How many drummers/percussionists has the SDMB?

Cafe Society
1

Just wondering about the answer to a question similar to the thread title.

I’ve been playing for about 8 years, starting out in a rock vein, then eventually spreading out to a more eclectic, jazz-influenced vein that I am still trying to achieve today. I’m very interested in rudimental drumming, but I limit any endeavours along that bent to the practice pad, which is always handy by the computer for whenever inspiration strikes. I play a 4 piece kit (5.5 x 14"(birch), 10"x 8", 14"x 12", 22"x 14") and 2-3 cymbals. I was in a couple small-potatoes local bands until I decided to not pursue gigging for a while and get my act technically together (like I hear Eric Clapton once did).
What’s your story?

2

My story…I am a musical,literature,mathermatical,scientific,theoritical, prodigy. I have been playing drums,piano,keyboard,guitar,bass,and turntables since the age of 11. And I’ve never taken any lessons. I play just like the drummer of System of a Down with a mixture of intricate beats. I’m thinking of starting my own band as well.

3

Im currenly working on my B.mus in percussion performance at Memorial Universitys school of music

-ed

4

Lessons for several years when I was a young teen ager. Haven’t touched a stick for years. Although I am constantly air drumming to everything.

5

Started out playing trombone in the 5th grade - switched to percussion in the 8th, where I stayed until my sophomore year in college. Played pretty much everything, including the set in my high school jazz band. Still find myself drumming out rythms with my fingers, hands, feet, etc 18 years since I last lifted a pair of sticks.

6

I’m a tap-dancer – does that count?

7

I am, by far, the Worlds Greatest Steering Wheel Percussionist™.

Want me to play the drum break from abby road?

8

Like DaddyX2, I played when I was younger. Garage bands, nothing serious. I haven’t had a stick in my hands for probably 20 years now - but it’s like riding a bike, you never forget, right? I sometimes think about my old set of Ludwigs stored in the crawlspace. But it would be hard to put a band together around here that plays the kind of music I like.

9

Best drummers (not considering rock, for the moment):

Milford Graves – New York Art Quartet
Ronald Shannon Jackson
Sonny Murray

10

Add Joe Morello and Russ Kunkel and you got a list. :wink:

11

I started playing drums about six years ago at the ripe old age of 27; I’d always wanted to play and figured I wasn’t getting any younger. Grew up playing piano and saxophone, and picked up bass in college.

I have three kits right now. The first is a cheapie Apollo, that doesn’t have many redeeming features. I also have a 60’s era Ludwig kit with a Supraphonic snare that I’m refinishing, along with some old Zildgian A cymbals, including 15" New Beats and a 22" Ride. Basic sizes, 22 bass, two 12" toms and a 16" floor tom. My main kit is an early 80’s era Gretsch stopsign badge kit. A nice 20-lug snare, 6.5 deep. Bass drum is 24 x 16", 14 x 12" rack tom and two 18 x 16" floor toms. Most all my heads are Aquarian, though I use the super-thin Evans on my snare side. Also all my two good snare have the Puresound snare wires. I use either Paiste Sound Formula hi hats or Zildgian K Customs. I have a few cymbals, but mostly use an Istanbul 20" ride and an 18" Zildgian A Custom crash. Pedals are DW early delta-era, modified with a nylon strap. I made the mistake of buying all double-braced hardware, which means everything weighs too much to carry around, so this kit stays home. Lately I’ve been putting an 18" floor tom up on a d’amico cradle and using that as a bass drum. I also have a Korg ES-1 drum machine / sampler mounted on an LP tray to the left of my hi-hat, that I use to run drum patterns to practice along with. I’m also fiddling with using my Line 6 phrase sampler pedal while playing, to set up drum loops, which I trigger from my left foot.

I used to play with some other people, but lately have taken to woodshedding, which I enjoy enough. I’ve become more interested in learning percussion than in obsessing about how or when I will perform in front of other people. Lately, I’ve become very interested and influenced by drum n bass, notably Amon Tobin and Photek. I’ve also been bitten by the specter of Gear Acquisition Syndrome (G.A.S.) and am looking for a Radio King snare drum, for no good reason.

12

Icj Bin, I had an ancient set of Apollos! I never really hung out with drummers, but no one had ever heard of them. I guess if it’s not a Ludwig, no one would?

When I have a spare wad of cash, there will be a “new” set in my basement. I always liked Gretsch, they had some really cool wood finishes. Unfortunately, there’s too many “responsibilities” these days to buy toys.

Being a grown up is so much not fun.

13

DX2,

Ah, yes, the glorious Apollos. Mine are baby blue. They’re cheap enough that I don’t have a problem throwing them in the car, and the bass drum actually sounds pretty killer in it’s current configuration (a Remo Fiberskin batter and solid resonant head, both with 4" felt strips about a third up and no internal muffling). The hardware is nothing special, but it’s nice and light and easy on my back, which gets older every year. There’s nothing wrong with a “mystery wood” kit; I have a much easier time tuning my Apollo kit than my gretsch, which continues to give me fits, probably because the sizes are tooooooooo biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiig.

If you’re interested in Gretsch, go for an older kit. Just my two cents, but here’s a good analogy.

You had a favorite baseball card as a kid, and your mom threw it away. Now, thirty years later, you want it back. You could buy a reproduction for $1800, or you could find one from 30 years ago for $1200.

Gretsch drums, in my opinion, are way, way overpriced, to build up their “mystique”. The older kits (pre-70’s) had better quality control, and they’re the real deal. I’m generalizing a bit here, but I’ve seen pictures of kits from the seventies where the snare bearing edges missed the snares by an inch or so. They’ve gotten better, no doubt. They pop up on ebay all the time, or try hanging around www.drumcenterforum.com, for some serious vintage drum enthusiasts. These guys know their stuff, and are extremely helpful. They’re also big, big, big fans of Rogers drums.

Or, better yet, get yourself a custom kit for even less! Try www.phattiedrums.com and check out the prices; it will probably add up to less than you’d spend on a name-brand kit. It’s just a three ply shell with die-cast rims. Although, I have to say, you couldn’t pry my gretsch snare from my fingers with a crowbar.

On a last note, wood finish drums are great, and I wouldn’t trade mine, but be prepared to have a heart attack the first time a stand falls over and scratches your four-fiqure beauties. Wrap is just so…so…forgiving.
I’m going to be a papa in about three months, so I feel your pain.

14

I actually have an Apollo snare. Red sparkle wrap, 5 x 14". I made do with it until I got my Premier I currently use, as well as a Pearl piccolo I occassionaly use. It currently lies in disrepair; I had to borrow some tension screws from it. It has a rather light, airy sound (no doubt due to the red luan it’s constructed of) that is reminiscent of snare sounds from the 1970s.

15

My Apollos got throwed out a few years ago. They were basically fermenting in my parents basment, when for the only time in the 37 years my parnets have lived in their house, a hellacious storm backed the sewers up. Several inches of raw seage, and I don’t think they were recoverable. i wasn’t going to try and they were rather dilapidated anyway (screws were pulling out etc.). It was a very inexpensive set, and, although I spent several hundred dollars buying everything over the years, it wasn’t worth much. At least, i didn’t think so.

A quick question: I’ve always called it it a “drum set”. Other folks and most pros I heard call it a “drum kit”. I guess I’m just a square? I’ve never been “in”? Oh well.

16

I’ll be the odd one here.

I play mostly Middle Eastern, (Arabic, Egyptian, Turkish, Greek, North African, etc…) mostly on hand drums. Currently I own an Egyptian Darabuka, a couple incarnations of the faithful frame drum, and my real baby, a Turkish Davul.

Davul looks like a rustic version of the marching bass drum but is played with two sticks, a big weighted one for the bass notes, and a whippy little switch for the snare-y treble sound. This drum is magnificently loud, does not have an inside voice, and plays well only with others equally as obnoxious. It is usually paired with a gaida, (Turkish/Greek bagpipe made from a whole goatskin, and looks it!), or a couple of zurna/mizmar double reed horns.

A drum to conquer the known world with. Actually, the Turks would send the band a day ahead of the army to play intimidating songs at whatever city they were about to seige. Sometimes, the city would surrender to the band before the people with weapons showed up.

I am currently interested in those Balkan Gypsy rhythms. 9/8, 11/16, and 17/16 time are fun to wrap your brain around.

Martin

17

Yes, “Western” civilization may consider itself advanced in many aspects, but in the world of percussion, we are most certainly still in the dark ages.

18

Jeez I just keep adding stuff and adding stuff.

I’m 40 now, the last time I played in a band was in '98 or '99 but I have my drums set up in the basement of the small house we just built. I fart around from time to time. I want to get some carpet on the floor and some soundproofing up so the sound isn’t rattling around so much. The music fund is sorely lacking these days because of the babies fund.

Most of my time playing music these days is spent at my midi/audio workstation or playing guitar or bass. My workstation is basically a Roland D50 midied to a Dell running a Cre@mware card and Cubase, Reason, and Sampletank/Sonic Synth.

Anyway, once we settle in and I get some of my chops back I’d like to join a band that jams on weekends or maybe one night a week. I’m not really up for the grind of humping gear in and out of clubs for 30 minute sets anymore.

I’ve been playing since I was 12, I think. Started out playing Deep Purple, Kiss, Foghat, ZZ Top, Aerosmith, Zeppelin, then got into Kansas, Rush, Yes, Queen, Allman Bros., Genesis, Skynyrd, Outlaws, then got into the Talking Heads, Grateful Dead, Zappa, and then played in some ‘original’ bands. The last band I was in played mostly in NYC. We played at Fez, Brownie’s, CBGB, Acme underground, Arlene Grocery, Luna Lounge, Maxwell’s, Lion’s Den, Spiral, Nightingale’s. We couldn’t draw enough of an audience to sustain us, unfortunately.

During most of this time I had a parallel path in classical percussion where I played in the all-state band in HS (NJ), did HS musicals, did two tours through Scandanavia with a wind ensemble, and played percussion in the university symphony orchestra, the highlight being playing tympani for Petrushka. I played in a number of pit orchestras in college as well. I liked listening to the orchestra during my breaks (which was most of the time) more than I liked playing. I eventually received a BA in Music. I played a lot of marimba. I enjoyed the Musser Kelon one that goes down to F the most. I don’t have the temperament or discipline to be a classical musician. I don’t have the temperament or discipline to be a professional non-classical musician, either.

Kit-wise (I use drumset and kit interchangeably but mostly use just ‘kit’) I’ve been playing a cherrywood Yamaha Recording Custom kit since 1987-88. It’s a rock. It breaks down easily, sets up easily, isn’t too heavy, and sounds and looks great. I played a couple of Ludwig kits before that, but hated the tom mounting hardware. I use a fake hammered copper Premier snare (Rod Morgenstein era). It’s a beaut and the rims are heavy duty. I’ve been using I think a 22" K Zildjian ride for 12-13 years now and a 16" crash for at least 20 years. The K is just full of all kinds of sounds. I have a Sabian sound control crash with flared edges that cut through everything but sadly it got cracked when somebody borrowed it. It was like a crash that splashed. Of course I can’t find another one. Hi Hats are Zildjian. Vic Firth wood tip 5A is my stick of choice. I have to stop now.

19

Quasi checking in. I still have and (now and then) play my Dad’s old Slingerlands. They have a sound like no other set I have ever heard, and I’ve heard more than a few.

YMMV

Quasi