Modern Drumming Concepts: Time Space And Drums, #0

By Stephen Hawkins

Discover Simple Solutions to Beginner Drumming Problems!

 

Are you having trouble finding the right drum teacher and the best way of learning to play the drums? Do you have practice issues you'd rather be without? Are you confused about the concept of timekeeping and the deeper understanding of time?

 

… or maybe you're looking to learn some new approaches to drumming theories and concepts?

 

If that sounds like you then The Time Space and Drums Series is here to help you achieve your drumming goals and more.

 

After working for some of the biggest names in British show business for over 35 years, along with some of the best MD's (musical directors) in the business, learning, practicing, working across the country, home and abroad, solving practice and other problems along the way... it became clear that other drummers had to deal with these same issues. It is for that reason that I wrote:

 

Modern Drumming Concepts

 

A collection of drumming ideas, concepts, theories, and methods that are designed to take the complete beginner through the most common learning and practice issues they may encounter on their journey that builds the beginning drummers' level of understanding. At the same time removing some confusion. There are no exercises here. Just practical tips and advice to make your drumming journey as smooth as possible.

 

In the Modern Drumming Concepts guide you'll discover:

• A completely new approach to thinking about, and playing in time, so you gain an advanced understanding of the drummer's most powerful concept. TIME! You'll also discover that time is really a secondary consideration when it comes to playing great time. As paradoxical as it sounds.
• What time actually is, so you can approach drumming and playing in time with much more confidence.
• That speed is an effect and not a cause you should focus on in order to play faster. This makes your focus shift to more productive approaches which then makes playing at speed a naturally occurring effect of learning how to play drums.
• How to quickly solve the lack of practice problems so you make the most of your time and get the maximum results possible from your practice time!
• Mind over body integrations that give you complete control of yourself and your drumming!
• Why the scientific approach is more important than the artistic approach when you're just starting out right up to intermediate level, which then makes the time you spend practicing far more productive.

And more...

 

Other books in the series contain practice exercises to develop your drumming skills and abilities from the beginning but there are no exercises to practice here. Just ideas, methods, and concepts that will help make your drumming journey as easy and smooth as possible, as well as enhance everything you ever do as a drummer. And to subsequently help create a better outcome from your time in the practice room!

 

The difference between the great drummer and the average drummer is that the great drummer does what he needs to do today, to make sure their drumming is where they want it to be tomorrow! Absorbing and filtering every bit of information they can find along the journey. Which Drummer Do You Want to Be?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Stephen Hawkins
• Release date: Apr 14, 2021
• ISBN: 9781913929251

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

Although it is intended to be supplemental to the Time Space and Drums series this book also serves as an introduction or getting started manual for the complete beginner and possibly the intermediate drummer. The first section being specifically for the complete beginner and the second section aimed at the intermediate to the advanced drummer in an attempt to add some modern concepts to his or her existing arsenal of drumming skills and abilities.

The more advanced drummers may find some new ideas and concepts throughout the second section of this short book and possibly the first section that helps him or her advance even further or at the very least get even more control over one’s current skills and abilities.

The astute reader will understand that even the most basic ideas could add a little or a lot to one’s current abilities through digging the neural pathways a little deeper and therefore even the first section of this book could be of potential value to higher level drummers.

I will leave it up to the individual reader to make up their own minds regarding such judgments and hope that even if I make a little impact on just one student of drums then my work will have been worth the effort. I know of no greater reward than a glint of discovery in a student’s eye!

But as you will discover, in general, I tend to listen to the beat of a different drummer, always have, and that has kept me living on the edge of life just a little. I think it’s smart to keep a honed focus and not to let others diffuse your efforts whatever road you decide to travel. As drummers, we tend to express our individualism in one way or another regardless of others' opinions unless it serves us to do so anyway, and that’s a good thing. We don’t want to waste our valuable time by creating anything less than what is good for us and the music we play.

And speaking of wasting our time, although some videos can be entertaining and others can be useful tools to learn from I believe the written word carries more weight in the readers' mind as the synapses start to fire as we dig those neural pathways just a little deeper than when we are passively watching TV or videos. Reading is a more active way of learning so I believe it to have more value than videos despite the recent years' video site eruptions into our lives.

Due to its passive nature, I try to avoid extended viewing times much like the TV as I am far too busy developing my own projects and life to sit watching others live theirs. But that is just my wayward opinion and me exerting my own influence into my own life and the path I choose to follow. You may be different and that is fine too.

Having said that, don’t spend too much time watching other people live their lives to the extent that your own rushes by you in an attempt to avoid those long hard practice sessions needed to make it in the world of drumming today.

Don’t let anyone tell you any different. Drumming can be a long and often frustrating path to take if you intend playing professionally on one level or another in the not so distant future.

But for now, let's take our first steps into the various drumming concepts the drummer will need to make use of whether they be tangible or intangibly attained as he travels down the road to drumming control and mastery.

Finding the Right Teacher For YOU!

Let’s start with some beginning steps you will have to take at the onset of your drumming career. More advanced drummers can also benefit from spending more time on their basic fundamental knowledge, skills, and abilities and so I make no apology for inviting more advanced players to read this first section as well as the more advanced concepts in section two of this little book. As touched upon in the introduction, everything can always be made better and those neural pathways can always be ground a little or indeed much deeper.

So, you need a drum teacher, instructor, or guide? First, let's begin by summing up exactly what a teacher is and what he is not. 

A drum teacher is someone who teaches you the right way to learn how to play the drums. In this, he is really a guide and not a teacher at all. 

This is because within your own mind you always teach yourself and are only guided by the external influence of the teacher. You see, hear and find errors you are making within yourself based on the guidance provided of what is the right or best way to learn from that particular teacher's perspective and you decide to correct those errors or not. 

This Division. 

Although you are your own teacher for the time being let me take on that role and you can take over when the time is right for you. The most important part of being a drum guide or instructor as we'll call him is, in the beginning at least, is possessing some knowledge and or skill that you/the student/teacher wish to learn. In order to know this, you must first know where you want to go as a drummer and within the world of drumming. 

Do you just want to play for fun or do you want to play in a band? If the later, what kind of band? What kind of music would they play? what kind of gigs would they do?

Do you want to master all styles of drumming or just concentrate your efforts on rock or jazz or any other musical style? I should clarify from the onset that whether you want to learn reggae, blues, jazz, rock, Latin bebop, rap, or any other kind of music genre that in drumming these two distinctions (rock and jazz) should really be made clear. Drumming is drumming and as a member of the rhythm section in a band situation what you are doing as a drummer falls into two main categories. In its most basic form, these categories might be called straight ahead 1/8th notes and triplets. Or rock and jazz.

All music genres or styles as far as drumming is concerned are formed from the foundations of those two drumming rhythms, rock and jazz.  If you want to be a rock drummer you learn rock and jazz drumming, if you want to be a jazz drummer you learn jazz and rock drumming and if you want to be any other kind of drummer you learn rock and jazz drumming.

So, you now understand the foundations of drumming but those two rhythms are built on the foundation of the quarter note, pulse, or time. Both jazz and rock rhythms are built on the ¼ note pulse and so the two drumming rhythms rock and jazz although written differently are really just different feels built on the foundation of the pulse. They describe how the drumming or music feels and so are written differently in order to express those two feels of jazz and rock or swing and rock. Swing is essentially the same as jazz.

If there is anything you don’t understand from the above description then reread this section as it is an important foundational concept that all drummers must integrate and master so don’t be put off by the terms jazz and rock if you want to be a pop or R&B drummer, for instance, jazz and rock styles will take you there. But remember that both