Drumming

if you can't find a teacher in a convenient part of London, I paid $7 for these online lessons and they've kept me busy daily for the last three months - got me comprehensively hooked right away for less than the price of a single avocado toast.

You don't even need a kit for it, really, you can do pretty much everything on a practice pad/sofa cushions/nearby pets or family members. Might be an option while you figure out your meatspace options? You should start right this very instant IMO because drumming is fucking amazing and you owe this gift to yourself

Jared is such a boy next door, but with added paradiddles.

Right, he's so wholesome! I dated a metal drummer when I was 16-17 and my mum went nuts, all blah blah stop coming home late blah blah you can do better rah rah get back here right now young lady you're grounded. If I'd been dating JARED she'd have been petting and cooing and prematurely picking out wedding dresses.

I've had one band practice and two gigs so far this week, currently on my way to Newcastle for two more days of practice with another band. The most I've drummed in ages! Need to try and keep up the momentum.

Black Friday sale + payday means I've splashed (excuse the pun) out GetGood Drums' Invasion midi pack to connect my e-kit up with. Still downloading at the mo, but looking forwards to hopefully making it work and have a much nicer set of sounds than the inbuilt stuff (Alesis DM10) that hopefuly gives me the get up and go to practice more.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5E2oOzjvhc

Nice!! I'm still using GarageBand for that, keep telling myself I'm going to get something better but not really got round to it yet. I've found one kit in GarageBand that sounds ok and I've just stuck with that ever since setting it up.

I can't believe how bad the Alesis module sounds are - I've never seen anyone say anything complimentary about them. Any time anyone mentions them it's to say how shit they are. You'd think Alesis would be embarrassed to ship them.

@littleK and @Trunkie how are your lessons going, if you're doing them? Soon I'll have to replace a set of drumsticks for the first time and it's giving me the same tiny hipster thrill as when I had to replace a rear tyre for the first time because I skidded through it :')

Ah thanks for asking, I keep meaning to come back to this thread!
Yeah I managed to find someone to teach me and I had my 4th lesson this week. Some drums came up on freecycle, when I went to collect them we got chatting and the guy I picked them up off offered to teach me. He's not qualified/doesn't have grades etc but it's going well so far. He's got me practicing rudiments and we're going through the Trinity College Initial Drum Kit Grade 2 book. I've learned the first song, Act One Beginners which is a horrible jaunty little show tune type thing. I'm now learning the 2nd song which is a much nicer funky song.

The kit I have has pieces missing so is a bit wobbly and the hi hat sounds truly horrible, but I'm really enjoying the process. One thing I'm struggling with a little is being self conscious (picked the wrong instrument then hey!) and feeling aware that neighbours can hear etc. In my mind listening to someone trying to learn an instrument can be pretty torturous, so that's something I need to work on. I keep playing over in my mind if I'd be better with an e-kit but I really prefer the idea of acoustic.
But overall it's fun and I'm pleased with how it's going so far!

Yeah the lessons and teacher are great although had to scale back recently due to my father in law being poorly hoping to get straight back into it asap ( likely after Xmas )

Nice! Which bits are missing? Anything you can't replace? If there's a big PMT near you, they usually have all sorts of nuts, bolts etc that might be handy.

Ahh, sorry to hear it - hope FIL feels better soon!

It's so good when you start playing your first songs, even if they're shit songs. The first ones I learned included Sting's Fields of Gold and some horrible nonsense by Billy fucking Joel. There's no better motivation to improve than the thought that you when you get better, you can move onto playing something that isn't terrible XD

Get a practice pad for the rudiments, Trunkie! Neighbours love 'em, probably. Almost certainly more than a set of acoustic drums anyway, heh.

What's everyone using for listening to edrums, btw? I've got a set of Vic Firth SIH2 cans, but they're so uncomfortable I top out at about 1-2 hours wear time, even with a DIY memory foam cushion under the headband. My birthday's coming up, so I can treat myself to something else less anatomy-torturing.

I don't know if this is the place and I know it's a longshot; but does anyone have any interest in a kit trade. I have a the Natal Stealth Kit that is great but the footprint is a little too large for the room that it's in. I could do with a pancake/slim/club kit. My Natal kit includes the stealth mesh heads and additional normal single ply batter heads. I use a combination of both for volume control. If there is any interest I can take photos, send the full spec etc.

Any suggestions for places to buy and sell secondhand drum stuff? I've got a really nice DW kit at the moment but it just doesn't suit my style of playing, I'm after something with bigger shells to replace it. I've not been on Facebook for years, is the marketplace worth bothering with?

Anyone see Moby making a (bigger) bellend of himself pretending to play drums in insta recently? Urgh.

tried the 'buy sell drums uk 2' or similarly named fb group?

edit: this one

I haven't! Apparently I'm already a member though. I'll give that a go, thanks.

My son (5) has been taking lessons for a year or so and seems to be enjoying himself still. Thinking of getting him an electronic set for home practice.

Looking at some permutation of Roland TD-07KV. My understanding is that with the 07 stuff you can add modules - so we could add additional cymbals/toms etc over time? I don't wildly want to spend 1kpX2/17KV money right away if I can avoid it. Anything else to consider at similar cost?

Any suggestions for decent online lessons/YouTube videos? Mostly interested in getting better with a double kick pedal. For some reason I've written loads of parts that require double bass despite being absolutely terrible at it.

I'm selling my kit, shells only, no snare included. I thought I'd see if there was any interest here before it goes on eBay/Facebook etc.
It's a lovely DW Collectors kit in an absolutely stunning, seemingly quite rare, dark blue oyster finish. It's been gigged and toured with a fair bit so has a few cosmetic blemishes and a couple of little chips, none of which affect the sound at all. It could definitely do with new batter heads! The 12" and 14" toms were reskinned for a recording session and haven't been used since so they've got plenty of life left in them but the bass drum and 10" tom are pretty worn out.
Sizes are 22x18 (undrilled bass drum), 14x10.5, 12x8.5, 10x7.5. Also includes hardware to mount the toms to stands.
I'll throw in some soft cases for free, the bass drum case isn't in great shape but the rest are solid.

Happy to provide more photos/info on request! It's a tricky one to price, the range on eBay etc is pretty wild. The cheapest I can find for something similar is around £1300, I'd sell this on here for £1200.

I'll be gutted to see it go, I've had it from new for over 15 years but it just doesn't suit my style of playing, the small shell sizes just don't cut through the heavy music I tend to play live and unfortunately I don't have the money/space to keep one kit for recording and one kit for gigging. Collection only from SE20.

Edit: I'd be open to a swap/ part exchange for something a bit punchier with larger shell sizes. I need to generate a bit of cash for an overseas tour so looking to "downgrade" to something a bit less high end.

2nd edit: now for sale on Facebook at a higher price. Would still sell for £1200 on here!

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Has anyone used a Tama Starclassic performer kit? I've got my eye on one, the Bubinga/ Birch version. Hoping it'll be nice and punchy.

not played one but always lusted after a set!

do you know the drummer of Dawn Ray’d from your Leeds days? not sure the exact spec but defo has a starclassic kit he’s used for a fair few years (think it was playing with another band about 10 years back… which - come to think of it, probs means i played the same kit that time… i’m an idiot!)

Yeah I'm good mates with Matt! Didn't realise he had one. Was that Black Mass or We Came Out Like Tigers? What band did you play in back then? I'll hit him up for a review. I've definitely played his kit a few times before when we've played together. Didn't clock it was a Starclassic.

it was Black Mass - think a demoralising 12 whole people came to the show..!

I was playing in Light Bearer (and Momentum) at the time.

Classic DIY show! I've travelled much further to play to fewer people, ha ha. I listened to Light Bearer fairly often back in the day! I have to admit I've not revisited since then though, that's tonight's listening sorted anyway.

if you notice a sharp decline in drumming quality after the first album, that’ll be when i joined 😅 first drummer was way better than me and in hindsight I don’t think i’ve been more unhappy with how i’ve played than right after recording the second album, Silver Tongue (though still like to revisit the split with Northless which i remain proud of)

Lugging all of this shit up the Newcastle for recording. I should have learnt to sing.

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