Uneven 16ths
Hi,
I am learning the drums and I am having trouble getting an even 16th note patern on the hi hat. I get da-dum da-dum da-dum instead of dum - dum - dum - dum if you see what I mean.
I have worked on it by setting the metronome to 260 bpm and concentrating on playing on each beat so I am actually playing 65 BPM.
Does anybody have any good suggestions for working on getting an even rythm?
Cheers.
In the absence of someone wiser replying : take a look at your grip and stroke of each hand - are they the same ? Getting strokes even is a fundamental - if you can hear the difference then you can control it - you might just have to go reeeeally slow and concentrate hard. It might be worth practicing alternating single strokes on the pad / drums concentrating on evenness for a while to train it in.
Red ones are better.
The fact that you care about this is worth more than any tips anyone could give you! I've been going through some wayne krantz lessons and he says the most important thing about playing in time is to care about playing in time - sounds silly but it's totally right.Originally Posted by Doozer
I would say this - playing even at slow tempos is much harder than fast. Also it sounds like you might have one wrist stronger than the other so isolating right and left, as Tim suggested, might be a good idea.
Thanks for the advice guys. I think that the the strength might be an issue. My right arm is much stronger than the left, and I have had a couple of injuries to the left arm and hand.
As you suggested I will spend more time just concentrating on the even hits, without worrying about complicated rythms and playing the kick and snare etc.
The grip is also worth looking at. I have a Roland electronic kit where the drums are attached to a frame. If this is not set up right, then that would be related to the grip and the physical action of hitting the drums/cymbals.
I's very tempting to play what you know you can do. I can do some quite good beats that don't involve the 16th notes on hi-hat, but if I can't nail this now I will always have this big gap in my skills.
The worst thing would be to not tackle, get used to it and even forget about. You would be sitting there thinking "this playing is pretty cool", and everyone else is going "god that's awful!". A bit like those dodgy contenestants on X Factor.
I have been working on this video to get 16th notes down
http://www.onlinedrummer.com/drum_lesson_video.php?Id=1
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