Julia

@Pierre You never know, the lad might find his way back to it someday 😊

I am just always getting into new things...and I love to do things that are kind of unexpected of me 🙂 But this song just made me NEED to learn the drums:

Photos forthcoming! Though I have none of the grip smudges on my hands. Don’t you worry, preparing my July challenge entry (the Questlove are not actually my favorite pair).

So in my early days of drumming, when I just had a practice pad and started buying different kinds of drumsticks to play around with, I was really into thin sticks. My thinking was that I've got small hands, of course I should play with thin drumsticks (I had no idea about how grip was affected by different sizes then). So I went to a local music shop and got myself one of the thinnest pairs on the market — Vic Firth's Questlove signature sticks. They're lovely — .520” diameter, 17” length, white sticks with a black grip making them look like they're wearing tuxedos. But as I played, the black grip material was melting off onto my hands as if it were licorice. I contacted VF customer service by email. They replied promptly, saying something wasn't right about them — and they sent me a new pair without even expecting me to return the defective ones. The new ones arrived quickly, and they were perfect — no grip melting. Why was the first pair melty? Well, if something sits in a shop here in the Arizona desert climate for too long, something is bound to go wonky. The sticks must have been there for quite a long time. The sun could have been hitting them at certain times of day in that old dusty shop that mainly served band students. The poor sticks didn't stand a chance. Of course, I wasn't one to waste a salvageable pair of sticks. I taped them, and they were even more awesome. The tape changed the dynamics of them so that they now have this crazy rebound that helps me be conscious of stick control, and is just plain amusing. I love that I have the new pair, but I'm saving them for a special occasion, given that they're wearing tuxedos.

@Stephen actually, I have a musician friend on Twitter named Jake Nolen. My favorite song of his, a track called "Please Don't” (I'll link below) has synthesized drums. I told him I'm learning drums and would love to learn his song, and he replied, "Please DO!” The groove is just like Billie Jean, but slower, and the fills are just as minimal. I think I can do this. It sounds like such a small, almost silly thing, but I'm seriously telling you that nothing would make me happier than to be able to send him a recording of me drumming his track as just a shout out and a gift to him for being such an awesome guy. Even five months ago I had no kit and no lessons and couldn't imagine this even being a real thing, but now I have a kit and you are teaching me things that are making this real - so I want to thank you again and tell you how much I appreciate being here. "Please Don't” by Jake Nolen: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=c1aDQ9r-6oI

@Monica Fun! You just gave me an idea...I'll borrow other people's kids to play drums with. 👍

@Tim B. That makes absolute sense. As much as I like to play around with the sticks, I am a stickler for learning good technique (see what I did there? Ok I'll stop now 😆)

@Tim B. my first pair is VF, and so is my favorite pair (Jojo Mayer signature sticks). But I'm curious, so I'll try just about anything that looks interesting to me. I will have to put off cymbal definition experiments for a while, because I currently have to mute everything to the maximum degree 😕. I can definitely see how different sticks suit different genres, not just because of how they affect my grip and — assertiveness? I can't find the right word here — but also because of the physical properties of the sticks. Even on practice pads/surfaces, I noticed differing effects. I'm impressed with VF customer service — I bought a pair of sticks that turned out to be defective, and they immediately sent me a replacement pair, no questions asked. I'll save the full story for a future post, it's kind of interesting.

@Tim B. Thanks! I have trouble thinking of something easier, it's pretty basic, and the fills are the most minimal I can find in any song. Don't make us tackle any more fills in one lesson 😂 Maybe just something a bit slower?

Hi all, I gave myself extra time for this lesson because I wanted to really work on learning my first song. I have finally gotten the basic groove down at .75x speed — I can do it at normal speed, but barely hang onto it. The fills still need a lot of work, but I have now officially confirmed for myself that drummer's high is a thing 🙂. I'm glad that Stephen put an actual song early on within the lessons, because it's really great to see how a song comes together in practice, and I feel more confident and capable.

Hi there! My daughter is in college, and I don't have any little ones at home, but I thought I'd join and complain that my daughter doesn't want to learn drums with me 😆 I love to see kids learning to play music with their parents/family. @Monica, are yours learning with you?

@Joshua Thanks for joining! I got so nerdy about sticks when I didn't have a kit, but why stop now that I do? 😉 Correction: The sticks are labelled X8D, not 8XD. They were one of the first pairs I got to play with the pad. I liked them at first, but soon learned that they are too buzzy on my preferred pad (Vater 6” red). Now, on the kit, they're much better — no buzz on my muted surfaces, good size for my small hands and more reach. I later discovered that larger diameter sticks help me develop my traditional grip, so I stole some from my husband got a few different pairs. I like the lightness of maple sticks, so I should give the SD9 a try. Breaking sticks seems like such a pro thing to do...I have informed friends and family that when I break my first drumstick on the kit, I am going to have a huge party. Everyone in SDS will, of course, be invited.

Before I got my drum kit, I played on a practice pad, and allowed myself to, ahem, collect more pairs of sticks than a kit-less person should reasonably have. I eventually stopped, but had a long period of time where I was switching pairs, comparing their rebound on the pad, noticing how easy/difficult they were to use on the pad, and just getting a feel for different kinds of sticks. I felt like this improved my understanding of grip and how to use it effectively. Wouldn't you know, having a kit changes the way the sticks feel, so it's like starting over. I am still having fun swapping out pairs and seeing what happens. Do you have a go-to pair of sticks, or do you use different ones? What are you hitting your bouncy inanimate surfaces with lately? I'm currently practicing with a pair of Vic Firth 8XD and will share my thoughts on it in a future post.