Mastering VIRTUAL DRUMS for the Live Beat Maker - BEATH THANG

Photo by BgPorter

Every music creator, regardless of his or her type or size, feels the urge to impress a screaming audience and become not only a music creator but a creator of amazing concerts as well. A showman or show woman, if you will. But if you’re more of a beatmaker than a music creator per se, chances are that you write music on software instruments like virtual drums.

The problem with writing music on virtual drums is that it doesn’t translate into live performance the same way more traditional music creators can warp their craft for such. So what is a beatmaker, a different animal than a pure music creator, to do?

Become a beatmaker on virtual drums that make the live performance as easy as possible, of course! Most virtual drum sequencers used by beatmakers require the navigation of a laptop while on stage, or the mental ability to use piano keys as drum pads.

Virtual drum studios like Beat Thang (this tool does a whole lot more than just drums, but more on that later) has a user interface with pads that can be converted for any noise and will make more visual sense to beatmakers using it for virtual drums than the interfaces mentioned above.

To get a little more specific, let’s take a look at exactly the things Beat Thang allows music creators to do on stage, virtual drums, or not. Aside from the familiarity of the above-mentioned keypad, Beat Thang most impressively offers real-time looping with virtually no load time. This means that beat makers and other music creators can make loops on the fly during a live set.

There will be no load time delay, which is especially important if you’re looping virtual drums. As any beatmaker knows, even the slightest mishap in a drum loop and the whole thing sounds off.

Beat Thang’s features were designed by professional musicians for all levels of musician, so it’s no surprise that they came up with this next feature for beatmakers: the ability to design your own effects (reverb, delay, chop & screw parameters, etc.) and program them in pre-sets to use when performing live.

Any music creator or beatmaker knows how great it can be to have a sound you designed in your back pocket to use when just the time is right during your set. If you tweaked every individual virtual drum kit sound, you could potentially create a set the likes of which have never been heard before, except only in your head!

Beat Thang also has patents pending for side-mounted pitch shift and modulation wheels, another feature music creators and beatmakers could use for every sound on Beat Thang. Even an instrument like virtual drums that are atonal would sound more interesting with the occasional pitch shift.

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Types Of DRUMS Based On Your Musical Genre

A standard drum set: Ride cymbal Floor tom Toms Bass drum Snare drum Hi-hat (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The components of your drum kit may vary greatly from that of any other drummer based upon the genre in which you play as well as your personal preferences and financial resources. Transportation issues may also play a part since you need to have a vehicle large enough to transport the drum set, and the more equipment that you have, the more room it will need for transportation. The venues where you perform may also have a bearing on the components of your set. If you are continually playing small clubs, the stage may not be large enough to accommodate a large number of drum components, so in spite of your genre and personal preferences, you may need to reduce your drum kit out of necessity.

Throughout history, using two bass drums has been a normal part of the drums for jazz bands, but recently many drummers, especially those in the hard rock and heavy metal genres have used dual bass drums. Since the 1980s it has been commonplace for drummers to use electronic drums either individually or as part of a standard drum set. Sometimes cowbells, gongs, tambourines, and other percussion instruments are also utilized in drum kits. A drummer may also have his own personal preferences in spite of those dictated by his genre, and therefore, creating a sound that is slightly different from every other performer in that genre. Some drummers also choose both snares and toms, and though they may not use them on every song, they become part of the drum kit to be utilized whenever needed or desired.

Though genre sometimes indicates the type of drums that are included within a kit, there is no hard and fast rule on it, In fact, even hard and heavy metal bands sometimes tone down a few songs on a CD, and thus the need does not exist for the harder sounds. Even some rock and roll bands from the past who had hard-hitting drum sound occasionally slowed it down through the use of just a bass or snare, allowing the guitars to carry most of the musical sound. After all, when you're talking about a ballad, you may not want the hard-hitting drum sound, but just a slow beat and occasional cymbal sound is all that is necessary.

The key to knowing what you need in your drum kit is in the type of music you will play, the venues where you will be performing, your budget, and your transportation resources. Personalize your kit based upon what you can transport and the size of the stages where you will perform rather than what you feel you should have or what you want. Even if you can afford it, it's senseless to buy something you can't use except for practice.

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How To Hold Your DRUMSTICK To Produce The Best Sound

Traditional Grip Detail (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The way you hold your drumsticks plays a vital role in the quality of sound that you produce and the length of time that you will be able to play your drums. Unfortunately, the proper holding of the drumsticks is one of the most ignored and neglected protocols when it comes to playing the drums. If you are one of those drummers who has not really been holding your drums, you will most like hurt yourself in the long run so start paying close attention to how you hold your drumsticks. Always remember that your drumsticks are extensions of your hands and not just an accessory that you use to hit the drums with.

Gripping Your Sticks

If you are still a beginner and you still have not established a way of holding your drumsticks, it would be best for you to ask your music teacher to show you how to hold your drumsticks properly and practice that kind of grip. Learn the right way to hold your drumsticks right from the start. Always remember that unlearning something is a lot more difficult than learning something for the first time to make sure that you start your drumming lessons in the right direction.

Different people have different ways of gripping their drumsticks. The most common way of holding the drumsticks is the matched grip. The matched grip is very easy and is very popular especially among those drummers who are into pop music. When using the matched grip method of holding your drumsticks, you just simply hold both sticks in the same way with your palms facing downward. All your fingertips should rest lightly on the drumstick. The good thing about using the matched grip method of holding your drumsticks is that you can use the same gripping style when playing other instruments such as the timpani, chimes and other types of percussion instruments. 

Another popular way of holding the drumsticks is the traditional grip which allows you to hold your drumstick with your palms facing up with your fingers gripping the sticks from underneath. The traditional grip is very popular among jazz drummers because this allows better dynamic control. If you are aspiring to become a jazz drummer, it would be a good idea for you to practice holding your drumsticks in this manner from the very start so that you will be able to get the hang of it.

However, if you have no plans on concentrating on jazz music, it would be best for you to use the matched grip. Note that if are using a bigger drum kit, the traditional grip may make it difficult for you to move around especially if you are using a bigger drum kit. You may find it quite awkward to hit your cymbals in this position.

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How to Pick Out Snare DRUM STICKS

A snare drum.  (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Snare drum sticks are the objects that drummers hold and use to play the drums. Since there are different kinds of drums and styles of music, the sticks that drummers use to create their music can have a direct impact on the way they sound. As a result, it is important that drummers know the anatomy of a drumstick as well as how the characteristics of a drumstick can influence their sound.

Drumsticks can be made of many different types of materials but are usually made of wood. Common wood choices include hickory, oak, and hard maple. Each type of wood obtains unique characteristics that may make it more suitable in some musical situations than in others. Therefore, choosing the right wood for a performance is one key element to every drummer's unique tone.

Hickory tends to be the most popular wood used in drumsticks. It is denser, heavier and more rigid than the most types of wood allowing it to absorb a great amount of shock which helps reduce wrist and hand fatigue. Maple wood which is less dense and much lighter than hickory wood so it helps give the feel of a big stick without the extra weight of the hickory. Lastly, oak wood is very heavy and non-flexible causing the drumsticks made of oak to be some of the heaviest, hardest, and most durable drumsticks.

While the three types of wood mentioned above are the most common materials used to make drumsticks, other woods such as beech, hornbeam, lancewood, and massaranduba are also sources of snare drum sticks. It's important to note that sticks can also be made out of other materials including aluminum, plastic, and graphite, however, these are much rarer.

A snare drumstick has 4 basic parts but there will be 6 parts discussed in this article. First is the tip which is also known as the bead. It is located at the end part in which the head is being struck. It can be oval, round, acorn, or barrel-shaped. The shape of the bead can influence the way the stick rebounds off of the drum head after a stroke and is one of the most important aspects of a drumstick. Next is the neck of the drumstick. It is the small part of a snare drum stick that connects the tip to the shoulder. It is the thinnest part with the exception of some specialty drumsticks. The shoulder is the part where the stick starts to taper or slope into the neck. The closer the shoulder is to the tip, the less bounce and response you will get. The taper is used to identify the shape and the length of the drumstick shoulder. The shaft or the body is the biggest part of the stick which is used to hold and sometimes to produce specialty strokes. Lastly, the butt is the opposite of the tip which is the thicker, counterbalance end of the stick. Though it is not specifically designed as the part to play, some drummers flip the sticks to use butts for effects.

When picking out your first pair of snare drum sticks, be sure to consider the factors mentioned in this article. Determine what type of music you will be playing and decide what type of material will best fit that style of music. Next, determine what type of tip you want as well as what size drumstick best fits your hand. If you can feel confident making these decisions, you will have an easy time finding the perfect pair of sticks for your drumming experience!

By Richard J. Klein Richard J. Klein is a passionate drummer and drum teacher who loves sharing his knowledge with people all around the world. Article Source: EzineArticles

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