Drumming and keyboard lessons. Would they help?

mr meh

mr meh

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So I'm pretty new to production, just finished a short 20 hour beginner music production course at my local college. Now I just noticed theres this place near me thats offering drumming and keyboard lessons for pretty cheap, im thinking about taking some lessons......(didnt do anything like that at college)

think its worth doing for making d&b/dubstep?
 
drumming would help immensly i imagine... i assume it would give you a greater understanding of what is ahppening in a 'real' drum kit, and then this could be applied to your beats to make them more natural
 
keyboard yeah. drumming not..

i make the subclash beats tho my mated is a very well trained drummer. doesnt mean nothing.

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richie_stix said:
drumming would help immensly i imagine... i assume it would give you a greater understanding of what is ahppening in a 'real' drum kit, and then this could be applied to your beats to make them more natural
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you dont want them to sound natural anyways, so why bother?
 
Well, I've learned how to play the drums, guitar, bass, harmonica, mandolin and some keys [the list goes on...] without a single lesson.

The lessons aren't the big idea here, the deal is you want to get into a mindset where anything can be picked up and "played" with; play music, don't work it, right?
I think learning to play instruments is a great idea and will definitely help you in your music production just because you'll be more used to having you intuition to mess around with and this will give you a more "natural" approach to all aspects of making, creating and playing music. The lessons I wouldn't worry too much about to be honest.
 
richie_stix said:
says who?

personally i think knowledge is power man... and the more you have, the more power to you (y)
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the drum and bass scene says that :D - listen to any tune, regardless if it was calibre or sub focus, not a single drumkit sounds anywhere near "natural" - you want them to punch through on big rigs in conjunction with other tunes, so youd be better off not wanting them to sound natural (ie, dirty, way too long, way too much reverb, low in the mix, no punch within the snare..)

and as i said, my mate is a trained drummer, and cant make drums sound any decent at all (exaggerating just a "little" bit here :D). i mean, it surely wont be bad to know something about drumming, but things youd learn are mainly hand-eye coordination and playing in time, for a long time.. - but you simply dont need that when making beats on a computer. you need a basic feel for rhythm and knowledge about sound, sample usage, compression and distortion - and trained ears obviously. (which you wont get by playing drums.. unless maybe youre playing for pendulum and need to apply all technicalities to your drumming) ...

so yeah. knowledge is power, but knowledge that isnt needed just consumes time youd better have put into other things.

you could benefit more from learning how to record a drumkit, or even how to record a spoon tapped on a table.. but drumming? its like saying you will benefit from learning basic guitar chords.. which you wont!

edit: in the sense of apecat youd surely benefit, but thats like saying you will benefit from playing around with a daw.. youll always benefit from putting more time into something..
 
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Yeah I think that having drum and keyboard lessons is going to help. At least you'll understand the way of certain rythms.
 
groelle said:
the drum and bass scene says that :D - listen to any tune, regardless if it was calibre or sub focus, not a single drumkit sounds anywhere near "natural" - you want them to punch through on big rigs in conjunction with other tunes, so youd be better off not wanting them to sound natural (ie, dirty, way too long, way too much reverb, low in the mix, no punch within the snare..)
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still disagree my man... but i think its over the definition of natural! :D

obviously there are exceptions to every rule, so i could point you to some light jazzy liquid that has a light, natural sound to it... but i cant be arsed!

what i mean by natural is more like, the sounds you choose, the compression you apply to the whole thing, etc to bring the drums together to sound like they are from the same kit :2thumbs:
 
I started drumming in september, but I had been making drum and bass tracks for about a year then. I do feel like drumming gave me a bit more knowledge on how to make a good drum and bass groove. And even if you don't learn anything useful for your music production, playing instruments is fun as hell ;D
 
richie_stix said:
what i mean by natural is more like, the sounds you choose, the compression you apply to the whole thing, etc to bring the drums together to sound like they are from the same kit :2thumbs:
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yeah ok. but with real life drumming you play the same kit over and over again, dunno how that should help you selecting samples?!

if he spend the time he wants to spend on drumming on searching good samples and layering them, hed benefit more, thats all im saying.

and for steppa and kitcha, theres just not one song of them i can stand in any ways, just drums and some generic, not even cool bassline, really dunno what they did to make it onto vinyl... cant be bothered to listen ...
 
welll, this debate is getting way to long for my tastes... but what i mean is that by playing and understanding drums, i (maybe personally) would have a better understanding of whihc sounds fit together and why?

but people learn in many different ways... so what would work for you, may not for me! and steppa and kitcha, 'nitty gritty' is not just a 'standard, notevencool bassline' tune... its wicked!

anyways, this is getting down to an argument of opinion so i cant be arsed
 
richie_stix said:
welll, this debate is getting way to long for my tastes... but what i mean is that by playing and understanding drums, i (maybe personally) would have a better understanding of whihc sounds fit together and why?

but people learn in many different ways... so what would work for you, may not for me! and steppa and kitcha, 'nitty gritty' is not just a 'standard, notevencool bassline' tune... its wicked!

anyways, this is getting down to an argument of opinion so i cant be arsed
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haha yeah, suppose your right. its music, so everyones gotta do what hes gotta do. in my experience drumming doesnt bring you any further, mr jungle drummer would say something else.

each to their own. and for steppa and kitcha - yeah i didnt listen to every song they made, granted.

id say, if its "cheap" and youd love learning some more about music in general, do it! nothing wrongt with gaining knowledge as rich called it.
 
Guys i should have mentioned that im not looking to play real live drums or anything, im looking to gain better knowledge of how it all works and goes together, also im sick of using generic breaks from sample packs so want to start making my own drum patterns and stuff. I spoke to the guy at the place and told him what sort of music i like and want to make and he said he can cater the lessons towards electronic music, so i got some lessons booked, start on Saturday!
 
Good on ya.
As long as your teacher [or whatever you'd like to call him...] is talented and understands what you need to know to do your thing you'll probably learn loads of useful shit and have a really good time while you're at it!
Big ups!
 
You'll love drumming, and it will certainly help. Definitely check out The Breakbeat Guide http://drumgate.com/Drum_Books/drum_books.html
it is loads and loads of breakbeat patterns which are really useful for jungle/drum and bass practice. Also check out the authors free lessons on youtube http://www.youtube.com/user/Jungleritter

Don't worry about the drums not sounding right, like some people were complaining about above. You can always get a cheapo midi pad like alesis performance pad, or an expensive thing like the yamaha multi 12 which you can load samples into. Anything you learn on a drumkit will be useful with this kind of gear. If you get really into drumming, you might eventually consider getting an electronic kit too, which will let you play at home and will send midi to your computer. If things are too difficult at dnb speeds you can just record the midi at lower tempos and speed it up. You can use quantize features to straighten out any wobbles in your timing. I cant think of a more fun way to enter beats :)

And drums are just SUPER FUN!!!
 
good question. id say yes, but drums is not the most beneficial instrument to pick up some theory on if youre looking to apply it to electronic music.
it will make you think in a certain way, for better or worse. could be cool, im sure. as for steppa and kitchas song there its a great example of how not to make drum and bass. imo of course, i like minimial dnb right now.
 
logikz said:
good question. id say yes, but drums is not the most beneficial instrument to pick up some theory on if youre looking to apply it to electronic music.
it will make you think in a certain way, for better or worse. could be cool, im sure. as for steppa and kitchas song there its a great example of how not to make drum and bass. imo of course, i like minimial dnb right now.
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give it a listen mate... i dare ya! its on 36 hertz so you know its not modern synth-driven jump up... might be surprised by the lack of elements in it :2thumbs:
 
I believe if you have a good enough ear for dissecting and analyzing tracks in a song, then imitate that and eventually you'll learn the rest on your own quite easily. It all depends on your musical background though I guess and whether you 'listen' to tunes rather than 'hear' them I you know what I mean.
 
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