Finger Drumming Question

I'm getting pretty good at finger drumming now. I'm able to create routines and play them out. Time keeping is getting there.

At the moment when I play, I'm playing the pads in a sequence. But my drum patterns are pretty straight. I can get a hi hat shuffle, and a snare on any other beat, but the kick ends up sounding straight. I'd like to play more freely if you get what I mean.

It's hard to explain. But, if I'm playing the hi-hats and snare with one hand, I can't play the kick with the other hand unless it hits on the 1/4 beat. Hitting it on an offbeat, or hitting it multiple times is proving difficult.

It's as if I want my left hand to totally forget whet my right hand is doing, but it's as if they're both moving to the same beat.

Any ways to practice getting beyond this obstacle? I'm sure it's happened to others when they got started.

i think this is a two fold 'problem', composition and performance are intertwined
i would record everything but the kicks, and then experiment to find a less straight kick pattern on top
then, try to play it all together

AntonPD wrote:i think this is a two fold 'problem', composition and performance are intertwined
i would record everything but the kicks, and then experiment to find a less straight kick pattern on top
then, try to play it all together

It's playing it all together that I have a problem with though. The kick was an example, it happens with any instrument on the pads that I'm playing with the other hand if the pattern isn't straight 4/4. It's like I need to just let both hands play freely and not together.

I dont know much about finger-drumming, but I'm amazed by people like B Durazzo (?) who can work both hands independently, on or off the grid. The hand, eye and ear co-ordination, and timing is simply incredible. My gut feeling is that endless hours of practice is the key to success, and some people simply don't have the required 'natural co-ordination' in the first place to pull it off.

Just practice for hours on end, and if its meant to be it will be. There's always sequencing to fall back on.

Maybe BD can chime in with some advice if he sees this or gets a PM...

Thomas lang has a drumming dvd that has good exercises for drummers. You can adopt the technique for your fingers. What you are talking about is similar to what drummers learn. How to play poly rhythm or how to syncopate. It takes practice of course but langs examples are good. They are a bit soul less but you can add that onceyou get good. His method is technical.
Cheers
Ian

Ian Canefire wrote:Thomas lang has a drumming dvd that has good exercises for drummers. You can adopt the technique for your fingers. What you are talking about is similar to what drummers learn. How to play poly rhythm or how to syncopate. It takes practice of course but langs examples are good. They are a bit soul less but you can add that onceyou get good. His method is technical.
Cheers
Ian

Cheers for that bud, I was able to search Google for "polyrhythm" and "syncopation" and got a lot of help on YouTube. There's also something called "Limb Independence" from what I've learnt.

For drummers they are recommending play slow, and verbalize what you're doing out loud. So I'm going to give those a try.

JamesJeffery wrote:There's also something called "Limb Independence" from what I've learnt.

was about to mention that.

That's probably the hardest thing to learn with finger drumming. I'm still far from being good at it, but it's something that just needs practice.

sciguy wrote:

JamesJeffery wrote:There's also something called "Limb Independence" from what I've learnt.

was about to mention that.

That's probably the hardest thing to learn with finger drumming. I'm still far from being good at it, but it's something that just needs practice.

Well, it's good to know that it's something a lot of beginners have to learn. I thought it was just me