Thursday, January 21, 2010

Learning to Play Drums via Rock Band? Pt. 2

This is an addendum to the last blog:

http://www.magx01.blogspot.com/2010/01/learning-to-play-drums-via-rock-band.html

These are the last 2 parts to that series. If you have not seen the 1st one, I advise you do so, and please read the text either there or here before watching. Thank you.





I started playing drums after playing Rock Band for a year, and believe it or not, that's where I learned the basics. I had always had an acoustic drum kit, but never knew how to play, and the drums just sat there unused, but after a year of Rock Band I decided to give them a look, and right away I noticed a drastic difference. My Rock Band ''skills'' really had transfered over to the real drums.

I had to learn how to use a high hat pedal of course, and relearn positioning and how to play cross handed, but I immediately was able to at least play a few beats, something which I was never able to do before.

Here's a video of me playing a few months into it so you can see the evidence that it is possible to learn drums via Rock Band. The basics, at least.

Few things to preface it:

1) I had not been drumming long at all when this was filmed (May 2009). I was (and still am) a newb, and I have zero musical training. This was filmed after drumming for maybe four months, and only a few hours a week. No lessons or anything.

2) I do have an acoustic kit, but I have a wife and baby at home, so I bought the electronic kit to enable me to play with headphones.

3) I've improved since this, and actually leanred to diversify my fills a bit. I am planning on starting lessons sometime this year, so I can take it to the next level and really become the intermediate drummer I know I can be :)

Alright, now that I got that out of the way, here it is:

Enjoy (?) and now if anyone says Rock Band won't teach you anything, you can tell them otherwise.

8 comments:

  1. I finaly saw a mistake near the end of the first video. You lost a stick there for a minute. The thing that stood out to me though was that I still didn't notice anything wrong with the music. That tells me that the mistakes you hear are covered over by the guitar to me.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I know who this is :)

    Yes, I still lose my sticks now. All the damn time, actually :(

    ReplyDelete
  3. Do you have to spin the sticks or something like that or do they just slip out of your hands.

    Fun Fact: The last part of my user name actually comes from the word anonymous, but I removed the "u" because I didn't think it looked right in my name. It was to close to dragon and mouse put together then.

    ReplyDelete
  4. They just slip because my grip is too loose. It's too loose because I often practice the so called ''flying fingers technique'' which is utilized extensively in death metal. So this screws me up when I drum ''normally.''

    Alright, you are the anonymous dragon.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Is it called the flying stick technique by beginners?

    Wait you lose them when you use the regular technique? If that is the case why don't you just always use the flying fingers technique?

    By the way every time I type or read that I think of old martial arts flicks. It sounds like something they would use.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hey man. The "flying fingers technique" is used for blast beats an done handed rolls. You don't really use it outside of that.

    If you want to see what I mean by it, check this out:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDKlnNKN-5c

    ReplyDelete
  7. Ah now I see, but now I have another question for you. Why was he wearing a Tigger costume?

    ReplyDelete
  8. I have no clue, he always does. It boggles the mind sir.

    It boggles the mind.

    ReplyDelete

Tell magx01 and the rest of The Thoughtful Gamers what's on your mind!