Remember, remember...

Hey fellow drummers!

How do you retain the drumming knowledge that you acquire as part of your studying of this fine instrument?

Can you recall the details of a lesson on paradiddles that you took in 2011? 😁 

This week I’m excited to share the beginning of a series of articles where I detail my experience of creating my digital drumming library! 📚️ 

Also this week I saved myself some (actually “quite a bit of”) money by fixing an issue with some hardware. I surprised myself!

As someone who is generally useless when it comes to DIY or fiixing things, this was a real win. Read more below! 🔨 

I also got my hands on an M80 snareweight this week. Not a new thing, but I give some thoughts.

Another thing to note this week is that I’ve created a web version of “The Drum Tuning Bible”. A copy of this has been floating around for a while and at times has been hard to track down, so we’re preserving a copy. There’s some gold in there to help you get the best out of your kit 🪙 

Since that knowledge is public domain and not written by me, there’s no access restrictions - feel free to share it to anyone who you think may benefit from it!

Bonus! I know this is a Top 5, but this video came out as I was typing up the newsletter, and it’s only 5 minutes long…

Learning an instrument is tough, and the sheer amount of information available can be really overwhelming.

There’s so much knowledge I’ve come across that I’ve probably lost or forgotten about, and I’ve probably had many drum lessons where the topic has gone in one ear and straight out of the other because I’ve been tired or not paying attention for whatever reason.

In fact, I know I have, and I suspect my teacher does too… (sorry Dave) 🙇 

In the last year or so, I wanted to solve this problem and started to capture notes on all aspects of drumming and gather them into my own digital library using a tool called “Obsidian”. Be it lesson summaries with links to media, favourite tunings for my gear, hints and tips from forums etc. etc., it gets captured and processed.

In essence, I started building a “second brain” for all of my lessons, learnings, observations, media etc.

Over a series of articles, I plan to introduce you to the tools, processes and techniques that I use and take you through how you can set up your own personal drumming knowledge base.

You’ll need to be a subscriber to access these articles - since you’re receiving this email, you’re good, but just a note in case you want to share this series.

The link to part 1 is below - enjoy, and let’s see if together we can build a repository for all of your drumming knowledge!

I use a DW 3000 hi-hat stand with my electronic practice kit at home. You can’t go wrong with DW hardware. Right? Right?

“silence”

To be fair, I’ve had a load of DW stuff over the years and not had any issues with it.

However, within the last few months, I’d noticed an intermittent “clunk” when playing the hats with my foot. 😱 

On investigation, it turns out that the hardware had developed a problem with the hi-hat rod where it attaches to the lower rod directly attached to the pedal.

Usually the upper rod just screws directly into the lower rod, however, either the lower or upper part had become “threaded”, meaning that the rods would attach, but that there was a small amount of vertical play which intermittently caused a slight delay in release or closure as the two parts clunked slightly apart and then back together.

Nightmare, as this not only sounds terrible and is really off-putting, it’s also not great for practice as you’re not really able to get a good feel for what you’re playing.

I’d resigned myself to having to invest in a new stand until one day this week when I was sitting at my desk.

Recently, I’d been servicing my Gretsch gigging kit and was replacing drum heads as well as the metal tension rod washers with nylon versions. Because I’m so organised, I’d just put the old washers on the desk and left them, filed under “WOD” (“washers on desk”).

When sitting there staring at them one afternoon, it suddenly dawned on me to check if…

1. These were a good fit around the screw on the top rod

2. If adding a few of these to make a shim would resolve the play in the mechanism and save me 💰️💰️💰️ 

Turns out they were a great (slightly tight) fit, and that adding three of these resolved the issue perfectly.

Possibly a bit of a niche issue, but I wanted to post up because firstly, I am quite pleased with myself (my late father would be proud), but secondly it might give someone an idea that saves them from throwing something away and having to spend money on new gear! 😮 

I mean, I’ll probably spend the money on other drum gear anyway, but that’s another story…

I think we can all agree that the general advice here is “to go ahead and muck about with stuff” 😄 

M80 SnareWeight - old news, right? Yes - and I’ve known about these for a while - but I finally decided to try one out this week.

So they’re new to me.

There’s a lighter variant available, but I wanted to go with the heavier one.

FACTS:

• essentially a strip of leather with some magnets on it

• expensive

• they attach to the drum via a clip

• you can “throw off” the leather strip to unmuffle by pushing the strap up, where it magnetically attaches to the clip

• you can add more or less dampening by folding the edges of the leather into the centre, where they magnetically clip to the metal rectangle

• expensive (again)

I mean, what else can I say? They do exactly what they say on the tin. And it’s nice to be able to adjust or release without any real mucking about.

Watch someone else’s video on this and you’re up to speed.

Can I recommend these? Yes and no, depending.

They’re not that cheap for what they are, so…

• Yes, if you’re feeling flush. Like…if you just fixed a hi-hat stand to save yourself some decent coin. (if you skipped the “hints and tips” section, then you don’t deserve to get that reference 👻 ).

• Possibly not if you’re a bit strapped for cash. Tape or a moongel/drum dot/whatever will do a decent job too. Or even the old “stick my wallet on it” might do the trick. Maybe ask for one for Christmas 🎄 

They’re definitely a “nice to have” given the price, though I do like the convenience of being able to just throw off the muffling and not have to mess about with “where do I put this moongel between songs?” or just playing a whole set with muffling because you used tape.

Now that I’ve bought it, I’ll definitely be sticking with it.

This week, I had a video surface in my YouTube feed where Carter McClean reviews a couple of Ludwig pedals.

After the initial demos, it struck me when Carter apologised for his foot technique and speed.

Firstly, the humility involved - Carter is a well-respected drummer and educator, and it’s nice to hear someone who is comfortable admitting their weaknesses.

Secondly, the comment that he’s OK with where he is with his foot technique because “it works for what I play”.

It got me thinking that it’s very important to remember that we don’t need to be able to play every style or genre to an incredibly high standard, and we should be OK with our capabilities.

Whilst I always advocate getting out of your comfort zone and trying new things in order to develop as a player - I do this myself and in fact have advocated it in this newsletter - there’s really no need to be overly concerned if you’re not the world’s greatest jazz player when you’re doing rock covers every night, for example.

Don’t stagnate, but equally don’t put too much stock in things that take you away from your main focus.