Finger Drumming Techniques

Is that like a marching band snare where one person would solely play the snare?

Iā€™ve just started finger drumming from zero and after a few options Iā€™m settling for what seems to be the more common layout of having kick/snare/chh/chh on the bottom row and using the right hand mostly as a metronome.
The fact that I have an MpC and most kits are setup this way played a big role.
As for learning Iā€™m trying Melodics, I like the structured approach and the ability to slow it down.
But Iā€™m struggling a lot with hands independenceā€¦

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Honestly, I started off with the classic Jel (of Anticon) approach with everything down in the bottom corner of the 16 pads but this one from Quest For Groove works perfectly for me. He has an excellent free course too and even breaks down some classic breakbeats so you can see how they work on the pads:

https://questforgroove.com/

Using the layout with the kicks and snares down the middle works (for me) like typing on a QWERTY keyboard, where you have the notches on your F and J keys because they allow you access to get to all the other letters easily.

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Like any sampled instrument it has as many uses as users. I have a piccolo snare on my drumkit IRL and find that sampled version great when sequencing as it has mutes/damped and so much variation available (different areas of snare, vel & round robin) - I use it for developing an existing beat, all the extra zone samples are great for ghost notes etcā€¦

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Excellent! I have to confess ignorance about them but shall investigate further.

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Great channel. I use his setup too. Works really great

The video is goofy, but the layout and technique makes sense.

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Not my cuppa, musically, but an interesting approach and itā€™s good to place an identity to the name Iā€™ve known thanks to downloading his Live packs from the Ableton site ages ago!

Iā€™m raising this thread from hospiceā€¦

I quite enjoy the challenge of developing finger drumming technique.

Do you have any hands on experience with the Keith McMillen QuNeo?
Itā€™s compact, and reportedly indestructible, but how does it play?

Right now Iā€™m using the pads section on the IK Multimedia iRig Keys IO 25.
The pad are velocity sensitive, and that actually comes through with Koala.
Iā€™ve got to get it playing into my DT today and see how much of a hassle that is (the iRig is midi over usb only), but I should have what I need to connect them.
Yet I digress.

The iRig Keys is too big to travel with. (And it looks like Iā€™m traveling again :triumph:
It basically needs its own briefcase.
I think if the pads play at least as good as the iRig, itā€™ll be fine.

I also hear that the Elektron pads, like on the AR, arenā€™t very good. Whatā€™s wrong with them?

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From what Iā€™ve heard they are stiff in a way that doesnā€™t work out for extended use. Canā€™t remember what youtube channel I heard that from as I have never used the AR myself, I just use the OTā€™s trig keys.

Iā€™ve been practicing just getting my tap on the trigs lately understood as I sometimes have had missed hits not hitting the trig keys right.

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My first Industrial beat, be gentle with me, Iā€™m still only learning.
Also ignore the second half as itā€™s full of fuck upsā€¦

Also, do not use the ā€˜metronomeā€™ word in my presence.

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So after getting my sp404mkII and getting into the resampling workflow I realize I have to get better at finger drumming, soā€¦

Does anyone else care to share their basic pay layout for finger drumming? The Brandon Murphy one at the top of this thread makes a lot of sense as does the quest for groove one also posted above. But I was wondering if anyone else had any other examples or suggestions before I get going and building my muscle memoryā€¦

Sometimes I wish this was more standardized with everyone pretty much agreeing on what the best layout, fingerings, techniques etc. were. Like when you go to learn piano or something. Instead of everyone doing it totally differently lol. Maybe in another hundred years things will get better in this regard.

Lionclad shared a screenshot of her standard layout on Instagram:


I still prefer the ā€˜standardā€™ Mpc one, which is how the Mpc expansions are setup, with Kicks on 1 and 5, snares/clap on 2/6, hi hats 2/4/7/8(2/4 most of the times, 7/8 might vary). Row 3 usually chords and 4 one shots. Row 3/4 vary a lot.

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Itā€™s good.
I think Iā€™m missing the metronome joke, and I canā€™t help myself:
Seriously, yet lighthearted- itā€™s not a badge of honor to learn to play in the pocket without a metronome. Musicians with great timing rehearse with a metronome or other click.
Also, METRONOME!

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Metronomes are spiritual power toolsā€¦thereā€˜s nothing like teaching the nervous system to coordinate our bodily existence according to a steady energetic pulse, and the metronome is the power tool no.1 to do so.

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I know and Iā€™m trying to keep it on all the time, but itā€™s definitely a hard habit to develop.
I went from being thrown completely off by it to keeping it on all the time and trying to feel it a bit more but I still hate little shitā€¦

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I thought I was a rhythm cat till I went up against a metronome. Wow, I was way off, literally!

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Thatā€˜s my whole musical endeavor right there :joy:

Seriously though, you know what happens when I finally do practice patiently and slowly with a metronomeā€¦eventually it starts to sound like music for real :slight_smile:

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Anything below 65 bpm makes me cry bitter tears of frustration

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60bpm is a great speed to practice at to improve the inner clock. As one of my teachers once said to me, if you canā€˜t play it slow, you canā€˜t play it fast :slight_smile:

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