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Blog

Using drum practice pads

18/5/2020

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​Last month it was with great pleasure

to be asked to supply the Planet Drum Studio with our Practice Drum Pads. Planet drum joins a long list of teaching studios in the UK that use our products. We have been manufacturing practice pads since 1973 and have supplied top drummers and teachers with our pads for over 40 years.

We use a special drum feel rubber which is very quiet and doesn't wear out. That's why every year schools and studios research other pads that are on the market but always come back for ours.They know our pads will give a lifetime of use. In fact it was only last week I saw one of our original pads that's over 30 years old and still being used on a daily basis.

We offer a full range of pads to include Button Pad/Mini Pad/Brush Pad/Snare Pad/Dual Knee Pad/Pads on stands and our highly successful full practice kits. We can simulate any drum kit arrangement into a practice kit format so you can practice drums at any time. No electronics to go wrong. No headphones.

Next time you are at Planet Drum check out our practice pads. It could be the best investment you will make in your drumming career.

For special prices, reference 'Planet drum' and contact me direct on wsanders@hotmail.co.uk Tel Mob: 07778 288783 or see our full range at:

www.practicedrumkits.co.uk
drum practice pads
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In the recording studio

18/5/2020

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Planet drum teacher, Radovan Brtko

shares his experience of his latest studio session at Wax Studios. 

'This is an upcoming debut EP of my good friend Severin Bruhin who is a multi-instrumentalist, composer and arranger from Switzerland. His music is in the realm of jazz/fusion mixed with neo-soul, hip-hop and more. The project features quite a few international session musicians, vocalists and artists including a successful Canadian-born producer Robert Strauss (studio owner).'

You can watch their experience below: 
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In order to dance

18/5/2020

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Not all music is made to dance to, but all drumming is dancing,

even if the rhythm is so abstract the drummer is the only dancer in the room.
While there are some instances where being the only dancer in the room makes (sort of) sense, free improv, ambient, or introducing rhythms that are exotic and whose kinetic potential takes time for the audience to understand, rhythm is at its most powerful when it is able to infect a room with a pulse that compels you to move.
​
Notwithstanding the inertia-dictating set-up of most jazz venues today, jazz was created as dance music, not as music for chin-stroking-intellectuals, unwilling to even move to tap their feet.
As dance and music evolved from jazz into a myriad of styles, those who were firmly stuck to their seats took refuge in an academic approach to listening that froze their bodies even further.
drumming and dancing

Samuel Beckett once wrote: 'Dance First, Think Later'.

It seems that some people have taken Beckett's line as confirmation that it's impossible to do both at the same time, a perfect excuse to not move and look down on dance music as self-evidently 'thoughtless'.
However, thought drives action, and in her book Unthought, Katherine Hayles describes how certain impulses bypass the mind to work directly on the body. Rhythm is one such impulse and can go straight from the source to your body. A stubborn insistence on filtering rhythm through the mind before it's allowed to twitch your muscles merely breaks the direct link between reality and experience; the synergy between performer and audience.
​
The result of such broken synergy is often a room full of people gasping to understand what is happening on a stage where a band is too busy playing to themselves to notice they have an audience.
drumming to the beat

That music can be highly complex,

challenging, thought provoking and fuse styles from around the world without compromising on its body-moving force is apparent in electronic dance genres such as Chicago Footwork, Grime, UK Bass and jungle.
To get people moving, perhaps more drummers should dance first, think later, get rid of seats at gigs, go clubbing more often and remember the words of Funkadelic: Free Your Mind, Your Ass Will Follow!

Merijn Royaards, performer, electronic musician and drum teacher
drumming to the beat
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Metric Modulation

18/5/2020

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In trying to explain Metric Modulation, I came up with the exercise below.

This is an area of theory that has proved difficult to study and even when I ask professional drummers about it I never really feel that many of them have a confident understanding of the subject.

I also came across this lack of confidence when discussing Time Signatures with pupils, other drummers, music teachers and other musician's. No one gave me the total confidence that actually new the subject well until I read a fantastic article on the subject of Odd Time Signatures by Chad Wackerman.

With Chad's help I was able to really dig into the subject and develop a system that helped my pupils to feel confident in their understanding of Time Signatures. As I "enjoyed" nearly eight years in an earlier life in accountancy, numbers had always come easy to me but after cracking the "Time Signature Code" I'd love to move onto cracking the code behind Metric Modulation.
music notes

The exercise

 So...here's an exercise with no musical notation that will help develop something closer to Polyrhythmically/Metric Modulation/Superimposed Metric Modulation/Tempo Modulation...but which one is it and how can it be developed with confidence? (Answers on a postcard please). Start by learning the following 3 Stickings. I used the four different versions of the Paradiddle to come up with these sticking patterns but number 1 could also be described as inverted double stroke roll:

1, RLLR
2, LLRL
3, LRLL
Then when comfortable play them as 16th Notes on your snare drum to create a bar of 3/4:
1e+a = RLLR
2e+a = LLRL
3e+a = LRLL
This will look like this:
3/4 RLLR LLRL LRLL

Once comfortable add your bass drum on the 1st note of each group. If you prefer to count like me this means that you will be adding your bass drum on the following counts: 1 2 3 (Not any of the e+a notes).
This will now look like this:

3/4 RLLR LLRL LRLL

(If a note is underlined this means play your bass drum at exactly the same time as your snare). Once comfortable with this it now starts to get a bit more tricky. (Please fasten your seat belt at this point). Turn off your snares and whilst leaving your Right hand on the snare at normal volume then reduce the volume of your Left hand and carefully move your Left hand onto your Left knee. You should now have created a Polyrhythm playing 4 notes on the snare against 3 notes on the bass drum. Count the bass drum out loud: "1 2 3" and repeat this until comfortable.

Next step

Keep going but stop counting the bass drum. Now count the snare drum out loud "1 2 3 4" whilst still keeping the bass drum going. (This, is were the seat belt might come in handy). 
Whilst counting the "1 2 3 4" out loud please remember that you are still in 3/4. At this point stop playing your Left hand on your Left knee and see if you can keep going with the count "1 2 3 4".

If you can do this you are now counting "1 2 3 4" in 3/4 time without the help of the Left hand filling in the gaps but with your bass drum still going. This is known as 4:3 (4 against 3) in 3/4 time.

Now whilst keeping the Right hand going on the snare stop your bass drum and you now have your new Metrically Modulated 1/4 Note/Crotchet Pulse. (Remember 4:3 is written above the bar at this point so that everyone can see that you have Metrically Modulated.)

Julian Marsden
Drum tutor

Article first published in:  www.drumteachers.info
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Like the tide

15/5/2020

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I moved house in January

A big step, a big change, to the coast.
 
It’s something I always wanted to do. We all talk about change and it takes some effort to realise it. But if you are prepared to jump in, and with a bit of luck, you pop out the other side you are afloat, and the tide is with you. The end of the road. The beginning of a new chapter. This is the sea.
 
It's big, and it constantly shifts, the rhythm of the tide is constant. It’s flat when there is no wind. Just a massive heavy slab of blue. Its colour palette changes with the sky, like a Turner. On dull days the weight of sky over sea is almost physical. Like the under belly of a giant grey aircraft, just over head. Clouds become sculptural, when a storm approaches from the Channel. The tide still rolls, but rolls harder. Its the same, but different every time. That's why we stop and stare. Thats why WE play drums.
why learn the drums?

Rhythm - Pulse - Repetition - Distance

​Playing the drums has always been constant to me. It comes naturally. I always knew that. Rhythm. It was only a matter of time before I realized I should take lessons. To make that big step, to better yourself, to create change and develop creativity - put yourself into the NON Comfort zone. Its a gamble. But it just might pay off - so make it work. Be committed.

Eventually, the tide is with you. Paddle at first, warm up your feet, take the next step. Lessons are like the first wave, “boy that took me by surprise”, “here comes another,’ but hey I was prepared this time. Be inspired, watch the pros do it. I went to a drum clinic years ago on the South Bank - and then a photographic exhibition. That day changed my musical direction, the tide turned. I listened to new genres of music and discovered new ways of playing. I also took pictures in a different way too.
I’ve played live many times, recorded, jammed, rehearsed…. but the Grades are like the jumping of the pier. How deep will I go this time ?

They are designed to take you a step further, push the boat out, and stretch your horizon so that technique and skill become finely tuned. Reading music is your map, your chart.
 
Navigate it properly, learn it, and you will be able to interpret music in a different way. Your tutor is the lighthouse, and the tide is with you. There is only one vessel out tonight, it’s you. Take on the sea.

Mike Redpath - Performer and Planet drum student.
Check Mike's drum channel here.
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Discover Nicola Hogg

15/5/2020

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Playing drums gives me a good feeling,

although it feels much greater when you can work with like minded artists. That's why I'm working with the up and coming Nicola Hogg. Last year we've released 4 singles, you can check these out on all social media platforms with the handle @nicolahoggmusic - for them we've worked with Abbey Road Engineer Christian Wright (Ed Sheeran) and other collaborators.
​

The single 'Flow' won the Mayor of London Big Busk competition which received press coverage from BBC News, BBC introducing, the Evening Standard and many other major media outlets. It also took us to Glastonbury where Nicola shared the bill with artists such as, Mullally, Everything Everything & producer Naughty Boy. Touring wise, Nicola played in Italy and Argentina. 
Nicola Hogg

Where is she now?

She's now back in London, where we are planning for her second set of song releases, gigs and tours. We'll be rehearsing at Planet Drum too, so pop in if you want to meet Nicola or just say hi! Make sure you listen to her tracks, and leave a comment if you like them!

​Blog post by Hernan Palazzo
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Drumming in theatre shows

13/5/2020

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Keith Debarra performed in 'The Lost Disc', 

the latest production by the The London Snorkeling Team. We have asked Keith to tell us more about this production:

"I performed again at Shoreditch Town Hall for three nights with the London Snorkelling Team. 
Last year, I performed with them in a collaborative production of 'A Mid Summer Night's Dream' with Filter (production company) and Lyric Hammersmith. 

​As well as a run at the Lyric, we were also very lucky to bring the show to Australia and Dublin.  It was a great experience and great to be involved in something quite different from what I'm used to. They are very creative people making some very interesting things things with music and theatre." 

​
drumming in theatre shows

​Again, it's a very interesting

experience to see how something like this is put together both musically and theatrically.  It is a new production based on a short sketch which this team put together for another show some years ago. 

My role, as you might have guessed, was to play drums but I had some lines to deliver at some point which was fun and nerve racking .
We had rehearsed a lot and I think it was a really good show. Let us know if you came along for either of the three shows at the Shoreditch Town Hall." ​

Blog post by Planet drum teacher, Keith.
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