What a Difference a Day Makes

A Monster Blog Series By Bryan Lowe

I feel good about my Buzz Stroke progress!  I’d been feeling rather clumsy and slow for a bit,  and ending up taking a couple of days off. That cold wasn’t helping either.

About five minutes into my return it all fell into place.

Buzz. Buzz. Buzz. Both hands!

For some reason, a drum roll or buzz roll seems like real progress, more than the tap, tap, tap of previous exercises.  I do understand progress on those “taps” lead to progress on the buzz roll, but this feels like a big step forward, emotionally. This is starting to feel like “real” drumming.  

Need a break down on the Buzz Rolls? Check out this class to get your basics rock'n. 

ST2006 - The Buzz Stroke

For any future challenges on this journey I need to remember that progress isn’t a steady line. Recognizable progress can come in fits and starts sometimes.

Online Lessons

Life is...

From Percussion to Pipe Band Drumming

A Blog By Mike Garcia

The world of music is a beautiful thing. So many different styles and approaches within so many different cultures all over the world. Pick a genre, go down the rabbit hole, and you will discover invaluable experiences of how impactful a single or combination of sounds can truly be and how they bring people together.  

Pick a world, let’s say: percussion, and for you Pipe Band people, drum corps - and there are various journeys you can embark on to explore the many wonders of the style.  Personally, I have experience in American rudimental drumming (i.e. Drum Corps International, aka “DCI” experience) and classical percussion (either a “percussion ensemble” or concert band/orchestral percussion). I am fortunate to say I have had the opportunity to experience performing in these groups at some of the highest levels possible! However, I have always been a lifelong learner and have...

Gareth McLees - Taking Technique to New Levels

A Monster Blog by Haydn Halsted

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Over the years, I’ve been observing and imitating the great American Drum Corps including their closed hand technique, rhythmic virtuosity and rigid intensity to their uniformity, clarity and overall production level. The Drum Corp style and the Marching Arts have kept my fire burning for some time now and to me, the DCI shows are some of the most impressive works of art put out each year.

Until recently, I was unfamiliar with the world of Scottish Pipe Band drumming (we can go over my story another time), and when I was introduced to the Gareth McLees Monster Drumming Series on Rhythm Monster, I immediately saw the true artistry and musicality that can be produced on the snare drum. In this seven-part video class series, McLees demonstrates what the Snare Drum is capable of by presenting an incredibly relaxed and...

When Drum'n Gets Ruff...

A Monster Blog Series by Bryan Lowe

Learning something new always seems to include plateaus and/or periods of sagging enthusiasm. For the past week plus I've been knocked down by a bad cold, and with it, my general energy and enthusiasm has lagged.

At first, I was seeing rapid and steady improvement. I was excited. I think that is normal.  

Then, your improvement slows or stops, and it's easy to think you’ve hit some impossible wall, or even begin to wonder if you can really do this thing.

That is sometimes a trigger to stop altogether, to give up. “This just isn’t fun anymore.” I had a touch of drumming doldrums.   

Getting beyond that is crucial in getting to my longer-term goal, learning how to play drums in a Pipe Band. My minimum goal is to experience that for long enough that I can really decide if pipe bands are really my “thing” in...

The Uncomfortable Truth about Pipe Band Drumming 

A Monster Blog Series by Dave Bullard

Missed Dave's last Blog? Oh. You'd want to read it first. 

 Check it out HERE. 

Let’s get an uncomfortable truth out of the way here.

When I first saw a pipe band drum corps, I was thrown off by how ‘disorderly’ it seemed. I was blown away by what I was hearing, but there was this little voice nagging at me saying things like:

“What’s the deal with all of them shaking their sticks to the beat?”

and :

“What the hell is wrong with their hands?”

or:

"Why are they all looking down at someone else's drum?”

And:

“Why do they start their strokes like marimba players? ”

You see uh… Well... I mean….

Look, I think get it now, but (and not to belabor this point) a HUGE part of my musical training as a DCI-style American Drummer was concerned with...

Doubling Down on Double Strokes

A Monster Blog Series by Bryan Lowe

I hit a challenge today that felt tougher than others so far. 

From class ST2003- The Double Stroke (From the Scottish Pipe Band Snare Drum Tutor Volume 2: The Drummer's Alphabet),  

we learn the Double Stroke, which is,

“one motion that produces two notes.”

Think to "drop the stick, then let it bounce twice”… but with both taps being equal in sound. Once again, my right hand wasn’t too hard, but my left hand fell into the pattern and then out again… repeatedly.  

Practice makes perfect, they say, unless you are practicing incorrectly.

I watched the video again but did everything this time with just the left hand.

I am making progress, but this feels less natural than the other skills learned so far. More practice. It will come. It will. 

This doesn’t LOOK...

BuzzBuzzBuzz

A Monster Blog Series by Dave Bullard

If I had to pick one single thing that I love about Scottish Drumming, it would be its use of Buzz Rolls. Check this out...

I mean, just listen to that.

Seriously. Don’t watch, just listen.

That sound is just plain incredible. I can’t think of anything else even remotely close to it. It’s like a combination of rain, waterfalls white noise, and a million record needles crying out in terror. Maybe with some bacon frying in there somewhere. It deserves it’s own word.

Unfortunately, over here in my LARWO (Little American Rudimental WOrld) the word, "roll" refers to the open variant. Now that I’ve learned about what can be done with the closed variety, I’m changing that definition in my head. From now on, when I write "roll" I mean Buzz Roll. American style machine-gunning will be referred to by the term "Open Roll."

From the Rhythm...

A Salute to My Left Hand

A Monster Blog Series by Bryan Lowe

Success feels good, doesn’t it?

While I haven’t exactly tamed my errant left hand, the problem child of the two, I have made significant progress. 

I’ve looked back at earlier lessons on Rhythm-Monster with regularity. Today I revisited ST-1002 - The Muscle Groups. I wanted to see again how Super Monster Instructor Michael Eagle was using the thumb alone on that left hand.  It doesn’t feel natural yet, but he makes it clear.

As a personal challenge, I tried to carry a steady beat on my practice pad using just my left thumb, that’s it.

"The Pipe Band Drumming left hand technique requires a true one-point fulcrum. Realize the single pivot point," Eagle says.

As I started, the drumstick was doing its best to imitate the excited irregular wagging of a large dog’s tail. No...

Still Drag'n it Out

A Monster Blog Series by Dave Bullard

More fun with the Pipe Band Drag:

It’s important to resist the tendency to raise my arm and sort of ‘stab’ down onto the head at a sharper than normal angle. This cheats the gesture and in the long run will become a liability when it comes to fluidly dropping them into quicker patterns. Starting the motion flat and at grace note height helps keep it nice and delicate.

Plus, why stab when you can dip?

The Dip

You may have not have noticed the ‘dip’ before. It’s something that McWhirter and other Monsters do when they play a Drag.

The best way to isolate this motion is in the Open-Closed-Open classes on Rhythm Monster. They have most of the common Pipe Band rudiments broken-down, plus some American rudiments. 

Check out this McWhirter left hand:

I love how he’s like “Allow me to present my fantastic...

Progress, Meditation & Stick Control         

A Monster Blog Series by Bryan Lowe

Learning a challenging skill is far better done when young, or so they say. For example, learning a language. It's a snap for kids, and nearly impossible for adults.  So it goes for adults learning musical instruments as well.

I am no expert on adult learning, but in my experience, while there are learning challenges for us as we age, there are also ADVANTAGES in learning a challenging skill as an adult.  True, neuroscientists say it is harder for the adult brain to learn a complex skill. I understand it's brain plasticity or lack thereof.

And yes, you are right, as adults we don't have parents to make us practice. Then there is the problem of time, given work, spouses, children, house repair, etc.

But we (adults) can learn!

Our adult brains have some skills that are totally absent in kids. Off the top of my adult brain, these...