you’re muscling the drum sticks: that is, your wrists are totally rigid & you’re playing with your arms. We all do this when we start out because we are stressed about being late or missing a hit & our rabbit brain deals with activity stress by making everything tense & relying on the big strong muscles in our body.

As you practice your rudiments & patterns, instead of trying to progress to harder & harder ones so you’re always at that challenge point, try to focus on doing the ones you know softer & smoother using more and more wrist & less & less arm.

Over time, the hard patterns will come to you quicker if you aren’t trying to muscle everything.

Not to mention you’ll develop good dynamic control, which tends to be rare in drummers.

[InVacuo]

Dude awesome! Good on you! And very impressive for only two weeks! I agree 100% - It's never too late to start learning an instrument, I always strongly encourage people who express interest in learning and always tell them this. I recently started teaching a friend (who's in his 40s) electric guitar and he's have a great time, making lot's of progress and it's actually a real joy seeing it. 😊
Learning a (new) instrument always opens up new vistas of music appreciation as well.

[jeroenderiek]

Hello, I play drums acoustically. My advice would be that you record yourself while doing drums, put a headphone on for the backingtrack and listen back how you play without the backingtrack. This way you hear what you play in a real-time situations, naked without backingtrack or quantization. I try to make beats in Ableton that I can playback acoustically. It's a fun challenge and also understanding rhythm more is a big advantage for me, like you have these half-time beats when you play a song in 160 bpm with drum you mostly will play 80 bpm, because it's way to fast. And vice versa when you play in a 50 bpm, you can suddenly play really fast. So the bpm or tempo is relative on how fast you play. I hope I'm a bit clear with this. Not sure but half-time beats is a thing, because you can start slow and evolve eventualy in a much faster rhyhtm. Gr, Jeroen

[BreakBlast]

As a drummer, I would advise you to get that second, acoustic drum kit because it's very very different in terms of feel.
It's one thing to play on electronic drums (essentially rubber pads) but the acoustic kit is a dramatically different thing.
If you get used to playing the electronic pads you might have difficulty sounding good on a "real" drumkit because of its endless dynamic range it offers while the electronic one (as close as it is to the real thing) has a limit.
The advantage of the electronic kit is that it can produce sounds that are impossible to make on the acoustic kit.
Ultimately learn to play both and don't forget to have fun! Cheers!

[lukass_btz]

Hey, I’m a 18 year old drummer and I’m playing the drums for almost 11 years now. The first thing that really helped me out exploring different grooves and variations on the drum set is learning how to hold your sticks. This may sound odd but the best advice to a beginner is knowing the basics before you step up your game. There are so many different types of holding the sticks and by no means I’m saying that you have to start with the traditional grip, but getting the fundamentals right is always a big help. (e.g. German grip, French grip, etc.)
A huge tip to get started is to lay down your sticks in the snare drum while holding them and forming a triangle shaped form, so that the tips are touching each other. Then raise them so that they are completely vertical and proceed to hit each stick on the surface where the tips have touched before. The goal is to minimize the surface area where the two sticks are hitting the drum so that you can achieve the same sound out of every hit and develop a sort of consistency. It also helped a lot with coordinating the different hits to sync them to the metronome.
I hope this helped you out. It really did for me when I stared back in 2013 :)
It’s really nice to see you getting into my hobby while I was introduced into producing techno through your tutorials and through your industrial techno course!! Keep it up! Greetings from Germany ✌🏼

[ebx]

I've discovered the same thing happened when I started playing bass guitar. You learn so much more when you play a physical instrument then just tapping keys.

[tristanlabuschagne]

a tip that would help make the sticks and wrist movement feel more natural at an accelerated pace would be to listen to tunes and tap along on a pillow.. this helps you get comfortable with allowing the drumsticks to do the work while listening to your favourite bangers at the same time... (this is also dave grohl's method)

[mru]

Oscar, thank you very much for sharing your experience! As someone who can't afford a real drum kit I appreciate it a lot. Good luck at practicing!

[johnmcneil]

I got a lot from reading Modern Drummer magazine. They have theory and practice articles by very experienced drummers in many genres. Reading about, for example, how New Orleans second line patterns work broadens your horizons and opinions. Also, there are articles about how to listen and make the groove support the song, regardless of style

[miniman]

I actually started with drums as my first instrument, long before I ever got into electronic music. I think it was foundational in development as a musician and my tastes. The best advice I can give is to always think rhythmically. Even when sitting idly, I would always tap out complex rhythms much to the chagrin of many of my teachers. Even though I have not played consistently in a very long time, I still consider it to be my primary instrument and it is the foundation of my musical DNA

[zolibxl]

Don't overcrowd drum grooves. The drummer only has two hands and two feet, and there is physical distance between different instruments of the drum kit. I find that electronic grooves composed on drum machines and synths sound better and more musical if they respect what would be feasible by a human drummer on a real kit. (Similar to how synth lines that would take 14 fingers to play on a piano are just "too much"). Even when it's 100% synthetic and machine-made, music seems more effective and easier to relate to if it feels "humanly feasible". Hence also the tremendous value add of human voice into any mix.

[TheHybridDrummer]

Hey! I think it's really cool that you are learning to play drums, it's definitely beneficial for any producer to deepen their knowledge of rhythm and drum beats. Actually I wrote an educational book with sheet music for drummers with all the essential house and techno beats for the drum set and more, it's titled Four On The Floor - The Fundamentals Of House And Techno Drumming. I'd be happy to send you either a print or a pdf copy of it if you'd like. Just answer something to this comment and I'll send it to you. 🙌

[LeoFernandezInfante]

Here's something you will realize with practice: paradiddles and other singles-doubles combinations make amazing techno phrases.

For example, Jeff Mill's The Bells is "just" RLRRLLRL

You are doing great for just 2 weeks! Keep it up!

[FannonF]

Just a hobbyist, but I've started learning finger drumming on pad controllers ~2 years ago, and that really helped me to understand rhythm, groove and how drum patterns work much better. Nice thing about pad controllers is that you can also use them as a keyboard substitute with a matrix / isomorphic layout. Doesn't work so well for some things as a keyboard, but others (leads, more creative or rhythmic playing) is very nice with that. Nice thing about pad controllers: they are very portable :)

[shawnmurphy]

I started as a drummer more years ago than I'm willing to admit. You're doing very well for only two weeks in! My tip would be to play along with songs as best you can as part of your regular practice. Drilling is rewarding but can become dull after awhile. Mixing in a some play-alongs is both rewarding and fun. Once you're proficient enough, I recommend playing with a cover band. There's nothing like social pressure to motivate practice and playing other people's songs forces you out of your comfort zone - which is where the learning happens.

[DaKink]

being the only dude and the only one that didn't play a wind instrument in my music class, I had to become the drummer by default. All I can say is you develop an ear for it and the rest is sooo much practice and practice and practice. Just keep drumming and it will become more natural over time. Also, you'll drive everyone mad because you'll start drumming along with your fingers and hands when a dope beat drops ;)

[carmayen]

Finger drumming is a whole new world tho, 2 weeks in and it seems you got a hang of it. Keep it up Oscar, massive thanks from Honduras!

[InteriorMirrors]

Patterns are probably the easiest way to create variation and groove. For example, if I played a fill RLRL-RLRL-RLRL-RLRL it will sound different to a paradiddle played on the same drums RLRR-LRLL-RLRR-LRLL. Another pattern could be made of triplets - RLR LRL RLR LRL, could be played RRL LLR RRL LLR. By simply programming your right hand and left hand on different drums on the drum rack, it will give you some more variety.

There are also things like Flams, where you play both hands at the same time but one stick starts closer to the drums so it hits slightly ahead.

Lastly, think about what is physically possible on the drum. You have two hands and two feet, so at most you can play 4 sounds at once. If you want your drums to sound more natural, don't program a hit on the snare, tom, crash and ride at the same time because this would never happen in real life!

[MrOnyxen]

Great that you are challenging yourself to learn drums. I would have to learn more of that instrument too!

First things first, remember that the beat of the kick drum pedal travels through the concrete throughout the house. It sounds like someone is hitting the wall with a hammer all the time.

Secondly, something that is very important in acoustic drums is ghost notes which in the digital world makes it more alive. Maybe not so useful in techno but there is rhythm in it which is extremely important when combining nearby percussion.😇