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The Bright–Dark Spectrum in Music: Science, Theory, Rhythm, and Language

Key Take-aways

• Psychoacoustic Foundations: Musical "brightness" and "darkness" are rooted in measurable physical and neural realities, governed by factors like the Spectral Centroid (centre of acoustic mass), cochlear tonotopy…

Improvising, Ad-libing, and Soloing without a 'Chops' mentality.

Ive been working on a video demonstating the utility of a simple rhythmic figure being used as a basis for a groove, a solo, and improv.  

Ive taken a simple 2 bar…

Myelination

Myelination is the process where myelin, a fatty substance, forms a protective coating around the axons of neurons in the central and peripheral nervous systems. This insulation significantly increases the speed and efficiency of nerve impulse transmission, crucial for…

Seeing and Hearing the Pulse

I've been using clicks (audio only) in my headphones for recording for the last 40 years.

It works but its isolating and its very difficult to ‘groove’ with the other tracks….this is because the visual…

Recording yourself is the only objective way of being able to reflect on your own playing, as well as prepare yourself properly for any upcoming studio sessions. It also lets you properly hear important aspects of your…

Your brain, emotion and timing...

Your timing is subjective…turning your varying subjective internal clock into an objectively acceptable predictable and dance-able drum groove takes years.

The insular cortex, particularly the anterior part, plays a role in processing time intervals, especially…

Life-long Drumming

Leo Pearlstein is the world's oldest living jazz drummer at the age of 104. You can watch him play "All of Me" on Instagram. 
 

Viola Smith
A professional drummer who was known as "America's fastest girl drummer". She…

The fine resolution of the Perception of Musicians

Hearing pitch variations down to 3 cents is possible…thats 1/30 of a  semitone…Microtonal.

Hearing timing differences down to a 10 milliseconds is called micro-Rhythm.

It takes years of systematic listening to hear…

Perception of time is very Subjective

As a drummer…focusing on tiny increments ot time and trying to define them with short percussive sounds, loud, soft, dense, sparse…As a Drummer…Ive become very aware of time passing at different rates depending on…

Drumming isnt about ‘Grip’ alone…drumming and percussion is a body driven art form…more than any other instrument drummers have to have a clear mental map of their entire anatomy and how it works.  Stick grip is just one tiny aspect!

The best feature of drum kit and percussion is that you can practice without your instrument at hand.

Here are some ways to practice drums without a drum set:

Practice pad: 

A quiet way to practice rudiments and sticking exercises…

Are online drum lessons worth it?

Online drum lessons with reputable teachers with a good setup…that is…a multi camera (cams on both feet and hands overhead)…clean sound and vocal…interactive approach with speech/chat, whiteboards docs, pics, vids,…and support for you and…

Breathing is an important part of drumming because it helps drummers stay relaxed, keep good time, and perform safely: 
Improves performance: Proper breathing helps you use oxygen to produce your best sound and avoid lactic acid buildup in your muscles. …

Zoom favours ‘Chats’ rather than lessons (in its default format).

Musicians have to change that default setting because Zoom aggressively removes anything that doesn't resemble speech.

Zoom has a smart noise suppression algorithm that has been setup with parameters at…

A quick update from me.

Ive updated my website once again...its an ongoing job to keep it 'Google Friendly'  and 'above the fold'

Please check it out:

https://symmetricaldrummingaustralia.org

If you have any suggestions, or would like to include my website…

I've just made everything free…so book a lesson…and bear with me as I figure out the finer points of Zoom, or Teams, or Meets…

Also gives you a chance to do the same from your end…thinking of lighting, phone or…

I am currently trying to work out how to get my website software to add a tip jar.

Once the technical issues are out of the way and its up (with links to electronic payments etc)…

Once that is all…

The Hi Hat was invented about a century ago. 

It allows the drummer/percussionist to bring two cymbals together with a ‘chick’ or a ‘splash’ sound using the foot …freeing up the hands for other parts of the groove.

It (HH)…

Is a drummer the same as a percussionist?
Drums vs. Percussion - What's the difference?

Percussion' is a category of instruments which are played by striking them with hands, sticks, mallets, or beaters, brushes etc etc… or by shaking them…

The Hang drum is a type of musical instrument also called a handpan, fitting into the idiophone class and based on the Trinidad & Tobago  steel drums instruments (in a convex form).

It was created by Felix Rohner and Sabina…

Time Signatures

…an indication of rhythm following a clef, generally expressed as a fraction with the denominator defining the beat as a division of a semibreve and the numerator giving the number of beats in each bar.

All is fine…or…

The name bodhrán may be derived from the Irish word bodhar meaning 'deaf' and 'dull-sounding'.

Pronunciation is fraught …the word rhymes with ‘bow – ron’. (That’s interpreted to sound like ‘bow’…ie: the front of a ship, and ‘ron’: like the…

Dr Michael Mosley the well known ‘Doco’ Doctor recently published a program on SBS TV Australia containing an

 article about the benefits of dancing when combating the ravages of getting older.

Michael Mosley…Wonders of the Human Body S1Ep3@40mins into…

https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/watch/2385995331628

…

Tuning for drums about ear training…cultivating an ear for timbre and pitch together.

Tuning drums is Tedious…A pro drumkit with 6 drums in the set can have over 100 tension bolts (not called lugs) to adjust…Tuning drums is akin to…

What does drumming do to the body?

… drumming can alter your mood, it reduces stress, lowers blood pressure and even enhances your immunity. 

…drumming releases endorphins, enkephalins and Alpha waves in the brain, which are associated with general feelings…