2013 Holiday Gift Ideas for Drummers

It’s that time of year again! The holiday gift giving season is upon us so it’s time to head to the store to purchase something unique for your special drummer. Many of these items I personally use myself each and every day and others are items I have on MY holiday wish list.

Tools to Create Your Own DRUMLINE Sheet Music

How to Write for PERCUSSION: An extremely detailed and helpful book, not just for beginners but intermediate and advanced musicians as well. Whether you have years of percussion writing experience or no idea how to even approach it, this book will give you hundreds of great new ideas and will show you exactly how to realize them in your music.

Finale Print Music 2011: Simply the best professional music software for arrangers, composers, teachers, students, and drummers too.

My Practice Essentials

BOSS DB-90 Metronome: Dr. Beat! The most advanced metronome available. Trigger input to access unique Rhythm Coach Exercises. I never practice without it.

 

Evans 2-Sided Real Feel 12 inch Practice Pad: The most popular practice pad and for good reason. It serves its primary purpose well - QUIET practice with REALISTIC feel. Definitely a must-buy for drummers who have whiny neighbors.

Percussion Hobbies

Beat Generals: Beat Generals helps you unleash your inner super producer by teaching you all the techniques and tricks the pros use to create the hottest beats on the radio today. I love playing with this in my spare time – try it today!

 

How to Build a Marimba: Really fun comprehensive guides to build your own xylophones, marimbas, vibraphones and other quality percussion instruments.

Other Tech, Gadgets, and Toys

 

Google ChromeCast HDMI Streaming Media Player. Stream my Dumline YouTube videos right to your TV using your smartphone, tablet, or laptop! Perfect for parties, creating playlists, or sharing pictures with grandma and grandpa.

R/C Helicopter. This Brand New 3 Channel mini rc helicopter is the world's newest, most durable and stable helicopter. The item comes with the latest gyro system for precision control. The metal frame has proven to withstand dozens of crashes.

HDMI Pocket Projector. Projects up to 1080p HD images up to 60" diagonal. Rechargeable and portable. Connects via HDMI to most smartphones, tablets, computers, video players, cameras and more.

Breaking Bad: Complete Series. All seasons plus tons of amazing extras for the greatest show on television. The episode titled "Ozymandias" is my favorite episode of any TV show I've ever seen.

Amazon Prime

I highly recommend joining Amazon Prime. If you order something off of Amazon on average once per month then it pays for itself, or if you're ordering a bunch of gifts this holiday season it probably will too. The FREE two day shipping is awesome and everything I've ordered really has come in two days or less. You can also stream movies, TV shows, and get a Kindle book every month. Great alternative for Netflix or Hulu and well worth the investment in my opinion. Cheers!

What gifts are you getting your fellow percussionist for the holidays? Please let me know by commenting below!

Cadets Sheet Music: 2012 Snare Break

Looking for some Cadets sheet music? Check out the 2012 snare solo below.

And of course the video so you can play along. Man that's fast!

 

Download the Cadets 2012 snare solo.

Snare Drum Sheet Music Warmup: Blue Devils Spree 1999

 

One of my favorite snare drum warmup exercises of all time is the Blue Devils Shopping Spree 1999 version. The Blue Devils used to have a warmup exercise every year called Shopping Spree but there's something about the 1999 line that stikes a chord with me. Download the complete Shopping Spree snare drum sheet music. Embedded below is a video of the actual Blue Devils drumline in the lot going shoppin. Check it out. What Spree is your favorite?

 

Download Blue Devils Shopping Spree 1999 - snare drum.pdf

Get more drum corps sheet music.

Colby Beers Tenor Solo Sheet Music

Colby Beers was the 2007 DCI Champion of the I&E Solo competition, scoring a 95.5. His tenor solo was called Free Mind and the sheet music is now available to download for free. Below is a video of the solo for you to play along with and a link to download the sheet music.

 

Download Colby Beers Tenor Solo Sheet Music - Free Mind.pdf

 

Visit our downloads page for more tenor drums sheet music.

How to Create Beats with Beat Generals

Beat Generals is a site that uses FL Studio to teach you how to create beats with easy to follow HD video tutorials. In case you don't already know, FL Studio is a pretty cheap, easy to find, music creation software suite responsible for hit records by Drake, Jay Z, Rick Ross, Lil Wayne, Kanye West, Nicki Minaj, Rick Ross and others. It’s easy to make simple drum loops but takes a lot of skill to pull off a well-polished song.

 

So, naturally, I was excited just to find some awesome video tutorials that could help me to start making the beats I loved faster than ever possible before. So now, all I needed were some good drum sounds to make my beats sound better. Luckily, Beat Generals also provides drums for you to use to really get that professional sound quality in your music. Practically anyone can create full radio-quality songs with little more than their home computer! Here is a video tutorial example:

 

 

It's simply amazing to me that one of the most popular programs out there for making beats has so few resources to teach quality techniques. Sure, many things come with experience but where do you get the basics and the advice you need to help elevate yourself to the next level? Beat Generals isn’t something made by some kid in his parent’s basement. We're talking about industry professionals teaching you what you need to know and showing you exactly what to do. If you’re even remotely serious about making beats and making money within the music industry, or you just want to create cool beats to play for your friends, you should check it out.

Beat Generals offers a free trial, so you really have nothing to lose. Try them out today and start making your own beats now.

Pulse Percussion 2012 Snare Solo Sheet Music

We’ve got some new drumline sheet music for you, starting with the Pulse Percussion 2012 snare solo. Pulse Percussion was the surprise 2010 Independent World Champion.Their 2012 show was called "Coming and Going" and placed third at the 2012 WGI World Championships with a score of 94.825.

Get the full snare solo sheet music here. Check out the cool video clip below.



Download more indoor percussion sheet music for FREE from our downloads page.
 

Drumline humor: book reports

Here's some drumline humor for you that will really make you laugh out loud:

And if you don't get, a book report is a hybrid rudiment. I'll let Casey Brohard of Vic Firth to explain:

If you enjoyed this post, please consider sharing it with your friends on your favorite social media platform!

New Snare Drum Sheet Music Uploaded

I’ve recently come across some excellent transcriptions of snare drum sheet music from a few WGI and DCI shows. First up is a Dartmouth HS snare segment from their 2012 show. Next is Ayala drumline 2012 snare solo. Ayala percussion has really grown and is one of the better high school programs in the country. Finally, we have a piece from the Cadets drumline 2012. I can’t wait for winter drumline to start!

Check out the downloads page for more winter percussion music.

Blue Devils 2012 Snare Solo

The Blue Devils drum and Bugle Corp won their 15th Drum Corp International (DCI) World Championship this past summer and their drumline won the top overall percussion score behind one of the best lines I've ever seen. I recently found some sheet music for their show transcribed by a fan which I will be sharing with you. The first segment is the snare drum solo. Download the full music as a pdf file using the link bellow (file is hosted for free on box.com).

Download 2012 Blue Devils snare drum solo sheet music.pdf

 

2012 March Madness

The NCAA men's basketball tournament has arrived. It's time to download and fill out your bracket. Who wants to get a Percussion and Drum Stuff bracket pool going? No money involved, just for bragging rights. Visit our downloads page to download the March Madness Excel spreadsheet bracket and pool manager. Comment below or on our Facebook page if you're interested in joining our pool. To read more about the 2012 NCAA Tournament bracket Excel files visit my Excel Spreadsheets Help blog.

Also, I recommend checking out March Madness Picks to get the latest information and tips on picking those bracket busting teams to help you dominate your office pool!

On a side note, and more Percussion and Drum Stuff related, I will hopefully be attending a WGI show or two soon and will try to have reviews, videos, etc.

How to Begin Drumming - Multimedia Lessons

Do you want to learn how to begin drumming? Instead of spending over $1500 on drum lessons try this new revolutionary multimedia approach. I wish techniques like these had been around when I was learning how to play snare drum. In my drumming experience I've found the best thing to do is to first learn technique and then learn how to apply that technique. It's the same with learning drumming rudiments - first learn the basic rudiments on traditional marching snare drum and then you can apply those rudiments when playing drum set. Begin Drumming teaches these best practices and more! The Begin Drumming package includes how to videos and many pages of sheet music. You can learn at your own pace. Try Begin Drumming today and maybe one day you'll be marching with the Blue Devils or jamming out on stage at a rock concert!

Click Here to begin your drum lessons!

Snare Drum Sheet Music - Rhythm X 2010 "Inspired" Complete Show

Earlier, I posted the first movement of the snare book for Rhythm X's 2010 show "Inspired." Well, I've finally got around to uploading movements two and four: The United States of Eurasia and Knights of Cydonia by Muse. View movement one, Butterflies and Hurricanes, here. I embedded a video of the show from Centerville High School below. I'll be posting a rare piece of Rhythm X music from 2003 coming soon!

Inspired movement 1 snare drum.pdf download
Inspired movement 2 snare drum.pdf download
Inspired movement 4 snare drum.pdf download 

Tenor Drum Sheet Music: Hey, Dick 1995

One of the most famous DCI cadences of all time is the Blue Devil's Hey, Dick from 1995. The beginning tenor part is especially catchy. Download the sheet music here.  I have finally found a video of the entire drumline playing along. Check it out:

Drumline Sheet Music: Hey, Dick Blue Devils 1995.pdf download

New Drumline Sheet Music Downloads

I've uploaded a few more percussion sheet music downloads to our download page including:

Rhythm X Wired Part 1 battery score download
Cavaliers 2008 - Fast Things.pdf download
Cavaliers 2006 - Flam I Am download
Colby Beers snare drum I&E 2007 - Free Mind.pdf download  

 Enjoy! Happy drumming and please let me know if you have any sheet music requests!

New Percussion and Drum Stuff Download Page

I’ve created a new page for the Percussion and Drum Stuff blog where I will be adding links to all the drumline sheet music files I’ve made available to download. You will be able to find all of our cadences and sheet music snare, tenor, bass, cymbal, battery, pit, marimba, etc. We’ve got transcriptions of some of the best indoor percussion lines out there as well as audition packets. Please comment if you have any original compositions you would like to share.

 

Now you won’t have to search through the whole site looking for one file. Simply go to the new page and read through the list of pdfs. The link to the downloads page is located at the top of the blog, or click here.

 

Please let me know if any links are not working. Thanks!

 

In the coming weeks I plan on adding a ton of new music so stay tuned!

Percussion and Drum Stuff's Best of 2011

It's that time of year. Let's look back at our most popular posts from 2011:

1. Snare Drum Sheet Music - Rhythm X 2010: "Inspired"
2. Snare Drum Sheet Music: Cavaliers Flam I Am 
3. Drumline Sheet Music: Double Drizzle Cadence 
4. Marching Snare Drum Sheet Music: Blue Devil's Dick 
5. Tenor Sheet Music: Rhythm X Quad Solo 2002 
6. Snare Drum Sheet Music: Blue Devils 2003 Opening 
7. Drumline Sheet Music: Music City Mystique 2011 
8. Radiohead deput new song with two drummers 
9. Sheet Music: Glassmen Cadence 2003 
10. Snare Drum Sheet Music: Arcadia High School 2011

We aim to make 2012 even better! What are you looking forward to in the new year? I personally cannot wait for indoor drumline shows to start. I'm also going to be seeing the Blue Man Group perform this February in Columbus, Ohio which I'm super stoked for!

Northcoast Academy 2012 Drumline Exercises

Looking for drumline sheet music? Are you looking to audition for an indoor drumline? Northcoast Academy recently released their audition packet for the 2012 line. Download the exercises here for snare, bass, tenor drums and cymbals.

Snare Drum Sheet Music: Phantom Regiment 2010 feature

Keep your chops up by practicing some snare drum sheet music. Here's Phantom Regiment's 2010 snare drum percussion feature available for you to download below. Can't wait for the WGI season to start!

 

Download 2010 Phantom - Drum Break.pdf

APPLYING GRIPS TO PLAYING POSITION

Start by standing away from the drum, sticks in hand, and arms relaxed at the side. The
arms should feel like a heavy, dead weight. While maintaining a relaxed, heavy weight
from the shoulder through the elbow, lift the left forearm. The elbow shouldn’t move
from where it was while relaxing the arms at the side, and the forearm should be nearly
parallel to the ground, with the hand being just below the elbow. The wrist joint should
be locked so as to not have a broken wrist. Rotate the forearm counter-clockwise
While maintaining a relaxed, heavy weight from the shoulder through the elbow, lift the
right forearm. The elbow shouldn’t move from where it was while relaxing the arms at
the side, and the forearm should be nearly parallel to the ground, with the hand being just
below the elbow. The wrist joint should be locked so as to not have a broken wrist. Turn
the thumb toward the ground so that the back of the hand is nearly flat. Moving the
elbow away from the body slightly, bring the bead of the right stick in toward the bead of
the left stick, reaching a ½ inch away from the left bead (as you move your elbow away
from your torso, don’t let the wrist break).

In this position, walk up to the drum and put the beads over the center of the head. If the
beads aren’t a ½ inch above the head, adjust the stand/carrier so the drum meets the beads
with the proper distance between the two. Each stick should be a two finger-width
distance from the rim (this can vary depending on the bead style of the stick being used).
From here, the “V” position of the sticks should be at about a 90 degree angle. In a
horizontal sense, the right and left fulcrums should be aligned. Using traditional grip
means that the left hand will actually be lower than the right hand, because the left is
mostly under the stick whereas the right hand is mostly on top of the stick.
It is absolutely imperative to use these guidelines in order to have a perfectly symmetrical
look and sound. If the fulcrums aren’t aligned, if the beads aren’t in the center of the
head, and if the two finger-width angles of the sticks aren’t accurate, the sound CANNOT
be produced similarly from hand to hand.

Music City Mystique Drumline Audition Music Download

 Ever wonder what the audition music is like for one of your favorite drumlines? Well, wonder no more. I've just uploaded that audition packet for Music City Mystique's 2007 indoor drumline. Yeah, it's pretty challenging. Download the packet now and see if you've got the chops!

Don't forget to check out some of our other battery sheet music downloads! Any requests?

Music City Mystique Drumline Audition Music Download.pdf