Tuning "experts" mini rant

Andy

Honorary Member
Ok, so you bought a drum kit, carefully placed your selection of pseudo endorsement stickers, you own a drum key & a video camera of some sort. You decide to impart your vast (instantly acquired) knowledge to somehow garner yourself in expert status.

Please, please don't. Just don't. You've probably never played a gig, or if you did, it was in front of your friends at a party, & they all told you how incredible your playing was & how awesome your drums sound. How can you possibly know how to tune for the room when the only room you've played in is your bedroom.

We've all got to start somewhere, no issues with beginners, but you're not a tuning expert in 3 months by watching tuning videos. The thing that really gets me is that other beginners soak this crap up. Stop it already - enough!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvPt6VZCckw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Zd1yS_Qf0A
 
Oh bless him! All those decals!

I think we should start a "Hall of Shame" for tuning/dampening videos, along the lines of the "Best of Craigslist" thread.
 
I don't care if it is drum tuning, car tuning, or banjo tuning, if it comes from Expert Village ignore it. Please do yourself a favor. run away
 
I don't understand why anyone would watch those videos when there are vids online from guys like Bob Gatzen and John Good.

Would you listen to a legendary drum designer and the VP of DW drums or some kid mumbling his way through a bunch of nonsense?

Ugh.
 
damn that's horrible.

I used the bob gatzen video's for reference on tuning though lol
Bob's videos are superb as a basis to start your own journey of discovery :)

It says "expert village" on there ...... Must be good ;)
I don't care if it is drum tuning, car tuning, or banjo tuning, if it comes from Expert Village ignore it. Please do yourself a favor. run away
The problem is, there's loads of them, not just the Expert Village (read: Village idiots) videos.
Oh bless him! All those decals!
Kinda says something right from the get go ;)


I don't understand why anyone would watch those videos when there are vids online from guys like Bob Gatzen and John Good.

Would you listen to a legendary drum designer and the VP of DW drums or some kid mumbling his way through a bunch of nonsense?

Ugh.
Agreed Jeff. Both offer a good foundation, Bob's more so IMHO.

I'm just not sure what drives these people to put stuff like this out there. There's others too, that seem better informed on the surface, but are fundamentally wrong in so many ways. If anything, they're the worst because they carry a veneer of credibility.

I regard myself as a good drum tuner. Not great, good. I'm still learning, & never expect to stop. I know a couple of guys who really are expert tuners. They spend their entire life travelling the globe, working with some of the world's best drummers in every imaginable situation. Frankly, better qualified in the real world than anyone, & even they would be hesitant to put a video together.
 
The so called, "Experts" can be annoying.
A few weeks ago I was trying to decide between an LED, and an LCD TV. I went to YouTube for advice and reviews on current TV technology so that I could make the purchasing choice that was best for me. I had to sift through many garbage videos that contained no useful information before I found videos that were produced be people who actually knew what they were talking about. I wondered why so many people would take the time to put up videos about televisions when they knew nothing about them.
Eventually I did find several informative videos that helped me. I bought an LED Smart TV.

This is an excellent video about YouTube Complaints. http://youtu.be/_y0SCQJvA1c
 
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End of the second video: "Oh god, he's actually starting to play......let's just fade him out...."
 
I don't think it's a new phenomenon that inexperienced people think they're experts for whetever reason. But what's new is that they have an outlet for it like never before: the Internet. With personal sites, forums, and YouTube, such inexperience is more pervasive.

I've stumbled across the Expert Village stuff before, I honestly thought they were gags.

Bermuda
 
I agree with Bermuda about the internet. At one time there was a mechanism in place that allowed someone to be published, now anyone that's online can print or display whatever they can dream up and It's made many instant-experts.
I guess the old adage of "Judge them by the fruit they bear" still applies at the end of the day. Or in the computer and communications world...GIGO.
 
Perhaps I shouldn't have chosen Expert Village examples, because that's been discussed/referenced to death. It's more the swarm of videos like this that bother me:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyjgdZh_hxs

He's probably a very nice well intentioned guy, & maybe a very talented player too, but the video is next to useless. It's well filmed & reasonably well presented for what it is, but the content is woeful, & leaves the beginner with more questions than answers. This looks like a legitimate video from someone who knows what they're doing.

For many, tuning is perhaps the biggest frustration outside of playing the instrument. It may even be why many give up playing, so this kind of stuff really winds me up.

My triangular & flexible friends are correct. There was a time when getting something published mostly required some form of assessment of value/credibility. Now it's anyone with a camera/phone & a few minutes spare in the day. I guess that's the price we pay for the global outlet we now take for granted
 
....the internet. At one time there was a mechanism in place that allowed someone to be published, now anyone that's online can print or display whatever they can dream up and It's made many instant-experts.

You're talkin' 1995 or so... right? If you think about it... that was 19 years ago.
 
I don't think it's a new phenomenon that inexperienced people think they're experts for whetever reason. But what's new is that they have an outlet for it like never before: the Internet. With personal sites, forums, and YouTube, such inexperience is more pervasive.

I've stumbled across the Expert Village stuff before, I honestly thought they were gags.

Bermuda

This is true...

With a smattering of due diligence one can sift the wheat from the chaff. However, for the tenderfeet amongst us that might require a bit of time, experience and maybe even seeking some opinions on certain subjects/methods/websites right here on this forum.

For those uninitiated souls onboard... may I present Drums for Dummies.... yea or nay... there is some groundwork laid out for your consumption. And if you shop used a deal can be delivered right to your doorstep.
 
Thanks. Now that I watched these videos for ten seconds each, YouTube is asking if I'd like to subscribe to Expert Village.

shake-head-no.gif
 
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