Hello everyone! I gather from the tumbleweeds and distant echoes that this board is pretty quiet these days. It seems as though the the cocktail drum had a bit of a revival in interest a decade or so ago and may have fallen out of fashion in favor of, perhaps, the "jungle kit", which seems possible for drummers to assemble themselves out of odds and ends they already have.
I want to stand up though.
I play modular synthesizer in a duo with my partner, who plays piano and electronics. Our music is definitely improvisational and pretty experimental. You can check it out here if you're interested:
www.claudeandola.com
The matter at hand, though, is not just getting started with a cocktail kit, but as a drummer in general. I have played years and years of electric and upright bass, the former in punk settings and the latter in bluegrass/old time type settings. Some minor touring. I also play clawhammer banjo. Rhythm figures heavily into either setting, but really, playing quarter notes in bluegrass/old time settings taught me the most about groove. Like everyone ever in a band, I liked to sit down behind the drums and tap out a beat here and there. That and a year of snare drum in the sixth grade, which ended when the band program was cut at my small rural school.
Here's where I am now: I've purchased a Pearl M-80 10" snare drum which I have mounted to a basic Iron Cobra hi hat stand. I have a pair of 10" Istanbul Agop Dry Dark hi hats arriving soon. I should mention that everything I pick up needs to record well. The hi hat stand will serve as a practice station away from the eventual Trixon cocktail set I will pick up. No BIG hurry on that front and trying to budget it to be the least painful. No plans to perform with percussion until March 2022. That said, have a few recording projects underway and I am itching to pick up a ride cymbal.
Looking at the 18" Istanbul Mehmet Turk flat ride and the 19" Istanbul Agop Dry Dark Ride. Also considered the 15" Mehmet turk crash. My hope is for a lower volume and not-bright cymbal that will be versatile. Reading the cymbal thread elsewhere on the board it sounds like crash cymbals are viable rides for cocktail kits.
Ok, back to paradiddles on the practice pad. I will document this adventure here and welcome all insights.
Starting a journey.
Re: Starting a journey.
Gains are being made. While I'm still not standing up, my micro kit feels surprisingly effective with just my 10" hi hats and 10" snare clamped to the hi hat stand. Playing with my partner is going well, but I'll tell you, this little kit is still plenty loud when you hit it, for a piano duo. I ordered a pair of brushes which should be a nice extra texture, but playing quietly is good practice too.
I find myself wondering about floor toms. I happened upon this video:
https://youtu.be/o-We9SP_RNc
...and while I can't say I care for the tone they went for, I'm sure such things have been tackled by readers here. There is also this video:
https://youtu.be/JAEW45MxaII
...which covers bass drum pedal conversion to upward-striking. These could be distractions, veering me into the comfort of playing seated, but thought I would share.
I find myself wondering about floor toms. I happened upon this video:
https://youtu.be/o-We9SP_RNc
...and while I can't say I care for the tone they went for, I'm sure such things have been tackled by readers here. There is also this video:
https://youtu.be/JAEW45MxaII
...which covers bass drum pedal conversion to upward-striking. These could be distractions, veering me into the comfort of playing seated, but thought I would share.
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Bruce (the K)
- Posts: 48
- Joined: Sun Aug 27, 2006 12:06 pm
Re: Starting a journey.
As a guitarist who has found a lot of joy in discovering cocktail drum kits, I gotta say I feel your urge to play standing up. I've never played either guitar or drums sitting down. It just doesn't feel right to me.
Anyway, I just want to emphasize that the biggest thing for me in drumming standing up was making sure my bass drum pedal was in the right place. I like to play a Peace Manhattan-style cocktail drum kit with the snare mounted directly over a 14 inch floor tom that I use as my bass drum. That means my bass drum pedal has to be to the right of my drums, NOT mounted in the center of my bass drum. Drum makers understood this in the 1950s and made special upward-striking pedals that functioned as one of the 3 legs of the drum. The only modern pedal I've found that works this way is the Drummers Workshop Sidekick pedal. While it's a very good quality pedal, it costs $300! That's a LOT of scratch for just the pedal.
Anyway, I'm enjoying watching you set off on your journey and I know you'll have a blast. I sure have.
Anyway, I just want to emphasize that the biggest thing for me in drumming standing up was making sure my bass drum pedal was in the right place. I like to play a Peace Manhattan-style cocktail drum kit with the snare mounted directly over a 14 inch floor tom that I use as my bass drum. That means my bass drum pedal has to be to the right of my drums, NOT mounted in the center of my bass drum. Drum makers understood this in the 1950s and made special upward-striking pedals that functioned as one of the 3 legs of the drum. The only modern pedal I've found that works this way is the Drummers Workshop Sidekick pedal. While it's a very good quality pedal, it costs $300! That's a LOT of scratch for just the pedal.
Anyway, I'm enjoying watching you set off on your journey and I know you'll have a blast. I sure have.
Re: Starting a journey.
Thanks for your thoughts Bruce!
Where to begin? Having joined this board a years ago, I would say this is my one year anniversary of playing the drums!
So, an update (still not standing up, but let's not fret about that):
I've predictably added to the stable. A friend gave me a 22"" Ludwig Accent bass drum with no resonant head or hardware to add one and another friend sent me a Sabian 16" studio crash
. That started to feel legit! I purchased a Pearl bass drum pedal I THOUGHT would be reversible and found a deal on a mint Pearl Export 16" floor tom. I later purchased a lovely 19" Masterwork Verve flat ride with three rivets, a Tama Classic cymbal stand, and a little cymbal mount that fit the bass drum. Played my first show with my partner at a packed fundraiser for Ukraine!
I've since passed along the bass drum and put together a Gretsch 18,-14-12 bop kit piece by piece with an Acrolite snare, and picked up a 24" Istanbul Mehmet MC Jazz cymbal and some friends brought me back a pair of Istanbul Agop 30th anniversary hi hats from Istanbul. Also bought a nice set of Humes and Berg Galaxy bags for everything. It's pretty official.
My partner and I have a couple albums coming out in the coming months on some little tape labels that I play on and we're playing in an avante-garde sextet with friends, two of whom are music professors- drums, piano, two saxes, guitar-through-modular-synth and bass-through-lotsa-pedals. That group practices weekly and has played two shows. I now have four shows under my belt and an honest amount of hauling drums around. To that end, some weeks the kit stays in the bags and I play my 10" snare, now-orphaned 16" floor tom, hats and flat ride. I just gambled by ordering an inexpensive strap-drive Pearl pedal that should be flip able to work the bottom head of my spare floor tom....
In the meantime, I'm studying Sunny Murray recordings and having a blast!!!
If anyone has a cocktail drum super cheap/free-plus-shipping get in touch
Where to begin? Having joined this board a years ago, I would say this is my one year anniversary of playing the drums!
So, an update (still not standing up, but let's not fret about that):
I've predictably added to the stable. A friend gave me a 22"" Ludwig Accent bass drum with no resonant head or hardware to add one and another friend sent me a Sabian 16" studio crash
. That started to feel legit! I purchased a Pearl bass drum pedal I THOUGHT would be reversible and found a deal on a mint Pearl Export 16" floor tom. I later purchased a lovely 19" Masterwork Verve flat ride with three rivets, a Tama Classic cymbal stand, and a little cymbal mount that fit the bass drum. Played my first show with my partner at a packed fundraiser for Ukraine!
I've since passed along the bass drum and put together a Gretsch 18,-14-12 bop kit piece by piece with an Acrolite snare, and picked up a 24" Istanbul Mehmet MC Jazz cymbal and some friends brought me back a pair of Istanbul Agop 30th anniversary hi hats from Istanbul. Also bought a nice set of Humes and Berg Galaxy bags for everything. It's pretty official.
My partner and I have a couple albums coming out in the coming months on some little tape labels that I play on and we're playing in an avante-garde sextet with friends, two of whom are music professors- drums, piano, two saxes, guitar-through-modular-synth and bass-through-lotsa-pedals. That group practices weekly and has played two shows. I now have four shows under my belt and an honest amount of hauling drums around. To that end, some weeks the kit stays in the bags and I play my 10" snare, now-orphaned 16" floor tom, hats and flat ride. I just gambled by ordering an inexpensive strap-drive Pearl pedal that should be flip able to work the bottom head of my spare floor tom....
In the meantime, I'm studying Sunny Murray recordings and having a blast!!!
If anyone has a cocktail drum super cheap/free-plus-shipping get in touch
Re: Starting a journey.
Hey Claude,
Glad to hear that things are shaping up on your drum set up!
A couple of quick mentions:
1) If you keep your eyes open, you can find the DW sidekick pedal for sale used at a 'more reasonable' price. I picked one up for about $100. Still a chunk of change but not too bad for a very high quality pedal.
2) I did a tour a few years ago where I used my standard 60s Slingerland cocktail kit (single 14" drum, snare on top, kick on the bottom) but I needed a floor tom sound. I ended up using a 5.5x14" cheap-o Japanese made snare from the 60s that was missing the snare hardware. Put on some fairly thick/heavy heads and tuned it way down. Used a tall 60s flat base snare stand (quite light) to bring it up to the standing level.
It sounded pretty darned good and added minimal weight to the setup! Plus it looked cool and weird since my snare sound was from the 24" deep drum and my floor tom sound was from a snare. I think it confused a few drummers!
- John
Glad to hear that things are shaping up on your drum set up!
A couple of quick mentions:
1) If you keep your eyes open, you can find the DW sidekick pedal for sale used at a 'more reasonable' price. I picked one up for about $100. Still a chunk of change but not too bad for a very high quality pedal.
2) I did a tour a few years ago where I used my standard 60s Slingerland cocktail kit (single 14" drum, snare on top, kick on the bottom) but I needed a floor tom sound. I ended up using a 5.5x14" cheap-o Japanese made snare from the 60s that was missing the snare hardware. Put on some fairly thick/heavy heads and tuned it way down. Used a tall 60s flat base snare stand (quite light) to bring it up to the standing level.
It sounded pretty darned good and added minimal weight to the setup! Plus it looked cool and weird since my snare sound was from the 24" deep drum and my floor tom sound was from a snare. I think it confused a few drummers!
- John