(Rob, if you feel like this belongs somewhere else, feel free to move this topic. Also if it doubles up with any other topic - but I couldn’t find what I was looking for so I made my own)
I joined the monthly challenge for the first time this month. I felt it was time to do some “freestyle” drumming instead of learning and performing patterns, focussing on expression and song structure. And then I felt like it would be useful to share what we (QFG members) come up with without listening to the “intended” drum parts.
So this is what I have for the January challenge, Lost In The Woods. (video set to unlisted). Interesting to see Rob and I ended up with completely different beats, but almost exactly the same outro
Nice!
I’m happy you accidently sent out that reminder, because that got me into it
I’ve found the full library now, and will definitely do some more in the near future!
It would be cool if it would be a more concentrated effort by the community. Like a “throwback monthly challenge” where we would pick up a specific song from the library.
Then again, that was what the original idea already was I think… but maybe more directed toward coming up with our own ideas?
(This would only work for people like me, who are motivated to play the songs this way, but haven’t heard the intended drum parts yet. Might be a (too) small group to work perhaps)
I could just send a monthly reminder that loops through the songs over the period of 2 years :-). Like a song of the month so people could join in if they want.
Over the past two years it hasn’t happened much though that students are actively sharing. My guess is my student base will have to grow at least 5x. That’s a tall order! Would make things a lot more engaging though.
I gotta find a way to go viral on youtube and bring in the students. Maybe ask Adam Neely
Over the past two years it hasn’t happened much though that students are actively sharing.
I expected as much after I couldn’t find a topic for it. A real shame, for me these challenges are way more approachable to share here, than a fully developed performance of my own songs.
I gotta find a way to go viral on youtube and bring in the students. Maybe ask Adam Neely
Might be effective. I suggest performing a song with 7 over 9 rhythms at 119,999 BPM to catch his attention
Once I’m in a position to get my drum pads and have done some practise, I’d be keen to make some contributions. Don’t know when this will be, but I’ll keep looking back in this forum for new posts.
@Robert_Mathijs it’s probably a fairly niche market without the challenge of YouTube fame, but from what I’ve watched so far, you have some great content. Do you share all your videos in this forum? It may not help, but I think back maybe 8 years when I had a very basic website for vending machines. I was a semi regular contributor on a vending forum and my signature had my website. I ended up on page 1 for my state as a result as each post counted as a link back to my site which helped in rankings.
The harsh reality about finger drumming is that the total global market seems to be very small. I’ve ranked high in google search, YouTube search etc. and the amount of people wanting to learn is not that big.
Other reasons I suspect this is the case is that a subreddit like /fingerdrumming has almost no engagement at all and that in 2017 I noticed how melodics pivoted from “pads only” lessons to also include keys and electronic drums. I believe they figured out then what I know now
Thought as much. I asked in a bass and a small guitar forum if anyone did finger drumming and got very little response.
Any plans to do any regular YouTube content? Topics probably become more difficult I guess.
There’s a small guitar channel I regularly watch (Anthony Couch) and he does a “challenge” called Couch Potato Jam. Basically he puts out a backing track and invites viewers to improvise over it with lead guitar. The entries then get put together in one video and Anthony gives a comment or two. There’s others like this out there in the guitar world, but being small, this one has built a nice little group that encourage each other. Don’t know if this is similar in concept to the monthly challenges or if doing something like this on YouTube could help with traffic.
I guess it depends on where you want to go. Understand you need a return on your time and effort
I’m open to anything! Right now the best way to move forward is with a “slow but steady pace”. I keep improving things and make a new youtube video when I actually have something to say.
That seems to work well. I feel like I’m able to keep this up for a very long time.
I’m open to switching into another gear when the time is right though.
Interesting discussion how widespread finger drumming really is.
I really wonder how it came that the Yamaha FGDP is very difficult to buy, even now a few months after its release. Did Yamaha underestimate the market here? Will the people who buy it now stick with it or will they see it as some fun gadget you sometimes play around with?
My impression so far was that finger-drumming is indeed a rather uncommon skill and most who do it are more from the hip-hop beatmaking space. What you do Robert, and what the Yamaha FGDP does is going more in the direction of playing pads like a real drumkit.
