I’m pretty pleased that I played all the drums on the single I just released. Okay, I did several takes, and comped the best two into the drums on the final track, but it’s still completely finger-drummed (including most of the percussion). It’s not the most complicated groove, but it did have to be pretty strongly in time.
You’ll hear the loud click track I added to help my timekeeping. What you don’t hear is me counting 1-and-2-and-3-and-4-and out loud - hanks to Rob for that tip, and for being an inspiring finger drumming teacher!
(The full track is on Spotify and YouTube, and there’s a Substack post with a whole load of detail about how it was written and recorded).
Wow Ben congrats! The beat is simple and in the pocket, and I love it. Really nice to see these kinds of results coming out of the lessons here (in combination with a motivated and creative student ofcourse). Can I link to the vid as a testimonial?
I’ll just link to this post. The video is great, but the other stuff is too. Like the nice extensive breakdown of the song. Makes me want to start making another song myself
Awesome song and congrats on your first finger drumming track.
I read through some of the Substack post. Very interesting and you obviously know your stuff. No doubt your musical knowledge has helped with your finger drumming in general. I’m yet to start my journey but play some guitar and bass and hope to add finger drumming by the end of the year.
I definitely think that playing any instrument helps timing and general physical co-ordination. I play guitar, bass and keyboards, so both hands have practice at working together and separately. But I also think that it helps to listen to music analytically. Taking drum tracks apart to figure out how they work makes it easier to understand how a hihat pattern might relate to a snare and a kick.
Definitely. I’m slowly building knowledge beyond just playing. I did a bass course that regularly gave tips about listening to the different drum parts.
I also sometimes practice tapping different note values - eg left on quarter notes and right on eighth notes.
