As luck would have it one day, instead of having a normal rehearsal my band was going to work on our new music video.  I had grabbed my video camera to use as a backup or secondary camera and while driving the thought came to me.  I wanted to give my readers an inside look on how my band, an indie band with some technological knowledge, creates music videos.

Now, this video isn’t going to go into specifics of exactly how to edit and shoot videos against a green screen.  However, it does give an overview of what we do and a peek at what the shoot actually looks like.  The two songs featured in my video are “Still Me” A song that will be on our new CD Blaming Tim Vs. The Mechanical Robots From Outer Space.  The second song more prominently featured is “Made For TV Movie” which will also be on the new CD.  So if you dig the music, visit blamingtim.com for more information on the band.

Without further ado I present to you A Behind The Scenes Look At Making An Indie Music Video:

I was fortunate enough to have great parents that understood my addiction to playing drums and even luckier to have neighbors that didn’t mind the drumming or the band practices as long as it wasn’t too early in the morning or late at night.  Hell, sometimes they would come over just to check out the band.

However, now I’m all grown up and have a house and neighbors of my own along with a beautiful wife and 2 crazy dogs that go nuts over the sound of someone knocking on the door, let alone banging drums upstairs (the dogs that is, not the wife).  I haven’t tested the waters with the neighbors yet mostly because of the strange looks I get just loading and unloading the drumset before and after gigs.  I tend to stick to just using a practice pad at home or using a pillow when I feel the need to exercise my wrist strength.

I leave the actual practice on the drumset to band rehearsals.  And after reading this news article, I’m glad that my parents and neighbors were so understanding.  Now, I’m not saying that you should worry about being in the line of fire for doing what you love to do, but it never hurts to take precautions.  Omar (the paradiddler) wrote many great suggestions on trying to keep peace with the neighbors including a link to audiomute who’s slogan is “We make soundproofing simple”.  Looking over their products, it looks like they have a great line and I can’t wait to make a purchase once I start to create my own practice space.

I’m not going to go over all the ways you can sound proof your space in this article (I probably will in the future).  If you are looking for some basic, easy ways to appease those who share your dwelling or live next to you – I suggest you take a look at Omar’s article.

Maybe you are lucky like I was when I was growing up and you have great neighbors – or maybe you hate your neighbors and don’t care how loud you are.  Either way it was an interesting read and I highly suggest you consider it before practicing at home.

Remember when configuring your setup – start with the drum throne, then build out from there… Snare, Bass, Pedals, Hats, and so on.

Adam Silverman just did a write up on his approach to drum set setup -

For me personally, I sit really high on my seat, almost as high as it goes. That allows my legs to hang free below me, so when I am doing my fast bass drum grooves and using double bass I don’t have the stress on those hip flexors. If I sit too low I get this burning in my upper hip, and I feel like I can’t move my legs at all, so that’s why I sit so high.

So stop straining yourself and make a contribution to your health as a drummer.  Take a jump over to adamdrums.com and read his post on Drumset Setup.

Do you have any tricks or tips you use for setting up your kit?  Please share them in the comments below.

I hope that this page will make it into your bookmarks so that you will be able to jump to these great sites easily.  If you have or know of a website for drummers or another great drumming resource that I missed – please let me know in the comments.

1. Prof. Sound’s Drum Tuning Bible

This site has the most thorough information I’ve found anywhere on drum tuning, wood selection, and sound theory.  This is a MUST READ for all drummers.

Click Here To Jump To The Drum Tuning Bible

2. Drummer Etc.

This site is a great blog for drummers – filled with information, videos, even a drummers forum.  Subscribe to Stephen’s RSS feed so you can stay updated with the site, or follow him on twitter (@DrummerETC)

Click Here To Jump To Drummer Etc.

3. Drum Bum

This site includes drum tips, drum lessons, and shirts (who doesn’t love a good drumming related t-shirt?).

Click Here to Jump To Drum Bum

4. Kent Aberle Drums

Aside from being a great friend that I’ve written about several times on this site – Kent puts out some great information and articles on things we don’t think about as drummers… our health, being burnt out, etc.  He’s got a pretty busy schedule, but when he puts out an article – it’s always a worthwhile read.

Click Here To Jump To Kent Aberle Drums

5. Jeff Consi (.com)

Along with the rest of the sites mentioned on this post – Jeff has written some great articles.  Jeff is a New York drummer currently living in Melbourne, Australia.  His site is a great resource for technique, product reviews, and a lot more.

Click Here To Jump To JeffConsi.com

6. Cobus Potgieter (deedlebag) on youtube

This dude has amazing chops (especially for someone who claims to be self-taught).  He’s got tons of videos posted of him playing “covers” to pop songs.  I use the term “covers” loosley because all of the videos are him playing his interpretation of the songs.  He’s also got an instructional DVD that is being shot right now.  Check him out for inspiration… especially if you are into pop.

Click Here To Jump To Cobus’ Youtube Page

7. Josh Freese on YouTube

Ok, so you won’t find much in the way of drumming… But, Josh is one funny motherfucker and his videos are great – especially if you are a Freese fan.

Click Here To Jump To Josh’s Youtube Page

8. FreeDrumLessons.com on Youtube

You’ve seen me write about freedrumlessons.com before and know how much I love them.  They’ve got most, if not all of their instructional videos up on youtube for your enjoyment (and knowledge expansion).

Click Here To Jump To The FreeDrumLessons.com Youtube Page

I know that I missed so many other great sites, but I didn’t want to post too many links too soon – digest and subscribe to these links for now and I should have more to fill your drumming apetite later.  Again, if you know of a great site or youtube page you want to share – let me know in the comments below.

However, it always bored the living crap out of me…..

the constant Boop Beep Beep Beep of the metronome, RLRRLRLLRLRRLRLL, RLRLRRLRLRLL

- It all began to look and sound the same.

Recently, Drummer Etc. has given me a new way to get back to practicing those rudiments with a little bit more fun (and possibly more efficient) way of going about it.

Drummer Etc. suggests playing the rudiments against your favorite songs…. this will help inspire creativity, keep time, and keep you from getting bored.

From The Article:

The end goal is to play the rudiment within the time signature of the song in as many subdivisions and dynamic ranges as possible. Traditionally when you work on your rudiments, you go from slow to fast to slow…doing this allows you to play the rudiment at any speed. It’s boring though, and I hate boring practice.

To read the full article – Click Here to go to the Drummer Etc. Blog

Photo By KD Drums (kddrums.com)

You’ve changed the heads, you know it’s not your ear, and the lugs are fine – But the damn thing keeps going out of tune!  This might not actually be your fault.  If you’ve tried everything you can think of, it is possible that you might just have a defective drum (or drums) – meaning, the bearing edges might be bad.

So how can you tell if your bearing edges are bad – well, you could take them to a drum builder to be re-cut… but that could be expensive and a hassle if you’re not anywhere close to a builder.  The easier alternative is to try out RecordingHacks.com for a great way to test the bearing edges yourself (even if you don’t’ have a perfectly flat surface).

From The Article:

The general approach is to put the drum, with no heads, on a flat surface, then drop a flashlight or, preferably, a small (low-wattage) bare light bulb inside the shell. Kill the room lights, and look for light escaping from the bottom edge of the drum shell, where it meets the counter.

To Read The Full Article – Check Out The Recording Hacks Website