I need to be critized!!! help =(

CVdrummer

Senior Member
Can you guys please check out the song "three to disco" and give me a critique about it on quality and on drumming wise ...and just the song in general..

the song was recorded in my room where im tryna start a lil studio.


please give me some advice and some things that should be worked on.

Thanks!!

you can hear the song at :

www.myspace.com/dyslexiccrown

song: "Three to disco"
 
Well work your tempo, your beat is all over the place. You can't groove when your tempo is so off. Don't try to much shop it even worse when you do.

I relisten, and you really gotta learn to play with a clic track. Keep your playing simple, because when you mist specially in fills it shows even more.
 
Well work your tempo, your beat is all over the place. You can't groove when your tempo is so off. Don't try to much shop it even worse when you do.

I relisten, and you really gotta learn to play with a clic track. Keep your playing simple, because when you mist specially in fills it shows even more.

i absolutely agree. simplicity is your friend, not foe. get the steve jordan, groove is here dvd. it may be difficult at first, but play alone with a click for a while and play NO fills. kick, snare, hats, and ride... no more. get a good feel for groove and timing. you gotta learn some pocket. youll quickly learn how to manipulate the groove with small micro-timing changes. when your doing this always remember that simplicity is the key.

try this with some galactic, rhcp, the roots, and soulive. those are my favorites to groove with...

im just trying to help. you do have skillz but need a little practice (who doesnt?)
practice this with just you and the bass player too so yall can really lock up.

good luck,
Taylor
 
"I need to be critized"

Yes, you do. If you feel the need to be critiCIzed, then you lack confidence. Practice until you are confident in your abilities. I would focus on your tempo issues. Play with a metronome when you practice. Or, at the very least, play along with CDs. Bands' tempos may fluctuate, but not twice within a single measure.

Also, eventually you will find your groove. What makes "complicated" grooves funky and groovy isn't the quantity of notes played, but how they are intricately placed in relation to the beat, and how one note "leads" to the next. You'll learn to feel this in time with a lot of practice and listening. Good luck and thanks for the post!
 
the song sounds very nice but as far as the drumming goes i have to agree with all guys that have posted in here. your ideas and musical sentences are promising but there is a very obvious problem with the metronome.

i would humbly suggest starting to work with a click track immediately and lay down the the same groove in different tempos. playing along with favorite songs is another option to make your practice a lot more fun than just playing to a click. i don't consider myself a very rudimental guy, i am an ear taught drummer that never had any courses; but there's something i would like to call shadow drumming (just like in shadow boxing). you basically air drum, pillow drum, x drum with every song you hear even if you don't have sticks with you and you have to pretend that you're holding them and sit behind your setup. that helped me a great deal. drumming starts basically by imitating a pro drummer's playing then you start developing your own style. while doing so, do not neglect the fact that rhythm is based on your solid understanding of this repetitive clicks so called metronome.

whatever the reason may be for your shaky performance(the band, you experience level etc.) some musicians could be oversensitive and over-demanding when it comes down to laying down a decent groove. so it could become a real pain in the butt for a drummer. some of the people i have come across to work with, even hear and complain about 64th note anomaly(a rush or a pull or a slight blunder) in the rhythm (how hard to hear or sense it, basically depends on the tempo of the track) especially during recording sessions. so for instance, one time after several takes and painful hours i could get it right how he wanted, in my first time recording in a studio. made me feel like crap.

if you could have the chance to use an e-drum or triggers with your acoustic set, i would also recommend recording midi tracks and checking out how your notes fit into the desired grid when you examine the midi track. keep on working until every note (lengths, ends etc.) is in it's place as they are desired to be. not before not after.

another tip for using a click track is from a Simon Phillips instructional video. he says if you don't hear the click while playing, everything is fine, but if you start hearing the clicks that has only one meaning, you're out of sync or tempo. practice with a click track until you don't hear there is one. and of course with different tempos.

cheers!

p.s. a sample recording. play along with jewel
Jewel - Only One Too play along
 
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Everything the guys above said, I agree with. But you asked about the song as well as the drumming, so some additional notes.

Your bass player needs to work on his timing as well. Also, maybe he didn't do this because you were playing so much, but it really felt like he needed a few more notes in his line. For that kind of sound, you want something closer to a walking bass line than the boom...wait...boom...wait...boom that he was using.

Also, I don't know if it's your studio set up or the guitarist himself, but the guitar tone on all of those songs is horrible. He should spend a lot more time with his knobs on his amp/guitar/processor, trying to not sound like that.

Overall, you guys have a lot of potential. If I had to guess, I'd say you all haven't been playing for that long, and it's probably the first band for all of you. You guys could grown into something very tight. It just hasn't come close to that yet.
 
i agree with all the rest of the guys, your tempo is a little shaky.

But i like your style, and the stuff you guys play in general. its funky and original. and the cowbell is a nice touch. and your drum sound really..fresh.

i must admit. i dig.
 
You have some really good ideas. You just need alot of polish.
The main thing for me is that your band have an overall feeling of uncertainty over what the other members are doing.
My advice... practice alot with only your basist so you get really tight.
be really picky over little things that dont sound good to your ears and work on them as a band to get them sounding great
practice with a metronome, alot.
Your doing good, you all jus need some practice.
Keep at it.
 
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