Tip 1: Set up your drumset correctly !
To set the drums up for the viewer so it looks cool from the front
rather than for yourself. Set the drums up so that the bass drum is facing the
audience straight on, rather than being off to the right if you are a
right-handed drummer, because the bass drum is not the centre of the drumset.
Trying to make the drumset perfectly symmetrical or sitting too low or
too high, or to set up the cymbals too far away from the player so you have to
play with your arm completely stretched is a mistake
Try this exercise:Take your stool, adjust it so there is more than a 90°
angle between your legs and your spine and between your upper legs and lower
legs.
Then you set up the snare drum so it is comfortable, then a bass drum
where the foot really sits, then a hi-hat where the foot really sits, and so on
Tip 2: Get a grip on your sticks
Hold your matched grip correctly with balanced fulcrum
between you thumb and index finger steady and the remaining 3 fingers loose and
ready to bounce the stroke. Next, do your warm up’s, be relaxed and breadth
easy
Try this exercise: Make sure that your left hand and your
right hand are equally strong by playing fast unison strokes in different
patterns, in different cycles; groups of three, groups of five, seven, two
16ths and one eighth note, but with both hands at the same time.
That way
you make sure your hands are equally strong and you can concentrate on either
the right or the left for timing and precision while you are playing
Tip 3: Sing your way to keeping better time
Make an effort to learn some songs and just clock to your
favourite tunes ! Get a metronome out and clock it to the song BPM. If you can
remember tempo then you are less likely to speed up or slow down. That is
achieved by association and muscle memory. The best way to do it is to combine
the two
Try this exercise: Start
a song, be aware of the quarter-note pulse and ‘sing’ it first. Then start
playing the beat comfortably while keep the quarter note pulse
Once you have
ace’d the beat on time now add in your roll’s during the ‘fill zone’ never
stopping to sing the song or quarter note pulse even during the transitions from groove (paragraph) to fills (chorus) and back to groove
To read more tips from 2 of the hottest pro drummers in the
world today Benny Greb & Thomas Lang click here
