Drummers Unite: Rhythm Theory of Everything
 

I don't know how many of you out there play drums, or more to the point, live drums. But if there's a discussion I could never tire of, it's one that involves everything from drum stick preference to time signatures.

Describe your kit, show pics of it, describe your dream kit, what kind of cymbals do you have/wish you had, what kind of heads do you use, your positioning preferences, techniques, tips, etc...

Everything drums goes here.

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I'll start:

I bought a drum kit from a guy for 200 dollars a couple years ago. This is the kit when I bought it, minus one of the toms and a couple cymbals:

It's a shop kit, AKA, it was built by the guy who sold it to me. Therefore, no name brand. And yes, it's a fusion size.
http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/9329/kit1q.jpg

So after some upgrades over about a year's worth of time, here is the kit now:
http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/5697/kit2.jpg

Added a piccolo snare, re-skinned the primary snare, re-skinned the toms with Evans Hydraulics (because they sound good when recorded.. but they're not resonant enough for live use) Added the mandatory Wuhan China, and an 8 inch splash on the left and a cheap Wuhan splash on the right, and got some old broken crap cymbals which, for some reason, sound cooler than the good cymbals. Added a second hihat, Zil ZHT's. And threw in a nice doublekick pedal for good measure. (not Iron Cobra, but it works well enough)

Got the main pieces mic'd with Shure SM57's, a Shure SM58 under the primary snare, got a Shure PG58 in the kick, and two Nady condensers overhead, and I use a condenser for room ambience.

Everything routes to a 16 channel Mackie mixing board.


I love playing the kit. I miss it to death because it, along with all my other gear, is currently in transit from Europe. I'll have better pics once my stuff arrives.

I'm really into playing jazz rhythms, strange time sigs, funk, and out of whack polyrhythms. I place a lot of importance on being able to emphasize strokes in a way that contributes greatly to the feel of a beat. I'm big on that.
I'm not the kind of drummer that gets behind a kit and starts doublekicking and rolling as fast as possible. I get behind a kit and make a simple beat sound complicated, loose, and funky.
That's my style.

My biggest philosophy on drumming is this:
A good drummer knows what to do and when to do it. A good drummer does not simply play the fanciest, most technical beat for the sake of it being complicated. A good drummer knows that what the music asks for, you give. No less, no more. You do not always assume the focal point, but when that focal point is you, you don't abuse it.
Drums are a part of music.
Music is not a part of drums.


And with that, I sincerely and anxiously await the opinions and philosophies of the other drummers in this forum who wish to establish a rapport and share their own rhythm theory of everything.

:)

i dig on your philosophy but i don't really play drums (unless rockband counts haha)

as for my personal drummer philosophy the way i describe my friend jef's drumming is as the rhythmic melody to my melodic rhythms. it's a change in perspective much like choosing to see either the forest or the trees. he doesn't play a steady beat but he always plays on time. i'm far more concerned with how the music feels than how it adds up on paper.

I've always preferred drummers that kept a good simple beat over ones that do pointless complicated shit. All my friends think the exact opposite... well maybe it's because they have shit taste in music.

i can fly., i'm pilot
 

I have been playing since I was 12, so about 16 years now. I have played everything from snare in marching band to full trap kits live show style. My brother is a singer/songwriter and solid guitar player so as for my "style" right now I play surf acoustic style.

My set is a bit different from what I have used in the past. I still use a premier set (been using it since '99) but right now only the bass, a pacific piccalo, 12 inch tom, A-custom 21" ride and 18"crash, and 18" djembe. It works well and I have been playing some of our songs with just my hands, no sticks.

Drummers Unite!!

I can understand the preference on both sides of that fence, because naturally, different people have different likes when it comes to the elements of music.
There's nothing inherently wrong with complicated drumming IF it's used in the right context.

Some songs sound good with an offbeat pattern and complicated fills, but some songs do not.
I prefer drummers who know when the song calls for a certain type of drumming, regardless of their own need to "rock out".

Exactly.
There's a certain zone you get in when playing music with other people and you begin feeling what the other people are feeling, by virtue of their playing and how their emotions show through what they're doing and how they're doing it.
That feeling is fuel that I feed off of when I'm playing music with others, and as a result, they feed off the emotion I create.

That's a dynamic that can be extremely hard to obtain in a band if all of its members aren't in tune to it.

ABSOLUTELY hehe i used to describe it as my conscious brain shutting off.

it's also been one of the biggest challenges i've faced over the last decade since most people only seem to know how to play their instrument within the confines of the styles they listen to. it almost becomes more of a meditative exercise than a musical one for me.

even those that 'get it' can be hard to get along with at times, i'll freely admit to being hard headed at times. difference being i'll be upfront about my views on playing music while most others will pussyfoot around the issue to avoid bruising egos. it's like if you're only 80% behind my view don't tell me you're 100% because it's what you think i want to hear hehe

i may not be a drummer but i'm ALWAYS up for a good discussion on the philosophy of playing music and expressing oneself through sound.

i swear to god if more musicians were as level-headed as you the world would spin so much more smoothly.

what i dig is someone that can drive a good beat without taking away from the music to push it somewhere else. percussion is one of the hardest elements of music to harness effectively, but when yer with a great drummer it brings that much more energy to the table. i love playing with people that play with distinction and direction, but know that sometimes the snare that isn't hit is the one that resounds the loudest.

what i don't dig is people that use their instrument like a tool that's only purpose is to be polished over and over until it becomes virtually impossible to play with them because of all the little things they've picked up over time. this is true for drummers as well, it is insanely frustrating to play with someone that thinks that animal ferocity is applicable to all situations. if you're going to be a good drummer you have to learn to feed off the energy in the room instead of trying to create a vibe that clashes with everything else that's going on.

Why can't musicians that I know and actually live somewhat close to me be like this? One of the most important aspects of playing with other musicians is communication with each other. So many people at my highschool lack that (I can be like that as well), which makes it really difficult to get a band together. Not to mention that most of them have very limited taste in music and only seem to know/want to play that kind of music.

That's the problem with a majority of highschoolers. No offense to any highschoolers here, but that's a typical age where people tend to restrict themselves to certain genres because of the pressure that cliques often apply. The result is that it can be hard to find a diverse musician at that age who cares about other people's tastes enough to be a productive member of a band.

Apart from communication, I believe that another very important aspect of musicianship in bands is allowing for members to be musically different enough from eachother that the sum of all parts creates a unique blend of different perspectives and emotions. When it's done right, it all clicks together and the result is usually a band that can offer something more than the same carbon copies most bands become. But in order for that to even happen, there definitely has to be a lot of communication and an ability to make compromises for the greater good of the band.

That's a hard thing to find in any setting, much less in a highschooler demographic.