Drummer

A Drum tablature, also known as drum tab is a tablature in use for drums. An example follows:

H |-xxxxx-x|xxxxxxxx|-xxxxxxx|xxxxxxxx|-|
S |--oo--o-|--oo--o-|--oo--o-|--oo--o-|-|
B |o---o---|o---o---|o---o---|o---o---|o|
CC|x-----x-|--------|x-------|--------|x|
(as depicted in Misirlou, Pulp Fiction theme)
Usually there are the following lines: (edited from mxtabs.net)

Akira Jimbo, also seen as Akira Jinbo ( born February 27, 1959 in Tokyo, Japan) is a Japanese freelance jazz fusion drummer who is famous for his drumming independence and fusion of electronic drum technology and acoustic drums. Aside from his solo work, he is also the drummer in the Japanese jazz fusion band Casiopea and has participated in various side projects with other musicians, including Keiko Matsui, Shambara, bassist Brian Bromberg.

Drum setup

One cymbal doesn't have just one sound! Practise hitting the middle of the cymbal with the tip of the drum and then whacking the edge of it with the stick angled straight after. Sounds great and adds a little extra to your playing if you don't have many cymbals. - Dan

All drums have their own pitch. To truly tune your drums to their pitch remove all heads & hardware, hang the shell from a string or something & hit the edge of the shell. The sound you hear is the pitch to tune to. This is a little timely but your drums will sound the way they were built to sound. - Keith Weiler

When playing fast tempos, mindfully RELAX your hands! The faster you play, the more relaxed you should be. Though it may seem paradoxical at first, you'll soon realize that you can play those smokin' tempos alot better without the fighters fists of fury on the sticks! - Brad Spradlin

You can use a sheet of felt for bass drum muffling. Available at any fabric store. Take the head off, lay the felt over the drum, tape the edges down so the felt stays put. Make sure you have ample material to extend past the flesh hoop. Put head ,hoop & hardware back on, remove tape & trim the excess felt. Be careful with the sissors! If it's too dead, cut the center of the sheet out. I use a full sheet on the reso head & center cutout on the batter.You can also give some slack to the felt before you tighten the head(s), this will control the degree of deadness. Then maybe cutting the felt won't be necessary - Christopher J. Furfaro

Take the time to study the history of drumming. It's very enlightening and will make you a better player. Drum History's where it's at. Literally! Upon learning a standard jazz cymbal ride pattern (you know; spang, spang-a-lang), be sure to Learn to listen to "all" of the players of the band. If you're not hearning them, you can't react to the music properly. Jazz players, be sure to learn as many of the jazz standards as possible. You'll be called upon to know them. - Me

Keep your sticks matched: When you buy more than one pair of sticks, before you take them out of their cardboard sleeve, take a Sharpie and mark the butt ends of the first pair with the number 1, then the second pair with the number 2, the third pair with the number 3 and so on. This will help you keep your sticks matched like they where when they left the factory. Have you ever noticed, while playing, one of your sticks feels lighter than the other? That's because you mixed sets and they're no longer matched for weight and balance. A small thing to some but I really can't stand playing with an unmatched set of sticks...it just feels strange. ROCK! - Martyr

When you first get your drum set the snair drum doesn't sound like a snair drum . But all you have to do is take your drum key and flip the snair drum. Then titen the spring with your key. It needs to be tite or it will come loose. Then hit it with your drum stiks . - Tyler K.

For a nice mellow sound on tom toms use a piece of felt cut in a quarter moon shape, and tape it to the underneath side of the top batter head use the wide clear tape ,along the bearing edge, this give the drum a mellow sound taking the high end ringing out.I been doing this for years and it don't chock the drums up like deadringers that you lay on the top of the head. - fred gilt

Cymbal Cleaning: Use softscrub cleaner WITHOUT BLEACH. Its very good to remove stick marks and fingerprints, but wont remove the lacquer coating,I got this tip from the zildjian cymbal co.they said new cymbals should not be cleaned with any harsh cleaner till they have aged one year or more. - fred

If you play by ear and don't know how to read music don't get discouraged, just keep practicing. Don't be too proud in your playing that you say you don't need lessons, you can learn more by watching other people and techniques. If you play purely by god given talent, don't get a big head about it, yes it's a good thing but god gave it to you for a reason. He gave it to you to use for his glory and to use the ability to play in the music ministry. - max

If you want your drum heads to last longer and move well over the bearing edges and give their true tone use a good insulator wax on the bearing edges of your shells and also wax the underside of your heads on the edges where they sit on the bearing edges - Roger Strange

Snare Vibrations?--On the bottom snare head, Take a little bit of tension off the head and put some on the snares by unscrewing the two tension rods on both sides of the snares on both sides of the drum. This is better than using Duct Tape. Dont go overboard though, you dont want to bend your hoops. A slight adjustment should do the trick! - Don Santamoor

STOP VIBRATION OF DRUMS: to stop the vibration of the drums, take peices of duct tape,about an inch or twoand pinch it so there is almost a wall in the middle of the tape. then stick it on the side of your drum and it stops the vibration(works best on snare drum) - Ed Struk

Notation of drum kit music once commonly employed the bass clef, but a neutral clef of two parallel vertical lines, sometimes referred to as the percussion or drum clef, is usually preferred now. (All note letter names in the "Techniques" section refer to the bass clef.) Drum set notation is not standardized, although there are common conventions. It is usual to label each instrument and technique when it is introduced or to add an explanatory footnote. Below is an example of drum set notation (all note letter-names in the "Techniques" section refer to the bass clef):

Ian Anderson Paice (born June 29, 1948; Nottingham, England) made his name as drummer with seminal heavy rock band Deep Purple. As of Jon Lord's departure in 2002, he is the only founding member of the band still performing with the group.

Heavily influenced by Buddy Rich, Ian is one of the few hard rock drummers who uses swing and jazz inflections in his powerhouse style. He is also left-handed, being one of the few who play on a totally left-handed drum setup (another example is Phil Collins). Many left-handers either learn to play right-handed (e.g. Ringo Starr) or adapt their technique to suit a right-handed kit.

Drum playing with sticks makes much use of stick bounce. Simply put, the stick hits the drum and then bounces back up. Each stick has a specific point at which it bounces best and is most comfortable to use if held there. This point is usually a little more than a third of the length up from the base of the stick. If you hold it too close to the tip, the stick will feel too light and won't want to come down as well, if you hold it to close to the base, the stick will feel too heavy and will not want to bounce back as well.
Testing the drum stick balance point.

Keith John Moon (August 23, 1946 -- September 7, 1978) was the drummer of the rock group The Who. As a drummer, Moon became known for his chaotic but revolutionary style of drumming and gained notoriety for his destructive lifestyle. He is regarded as one of the greatest of all rock and roll drummers.

Keith John Moon was born on 23 August 1946 at Central Middlesex Hospital, Park Royal, London to Alfred and Kathleen Moon. He lived in Wembley as a boy and was extremely hyperactive and had a restless imagination as a child. As a youth, the only thing that could hold his attention was music. A report from his secondary modern school is not encouraging -- his art teacher, for example, commented: 'Retarded artistically. Idiotic in other respects.

Double bass drum techniques were first used by jazz artists such as Ray McKinley, Louie Bellson and Ed Shaughnessy in the 1940s and 1950s, and popularized in the 1960s by rock drummers Ginger Baker of Cream and Keith Moon of the Who.

The most common method of double bass playing is a "heel-up" technique: the pedals are struck with the ball of the feet using force primarily from the thigh as opposed to the ankles when using the "heel-down" technique. Most drummers play single strokes, although there are many who are also capable of playing doubles or paradiddles. Musicians such as Thomas Lang or Virgil Donati are capable of performing impressively complicated solos on top of an ostinato bass drum pattern.

A drum kit (or drum set or trap set) is a collection of drums, cymbals and sometimes other percussion instruments arranged for convenience playing by a single drummer.

The individual instruments of a drum kit are struck by a variety of implements held in the hand, including sticks, brushes, and mallets. Two notable exceptions include the bass drum, played by a foot-operated pedal, and the hi hat cymbals, which use a foot pedal in addition to the normal striking motion.

Differing music styles implement the components of a drum kit in different manners. For example, in most forms of rock music, the bass drum and snare drum are the primary instruments used to create a drum beat. In jazz, however, the ride cymbal and hi hats (or brushed snare drum and hi hats) usually fill this role.

I remember when I first started playing the drums back in 1976. I was just ten years old, and the thought of being an
awesome drummer in a band just consumed me. I remember dreaming about playing drums in front of hundreds, or even
thousands of people someday. But, I really never considered how difficult it would be to finally get to that point.

Now, after thirty years of drumming, and playing with dozens of different musicians with various personalities, I can
clearly see why most drummers and other musicians cannot play together for very long.

Richard John Cyril Allen (born November 1, 1963, Dronfield, Derbyshire, England) is the drummer for the British rock band Def Leppard. He is famous for being a prominent professional drummer who continued his musical career despite the amputation of his left arm.

Accident and recovery

On December 31, 1984, while driving under the influence near Sheffield, UK, he endured an off-road accident. He was thrown from the Corvette, which had flown off the road and over a stone fence into a field. His left arm was severed due to his seatbelt not being completely engaged. Despite attempts by doctors to reattach it, infection set in, and the arm had to be reamputated. Through perseverance, the support of his band mates, and a custom drum kit, he remained with the band to enjoy continued success. Much to the dismay of Rick, the Ludwig drumkit he used on High & Dry and Pyromania has since been given away by Def Leppard's former management.

Carl Palmer (born Carl Frederick Kendall Palmer, on March 20, 1950, in Handsworth, Birmingham) is an English drummer and percussionist. He is often credited as one of the most respected and influential Rock drummers of all time. Palmer is a veteran of a number of British bands, including The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, Atomic Rooster, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, and Asia. He has also contributed to works by Mike Oldfield.

One frequent point of confusion relates to Palmer's work with The Crazy World of Arthur Brown. He was the touring drummer with the group, but was not the drummer on the group's album The Crazy World of Arthur Brown. Drachen Theaker was the drummer on the album, but his fear of flying meant that he was not able to tour with the group, and thus Palmer became a member of the band.

Remember the times when you knew you should practice your drums, but just didn't feel like messing with it? It's at those times you lacked focus.

There was a time when I had a studio session to attend to lay down some drum tracks and I simply was not in the mood at all. Hey, I was tired! It was Friday afternoon, it was a long, hard week, and I was done! While driving to the studio that day my mind was consumed with pretty much just wanting to watch television.

In choosing the right snare drums for yourdrum kit, first, you have to determine what genre of music you will be playing to.
There are different types of snare drums that produce different types of sounds.
The right sound will depend on your taste and preference, and mostly, in the style of music that you are playing; there's jazz snare drums, rock snare drums, metal snare drums, punk snare drums, and funk snare drums.

Jazz snare drums