Drummer

What’s great about drumming is that you can hone your skills without having access to an actual drum kit – something that doesn’t fly if you’re a violinist, trumpeter or guitarist. In this blog, I’ll provide an overview of all of the drumming-without-a-drum-kit options out there, ranging from air drums, tabletop kits and practice pads to fruit crates, travel cajons and your own body.

While a drum kit without cymbals can happen, you’re unlikely to actually come across one, and there’s a very good reason: treble. Without the cymbals, the low-pitched, mid and bass-heavy sound of any drum kit will start sounding colourless and bland within eight bars. The cymbals also play an essential role when it comes to communicating timing and transitions with the other band members. Here, we’ll take a brief look at drum kit cymbals so you can get to know what they sound like, what they’re for, and what you can do with them.

Back in the eighties, the first cajons started to appear in western pop music, causing an entire generation of sound engineers to scratch their heads in confusion. In the time since, plenty of proven methods have been developed to amplify and record the cajon, and here, we explain them all – so both sound engineers and percussionists can get the best out of this versatile beat-maker.

Ask a few drummers how to set up a drum kit, and you’ll immediately notice a trend: none of them have the same answer. Any drummer’s setup is, of course, an incredibly personal thing simply because, as you grow as a musician, you quickly get to know what works for you and what really doesn’t. What all drummer’s will have in common, is the need for an ergonomic setup. In other words: a setup that allows you to get the most out of your kit without sacrificing too much in terms of efficiency, comfort and… well, your health. And that’s exactly why this blog exists: to serve as a short and neat guide to achieving an ergonomic setup.

From the bendir: an East and North African drum that’s been going for centuries and is still played today, to the bodhran: a traditional Irish drum which some music historians posit is a distant cousin of drums like the bendir, frame drums or hand drums in their various different forms are an integral part of vastly different folk music from all over the world.

In this blog, guest-blogger and drummer Wietse Hendriks shares some of knowledge on drumming in irregular timings, like 5/4 and 7/8. Wietse explains how to count along and, most importantly, how to master the skill as a drummer – examples, explanations and drum exercises included below!

“I want to be a drummer!” This is one of those moments when you’re unable to look at your kid just in case they spot the panic in your eyes. While the alarm bells ring, you let out the internal scream… ‘WHHHHYYYYYEEEE??! What’s wrong with being a pianist or a guitarist? What about the triangle?’

A humble percussion instrument, at first glance, you don’t need much to make a cajon sound good. That said, there are plenty of tricks you can use to get even more out of your cajon. Maybe you want to expand the percussive range with some add-ons and set yourself up with a broader dynamic array and sound that’s unique to you? In this blog, we serve up five short-cuts to your own signature cajon sound.

By simply adding the right cymbals, any drum kit will sound entirely unique compared to other kits, and that’s exactly why drummers spend quite a bit of time and effort finding the perfect set of cymbals. The fact is that at some point, just like us mortals, cymbals will one day reach the end of their life. In this crash course on cymbal maintenance, I’ll let you in on a few secrets and show you how you can delay the inevitable.

Whether caused by a bad habit or a passionate performance, the injuries related to being a musician can range from a gradually niggling and continuous beep in one ear, to chronic and unbearable wrist pain. If you want to play comfortably for the rest of your life, then it’s more than worth learning to listen to your body, practise some good-old self care, and avoid long-term injury, hearing damage, and dreaded RSI!

If you’ve already read our Drumhead Buyer’s Guide and you’re ready to learn more, this article is the logical next step since I’ll be covering drumheads and the various ways in which these help to shape the sound of a drum kit. While it all boils down to simply trying different things, the info in this blog is essential reading for creating your own signature drum sound.

If you want to dampen your drums, this can mean one of two things: 1) you want your drums to sound as quiet as possible so you can practise at home without incurring the wrath of the neighbours, or 2) you just want to reduce the natural sustain and resonance of your drum kit to get a more focussed sound. Of course, there’s plenty of gear you can buy to help solve either problem, but there are also plenty of much cheaper tricks you could try using nothing but stuff you can find lying around the house.