As I was contemplating a post on the topic of recording preparation, I received a great comment from RecordingHacks. They turned me on to a new product for bass drum mic placement – the Kelly Shu. Here’s the great review by RecordingHacks. As fate would have it, I recently purchased a Shure Beta 52A for [...]
Tagged kick drum mic, kick mic, Recording, recording technique, session workI had a recent discussion with Ryan, owner of San Jose’s Lemmon Percussion about the image of a beat-up looking vintage drum set, versus the image of a beat-up looking vintage electric guitar. We agreed that a beat-up vintage guitar looks cool, because it’s been played so much and has earned its right to passage. [...]
Tagged cleaning cymbals, cymbal care, drum kit maintenance, drum set maintenance, tarnished cymbalsI recently previewed the how-to DVD published by Guerilla DrumMaking. As an owner of vintage drum kit, I was immediately drawn to the idea of customizing a single drum or even designing my own custom kit. The tools required are nowhere near the expense that I would have guessed. A basic workshop can probably be [...]
Tagged custom drum making, customize drum hardware, customize drum shells, drum making, drum making instructions, drum making video, drum making workshop, guerrilla drummaking, guerrilladrummaking.com, instructional drum making DVD, setup drum shopSince my recent write up on drum lesson sites, two have jumped out as my favorites. My personal number one is Mike Johnston’s, MikesLessons.com. I was hooked after watching a couple of his free lessons on The Drum Lab (YouTube). MikesLessons.com is a very cool site that offers iPod lesson downloads for 0.99 or monthly [...]
Tagged complete rock drumming system, drum lesson download, drum lessons, drumlessons.com, ipod drum lessons, jared falk, jaredfalk.com, learn drums, mike johnston, online drum lessons, robonzo.com, simon says live, the drum lab, video drum instruction, video drum lessonsI spent the afternoon scouring the web for learning drum sites today. It wasn’t as easy to find ten good one’s as I thought it might be. My goal was to put together a top 10 list. In order to do so, I found it necessary to include content from video channels and MySpace. Here’s [...]
Tagged drum lesson videos, drum lessons, drum technique, free drum lessons, hand drumming lessons, online drum lessonsMySpace has without a doubt become a huge part of artist promotion. Adopted by indie artists like The Killers to major artists like John Mayer, MySpace warrants heavy consideration in band and artist promotion. Does this platform fit the individual drummer’s promotional efforts? Absolutely. Recently I was asked to check out an independent artist MySpace [...]
Tagged drummer promotion, drummers on myspace, john mayer myspace, myspace design tips, myspace tips for drummers, the killersI received a catalog in the mail this week from Five Star Drum Shops, which features San Jose’s own Lemmon Percussion on the cover. In the back pages, I found a great article on tuning. The article, reminded me of a great gadget that I bought years ago–the Tama Tension Watch. The Tension Watch lends [...]
As promised, here’s the brief on drum auditions, particularly for the local gig scene. Should you take your own gear? Unless your highly accomplished, hell yes! If you’re well practiced, you can play on any kit. However, if you want to play comfortably and sound great doing so, take your own gear to the audition [...]
So you’ve posted an ad in search of a drum gig. In your ad, you stated that you’d trade demos. These days, it’s common that other bands and artists will have a demo, as home recording has become accessible to just about everyone. There are two simple points to consider with audition demos. Quality is [...]
I’ve played on a “semi-pro” level for several years, and have always been struck by the fact that many of my musician friends don’t know how to find a gig. This has never been a problem for me, and by no means is it due any big difference in talent level on my part. It’s [...]
When I initially put some thought to creating a drum blog, I naturally searched for existing blogs. There was one that caught my attention, Jeff Consi, Drummer Blog. At first glance I thought, this is a cool site. After starting Robonzo, I went back to Consi’s blog. My second impression was much different. This is [...]
