Record Making With Duke Ellington (1937)

Another in the great wealth of old film clips that are finally making their way into the YouTube library.

This is a great little intro into the history of the recording process. Back when music was literally "cut" directly to disc.

Drum Tips - Count Out Loud

Well – it doesn’t have to be LOUD, just audible. The practice of counting out loud will help in developing your ability to sing while playing the drums.

More importantly – counting out loud helps to keep your breathing regular. Breathing is VERY important to maintaining a steady tempo.

When your breathing is irregular – such as holding your breath during fills – your muscles tense up due to the lack of oxygen . . . and your tempo fluctuates. You physically can't hold your breath and count out loud at the same time - so your much less likely to develop the bad habits that ultimately screw up your timekeeping.

This is something I have talked about before. The trick is to keep breathing! It is a really bad habit that I have worked hard to make sure my students don’t fall into.

Drum Tips - Drum Tuning

Drum Tuning is a BIG Deal.

A well tuned drum sounds GREAT! A well tuned drum generally sounds better than a poorly tuned drum. Learning to tune your drums will make the engineer's job easier. You'll spend less time and less money getting a great drum sound in studio time when your recording or during sound check on stage. However, there is really no "right" way to tune a drum. What sounds good to me might not sound good to you. What sounds great in a rock band is might not sound so good in a jazz gig.

Your individual personality will dictate your choice of tone. Yet, no matter what you like, you should be in control of your drum sound. You should never be stuck with drums that don't sound great to you.

The problem is that tuning a drum can be complicated. There are many variables that contribute to the tone of a drum, including:

• Type of Drum Shell (Birch, Maple, Steel, Brass, Pressboard, Plastic, etc.)
• Size of the Drum Shell (Diameter and Depth)
• Type of Drum Head (Calf Skin, Kevlar, Mylar, Coated, Clear, etc.)
• Thickness of the Drum Head (Thin, Thick, Single Ply, Double Ply, Oil Filled, Pinstriped, etc.)
• Top Head Tension
• Bottom Head Tension
• Relationship Between the Tension of the Top and Bottom Heads
• Muffling

The secret to getting a great drum sound is really just taking a lot of time and experimenting. Try all kinds of different drum tuning ideas and listen to what sounds best to you for your particular drums. I like to think of each drum as having a unique personality. The drums will sound best when you figure out the personality and tune the drum appropriately. Some drum sets will just be happier and sound better tuned one way, while another drum set will sound great tuned a different way.

I have two different drum sets, and trying to tune them both the same way is possible but not easy. My Yamaha kit sounds great with the toms tuned low, pin striped heads on top with clear mylar heads on the bottom of each drum. I have the top head tuned to a pitch slightly lower than the pitch of the bottom head. The kit has a big fat, warm drum sound. My D’Amico kit on the other hand, sounds great with coated ambassador heads top and bottom, tuned basically to the same pitch. The toms are tuned pretty tight, high pitched. The D’Amico kit has a ton of ring and high end overtones and cuts through really well. The Yamaha kit just seems happier with the warm, round tones and the D’Amico kit is happier with the higher pitched, ringing tones. To me, they sound very different, but they both sound absolutely fabulous!!

Hopefully, some of the information here can help you get your drums sounding great – the way you want them to sound.

General Drum Tuning Tips:

Generally, any musical tone has only three qualities: 1) Pitch or Frequency, 2) Timbre or Harmonic Structure, and 3) Volume. When tuning a drum you will be adjusting these three qualities of the drums sound.

Having good drums is a pre-requisite to a great drum sound. BUT! They do not have to be the best, most expensive set of drums available to produce a great sound. Every major drum manufacturer has a low price line (around $500) that are relatively well made drums which can be tuned to sound very good.

If you take the time to experiment with your drums, find out where they sound best, use good heads on them, and tune the heads with even tensioning – Then, even an inexpensive, old set of Pearl Exports can sound great!

There is a fabulous old instruction video by the great British session player Simon Phillips which has a great section on tuning drums. It has also recently come out on DVD and is available on amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Simon-Phillips-Complete/dp/0739040251

Even tensioning around the head is important to creating a consistent tone. Uneven tensioning can create inconsistent overtones or even buzzing sounds. But, uneven tensioning can also create interesting pitch changes or a dropping pitch bend sound during the decay of the drum tone.

Make sure the drum heads are sitting down tightly against the rim. If parts of the head are floating slightly above the rim instead of sitting down properly on the rim - it can dramatically alter the way the drum head vibrates. This can create uneven overtones, buzz, and can dramatically shorten the sustain of the drum.

Regarding Shell Size:

Shell size (diameter and depth) has a significant effect on the sound of a drum. It is generally much easier to create a low pitch tone on a larger diameter shell. The depth of a drum, distance from top to bottom, affects the sustain characteristics of the drums tone. This distance effects the pitch of a standing wave that can form inside the shell, a deeper shell can sustain a lower pitch standing wave and give that drum a lower pitch resonant frequency.

However, there is a trade off with large drums in that the bigger the surface area of the drum head, the harder to keep enough tension for good playability.

Personally, I prefer smaller drums tuned low instead of larger drums. Small drums can actually sound very deep and big on tape or through the PA system. Small drums tuned low still maintain a small surface area that can rebound quickly and give a good feel to the playing surface.

I have also found that with smaller drums it is easier to tune a greater variety of tones between the toms. The lower pitch tuning of a small drum still maintains many of the higher frequency characteristics of the small drum itself and creates more cut, or projection of the sound. When I have had large drums tuned to the pitches that sound best for each drum, they did not project well into the audience. All the drums ended up sounding too similar to each other – they didn't stand out as individual drums in the mix and those great fills I had worked so hard to get clean ended up sounding more like muddy thunder than a fantastic fill across several toms.

Regarding Head Choice:

Generally, a thin drum head produces a longer sustain and more overtones than a thick drum head. A coated drum head has all those tiny little surface bumps to create more overtones than a clear drum head and provides a better surface for brush work. A two ply head will vibrate against itself and dampen the sustain and overtones to produce a warmer, rounder tone. Oil-filled (or hydraulic) drum heads may be impossible to find these days – they produce almost no overtones for a really damped, 1970’s studio tone.

I generally have clear Remo Emperor heads on the top (two ply like a pinstrip without the strip) and clear Remo Ambassadors on the bottom of my toms.

Snare Drum Tuning:

A snare drum has a few unique characteristics that create additional challenges when trying to create a great drum sound. The snare drum is the heart of your drum set, often you’ll be playing the snare drum more than all the other drums combined.

The snare drum is often the thinnest drum in your kit which means the interaction between the top and bottom heads will be different than on all the other drums. The bottom head is generally MUCH thinner than any other drum head on your kit and it has a bunch of brilliant little "rattles" rubbing against it. The bottom rim of your snare drum has a dip cut into the bearing edge for the snare to rest in which creates problems in getting even tensioning around the bottom head.

The snare drum can be the most sensitive drum in your kit. This means that very small changes in the tuning can create large changes to the sound of the drum.

As for head choice on the snare drum – well I'm generally an "old-school" kind of guy. I prefer a single ply medium weight batter head (Remo Ambassador Coated) and a very thin bottom head (Remo Diplomat Clear)

Snare Top (Batter) Head:

The variety of different sounds that can be pulled out of a well tuned snare are astounding! Generally:

• Lower pitch = warmer, fatter, big, rock, backbeat sound.
• Higher pitch = tighter, cleaner, articulated, funk, jazz, intricate sticking sound.

When I get a new snare drum I like to spend an afternoon fooling around with the tuning and muffling, trying all kinds of different combinations to find the place the drum really sings the best. I had an old Ludwig wooden snare than just sounded fantastic with the head tuned really loose. It was wonderful for that fat ballad backbeat sound. However, generally I prefer a very tight snare drum head.

Don’t be afraid to experiment. It is amazing how tight a snare drum can be tuned. Marching band and Scottish bagpipe band drummers generally tune the top snare head extremely tight. Such tight snare drum tuning provides lots of “bounce” which helps when playing really intricate sticking patterns, and the tight, clean tone of the drum allows such intricate sticking patterns to be heard. The sound doesn’t get too muddy to actually hear what the drummer is playing.

Be advised though, it IS possible to over tighten a drum head. You probably won’t damage the drum itself, but you can ruin a drum head if you put TOO much tension on it.


Stewart Copeland (of The Police – the band that Sting was in before some of you were born) used to tune the top head of his snare so tight that he often had problems with the tension destroying the head - actually pulling the head right out of it's reinforcing ring.

SnareBottom (Snare) Head:

The bottom bearing edge of a snare drum shell has a slight indentation where the snares cross the rim, this is called the “snare bed”. This helps keep the snare wires tight against the bottom head, but creates a bearing edge that is not perfectly flat. When the bearing edge is not perfectly flat, it is easy for the drum head to sit up off the edge of the shell a little. This can make it difficult to evenly tension the snare head and can cause little distortions and wrinkles in the snare head. Generally, such wrinkles can cause overtones and buzzing in the drum, but with the snare, you will be creating all kinds of overtones and buzzing by adding the snares. So it really isn’t as much of a problem as it might be on a tom where you want a nice clear tone.

Again, the key is to experiment with the relative tension that works best for your drum. If the head is too tight, the snare won't seat as well into the snare beds and you might get a bit of a chocked snare sound.

Snare vibration is related to tension of the bottom head. The tighter the bottom snare head, then more the snares will vibrate – creating more of a nice "crack" sound. A looser bottom head creates less snare vibration and produces a softer "poof" tone.

Snare vibration is also affected by tension of the snares themselves. High tension, tight snares will shorten and intensify the buzz, while lower tension, looser snares will lengthen and soften the buzz of the snares.

Sympathetic vibration is when the snares buzz from the sound of a bass, keyboard or guitar note. Tuning the bottom head to the same relative pitch as the batter head can help "open up" the tone of the drum and increase resonance, but can lead to more sympathetic vibration.

Just remember to experiment a lot and listen for what sounds best with your particular drum.

Drum Tips - Practice in Front of a Mirror

Let’s talk about presentation. Remember the old saying: “practice makes perfect” As I have said before, it is not quite accurate. The saying should be “Perfect practice makes perfect” because if you practice doing something wrong, you’ll just end up really good at doing it wrong! If your practice is loose and sloppy, no matter how much you practice, your playing will always be loose and sloppy! We practice with a metronome, a perfect timekeeper, to improve our internal clock so that we have a great sense of keeping the tempo steady. It is the same with all aspects of your musical performance.

You have learned the music, it is solid and steady and you can play backwards and forwards in your sleep. However, have you been paying attention to your performance? Your presentation? Your visual style? Are you fine tuning your entire musical persona, calm and smooth, or wild and outrageous?

Musical performance on the drums set can cross into the realm of dance. You know you can play, but do you think you can dance?

Most great drum teachers will tell you to practice in front of a mirror. It will help you evaluate your technique. Are your hands in the right position? Are you balanced? Leaning too far forward or backward? Are you sitting too high or low? Are you positioned for maximum flexibility and dexterity around the entire drum kit?

When you look at your playing in the mirror you might realize that what feels comfortable right now, might not be allowing you to reach your full potential as a musician. We can get very comfortable in our bad habits, and they will end up limiting your future. Keep a mirror next to your practice kit to keep yourself in check, make sure you are not getting comfortable with bad habits.

Practicing in front of a mirror also helps with the other aspect of playing, a great visual performance. Are you making “drummer faces?”

A mirror is one of the two great tools for visually evaluating your performance. A video camera is also very useful. The mirror offers instant feedback, however our internal personal perception can get in the way of being honest with ourselves about the quality of our performance.

Looking into a pool of water and not realizing that he saw his own reflection, Narcissus fell in love with the beautiful image he saw. Your at least one up on Narcissus if recognize our own reflection. But are you falling in love with what we see? Are you seeing the truth? Or are you seeing only what you want to see?

There’s an old saying about “seeing the world through rose colored glasses” meaning that everything looks great.

Not only is it difficult to see yourself objectively, but what you see is not even a true image of you. It is reversed, and because we are simply not the same on both halves, the image you see in the mirror can be very different from the image that the rest of us see when we look at you.

Recording your practice on video is a great way to overcome the Narcissus effects of working with a mirror. Pretend you are in front of your audience and practice everything (eye contact, movement, gestures, as well as the notes of the music)

Unfortunately, the feedback is not in real time. However, when you look at a video playback of your performance it is generally much easier to feel removed from the performance and really be critical. It is about as close as possible to watching your own performance through the eyes of your audience.

The truth is in what you see, not in what you feel. Do you see a really great performance? If not, now is a good time to start really figuring out what is working and what is not working, and make the changes.

Drum Tips - Buying Your First Drum Set

When buying your first drum set, I recommend trying to be very budget conscious. You don't want to spend a small fortune on some really great drums if you find after a few weeks that playing the drums is not for you.

BUT - you also don't want to frustrate yourself with drums that you can never get tuned properly or fall off the stands and make playing a bad experience.

Most young drummers are listening to rock music and interested in emulating their idols. Thus, a first drumset will need to withstand some serious pounding. Not to mention that when you are starting out as a drummer you will rarely hit the drums accurately. In the pursuit of “looking” like a drummer when we are first learning to play, we put the drums through the terrible problems of not only hitting them wrong, but basically slamming them into each other too. This is not to say that as we grow older and more skilled we put the kit through any less stress – the demands of setting up and breaking down a drum set night after night on the road takes its toll.

This all just means that if your drums, stands, and pedals are cheap, or little more than “toy” quality, they are not likely to last too long. Cheap drums will break fast and cost you time and effort trying to either keep them playable or replacing them. You can pay going in or you can pay coming out, but you end up having to pay if you want to play!

The simple answer to a first drum set is the affordable end of a good quality brand. The name brand drum companies all have low cost “introductory” lines that are of good quality and should last well for a young drummer. My personal favorites are Yamaha, Gretsch, and Pearl. All make really good quality entry level kits in the $500 to $800 price range - don't forget to budget for cymbals, sticks and a drum seat, which won't be included in the music stores base price.

Tama, Ludwig, Slingerland, Sonar, and DW, all make good quality products too. Realistically, in the last 20 years quality in drum sets has become so good that the choice really does come down to what is available in your area, and the kind of drums your favorite drummers play – although, when it comes to low priced drums, I would stay away from anything that is not one of these top name brands - some of the “cheap” drum sets that I have seen are just rubbish.
The name brand drum companies have entry level drum sets that are reasonably priced, will hold up well over time, and will include a warranty. Compared to the “cheap” brands, the name brands are a lot easier to get parts for and also have higher trade-in and resale values.

The "Five Piece" Drum Kit

Most entry level drum sets will be sold as a "five-piece" kit. This will be (1) Snare drum, (2) Bass or Kick drum, (3) Floor tom, and (4 & 5) two mounted or “ride” toms. A five piece kit will also generally include snare drum stand, hi-hat stand, one or two cymbal stands, legs for the floor tom, and hardware to hold the ride toms. However, the advertised price will generally not include cymbals, bass drum pedal, drum throne, sticks, cases, or any other essentials for learning to play. Although, some music stores are beginning to offer drum sets sold in a “complete” package - including stands, cymbals, pedals, thrones, even sticks. These "complete" packages can be a pretty good price. Make sure you clarify with the music store exactly what you are getting for the money before you make any commitment.

Drum Tips - Drum Muffling

Drum Muffling is not an easy issue. Experimenting is the key to figuring out a the best sound for your drums. Different drums are going to sound better at different tunings, and your drums will sound different in different rooms. Most important, what sounds good to me may not sound good to you, it's all about finding the sound that you love!

Trying a bunch of different things will give you a small arsenal of ways to get a good sound out of your kit in any situation.

I will elaborate on my basic set-up to give you a starting place for your own experimentations.

The bass drums on both my jazz & rock kits are tuned pretty loosely. This means high enough that there is some tone and not just the flappy sound of loose drum head, but tuned down near the lowest tone that I could get out of the drum before it starts sounding like just a piece of paper, or broken mylar, instead of a drum.

I have a 4-5 inch hole in the front head (off-center) and an old feather-pillow inside.

With this set up I really like the tone of the kick drum, but the volume is not very loud. It's good for a quieter types of music or if you have a good PA system to mic the kick drum.

Generally, you can get a louder sound from a tighter bass drum head, but the pitch goes up and you don't get as nice a "thump"

Then for variations I carry a nice thick bath towel and a soft piece of felt fabric about five foot square. Generally, the pillow by itself sounds great, sometime I use the pillow with either the towel or the blanket added, sometimes just the blanket, or sometimes just the pillow. It really does depend on the sound of the room, sometimes one thing or another just sounds much better.
In a "live" room with lots of reverb I think the kick sounds better pretty dead. But in a very "dead" room with LOTS of heavy drapes and fabric where the sound just gets sucked up as fast as you produce it, I think a more open sound in the kick drum is better.

As for the toms - I use a small bit of gaffers tape 2 inch wide tape around 3-4 inches long placed on the batter head near the upper edge of the drum.

Gaffer's Tape is like duct tape but not glossy, thicker, more cloth in it and it absorbs the highs better than duct tape. Unfortunately it is also more expensive than duct tape and can be harder to find.

If tape alone is not damping enough I use a small bit of tissue (maybe a 1/2 inch by 3-4 inch piece of tissue about 2 or 3 layers thick) under the gaffers tape

There is an old Simon Phillips video that has just come out on DVD:
http://www.amazon.com/Simon-Phillips-Complete/dp/0739040251
it has a really great segment on tuning & muffling the snare and kick drum.

Drum Tips - Getting Started as a Drummer

Getting Started as a Drummer:

You don't need a full blown drum set to get started playing drums. The giant kits are great fun and impressive looking, but a few, well selected essentials will get you started properly.

Then, if you realize within a few days that your not ready to work at becomming the next world's greatest drummer, you havn't wasted a small fortune getting set up with a giant drum kit that gets stuffed in the closet, or sold off at far less than you paid for it.

The following minimal set-up will get you started in your quest to become a great drummer for about the same amount of money some folks spend in an average weekend night out.

• A gook pair of Drum Sticks (around $7)
  The sticks are like the wizards wand, you can perform with anything, but the right sticks make everything work better. Look for balance and feel in the hands. Roll them on a nice flat surface to make sure they are perfectly round, and as you play them on a nice firm surface listen carefully to the pitch of each stick. Try to get as close as possible to the same sound from each stick - this is pitch matching your sticks.
  
  
• Practice Pad (around $15)
  If you can't practice on a real drum, a good quality practice pad is the next best thing. With a practice pad you can learn all the basics, get your hands doing what they need to do, and keep your neighbors friendly as you get your hands up to speed.
  


• Metronome (ranging from $10 - $40)
  Drumming is all about timekeeping. The metronome is your friend in your efforts to learn to play in time. A drummer who can not keep a steady beat does not often get called back for a second gig. If you think you want to make drumming your passion, get a metronome and make playing in time second nature to you.
  


• Stick Control by George L. Stone (around $10)
  This is a really great, old book that has all the basic exercises for your hands. For drummers, this is like basic spelling and grammar. You wouldn't expect a writer to produce a great novel without understanding basic spelling and grammar, and similarly, you shouldn't expect to produce great music without understanding the basics first. This is one of the best books available to give a drummer the needed basics. Some of the greatest drum beats and fills ever recorded are simply exercises from this book played around the entire drum set instead of just between the two hands.
  

You can progress a really, really long way toward becoming a great drummer with this minimal set-up. With the wonders of the internet, you can even get amazon.com to send the whole package right to your front door for around $50. I realize that it is much more fun to bang around on a giant drum kit than it is to sit and actually practice sticking patterns on a practice pad. However, for those destined to be the next great drummers in the world, even this humble beginning should prove to be fabulously entertaining at a very reasonable price.

Drum Tips - Theft Prevention

Keeping Your Drums Safe

I want to trust in the goodness of people. I want to live in a world where people treat each other with kindness and respect. Unfortunately, this is the world as it aught to be not the world as it is.

It is amazing how much equipment just “walks off” each year. Somebody wants to steal your drums set. The “bad guys” are out there just waiting for you to let down your guard. I make no claim at being a security expert, but I can share a few simple tips to help keep your drums safe.

Lock 'em up:

It’s really a simple concept, just keep the door to your rehearsal space locked. I used to rehearse in a warehouse with a few dozen other bands. Everybody had a little 15x20 rehearsal room within this big warehouse. It was great because I could leave my drums set up all the time and just come in, sit down, and play. At the end of rehearsal there was no need to break down and load all the music equipment out.

One of the other bands lost all their instruments one night - everything – simply because they forgot to lock the door to their rehearsal space. They finished up for the evening and left, forgetting to lock the door behind them. Everything was gone the next day.

I remember playing a club in Sacramento once that had a little back room behind the stage. There was a door in the back room for loading in equipment. One night somebody actually left the door wide open to help keep a breeze blowing through the club. Unfortunately two guitars walked right out that back door.

Don't let this happen to you. Just lock the door.

Don’t leave your drums in your car:

Far too many musical instruments are stolen from the parking lot. Folks think putting their drums in the car and locking it will keep them safe. Wrong! Leaving your drums in the parking lot is an invitation to the bad guys to take them! I once made the mistake of leaving a duffle bag full of drum stands - heavy stands - in the car. I figured it was just the stands - they are far too heavy and not valuable enough for anyone to bother stealing. I was wrong. The bad guys smashed the window and pulled that bag full of heavy-metal right through it.

When you finish the show - if you can’t leave your drums on stage, in a locked room of the club, or under supervision - take everything back home, to you rehearsal studio, or hotel room and lock it up – out of sight, out of mind.

Engrave your drums and cymbals:

Your chances of getting a stolen drum set back are much better if all your equipment is clearly marked with identifying information. Engrave it with your name, or e-mail address, or drivers license number, something else that is easily and clearly identifiable as yours and yours alone. A friend of mine had some cymbals stolen. He reported the loss to the Police and gave them all the engraved info that was on them. A few months later, he found them in a pawn shop in Berkeley. Because the Police already had all the info, and the cymbals at the pawn shop were clearly engraved with his information, there was no hassle at all, the pawnshop handed over the cymbals to the police and the police gave them right back to my friend. He got his cymbals back and the police got the bad guy.

Inside the bell of your cymbals is a good place to engrave, anywhere on the stands, I generally prefer engraving in less obvious places like inside the rim on the drums so that it doesn’t show up when I’m playing and so if they ever are stolen maybe the bad guys won’t notice the engraving and try to scratch it out.

You can get an engraver from Amazon.com for less than $20. Some police departments have an engraver that you can borrow. Get a few other bands together and split the cost between all of you to make it very affordable. Do it now so you don't have any regrets!

Document Your Drum Set:

This means making a list of the manufacturer, model and, where available, serial number of your drums, stands, cymbals, pedals, etc., taking pictures of your drums (both the entire drum set and each individual drum, cymbal, stand and pedal) and keeping it all together in a folder with your original sales receipts. If your drums are ever stolen you will need to include this information in Police reports.

Having a detailed equipment list, photographs, copies of receipts, etc. may not insure that you will get your drums back but can help in at least getting your insurance company to pay all or some of the replacement cost.

When my stands were stolen out of my car, I had a very detailed list of exactly what was stolen, and copies of original purchase receipts. My insurance company covered the replacement cost and I had a new set of stands in time for a show the next night.

Insurance:

Talk to an insurance agent about coverage. If you are a hobbyist – your equipment might be covered under your homeowner’s or apartment renter’s insurance policy. If you are a professional, you might need a separate policy to cover the replacement value of your kit. This is well worth the cost.

When my stands were stolen the insurance company was fabulous about sending a check right away to cover the cost of replacing the loss. A New snare stand, hi-hat stand, two cymbal stands and a stool turned out to cost much more today than when I bought them 20 years ago. My insurance company gave me enough to replace the stands taht were stolen with new ones. What a great deal!!

Insurance is also great if you happen to ever lose your drum set to a fire.

More Information:

For more information on general “crime prevention” here is a link to a great site by the CrimeDoctor: http://www.crimedoctor.com/crime.htm

A History of Drum Brands

Special thanks to Daniel N. Brown for making some good articles available on his drum blog. Here is a nice little history of drum brands that he put together. Check out his other article and drum tips at his drum blog

A History of Drum Brands
by Daniel N. Brown

Whether you are a beginning drummer or an old pro you may be thinking about replacing your old drum set. But, have you decided on a specific brand?

Since there are many different drum manufacturers on the market, choosing a new drum set can be a little challenging.

Here's a little background and history on some of the most popular drum brands on the market today...

Yamaha

Yamaha first manufactured drums in 1968. Early Yamaha drum equipment borrowed concepts
from from Ludwig drum set models. But Yamaha soon acquired a place among the top drum manufacturers and led the industry with innovative shell construction and finish techniques.

In 1993 Yamaha came out with the Yamaha Enhanced Sustain System, known as YESS, for mounting drums. YESS hardware minimizes shell to mount contact, allowing maximum drum resonance. Additionally, the mounting hardware is attached to the shell at its nodal points where the shell's vibrations are of the lowest amplitude. In 1995 the RC 9000 Yamaha drums were reintroduced, enhanced with the YESS.

In addition to making acoustic drum kits and hardware, Yamaha is also a major manufacturer of best selling electronic drums. Popular Yamaha electronic drums, in order of increasing cost, are the Yamaha DTXpress, Yamaha DTXpress Special, and Yamaha DTXreme.

Tama

Tama manufacture first focused on drum hardware, whose demand was increasing due to the rise of rock music, which required sturdy equipment for loud playing. Tama led the industry with rugged double braced 36 inch tripods, and introduced the first boom cymbal stand in production. Tama also made the first multi-clamp hardware, letting drummers easily extend their drumsets.

In the late 70s Tama was further solidified as a brand name by the introduction of the Octobans. The Octobans are sets of six inch diameter tubes with tunable drum-heads that can produce an octave range pich. Octobans were extensively used by Stewart Copeland, drummer of the Police, within his Tama Imperial Star drumset during the late 70s and early 80s.

DW

Drum Workshop, or DW for short, is the leading new American drum company and offers a large variety of snare drum shell materials including aluminum, copper, steel, brass, brass/maple combination, a great selection of lacquered finishes, and various types of rims.

In 1980, DW patented the chain and sprocket bass drum pedal drive system, which is the industry standard today. The first chain and sprocket model was the 5000CX, which was followed by the addition of a stabilizing footboard on the 5000T Turbo model, and an offset sprocket for quicker action on the 5000A Accelerator. During the 1980s Drum Workshop also led the industry in manufacturing of double bass pedals based on their 5000 series.

Drum Workshop followed their accomplishment in pedal making with great success in their drum manufacturing effort. Today, DW is a leading custom drum manufacturer.

Ludwig

The Ludwig company was established in America by two German-born brothers, the older William F. and the younger Theobald Ludwig.

Working as a vaudeville drummer in Chicago in 1908, William Ludwig became dissatisfied with the clumsy foot pedals of the day. He began designing pedals capable of fast tempos and high power, and had them made out of wood by a cabinet maker. The Ludwig & Ludwig company started out by mass producing durable metal version's of William's pedals.

Ludwig drums were selling strong throughout the 1920s, but the invention of the talking movie, which decreased demand for live percussion, and the US market crash in 1929 severely curtailed Ludwig sales. William Ludwig then sold his company in 1929 to the GC Conn Manufacturing Co. of Elkhart, Indiana, which by now also owns Leedy drums. Ludwig continued working under GC Conn until 1937, when he became dissatisfied and left to start a new drum manufacturing operation with his son, William F. Jr. They name their new company William F. Ludwig Drum Company.

In February of 1964, Ringo Starr appeared on the Ed Sullivan show playing a Ludwig drum set that he picked out at a central London location of the Drum City store. The words "The Beatles" were centered on the bass drum, with the Ludwig logo printed above. This exposure gave Ludwig instant recognition and it became the number one drum manufacturer in the world until Japanese manufacturers started making major headway in the early 70s.

Pearl

Pearl drums, manufactured by the Pearl Instrument Company, are the most widely used drum kits today. Katsumi Yanagisawa, the founder of Pearl, started his company in 1946 in Tokyo Japan. He did not start out by making Pearl drums and drum kits, but music stands.

In 1966 Pearl introduced the first professional drum kit under the Pearl name, the Pearl President. Until then Pearl drums were sold under their distributors’ labels. Pearl then became the first Japanese drum brand to penetrate the United States and UK.

The boom in Japanese manufacturing increased the cost of production in Japan, and in 1973, Pearl moved a great deal of its manufacturing operations to Taiwan. Today pearl drums are manufactured in the United States, Taiwan, and Japan, with a corporate headquarters in Chiba, Japan. Pearl drums are also among the most widely copied models among drum manufacturers.

Conclusion

These are just a few of the most popular drum brands on the market. There are also many others such as Gretsch, Slingerland, Sonor, and more.

Choosing a drum set is really a personal preference, and choosing one can be rather confusing. The main thing is to choose a drum set with a good reputation and one that is pleasing to your ear.

Daniel N. Brown has been drumming since 1976!

Get his F-R-E-E Special Report, "Drum-tudes: 10 Attitudes That Will Make You a Star on the Drum Set" when you subscribe to his F-R-E-E Weekly E-letter...
http://www.dbdrumtips.com/

Questions

I have received a few questions posted as comments to some of the posts here - unfortunately the folks who posted those questions left no way for me to send them an e-mail, and some of the answers, I feel, would be very inappropriate to post publicly - like contact information for specific drum teachers.

If you have questions that need private answers, please contact me with an actual e-mail - not just a comment to the blog here.

Cheers,

Troy

No New Postings in Too Long

I feel bad that I haven't updated anything on this blog in a long time. I thought I should at least post a note. Sean in Toronto sent me nice note regarding an upcoming audition and he has me wanting to write a much more extensive commentary on auditions. It is first on the list.

Unfortunately, this last semester of law school has been REALLY slammed. I don't expect to have any free time between now and the end of the Calif. Bar exam in July.

My plan is a consistent 8-10 hour a day study routine between now and then - with some flexiblility built in to avoid "burn-out" - and pass the bar on the first attempt.

Then I can get back to some of the other parts of life that I love so much, like music!

Drummers - December Birthdays

Famous Drummers who celebrate a birthday in December:

December 12, 1900	Sheila E.
December 12, 1944	Alex Acuña
December 12, 1945	Tony Williams
December 15, 1946	Carmine Appice
December 19, 1949	Lenny White
December 20, 1944	Bobby Colomby
December 25, 1939	Don Alias
December 26, 1963	Lars Ulrich
December 27, 1950	Terry Bozzio
December 27, 1962	Sonny Emory
December 28, 1930	Ed Thigpen
December 29, 1947	Cozy Powell
December 29, 1954	John J.R. Robinson

Drum Tips - Gaffers Tape

Gaffers tape looks a lot like duct tape but it is different! (for drummers it is definitely better than duct tape!)

Gaffers tape has a mat finish, not glossy or shinny like duct tape so that the bright lights on a movie set do not reflect off it and create lighting problems on the set.

Gaffers tape is a thick, high-quality cloth tape that absorbs high frequency tones well. It works great for muffling toms, and is very strong so in an emergency it can mend many broken parts on a drum set.

I have used it to tape stands together when they failed, and taped drum heads up to get through the rest of a show. Keep a few old snare drum heads with you and you can cut one to any drums size and tape it over the existing broken drum head for a very quick fix during a show.

Your local hardware store probably doesn’t carry it but it is readily available online. Here is a link to the amazon page:

Gaffer's Tape

Unfortunately, gaffers tape is more expensive than duct tape, but well worth the extra price.

Drum Tips - Art of the Masters

Consciousness is a symptom of disease.
All that moves well moves without will.
All skillfulness, all strain, all intention is contrary to ease.

Practise a thousand times, and it becomes difficult;
a thousand thousand, and it becomes easy;
a thousand thousand times a thousand thousand, and
it is no longer Thou that doeth it, but
It that doeth itself through thee.
Not until then is that which is done, well done.

Thus spoke FRATER PERDURABO as he leapt
from rock to rock of the moraine without
ever casting his eyes upon the ground.

Drummers - October Birthdays

Famous Drummers who celebrate a birthday in October:

October 3, 1962	Tommy Lee
October 7, 1953	Tico Torres
October 11, 1936	Billy Higgins
October 17, 1909	Cozy Cole
October 25, 1924	Earl Palmer
October 25, 1962	Chad Smith
October 26, 1938	John "Jabo" Starks
October 26, 1976	Aaron Spears
October 27, 1924	Gary Chester
October 30, 1951	Trilok Gurtu
October 31, 1939	John Guerin
October 31, 1944	Sherman Ferguson
October 31, 1961	Larry Mullen jr.

Custom Drums - Head Drums in Colorado

I was recently introduced to the beautiful custom drums produced by Head Drums.

Steve Meyer is the creator of Head Drums in Lakewood Colorado. He is attempting to change the benchmark for quality, handcrafted drums. Using truly beautiful and unique woods to create instruments that are a visual and auditory work of art, with incredible tonality and response.

Dedicated to making the best sounding drums, Steve starts with superior drumshells and a greater variety of woods to choose from, so you get the right drum sound for your playing style.

Head Drums manufactures the only thin shell stave drums using a unique method of shaping the wood so that there is no residual stress and each stave is shaped to high precision in order to make the shell. In most cases the shell is made from a single board insuring that the density of the shell is consistent. This process allows Head Drums to produce a shell that is 1/4” thick, giving you the widest possible dynamic range, and producing a drum with incredible sensitivity.