New Kit Day

  • Thread starter Houndog
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I got the rest of the tube lugs in today .



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Houndog said:
Not sure I can get used to Bop tuning ??
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Play some JAZZ on it - it'll sound good! I keep getting talked into lending my Slingerland bop kit out for various jazz players (I'm involved with a non-profit music festival and we all pitch in), and I lent it to a really great drummer from out of town, who tuned them up bop high. I was ready to re-tune them when I got them back, but decided to mess around with them as is for a while and I began to dig the kind of more "melodic" vibe they had. Some time later, I lent them to another drummer and that guy tuned them a bit lower (but still higher than a typical rock kit) and I decided I like that, so I pretty much left them that way. There is something to be said about higher tunings on those smaller drums, when you're playing jazzy type stuff...
 
5 Style said:
Play some JAZZ on it - it'll sound good! I keep getting talked into lending my Slingerland bop kit out for various jazz players (I'm involved with a non-profit music festival and we all pitch in), and I lent it to a really great drummer from out of town, who tuned them up bop high. I was ready to re-tune them when I got them back, but decided to mess around with them as is for a while and I began to dig the kind of more "melodic" vibe they had. Some time later, I lent them to another drummer and that guy tuned them a bit lower (but still higher than a typical rock kit) and I decided I like that, so I pretty much left them that way. There is something to be said about higher tunings on those smaller drums, when you're playing jazzy type stuff...
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I actually love higher tunings on rock and funk gigs too. They play better, are more melodic, mic up better, project more, and sound better up front. I think that even a slightly higher tuned set of rack toms can work wonders on heavier rock gigs, and even though they might sound much higher from the throne, for some reason they don’t sound quite as high pitched to the audience.
JMO, YMMV.
 
Steech said:
I thought this thread was about Houndog’s new kit.
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My bad - I just saw "New Kit Day" title and thought it was just the generic "new kit day" thread. I am sorry - didn't mean to hijack Houndogs thread - I will see if I can delete my posts
 
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5 Style said:
Play some JAZZ on it - it'll sound good! I keep getting talked into lending my Slingerland bop kit out for various jazz players (I'm involved with a non-profit music festival and we all pitch in), and I lent it to a really great drummer from out of town, who tuned them up bop high. I was ready to re-tune them when I got them back, but decided to mess around with them as is for a while and I began to dig the kind of more "melodic" vibe they had. Some time later, I lent them to another drummer and that guy tuned them a bit lower (but still higher than a typical rock kit) and I decided I like that, so I pretty much left them that way. There is something to be said about higher tunings on those smaller drums, when you're playing jazzy type stuff...
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I am playing jazz on it . It’s just a whole new world to me now ….I played around a bit with tuning last night and ended up putting them back where I had them.

It’s the bass drum that’s really messing with me …..
 
towndog said:
My bad - I just saw "New Kit Day" title and thought it was just the generic "new kit day" thread. I am sorry - didn't mean to hijack Houndogs thread - I will see if I can delete my posts
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I wouldn’t worry about it, it’s fine .
But you do need to show those off in the forum !!!
 
Houndog said:
I am playing jazz on it . It’s just a whole new world to me now ….I played around a bit with tuning last night and ended up putting them back where I had them.

It’s the bass drum that’s really messing with me …..
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I think that it's acceptable to play jazz music in whatever tuning you like, even if it a higher tuning is more stereotypical. There are lots of really jazzy, jazz drummers who tune lower and still sound great. As for the bass drum, unless you really dampen the thing AND tune it low, you won't get close to a typical rock sound with it, but then again, you probably don't want to if you're playing jazz, as the bass drum has a different kind of function in the music. If you are somewhat new to playing this music, I would suggest that you try feathering the bass drum at least at first, so that no matter what your playing with the hands, the bass drum is on the quarter notes, 4 beats to a bar. You of course have to hit it very lightly so that it's felt more than heard, but doing that, a higher more open kind of bass drum sound might start to make more sense to you. I would also suggest playing it so that you're not burying the beater. In general, I wouldn't say that burying the beater is poor technique, but for jazz music in particular, I think it's better practice to learn to get a more open, resonant sound. I actually feel that in certain situations playing back-beat (not swing type) groves on a small open-tuned bass drum can sound good too, but I get that for others it sounds very weird...
 
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5 Style said:
I think that it's acceptable to play jazz music in whatever tuning you like, even if it a higher tuning is more stereotypical. There are lots of really jazzy, jazz drummers who tune lower and still sound great. As for the bass drum, unless you really dampen the thing AND tune it low, you won't get close to a typical rock sound with it, but then again, you probably don't want to if you're playing jazz, as the bass drum has a different kind of function in the music. If you are somewhat new to playing this music, I would suggest that you try feathering the bass drum at least at first, so that no matter what your playing with the hands, the bass drum is on the quarter notes, 4 beats to a bar. You of course have to hit it very lightly so that it's felt more than heard, but doing that, a higher more open kind of bass drum sound might start to make more sense to you. I would also suggest playing it so that you're not burying the beater. In general, I wouldn't say that burying the beater is poor technique, but for jazz music in particular, I think it's better practice to learn to get a more open, resonant sound. I actually feel that in certain situations playing back-beat (not swing type) groves on a small open-tuned bass drum can sound good too, but I get that for others it sounds very weird...
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I’m doing exactly all of that …
 
Houndog said:
@5 Style

I’m 2-3 weeks in …working out of Syncopation , I work on playing the bass drum even softer than this as well . Felt not heard ….

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Cool.... you're probably further along with this jazz stuff than I am with the whole blues shuffle thing. I don't actually play any blues music and have no intention to start with that, though I realize that those basic skills can be useful for jazz, because here and there, there are tunes that work well with shuffle feels... and even if the basic tune isn't played as a shuffle, there's no reason that you can't play that feel though one or more of the solos. The more flavors you can bring to it the better. Of course that's going to be vice versa for you in that you may be able to get up to speed with a jazz shuffle fairly quickly, but less so for the real jazzy kinds of feels.
 
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