Stood up

For my birthday some of my friends grouped together to give me money to get some drum lessons (not that I really need them of course given my already excellent drumming skills, but it would be ungrateful not to accept them). A local drum school was found in a very convenient location for me (above a Starbucks!) and I was booked in to have my first lesson this evening. I turned up expectantly at the given location, but no drum teacher appeared! I waited and waited, but still no-one turned up to teach me how to perfect my drumming. I phoned the teacher, but got no answer. Eventually I had to accept that I'd been stood up.

Later on I did get a message from the drum teacher. Apparently all lessons had to be cancelled due to "location problems" - whatever they may be!? I'm not sure whether these "problems" can be solved, but I may have to find myself a new drum school.

Scrolling drum tabs

Since playing Rock Band and Guitar Hero I've thought that having a scrolling drum tab in the same style would be brilliant for learning to play new songs. Well fortunately I'm not the only person to think this and someone with some coding skills has actually mocked up a working code to do this. It seems that at the moment it basically takes in a text file with a tab that someone has already written (I don't know what format would be required), and then you sync that up with the music from the song. It would be nice if you could just pass it the music files and it works out the tab, but that's probably asking a bit too much ;) Anyway, I'm not sure if the guy who wrote this code is planning on actually making a production version and selling it, but I'd definitely be a customer if he does.

Drumming solo

Last night I went along to A-side studios for the first time since my last band attempt (that band attempt may not fail, it's just been on the back burner while I've been busy - and too lazy to get my arse in gear and sort it out). Anyway this time I went along on my own to just go into a room and bash some drums for an hour. They've essentially turned the smallest rehearsal room into just being a drum room, mainly I think due to it really being to small to get full band in to practice (we tried it a couple of times for band practices before, but you just got deafened in there), so I was in there for an hour at the small cost of £5. One of the main reasons that I went along is that I've not played my electric kit at home recently due to fear of waking up the baby that my downstairs neighbours have, but I also wanted to get behind a real kit again as it's much better to practice on. On playing about for an hour I realised that a) I'm not very good (well I'd realised this a while ago, but it struck home again), and b) I need some structure in my practices, so I can get good. This lead me to think about getting some actual lessons where hopefully I can lose any bad drumming habits I've taught myself, learn some drills to perfect the basics and pick up some new skills. I've yet to book a lesson, but am thinking I most likely will, and I chatted to the guy who offers lessons at A-side and he seemed very nice.

Desktop band

Today I started having a play around with GarageBand on my Mac. It's essentially a piece of software that allows you to create music tracks either by recording your own stuff, or piecing together the music with software instruments. I've used it a few times to just record one channel of stuff through the inbuilt microphone on my laptop, but have never tried experimenting with it as a way of putting together music. Essentially all I did today was see what all the different instruments and effects it has sound like (I did create a very short [about 15 seconds] tune with three instrumental parts, but realised that it requires a bit more than a couple of hours pissing around to put together something more layered and melodious i.e. good), but may in the future try to create something real. I say this now, but it'll probably be one of those things that never really gets off the ground - like learning the keyboard (which as it turns out would come in handy for trying to built up a track on GarageBand)!

Another music related thing is that I found what looks like a rather decent website containing free video tutorials on drumming techniques - it's called onlinedrummer.com and looks very useful from the three videos I've watched so far. Maybe my drumming could make a sudden leap from my usual rather simple beats.

Band attempt V

Following this post, in which I tried out with a band who I never heard back from, I (and others) have been making efforts to form a new band using members of the canoe club (which has quite a few very musical members). Four of us had our first experimental (in terms of testing out the whole band idea, rather than our musical style) jam session on Tuesday. We went to A-Side studios, which is the place that my former band(s) Corpse Full of Bees/Look Up for Danger practiced at, albeit with a name change from Practice Pad, which has been very slightly done up with the best new feature being wireless internet. Instrument-wise we had drums (obviously!), a couple of guitars, a bass, a sax and a tin-whistle (essential for all bands apparently), but with only four of us these couldn't all be played simultaneously. The session didn't have that much direction and we mainly just pissed around playing random stuff, but it was very good fun and gave us the motivation to try and continue things - we've got a version of a popular Disney cartoon theme tune that needs to be honed. The main problem for me was that of the four of us there is another Matt who is a considerably better drummer than me (and by considerably I mean at huge, fuck off, gaping chasm, better than me - he's very good and I am pretty shit), so I felt kind of intimidated and over shadowed by this, but it'll either spur me on to improve (for which I suppose I should put in a bit more practice time), or lead me into a fit of despondency. However, as one of the band's primary instigators I think I can make sure that I stay on in the role of drummer even if we could have someone far better - the other Matt also plays guitar very well, so he'd still be there. We're now just trying to recruit more of canoe club into the band, but I think it'll probably be the new year before we get another practice session in.

It's in his kit (that's where it is)

A couple of weeks ago saw me get behind a proper drum kit for the first time since leaving my own, beloved, drum kit in Germany. A friend of mine from canoe club and his flatmates wanted to get together for a bit of a jam session and I agreed to step in for as the session drummer (well maybe I'm over-inflating my role!) It was very good fun to play with others again and they were rather more professional than me - they had their own songs and everything. I was also rather impressed by the drum kit itself - I don't want to badmouth my aforementioned German drum kit, but after playing a proper kit again I now realise how shit it (and the cymbals it came with) actually was. I'm not sure whether I'll be playing with this group again, but I would like to get back with a decent kit again.

Better than the rest

A recent study (via the BBC) has revealed something that all drummers already know - that we're super fit athletes with huge levels of stamina and energy (the study says on a level equivalent to top athletes, but it's bound to really be at a higher level.) There's none of this standing around lazily strumming a guitar, prodding keys on a keyboard, or speaking into a microphone that the rest of a band does. The drummer is giving it their all constantly in a frenzy of arm and leg movement that would make an octopus feel inadequate. You only have to look at the fact the drummers will often wear cut-off t-shirts, or no t-shirt at all, will sweat profusely, and need a steady supply of liquid (beer-based preferably) to see the supreme level of hard word that they put in. Anyway all I'm saying is that drummer's are ace - oh, and everyone else is just a lazy, unfit loser ;)

Stretching the skins

One of the selling points for me coming out to Hannover for the summer was that our former Corpse Full of Bees/Look Up for Danger guitarist was here and we planned to start up a band again. However this did mean that I needed some drums. So this week I bought myself an actual real-life drumkit on ebay, unlike the electronic kit that I already own. After a bit of searching on ebay I found a German seller (o-trading-company) who offered various instruments, generally pictured being held by naked women, at very reasonable prices. The kit I bought was dirt cheap at a whole £115(!), so as you can imagine it's not the highest quality (the single snare I bought last year cost around the same amount) and could well have been put together by small children in a Chinese sweat-shop. That said after putting the drums together yesterday and having a bit of a play I've been pleasantly surprised with their sound quality. The different drums seem to make the sounds that they're supposed to - you know, a kind of "boom boom" sound of various pitch depending on the drum size. The main problem, and an unsurprising one given the price I paid, is that the cymbals (a high-hat and small crash) aren't all that great - they're fairly thin and after just the one practice I've put some major dents in them. Now that I have the kit, and we have a room to practice in (next to the Atlas computer cluster that the AEI have just put together), I'll just have to get good at playing.

When the music stops

I've not released this information to the internet for fear of the public despair and hysteria it would cause, like when Take That split, but you deserve to know - it's been just over a week since I learned that the band I was in is no more! Corpse Full of Bees is now truly decomposed and Look Up for Danger didn't see the car plowing into them head on. We'd been through a few iterations as a band and it was probably about time to call it a day, but it was rather disappointing nonetheless. The end was partly down to work load commitments for several members, but also a general lack of energy, excitement and, to be fair, fun that has been present since our last gig and band restructuring. We're hoping to conitnue some collaboration in the future with some side projects and expanding on our original material (my lyrical stylings just can't be kept from the public), but I'm thinking of taking thing's in a new direction. One stage, one kit, one drummer, nuff said! I mean who needs guitars, keyboards, vocals, when you got some pumping drum beats! On a serious note I still really want to continue playing (in a band preferably to on my own), so if there's a novice band out there (well in Glasgow at least) that needs a novice drummer I'd like to hear from you. On the other hand I could just wait for a record company to set up a massive million pound stadium tour deal that could herald a triumphant reunion for Look Up for Danger.

Kitted out

I got a second step on the way to building up a proper drum kit today. I went and bought myself a snare drum (a black and chrome pdp 805 series - it's one of the cheapest snares, but the guy in the shop said it was decent), along with a stand and case. Using it at home might not be that regular an occurrence as my flatmate might not be too appreciative of it, but hopefully when I do get to practice it'll help improve my skills - one of the main reasons for getting it is that the electric kit I've got doesn't have the response of a real drum skin, so it's hard to practice things like a drum roll.

Friday night live

I'm sure you're all wanting to know how the gig went on Friday night. Pretty damn well!

The whole day managed to go without any major, or even relatviely minor, hitches. Chris and I picked up our drum kit from Soundhaus (which is one of the most stereotypically rock venues you can get - a dingy warehouse basement) and get it back to our venue without breaking any of the kit, or having any car troubles. After shooing off some studying students in the Research Club, we got everything set up and had a sound check. The amps, mikes and mixing desk all worked fine! With everything set out there was no denying that we were going to be performing a gig. We then had our final rehearsal at which we had our most intense practice yet. This left me feeling pretty knackered, but we were confident that we had all the songs at a decent level. Our last meal was a fish supper at the University Cafe (as recommended by the New York Times!), which has become a kind of unofficial band eatery. So we'd sound checked, we'd practiced, we'd eaten, all that was left was to actually perform.

We arrived at the venue about an hour and a half before we we due to start. We quickly got our gear set up again with everything still working. People started arriving at about 8.30pm and continued arriving! By 9.30pm we'd managed to pretty much packed out the room we were playing. It's true that the vast majority of these were our friends, and friends of friends, but it was still pretty encouraging for our first gig.

Things kicked off with the Look Up for Danger set. Once we'd got started a lot of the stresses and nerves went away. Ellie was belting out the vocals, and Chris, John and I were giving it our all. The first song wen't down really well, so from then on our confidence grew. Our version of Whole lotta love went down particularly well - for good reasons the drum solo was quite a bit shorter than the one in the original song. The Corpse Full of Bees set went down equally well, with one particular person was really loving our version of (Don't Fear) The Reaper!

The closest I've got to this sort of thing in the past is giving talks at conferences (if I discount when I was part of a group of children representing the UK in a singing competition in Indonesia when I was seven - yes that's true!) Performing in front of a crowd in a band is a whole lot more satisfying that giving a talk. It was all in all a really fun night - I'll be awaiting the audiences glowing reviews ;) I'm definitely looking foward to the next gig - we just need to put a few more song's in our repertiore.

[The less said about the after party the better ;)]

Play the music

Tonight whilst doing a bit of air drumming (maybe the lowest form of air intrumentalism) I thought it would be good to learn another instrument. As such I've placed a bid on ebay for a cheap keyboard - the piano/keyboard seeming to be the gateway drug into other instruments. If I do get the keyboard, and learn to play it decently, it could be another weapon in our band, otherwise it could maybe just help me appreciate playing proper music slightly more - as a drummer you generally are just bashing out a beat rather than playing a tune! This might lead me to being a multi-instrumentalist like my fellow band member ellielabelle.

Update: I've now purchased the keyboard I bid for for the sum of £50. I should however realise that in the future I might be wise to not go on ebay very late at night after several beers - just in case I end up buying more things I don't really need.

Update: My keyboard arrived yesterday and looks pretty decent. It also came with a couple of learn-to-play-the-piano books, so I'll have to get started learning over the weekend. I didn't however get that great a deal for it, as I just found it could be bought brand new from GAK for only £59 - I still made a slight saving though and as I said I did get the books thrown in.

Crash, Bang, Hi-hat

It's taken a bit longer than expected, but I finally got the cymbals I ordered a while back. The set I got is the Sabian XS20 pack, which includes a hi-hat, 16" crash, 20" ride and a free (special Christmas offer no less!) 18" crash and cymbal bag. They apparently had to wing their way over from Canada, which is why they took a few weeks to arrive - I assume they had to shine them up with a veneer of Maple syrup. They do look very nice and I get my first go at trying them out this Friday at our next band practice.

Rock 'n' roll star

We've actually had band practice for the last three consecutive weeks after a hiatus of about a month and a half. I think we are improving, which is obviously the direction we were hoping to head. Last night we even managed to put together a short four song set list and run through them all the way through. There needs to be a fair bit of tightening up of those songs, but we've got a good base to build on. Other songs are still rather, errm, how should I say... ropey (our Spanish isn't quite up to one particular song yet!). Another band practice is set for next week. We've kind of also agreed on a preliminary band name.

After my purchase of an electric drum kit I've gone further down the road of aquiring things to hit by buying a set of cymbals. When we practice I've always had to hire a set, which costs extra money, and the set is generally of fairly shit, old, broken quality anyway. Having my own set will mean I can use shiny new, great sounding cymbals, although will have the downside of me having to lug them to and from practice. I've just got to wait two weeks for them to come in stock at Drum Central.

Drum piccies

Some pictures of my drums can be found here. I even took a couple using the timer on my camera to show me astride the kit, bashing away with all my might. I've had a quick go and tested out some of the preset kits. It all seems very nice so far, but there's a lot more to check out.

I've had a bit of a read of the manual and there are a couple of gems in the warning section. I like this piece of advice "Do not put burning items, such as candles, on the unit. A burning item may fall over a cause a fire", and am glad I read it as I was going to attach some pyrotechnical display to the drums - a couple of roman candles and a catherine wheel maybe. I also like this caution "Do not place the instrument in an unstable position where it might accidentally fall over" - it's a fairly boring caution but now I know not to place my kit in any precarious places. None of the warning labels quite match some of the ones found here though. A particularly good one is "Do not attempt to stop chain with hands or genitals" found on the directions for a Swedish chainsaw.

Practice makes perfect...

... well if not perfect then at least slighty better. Yesterday evening we had our second band practice, and all is going rather well. We've been going to a rehearsal studio called Lofi down a dark alley in the centre of Glasgow - last week we had to feel our way out in the pitch black, scary! It's a decent place with good equipment other than that, but we may try out some other places in the future. We have to hire the cymbols to use on the drum kit, which also requires knowledge of how to attach them to said kit. Last week we struggled through figuring out to attach them ourselves - it's all fairly simple except the hi-hat, and we did fine. This week I asked the guy who worked there to show me how it's done properly, but for some reason the way he did it didn't seem to be as good as our bodged effort from the previous week! Anyway we got the drum kit set up and started practicing. We managed to make it pretty much entirely through one of our songs - I forget which one, ooops. This was fairly impressive we felt. There was even an attempted jam session at the end - not as good. My own performance was a mixed bag and I need to tighten up a lot. I often kept falling out of the beat with my foot on the bass peddle and struggled to regain it again afterwards. I loosened up after a couple of beers though, which seemed to me to improve my drumming. You should have heard our Radar love - oh yeah!

The practice was followed by going to watch the second half of the France versus Spain match at a nearby booze merchant - who'd have thought that France would get through after how they played in the group stage! After the football finished though we didn't just all go home to our beds satified and excited about what we'd just achieved - oh no, we continued boozing until the early hours in a proper wild band stylee (not so good on a work night see Advice). We did throw a few band name about in our inebriated state, but still have yet to settle on something. In summary band - good, some booze - also good, lots of booze on Tuesday evening - bad.

The wait is over

Today my drum kit arrived. I've yet to see it, but my flatmate phoned saying it was delivered at 9.10 this morning. It'll be fun getting home and putting ti together, although hopefully this wont be as fun as actualy playing it. As it's electric I've got all sorts of preset styles to fiddle around with, so I'm sure it'll provide hours of technogadegtry enjoyment as well as being a good practice aid.

Pick a card, any card

It must be a hard job refereeing a football match. I mean you've got to have eye's on the back of your head to to spot each and every offence commited. You're not at all helped by the players, they'll cheat and dive, and swear and shout at you. They don't trust you enough to do your job that they think you need telling when somebody should get booked, or someones commited a foul, or handled the ball. And as for the managers... they've not got a kind word for you. You may have given a dubious penelty decision for their team, but that isn't enough for these guys. Barracking you from the side lines, arguing with the fourth official, kicking up a stink in the tunnel at half time. It must be a nightmare job. Well in the Holland versus Portugal game today the ref got his own back. How's about this for card happy - 16 bookings, 4 red cards! We can only assume he was trying to get his name in the record books - the previous highest number of bookings was also 16, so he didn't quite top it, but boy did he try. All the bookings and the general bad feelings between the players made for one hell of an exciting match though. Also all the bookings for Portugese players should hopefully make it a bit easier for England in the quarter finals.

Speaking of the England game... well actually there's not much to say. We've managed to get through, which is all well and good (honest I'm all very happy about it and that), but we still haven't managed to play at all well. Now I'll concede that it was rather hot out there and the players looked truely knackered (on both teams), but it wasn't the most enthralling game. I pity the poor neutral who was watching, cos at least I got some excitment out of it due to caring who won. Beckham did hit a rather sweet free kick to get our goal, but Lampard had a few chances that should have at least troubled the Ecuador keeper in some way. Well we've got the game against Portugal to prove ourselves and let's hope we make a good game of it.

Drums

I will find out what happened to my drum kit tomorrow. I'm hoping I'll be bashing away at the fake electronic style skins by tomorrow evening.

Where oh where can my drum kit be

So to allow me to practice my drumming for the band I've gone and bought myself an electric drum kit. This is not a cheap item, but it will allow me to bash away in silence (ooh err missus) without annoying my neighbours - I think a real drum kit might have been a problem for the guys in the flat beneath ours, especially as we've got laminate flooring. This kit was supposed to have been delivered yesterday and when I arrived home today (after my general dirty stopout behaviour of not going home on a Friday night - as ever thanks go to Bob and Fiona for their hospitality and living room floor) I was full of anticipation about putting together my kit. Unfortunately it was not hear. I'm not happy - think I'll be having to phone the delivery company on Monday. When the kit finally does arrive I'll let you all know what it's like. I'll need to be practicing "Radar Love" by the Dutch legends Golden Earring, which is one of the songs we decided on at our first practice.

Unsurprisingly I've still been watching lots of football. One of the most exciting games so far was the Australia versus Croatia the other day. I'd not liked to have been an actual Aussie or Croatian fan, because if I were I might have suffered a heart attack - it was tense enough as a neutral. And what the fuck was Graham Poll up to at the end there! Today's match between Argentina and Mexico was also rather good. In extra time the two substitutes Teves and Messi look particularly lively and were making some lovely runs - also it was a fucking sweet goal that Maxi Rodriguez hit. I was quite annoyed by a few things though, these related to the fact that three of the players in my fanstasy football team (Schweinsteiger, Cambiasso and Saviola) all got substituted and didn't get any goals, grrrrr!

He bangs the drum

Today I will talk about the band. A few months (well now nearly a year) ago a new post-doc Chris arrived in the department brandishing the crazy idea that we start a band. At his previous institution (the University of Birmingham) he had apparently taken a rag tag bunch of non-musically talented physicists and they'd become a some sort of supergroup with record contracts coming out their ears - well not quite, but I think they might have played a gig in the back room of a pub or two. Determined to repeat his former sucess he has gathered together John, Neil (aka the Mole, aka the Total Ride), Ellie and myself to be his new rock triumph. I will be playing the drums in the band - this is due to the fact that I have no ability on any other instrument (well I'm a mean player of the maracas) and played the drums for a few months at school when I was eleven. Despite the band being nearly a year in the making we've so far not had a proper practice session, although this will soon change as we're gearing up for something next week. We have several songs lined up and have taken the appropriate instrumental tabs off the internet. I've been practicing for my role by playing the air drums, these are kind of like normal drums except they exist only in your head, and can turn you into a drumming legend (like Phil Collins say) with only the slightest leap of the imagination. Unfortunately I doubt my air drumming skills will match up with reality when I have to sit behind a real drum kit.

The main challenge now for the band, other than me aquiring some drumming skills (the other are all actually quite good), is for us to find a name. There have been several suggestions floated around, although I wont give away too much yet (and the people who read this are likely to be the ones who know anyway), but we haven't settled on anything quite yet. I'll keep you updated on our status when we've had our first full practice - should be interesting!

World Cup starts tomorrow by the way.