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!

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.

Evan's Real Feel Practice Pad Review

What do I use to practice my snare drumming skills? I bought Evan's Real Feel 12" practice pad and I couldn't be more happy (with the exception of playing on an actual drum, which my neighbors would not appreciate). I've found the pad to be very resistant to water damage and tears. Drumming on the pad can be very quiet, you can play it with other people in the room and not annoy them. It's great for high school drummers to take on the bus with them to practice that drum solo they forgot to memorize and not have the bus driver yell at them. Like many practice pads, there two sides: one harder and the other softer with more bounce. I highly recommend Evan's Real Feel practice pads for quiet snare drumming practice with a realistic snare drum feel!


Order Evans practice pads today.

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!

VDrums : Friend or Foe? - Gigging with a VDrum TD20

Hello, my name is Chris B. Olds, I’m a Pro drummer on an Indie tour right now with my own Band, Buddhahead Groove Faktory. http://reverbnation.com/buddhahead - I’ve been on Tour on and off for the last 25 years, most recently with the Jonathan McEuen Band. I purchased a Roland VDrum set, so I’ve been using this TD20 for a couple of years now and I don’t mind sharing the experience...which has been pretty great so far! Yes there have been a couple of times I was concerned..like “Holy S*** what if the electronics fail !! “ and ..Well that honestly is a possibility, even so, I try and keep my mind on more constructive thoughts in general...( hoping I can afford a backup brain soon.. )

Here is one example, I was playing a show outdoors last summer and I found out a big no no for this platform...The Sun, or Direct Sunlight. No good, the LCD Display started failing and I could not tell if that was all that started to go. So make sure you have plenty of shade or throw something over it if you Must Play in the Direct Sun for a Show.

Additionally, Moving this VDrum kit seems to be OK, I have it down to a science now as I did with my Traditional Drum Kit for 35 yrs...so now, it’s just a little change of my system, and blammo...50 Drum kits in one. That’s what comes with this drum set from the Factory but it looks like there is room for 100. I have not had time to customise or custom program anything...yet.

So there they are... a couple of key points that I love about this kit, the portability and the versatility. The cymbal and or hi hat action is the only serious detractor I can think of really. I like my Master Sound Zildjian Hats and these things do not even come close to the kind of response I need from my hats. So I live with it...seriously, I paid a lot of money for this bad boy and I love all the benefits of owning a Roland VDrum TD20...and I would recommend it to anyone considering buying an electronic drum set.

I’ll be back soon with an update on the VDrum kit and some thoughts on Recording Art and working in the studio with the VDrums. 

Thanks to Chris Olds for becoming Percussion and Drum Stuff's first guest blogger. Contact me if you are interested in writing or sharing an article with us.