Drum Tuning

The kit I borrow once a week sounded REALLY GOOD last night...I think the owner spent some quality time tuning it over the weekend. I like the results.

Drum tuning is a funny thing.  The most common advice about drum tuning (from drummers, magazines, and such) is "do whatever sounds good to you" which is really no advice at all.  But in recent weeks I've had a couple of guitar players try to give me advice about drum tuning which was basically "do what I think you should do."

I know that people mean well and want to help...but I don't really LIKE help...especially help that I haven't asked for. Especially help that feels like I'm being told my way is wrong. I like figuring stuff out for myself. If I need help or want an opinion, I'll ask. I know that I should be more open to input and that I could probably learn alot that way...but it is hard enough for me to gain confidence in my own abilities. I don't need pot shots from the peanut gallery.

So that kind of talk annoys me anyway...but in the cases in question...it has been with respect to this kit that I'm not even privvy to tuning. It isn't my kit and I'm not messing with it. So telling me how I ought to tune it is no help. It isn't mine to tune. You don't tune another man's drums when he's being nice enough to loan them to you.

And in the end...there is no "right" way to tune a drum kit so long as you don't damage the drum. Anything goes. Anyone who tells you differently doesn't know what they are talking about. It really IS all personal preference.

I'm still learning and deciding about my own method and preferences for drum tuning. It is one of those things that is half science and half art. I'm still learning the science part (what you do to get what effect)...and I haven't really even begun to reflect on the art part...well...I've just recently begun.

The two guitar players both really wanted me to tune to a note. I find this funny. I mean, I guess it makes sense because they play instruments that are tuned to notes. To them "tuning" = "find the right note". There are certainly drummers who follow this approach. But I know enough about my preferences already to know that I'm not a drummer who will ever probably tune to a note.

First off...I suck at tuning by ear. I have trouble with that and always have. Getting a guitar string in tune to pitch for me is hard...never mind a drum that has two heads and 12 to 20 lugs to work with. Tuning to a pitch just isn't going to happen for me.

But beyond that, I just don't think it is WISE to tune to a pitch.  The drums need to be separate in sonic space from the pitched instruments (in my opinion). It is a contrast thing. For me that means them NOT being tuned to a pitch. Tune to a pitch and at some point you are going to have dissonance with the band (you might be playing a drum note not in the key of the song). If things are more nebulous that seems less of a risk. Sure, even if you don't try the drums will be tuned to a note...but I just think it is better that it be less defined.

I'm more concerned with tone. And I'm still figuring out how to get the best tone. Full but focused. The drums should be in tune with themselves...and then the snare to the rack toms and then to the floor toms should descend and not sound "bad" as far as moving from drum to drum goes (sometimes something just sounds out of place flat or sharp). But I'm not so worried about what the note is or if the drums are tuned in 3rds or whatever. Just that it sounds good moving from drum to drum. Maybe tuning to relative pitches is happening by accident because that's what sounds good...but it isn't on purpose. I also like the floor tom to be almost as low as possible without being lower than the bass. You end up setting a lower limit. You can only go so loose with the bass drum without it sounding "flappy"...so go for the lowest possible note on the bass drum...and then the floor tom should be as low as possible but higher than the bass drum. And so on.

And then there's getting the ring out and the unwanted overtones and the sympathetic vibrations. There's tweaking. Speaking of which...I just ordered snare wires with the center wires missing...which is supposed to reduce sympathetic vibrations, which I've had trouble with on the new Sonor because the bass drum is so powerful.

Anyway, I'm figuring it out and getting better at knowing what I want and how to get it. But it's a new game. And my preferences will grow and change and evolve.

And I kinda think the drum tuning talk from guitar players is just that...talk. I'd love to sit them down with five drums and 10 heads still in the packages and say "go for it" and see what happens. Two or three hours later they can get back to me about their theory of drum tuning.

Sober & Practiced Drumming

No shock to say that, sober and after a weekend of practice, I did much better at TD practice last night. Just a reminder here for myself...since I seem to be so good at forgetting these things.  If stuff isn't working out so hot for you...you probably are doing something to cause that.

Haven't Seen You Lately

So my favorite Drain song to listen to is Haven't Seen You Lately. I've also always liked playing it because it is both challenging AND came naturally to me. The hands are simple, but the bass drum plays the bass guitar line. I'm still not sure if this is the way that EH used to play it...or something that I made up. Anyway, it used to be that 4 out of 5 times I could nail the song...but in recent weeks I've lost the bass drum part. This didn't make any sense to me because it had always come naturally. How do you practice something that is second nature...something that you never had to learn in the first place? RS asked if it was too fast. I didn't think so, but I sat down this weekend to try to fix the thing.

An interesting thing about this song is that it is on both albums...two different versions. It is one speed on the first album (slower) and another on the second (faster). And since the second album was recorded, we've begun to play it even faster. I have a rehearsal recording of the fastest tempo. I guess that I hadn't realized, but I think that in recent weeks and months...we've even started playing it FASTER.

So I sat down and first played the slow recording...then the faster...then the fastest...over three days.

Boom. Fixed.

So I think that...yes...we've been playing it too fast. And it isn't that I can't play it that fast...but if we are going to do that I need to practice...if for no other reason than to build endurance.

But a side lesson is that almost always J wants to play things faster than we should. There's a certain swing to several of the songs that gets totally lost when you play them too fast. I'm not sure why he wants to play things so fast. I should work to keep the tempos back a bit.

Off Beat Bass Drum

I think that my primary challenge is independence. It's a hard thing to work on because it is so frustrating.  Part of the key is doing unexpected things.

A pretty simple pattern that I've largely avoided thus far is the snare flam on 1, 2, 3, 4 and bass drum on all of the "ands" of those beats. This is a standard rock beat, but differs from the classic rock beat that is bass drum on 1, 3 and snare on 2, 4.  It's a simple pattern...but differs in interesting ways from what my body is programmed to do on autopilot.

I can keep this off beat bass thing up for a few measures, and then my foot starts to drift to the one.  I've gotten better about it over the last 6 months or so, and am now able to sustain the beat for sometime without drifting, though my hold on it is tenuous at best. 

Last night I decided to add a component. Rather than just playing that same pattern over and over...I tried to add a simple little snare fill. Sure enough, coming out of the fill was impossible. I either had to drop the bass drum out entirely and come back in later with it...or if would drift to the "1" as soon as the fill ended.

It strikes me that this is a very simple exercise and one that I ought to work on a bit. It really could work out some serious independence things.

An example of what I mean. The drum beat here does the off beat thing...and at 0:26 he throws in a tiny little fill. That fill would totally throw me off the primary pattern.

Ha!

This guy is awesome. He plays really well.

Why I Love CJ

So last night at CJ rehearsal we played through all four of the new songs (Hangwire, Winterlong, Lovely Day, Build High) plus half a dozen others. Everyone was feeling a little run down and sick...and we don't have any gigs coming up...and most bands probably would have called things good and finished for the night. But CT says, "I want to play some more".

We've started to struggle with how to pick which songs to practice. When you have 65 available...it's hard. Last week we used a Fibonacci sequence to pick songs (well, we tried, until we forgot how to do a Fibonacci sequence). Last night, since we had just finished playing Debaser, I said "Let's play Doolittle".

And barely had the words left my mouth and we were off and running. We skipped Tame since RS wasn't feeling well (and that made us fuck up the order for a few songs accidentally)...but other than that we played straight through. One into the other. Not stopping. Not warning each other what came next really. We even played Silver, which was a little rough (for god's sake, we only ever played it for a few weeks in Dec 2011), but other than that everything was about spot on.

As Gouge Away's last notes faded into the air I thought..."Jesus...we're good." And then "Damn, this is fun."

Oh My God

Pixies Central just posted this photo and it totally takes my breath away. I've been looking for a good still of this instrument forever. This pic is just amazing. You can see every little scar and the cracking of the finish. More than ever I think this is faded Fiesta Red.  And the hand closeup with little green turtle pick and everything. Just. I can't even say. So awesome.