Multiperc and I are curious. What happens when you go to the traditional drumset after playing a lot of cocktail drums? What happens to your cocktail drumming after woodshedding on the traditional set?
Personally, I've noticed that cocktail drumming has made me really get into rudiments, bossa nova, and popcorn snare drum and bass type stuff on the regular set. It's also paradoxically moved me into gigantic cymbals, a 26x10" bass, and two floor toms on my regular set--all the stuff I feel starved for after lots of cocktailing.
Will
How does cocktail drumming affect your drumset playing?
How does cocktail drumming affect your drumset playing?
Last edited by fw on Tue May 23, 2006 2:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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matthew medeiros
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Hey, you all, When I play the sit down set ( I play with guitar & accordion) I feel like I always want to cut loose, ya know make the other guys turn around! The guitar player gets his, the accordion player gets his, and I'm back there doing the beguine or somethin. But strangley, when I'm on the cocktail set, all that goes away. I can just play a nice solid beat and not care about gettin fancy. Maybe because I find it harder to play standing. Also, I love the interaction, last gig We played a little tiny Swiss restaurant in Carmel, Ca. (yes, Carmel lifted it's live music ban!) and I literarlly stood shoulder to shoulder with the guitar player- We had a ball. Lots of people commented on Me standing- it's good to be playing the cocktails after all these years.
Matthew
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Pat McNeil
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heh - interesting topic...
Cocktail drumming is where I started, and I only bang a little on the regular kit, so you may wanna take this with a suitably sized grain of salt.
I find that I rethought a lot of the way I play fills - completely, actually. It's made me more of a minimalist than I already was. I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing.
There's a tendency to rely on other perc toys for fills when you're short on toms, too.
Pat McNeil
Cocktail drumming is where I started, and I only bang a little on the regular kit, so you may wanna take this with a suitably sized grain of salt.
I find that I rethought a lot of the way I play fills - completely, actually. It's made me more of a minimalist than I already was. I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing.
There's a tendency to rely on other perc toys for fills when you're short on toms, too.
Pat McNeil
Does anyone else find that your cocktail snare fills get busier and more rudiment-oriented because they can't be orchestrated on several drums? I find my playing in general gets simpler, but that I have to compensate for the limitations of the set by expanding my technique. The cocktail palate is so limited, especially in terms of volume and the permanently closed hi hats, that...how should I put this...I have to put more emphasis on the what the sticks can do rather than what the traps can do.
Will and I started talking about all this under a different topic. As I am fairly new to cocktail drumming, I have a somewhat limited range of experience. So it's good to know others' take on what influences your cocktail approach.
I started cocktailing on a very odd standup contraption, so from the very start 3 things were obvious to me, one was a lack of balance (!) another was how I needed to approach the feel and response of the kick, and the last was how to extend my drumming vocabulary on just a few small-diameter drums and smaller mounted percussion items. My first cocktail playing attempts were recordings of a faux lounge piece and several multitracked mambo loops.
Since then I've put together a more traditional cocktail kit with a 24x14 big drum, a 10x8 tom, a side snare and some percussion. I've further adjusted how I approach the kick and have regained some sense of balance (though it's been somewhat stressfull on my left hip and back).
My first gigs with the cocktail kit were semi-acoustic sets with a folk/blues singer/songwriter and I actually needed my parts to sound like a softer drum kit. So I used rods, blastix and smaller sticks, and approached tom fills a bit differently so as not to expose their extreme differences in tone and pitch. I don't dig into the kick head like I might on a bigger kit and I approach cymbal playing completely differently. The hats I use are 8" Paiste accent cymbals (cast) and I adjust the clutch so that I can get a tight sound on the bow and a bit of slosh on the edge. I want to avoid the temptation of 'requiring' a foot-controlled hat. Just to keep things simpler....
I've yet to play any real swing, latin or lounge-inspired music live. But I hope to soon and look forward to discovering new aspects in my playing.
I started cocktailing on a very odd standup contraption, so from the very start 3 things were obvious to me, one was a lack of balance (!) another was how I needed to approach the feel and response of the kick, and the last was how to extend my drumming vocabulary on just a few small-diameter drums and smaller mounted percussion items. My first cocktail playing attempts were recordings of a faux lounge piece and several multitracked mambo loops.
Since then I've put together a more traditional cocktail kit with a 24x14 big drum, a 10x8 tom, a side snare and some percussion. I've further adjusted how I approach the kick and have regained some sense of balance (though it's been somewhat stressfull on my left hip and back).
My first gigs with the cocktail kit were semi-acoustic sets with a folk/blues singer/songwriter and I actually needed my parts to sound like a softer drum kit. So I used rods, blastix and smaller sticks, and approached tom fills a bit differently so as not to expose their extreme differences in tone and pitch. I don't dig into the kick head like I might on a bigger kit and I approach cymbal playing completely differently. The hats I use are 8" Paiste accent cymbals (cast) and I adjust the clutch so that I can get a tight sound on the bow and a bit of slosh on the edge. I want to avoid the temptation of 'requiring' a foot-controlled hat. Just to keep things simpler....
I've yet to play any real swing, latin or lounge-inspired music live. But I hope to soon and look forward to discovering new aspects in my playing.
Will posted since so my last post is now out of order....der
So Will, about rudiments; I notice that since I have less in the way of nuance and dynamic range on my side (pocorn sized) snare, so I play more sparingly. What I do play on the snare must say more since the drum provides less tonal variety.
I try to get more timbral variety from the kit by combining sounds from other elements of the kit, ie. rims, big drum tom & small tom, crossstick with tom rim, snare and tambourine, side of big drum, mounted tamborim & snare rimshot, etc. I guess I consider it a bit of real-time orchestration of sorts. Kinda fun and it can help carry the song arrangement if done tastefully.
So Will, about rudiments; I notice that since I have less in the way of nuance and dynamic range on my side (pocorn sized) snare, so I play more sparingly. What I do play on the snare must say more since the drum provides less tonal variety.
I try to get more timbral variety from the kit by combining sounds from other elements of the kit, ie. rims, big drum tom & small tom, crossstick with tom rim, snare and tambourine, side of big drum, mounted tamborim & snare rimshot, etc. I guess I consider it a bit of real-time orchestration of sorts. Kinda fun and it can help carry the song arrangement if done tastefully.
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mangorockfish
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Great topic!
Playing my Cocktail Kit, I find comparing it to my regular kit, that it just doesn't have the "oomph" that a regular kit has. It is a sound all its own. When I do a fill, about half way through it, it dawns on me that I'm playing the Cocktail Kit and it doesn't sound anything like I was thinking it would if I were playing a regular kit. However, the guys in the band thinks that it sounds great. I guess with more experience tuning and playing, I will get more accustomed to the sounds that I produce on the kit and they won't sound so foreign to me.
We also need to realize that these are entirely different instruments and have a totally different sound than regular drum sets and require a different technique in playing.
Mango.
Playing my Cocktail Kit, I find comparing it to my regular kit, that it just doesn't have the "oomph" that a regular kit has. It is a sound all its own. When I do a fill, about half way through it, it dawns on me that I'm playing the Cocktail Kit and it doesn't sound anything like I was thinking it would if I were playing a regular kit. However, the guys in the band thinks that it sounds great. I guess with more experience tuning and playing, I will get more accustomed to the sounds that I produce on the kit and they won't sound so foreign to me.
We also need to realize that these are entirely different instruments and have a totally different sound than regular drum sets and require a different technique in playing.
Mango.