Picture Yourself Drumming: Step-by-Step Instruction for Drum Kit Setup, Reading Music, Learning from the Pros, and More

241 Pages·2007·5.25 MB·English

by  Jonathan Peckman

Picture Yourself Drumming:
Step-by-Step Instruction for
Drum Kit Setup, Reading Music,
Learning from the Pros, and More
Jon Peckman
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Dedicated in loving memory to my Dad, and
to my Mom, who is more of an inspiration to me now than ever
Acknowledgments
Thanks to:
Curt Carbone, for being my fearless other half on Vic Steffans, Fred Rossomondo, and Charles
this project. I simply couldn’t have done this with- Houlihan, for being the best teachers that a young
out you. drummer like me could have ever had.
Megan Belanger, for giving me this opportunity The late great Merle’s Record Rack, for furthering
and her support and patience. my musical education.
Jeff Belanger and Todd Lyon, for their advice and Jeff Pitchell, Feathermerchants, and Pete Veru.
guidance.
All the bands and musicians I’ve ever played with,
Cathleen Snyder, for straightening me out. who made me the musician that I am today (for
better or worse).
Joseph Bastura, for saving the day by creating the
music figures. My favorite drummers. Here are some off the top
of my head: Bun E. Carlos, Tom Ardolino, Dave
David Kuzminski and all at Conn. Valley School, for
Grohl, Jim Keltner, and Ringo Starr. If you’re not
not only giving me the wonderful and rewarding
familiar with all the names on this list, then you
opportunity to teach, but also to love it.
don’t really know how drums should be played, in
Matt Franklin, for letting me take his place. my opinion. Check them out.
The good folks at Peace Drums, for giving me the All of my students, past and present. Hanging out
opportunity to showcase their excellent products. with you all is the best part of my job and some-
times even the best part of my life.
My entire family, especially my sister Lynda, Rick
and the boys, Justin and Dana, and all my friends, Paula, the love of my life. I wouldn’t know where to
for their love and support during this challenging start or where to stop. Now that the book’s done, I
and sometimes difficult time. suppose we should get married, huh?
Jim Chapdelaine and Chris Salonia, for their unwa-
vering friendship and guidance. Where I would be
without them is anyone’s guess.
Todd Royce Morton, for being Todd Royce Morton.
You’re the best.
About the Author
J
on Peckman
is based in Connecticut and
has been a professional drummer for 20 years
and a teacher for 10. He currently teaches at
Connecticut Valley School of Music and Dance in
Portland, Connecticut, and can be found perform-
ing all over New England and beyond.
Table of Contents
Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xii
Chapter 1 Where You’ll Look into the Future,
Go Back to Preschool, Get Stuck, and
Learn How to Outsmart Your Parents. . . . . . . . . 1
Preschool for Lessons:
The Best Way to Use This Book and DVD Package. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
What You Will Learn by Using This Book and DVD Package. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
What You Need to Get Started. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Rhythm, Rhythm, Rhythm. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Sticks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Top Secret: For Your Eyes Only—How to Outsmart Your Parents. . . . . . . . . 10
Life without Drums. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Chapter 2 Where You’ll Learn How to Get
Set Up, Tuned Up, and Rugged Up,
and How to Accessorize Properly . . . . . . . . . . . 15
The Drum Set: Where Rock Lives. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Things to Do before You Begin to Set Up Your Drums . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Getting Set Up. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Tuning Your Drums. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Tuning the Bass Drum and the Toms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Tuning the Snare Drum. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Bass Drum. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Bass Drum Pedal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Hardware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
The Floor Tom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
The Throne. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Table of Contents vii
The Snare Drum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
The Hi-Hat: Stand and Cymbals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Tom Toms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Cymbals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Accessories. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Chapter 3 In Which You’ll Learn a New
Language and Meet the “Big Three” . . . . . . . . . 41
Reading Drum Music: Stop Your Whining. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
It’s Just a Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
More Reasons to Learn to Read Music. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
To Play or Not to Play: Notes and Rests. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
The Framework: Staff, Key, Measures, Beats, and Time Signature. . . . . . . 46
Quarter Notes versus Eighth Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Groove #1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Groove #2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Groove #3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Review. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Chapter 4 In Which You’ll Count to 16, Get Filled In
on Fills, Crash without Getting Hurt,
and Learn What Your Left Foot Is For. . . . . . . . 57
Sixteenth Notes Equal Twice as Many Friends. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Fill ’Er Up. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Use Your Metronome When Learning Fills. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Fill #1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Fill #2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Fill #3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Fill #4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Fill #5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Fill #6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
A Crash Course in Crashing on a Crash. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Your Left Foot: The Last to Join the Party. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
viii Table of Contents
Chapter 5 Where You’ll Learn What to Leave
Out and How to Slice and Dice, and
You’ll Meet Four Guys Named Steve . . . . . . . . . 71
Sixteenth-Note Variation #1 and Groove #4. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Understanding “In Between” Notes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Back to the Groove. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Déjà Vu. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Learning by Repetition. Learning by Repetition.
Learning by Repetition.... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Hey, Brain—You’re Fired! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Using the Timer: Ten Minutes to Change Your Life. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Sixteenth-Note Variation #2 and Groove #5. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Alone at Last: Isolating the Trouble Spot. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Groove #6: A Funky Combination, a Groove
Sensation That Will Cause Elation All across the Nation. . . . . . . . . . . 77
Using Sixteenth-Note Variation #2 in a Fill. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
More Fills Using Sixteenth-Note Variation #2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Slicing and Dicing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Sixteenth-Note Variation #3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Using Sixteenth-Note Variation #3 in Fills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Sixteenth-Note Variation #4. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Using Sixteenth-Note Variation #4 in Fills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Review: Four Similar-Looking Friends All Named Steve. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
More Slicing and Dicing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Making Up Your Own Fills: It’s All in Your Mind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Adding Spice to Your Life and Crashes to Your Fills. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Chapter 6 The Triumphant Return of Your Left Foot . . . . . 91
A Slightly Different Groove. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
The Declaration of Independence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Groove #6 with Open and Closed Hi-Hat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Sixteenth-Note Variations Using the Bass Drum: The Big Four. . . . . . . . . . 96
The Big #1: Sixteenth-Note Variation #1 Using the Bass Drum. . . . . 96
The Big #2: Sixteenth-Note Variation #3 on the Bass Drum. . . . . . . . 98
The Big #3: Using Four Sixteenth Notes to Create a Groove. . . . . . . 100
The Big #4: Sixteenth-Note Variation #4 on the Bass Drum. . . . . . . 102
The Extra-Special “Congratulations, You’ve Reached the
Middle of the Book” Review That I Hope You’re Happy About . . . . . . . . . 104
Table of Contents ix
Chapter 7 In Which You’ll Learn Why Over and Over,
Become Sharp, Get Lectured, Enter a
Brave New World, and Learn How to
Smoke and Throw. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Practice Routines and Learning by Repetition, Learning by
Repetition, Learning by Repetition: Does This Sound Familiar?. . . . . . . . 108
Reviews: Keeping It Sharp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
How to Set Up a Practice Routine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
A Short Lecture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Triplets: A Brave New World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
What Is a Triplet?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Watch Your Sticking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Eighth-Note Triplets: Not Quite This and Not Quite That . . . . . . . . . 115
Sixteenth-Note Triplets: Not Quite That and
Not Quite the Other Thing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Sixteenth-Note Triplets: The Happy Medium. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Speed Kills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Slicing and Dicing with Sixteenth Notes and Sixteenth-Note Triplets. . . 119
Smoke and Throw. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Review. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Chapter 8 Where You’ll Meet Your Two New Best Friends
(the Quadruplet and the Flam), Join the
Secret Brother and Sisterhood of the
Flopping Fish, Slam Doors in Your House,
and Say Inappropriate Things at the Dinner
Table—All in the Name of Drumming. . . . . . . 127
The Quadruplet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
How to Play the Quadruplet: The Secret of the Flopping Fish. . . . . . 128
The Quadruplet with the Focus on Your Hands:
A Lane, a Circle, and a Flopping Fish. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
The Quadruplet with the Focus on Your Right Foot. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
The Quadruplet: Putting It All Together. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Why Play Just One Quadruplet When You Can Play Two?. . . . . . . . . 133