[Tommatt]

Thank you everyone for the replies. I don't post here much because I can only read the forums at work. Logging in is blocked, so I mainly just lurk here, but I do check the forums and have read all the replies. Again, thank you all. Its helped me look at some things a different way.

The question of feel has come up, and playing a song, it feels right, but I wasn't sure if it was right. I checked the tab of the song, and what I was playing was very close. The bass shots were right, crash hits were right, snare hits were right. Only difference was 16th notes on the ride where I was doing 8th. But, if your in time, can you actually play a song wrong? I know you can get overactive, but if you feel the beat a certain way, and keep time during the song, can you actually be wrong?

An easy example is Kid rock/Sheryl crows song I saw your picture today. It came up on my ipod, and I believe the base hits are on 1 , 3 3and . I could be wrong, but I know when I listened to it, I would want to start the bass hits right after the snare on 2. Everytime I listen to it, thats where I feel they should be. But the drummer for that song puts them in a different spot. Me feeling them in a different place, but playing different from the way I'm recorded, is it actually wrong, or is that just a small part to putting your personallity on it.

The more I play, the more crisp everything gets, and the more I seem to understand the way things fit together. (and yes, I work on my fundamentals lke paraliddles for at least 20 minutes per practice session) I'm trying to keep walking before I enter the olympic trials, but I tell you, I'm itching to play with some real people instead of just my ipod.

[chungiemunchin]

Feel is so important to our functioning as drummers! That seems like a pretty basic statement but I am amazed at how often we forget to forget all that technical stuff we've been practicing while playing with others on a gig or at rehearsal. That's right - forget it! I practice every day as much as is possible.......I practice a lot of repetitive exercises in an attempt to build muscle memory and to capture a natural, relaxed feel for the things I play. I too am working on my independence between bass drum, snare, hi-hat, and ride cymbal. However, when I am playing with other musicians I remind myself to relax, have fun and play what comes naturally. The theory is that the more we practice all that stuff that may not yet be natural to us (therefore we practice over and over those exercises of things we can't do yet), eventually those things will come out naturally in our playing. I know my best gigs were/are on evenings (or afternoons) when nothing I play is forced and where I just get out of the way of myself and let it flow! So rather than to get too hung up in all that philosophy as to what the bass drum, snare, hi-hat, toms, etc. are there for, listen to the music and develop an ear for what sounds good. Keep it simple and being a drummer will happen all on its' own!

[skinslapper]

Well, everyone here has given unreal advise. The only new thing I have to add is regarding the 16th note hat buisness. I figure the reason your teacher told you that, is because you can easily fit a 16note hat pattern over a slow beat. On a fast beat, your hand would just fall off.