Jonnie Brown

Cymbals are loud. Churches don't like loud noises. You see the problem? Sometimes it's not that a cymbal is too loud, it's that certain high frequencies are emphasized too much, making it piercing. Sometimes it's not that it's too piercing, but that it just rings forever and bleeds into all of the drum mics or vocal mics.  There's this wonderful invention popular among musicians called gaff tape. The wonder and magic of gaff tape is that it doesn't leave residue and has too many uses. One such use is to dampen drums and cymbals. For this post, I'd like to specifically focus on gaff tape on cymbals. First, I am by no means an expert on taping cymbals. I don't know what I'm doing. But that is the fun part! It's exploring the sounds you can get by doing _____ . There's no wrong answers; there's just sound. Be an explorer! Find what sounds best to you. So when would I put tape on my cymbals? Let me give you a few scenar

Just like first impressions, you only get one first note. As a drummer, "feel" is kind of part of your job description. Your bandmates are very likely using your feel to determine how they approach and play their own instruments. If you've practiced with your band, then they know when you're about to come in, and they're listening for it. A common problem that occurs is that it can take us drummers a few notes or a few measures to get settled into what we're actually doing. However, professionals start with the energy and feel they want from their first note. What is feel? What are you even talking about? It's complicated; that's for sure. It can be described as an emotional connection. It's what makes you bob your head.  It's made up of important and unimportant notes with an awareness of where the pulse is.  When you start playing, if you haven't locked into your tempo from the first note, your feel is going to feel funny

My favorite dinosaur is the stegosaurus, but regardless of whatever your favorite dinosaur is, I hope to make you at least conscious of the dynamics of any song.  If you’re going to learn a song that doesn’t have sheet music, you have to listen to it. But what exactly are you supposed to listen for? What's the most important thing to learn in the song as a drummer? I believe that it's the overall song's dynamics. To illustrate this, let’s look at a song - an imaginary song.  It goes like this:   intro - verse 1 - chorus  - intro - verse 2 - chorus - bridge - bridge - chorus Wait. There was no music in that! There were no drum parts! That’s just a bunch of words! Just hang with me. As a drummer, you need to know where you are and where you're going next in the song.  And it's your job to lead others into the next part of the song. So, you have to know the form of the song. The song’s “form” is just a fancy way of referring to the sections of

Photo by   Jasper Smith Imagine a song with no drum fills. Sounds pretty boring, right? Well, keep imagining. What is there if there are no fills? There’s a beat pattern. There’s a home base. Most songs contain probably 90% beat patterns and 10% fills - and that’s pretty generous for the fills. It makes sense that you should focus on your beat pattern more than your fills, but somehow, fills can get more attention. WHY IS THAT?! I believe it’s because fills get the credit of creating moments. We all want to make moments happen. But a question all drummers need to ask themselves is “ Is the moment I want to create a moment the song needs right now? ” If you’re brave and honest enough to answer “no” you’ll see that the common listener will agree that the song is often better served with your beat pattern than it is with your fill. But what if the song really is better served with the moment you want to create? Well, to really pull it off, you have to play it in time. This is a re