Parts of the Drums:

1. Snare
2. Low Tom
3. High Tom
4. Floor Tom
5. Hi-Hat
6. Crash
7. Ride
8. Bass
   

Drum Notation

The space right above the first line represents the hi-hat. Hi-hats and cymbals are usually marked with an “X” instead of a dot like regular notes.

For the toms, we will use the blanks spaces in the middle to represent each tom. The first space will be the floor tom. The second space will be your high tom, and the third space will be your low tom.

The snare is usually the most important one to see. We will use the line right in the middle to represent the snare.

Cymbals are usually placed above the hi-hat. They are marked as an “X” as well. You may come across a diamond shape, this indicates a bell stroke on your ride or other cymbal.

As for your feet, they are usually placed towards the bottom. The bass drum will be the last line on the music. Your left foot, (or hi-hat foot) will be right below the bass drum line. Again, since this is a cymbal, it will be marked as an “X”

Now that you know the parts of the drum and the drum notation lets start playing the drum with the easiest:

The basic rock beat

• Play eighth notes on the hi-hat with your right hand
• Keep your left foot pressed on the pedal to keep it closed

When you start losing your place, slow it down a little. After a bit of time practicing you will be able to do it faster.

• Then you will have to add the snare on beats 2 and 4 with your left hand.

Make sure your arms are well positioned so the sticks doesn't hit each other. And try to don't flail them too high because it wastes too much energy.

• Then you will have to add the bass drum. Add it on bets 1 and 3.

You can create new rock rhythms too adding more basses wherever you want.

Closing

Now that you finished reading this short guide you may fell that you have not learned enough… well, you haven't. But anyways that is the first and most important things that u need to know when u want to start playing the drum.

Being better playing the drum depends mostly on the time you spend practicing. I suggest you to practice a lot, create rhythms, search for more information, try to play the tablatures you downloaded for internet and such things and you will become a great drummer without paying a teacher.

Here are some links to tablatures websites:

• 911tabs
• Ttabs.com
• Drumtabs
• Mxtabs

Here are some links to drum cool videos:

• Tony Royster Jr. Drum Solo
• Some funny man playing an invisible drum kit
• Link to Vadrum s video channel (he plays great drum solos with the songs of The Simpsons, Mario Bross, and more)

With that out of the way, I will attempt to verse you in the art of writing truly terrible music. Enjoy.

It has often been said that the popular music of today has become somewhat...."crappy".

Normally I would tend to agree, except that recently I took it upon myself to study this ..."crappy" music quite extensively. On the surface, it would seem that producers and artists are going into the studio and simply pulling down their trousers and squatting over the console. Whatever comes out is caught on tape, mixed down, eq'd and mastered, and then sent out all over the world. This scenario is far from true. The fact of the matter is.... It's much worse.

As it turns out, talent is not even a requirement in the industry anymore. Studios are now equipped with the technology to replace talent digitally. This new technology includes a device called "the magic button", a piece of equipment vital to most artists' careers. The music is carefully loaded, or "pinched off" into the recording medium, processed into audio, and the "magic button" is engaged.

The brown lump that you see on the screen is then transformed into a shiny piece of gold or platinum, depending on the fiber content. Keeping this process in mind, think of all the songs you've heard on the radio that made your toes curl up and your stomach turn. Then remember the process it went through, and realize how truly terrible it must have sounded BEFORE the "magic button." With the development of faster computers and better recording software, the technology is available to anyone with a proper diet and the ability to hover their hind-end over a computer. And with the internet increasing in size, the oportunity to have your golden nugget heard is unbelieveable. Now you are starting to see into the world of music they don't want you to know about. I'm taking a chance right now just typing these words. Sadly...if I am dead tomorrow, you will know why.........

But seriously, though.........

The arrival of new technology has enhanced the creative process of some very talented artists, but has also put those tools in the hands of many untrained, talentless individuals, who otherwise couldn't carry a tune in a bucket. Now, anyone with access to this technology can instantly create music (by it's definition) with a few keystrokes. However, just because you can hear it, and it happens to stay in tune and in time, doesn't make it music. Granted, many artists have started out in the same manner, and were able to move on and develop into very creative people . But their success was not based solely on the tools they used. In many cases, it was the lack of technology that drove them.

They studied music in its entireity, seeking out all the information they could find. They spent countless hours in libraries and record stores, rummaging through old LP's. They took the time to understand what music was really about, how it was inspired and why it was created. More importantly, they listened.

Anymore, the tendency is to take the easy route. Too many are letting technology do the work for them, simply drawing from dot to dot until the picture is finished, never learning how to draw without someone else's patterns. More people are coming into the industry without a real respect for the art, turning the business itself, moreso, into a matter of numbers, patterns, and dollar bills, not passion. And those who pour out their souls to mold emotion into their music, regardless of genre, are denied because it lacks "commercial" value. How sad. But how true.

Of course not all music has become so soulless. There is a lot of beauty to be heard, and a lot of inspiration being broadcast. I have much respect for commercial artists. They work very hard at what they do. To them I say; kudos. To the music industry I say; expect more from yourself, and give the listener more credit. They are not as narrow-minded as you think.

I leave you with this quote:

"Commercialization of the music is what brought it down." Prince

Essentials

With all that said you will need:

1. Audacity
2. LAME MP3 Encoder
3. Your Cell phone's text to e-mail address

Audacity

Let's begin with Audacity. It's a free, cross-platform sound editor and recorder that you will use to edit the mp3 into a proper size and length to fit onto your phone. Once you download it, begin the installation process and open a new file when Audacity is finished installing.

LAME

Now we need LAME. This encoder allows Audacity to export your sound byte as an MP3 file. This is a must have file even if you aren't going to just make ringtones. So to obtain this handy encoder go to the site and download the zip file. Since this file is zipped you may need a compression utility to help out. I dig on the 7zip. It can be found on 7-zip . It's a free compression utility that allows you to zip and unzip a lot of different files such as LAME. Unzip the LAME DLL to an easy to locate location, as you will need to find it for Audacity to encode your sound byte.

Text to E-Mail

To find the address to e-mail your MP3 to, send a picture message to your e-mail address. That's it. You will see your phones address in your inbox, just save the message for later and reply to it with an attachment of your finished MP3. Make sure you send a picture message or a video but now a regular text, some phone service providers do not support SMS to e-mail. Now we are ready to rock! Let's dive into Audacity.

Editing an MP3

Editing your song to be a suitable length can be tricky, but this is what makes your tone the one you want. I dig that I can take the chorus, verse or even a melodic bridge and turn it around to be centerpiece of a decent ringtone. Let's face facts here, buying ringtones can be costly in this day and age, especially when gas prices are skyrocketing, the last thing you want to do is fork even more money over to your cell phone service provider for a malformed clip of a song you really didn't want in the first place. Using your own songs and the part of that song you want, is awesome.

Okay, I'm not going to go into extravagant detail about what MP3 is appropriate, point is select an Mp3 file to edit. Open Audacity. Located on the File menu, select Open (CTRL + O) and browse for the MP3 file you would like to edit. When you have opened the file Audacity will give you a loading screen that says “Importing MP3 File”. If your file has loaded correctly the screen shows:

Now you have the power to highlight the portion of song you want. I recommend that the song be no more than 30 seconds. Sending audio anymore than this length can cause your phone to reject the MP3. If you want to get technical keep your ringtone to about 85 kilobytes maximum. Generally speaking, you can edit out whatever you want, but for this demonstration I'm going to edit out the chorus to my song “Against the Rain”.

Play through the sang a good couple of times to get a rough Idea as to where the part is you want to edit is, this way your not fishing blind. Once you know the whereabouts of your chorus is, highlight the area with your mouse and play it again. Now you can fine tune the area to add more shave off what you want. Remember that this is 100% customizable so it's up to you. Once you have the portion you desire, copy and paste it to a new Audacity workspace. To do this, locate the Edit menu and select copy (CTRL + C). Now on the File menu, select New (CTRL + N). Finally, in the new workspace, on the Edit menu, select Paste (CTRL + P).

Awesome! There are only a few things before you're the talk of the town. Remember LAME? Now it's time to tell Audacity where to find the MP3 encoder and at the same time export the file. To accomplish this, find and click the "Export as MP3" task on the File Menu. You will then be prompted if you wish to find the LAME DLL file, click yes and navigate to the file you unzipped earlier. Now that you've spilled the beans to Audacity, your file is now being exported and is almost on its way to your phone.

You only need to send this file to your phone now. In whatever e-mail program or service you use, there is a function to allow the passage of attachments. Just send this file as an attachment to your phone via the address we found earlier, by sending a picture message to your e-mail address. Depending on how fast your computer is this could take anywhere from a few seconds or up to a couple of minutes to be sent to your phone, but rest assured, if your phone supports MP3 files you will get it.

Emo Is An Actual Genre of Music

And a respectable one at that. A lot of people, particularly young people (I'm reminded of my 12-year old brother), label any kind of music they don't like as "emo." Please. That's ridiculous. If you do not know what kind of music the song/artist/album in question is, don't say anything. When you say things like, "That's emo," and, "They're emo; they must suck," you make yourself look like an idiot and everyone around you gets dumber. "Emo" is not just a blanket word for "suck." It has an actual meaning, and if you don't know what it is, don't use the word.

All Rap Is Not Crap

If all rap were bad, people wouldn't make rap. That is as close to a fact as one will encounter in such an opinionated discussion as this. However, there is bad rap; top 40/crunk can be formulaic and uncreative and it deserves all the insults it gets. There is, however, a good deal of good "underground" rap. I use the term "underground" quite loosely, because there is such a thing as popular and good rap; it is just very rare. When you say, "All rap is crap," and, "You can't spell crap without rap," once again, you make yourself look ridiculous and the people around you feel dumber just being around you.

There's More To Modern Rock Than Whiny Lyrics, and Simple Guitar Riffs

While many popular modern bands follow a simple formula (see: Fall Out Boy), there are quite a few new and creative artists out there. Don't label entire genres as bad if you have not done research and familiarized yourself with the entire genre. Queens of the Stone Age are an excellent example of this. They are a very, very good band, and they are alternative rock. Fall Out Boy? Not so much. Still, the point is that every genre has its highs and lows. What we, as listeners, must do is sort out the highs and lows and listen to the highs.

Metal Is Not Entirely Screaming

Nor is it entirely immature ballads about dragons, war, and death. While I personally do not prefer the genre of metal (in general), I must admit that there are quite a few solid metal artists. Metallica, for example, is a great band. This is another case of "no genre is entirely bad." Once again, we must only listen to the best of the genre and leave the rest alone. While I admit it can be difficult to find the highs in metal, if you look hard enough, it is possible.

Elitism is Bad. Always

Remember that opinions, especially in music, are just that: opinions. Everyone is entitled to their own, and there is probably nothing you can do about it. Agree to disagree. If your best friend likes rap and you don't, live with it. It is his opinion, and it is just as valid as yours. Besides, let other people listen to their music; even if it's bad, it's still not hurting you that other people are listening to it. When you are in an argument about artists, try your best to keep you opinion out of it, and look at facts or skills, such as songwriting, composition, and technical skill with instruments. This is how not to come off like a four year-old in a discussion about music.

Well I hope you enjoyed reading this. I tried not to sound too didactic, but it was tough. By the way, even if I didn't really show it in this article, I am human with a sense of humor. I'm not some kind of robot or college professor, even if I sounded like one.

While this is a very common problem, most guitarists look at it as a daunting task and would prefer to pay either a store or a guitar technician. This fee can usually run upwards of $50 or more. Out of fear of doing damage to their guitar most people opt out to not just loose financially but also loose that sense of satisfaction from tackling this tricky, yet doable process.

This can be completed in three steps.

Step One: Good Eyesight is Your Best Friend

Carefully pick up your guitar and point it at a 45-degree angle in front of your face, towards a source of light. The body of the guitar should be closest to your face while the neck is pointing towards the light. At this point you are staring down the neck of your guitar, gaging the severity of the bow or back bow. Once this is established you can begin to adjust your neck.

Bow or Back Bow?

In order to tell which problem you have you need to understand the difference between the two. Your strings are always straight and serve as a guide to determine the condition of your guitar's neck. If your neck and your strings look like a bow and arrow you have a bow. Often with bow action (the distance between strings and neck) will be high and may buzz at the top and bottom of your neck.

A back bow is quite the opposite. The neck will be curved the opposite direction and the strings will be too close to the neck causing buzz along the center of the neck.

Step Two: A Little Goes a Long Way

All guitars have a truss rod running through the neck. You can access the truss rod at the top of your neck in the headstock. Usually there is a plastic covering, where the hole is, held in by three screws. Some guitars have access to the truss rod at the bottom of the neck where it meets the body, you may have to remove the pick guard to access it, all other rules apply.

Unscrew the covering, if there, and look inside the hole towards the neck. At this stage you will see the top end (or bottom end, depending on placement) of your truss rod. You will notice a hexagon shaped opening that is not very deep. It is shaped this way because the tool used to adjust the neck is usually an allen wrench (occasionally some bass guitars and Telecasters require a Phillips head screw driver, other than that, all other rules apply). Not every guitar or bass requires the same allen wrench, so you will need to, by trial and error, determine what size allen wrench (or key) is needed for your guitar. Once this is established you can begin the process of adjusting your neck.

This is a very delicate and sometimes tricky matter. If your guitar's neck is bowed you will inserts you allen wrench and begin to turn clockwise (righty tighty, lefty loosy). If you it is back bowed you will turn counter clockwise to relieve the tension.

Regardless of whichever problem, bow or back bow, you only want to turn your wrench a maximum of a quarter turn. This is important because too much or a lack of tension can cause irreversible damage, which is why this step is called, “a little goes a long way.”

The goal in either circumstance is to straighten your neck so it is aligned properly with your strings for maximum playability and minimum, if at all, buzzing with the frets.

Once again, you will know the status of your neck by repeating step one after every slight turn of the allen key. What you are looking for and hope to achieve is for the neck to be straight with the strings, but it is very important to leave a slight bow in the neck. You do not want your guitar's neck to be perfectly straight so leaving a slight bow is important for proper playability.

Once this is completed place the cover, or pick guard, depending on the location of the truss rod, back on your guitar.

On a side note, if you are planning to change the strings on your guitar this is an excellent opportunity to do so because different strings have different tensions and even newer strings of the same tension affect your neck differently than older strings of the same tensions. Therefore, make sure to adjust the neck after you restring your guitar with the new strings.

Step Three: Reap the Benefits of Your Hard Work

Now you can feel free to pick up and enjoy your improved and better playing guitar, knowing that you no longer have to live with or worry about paying for a bowed or back bowed guitar.

First of all you need to select your instrument. Any pair of spoons will do but you will find that large ones with deep bowls sound best. Teaspoons work well and are easy to hold but the sound is not so rich. It is not a good idea to use silver spoons because they are soft and will dent easily.

Hold one spoon with bottom of the bowl facing down, between you thumb and first finger and the middle one between your first and second fingers. Make a fist. The bowls should be about half an inch apart and held still. This takes a little practise.

You can fasten the spoons together, putting cardboard between the handles, to make them easier to hold, especially if you have small hands, or you are teaching children to play.

HOW TO HOLD YOUR SPOONS

Tap the spoons on your leg and if the position is right you will hear a sound. Always hold your instrument firmly and remember that it is the action of hitting the spoon on your leg, arm, fingers, or your other hand that make the different ones of sound.

This looks very impressive but it is quite easy to learn.

It will take lots of practise to play rhythms and riffs and learn to play along with your favorite music but the effects you can achieve are quite amazing.

This short film demonstrates how easy it is to play this instrument.

You can even form your own spoon band but be careful, it can become addictive. You may find yourself picking up spoons and playing along to music in the most unlikely places.

Have fun!

First of all you should recognise that when you are holding the guitar the string closest to your torso and the thickest of all strings is called the Bottom E string and that the strings that follow are called A,D,G,B and finally the Top e string which is the thinnest string and in tab form is shown by the lower case ‘e’.

In tablature the strings are shown down the left hand-side like so:

|e| ------------------------------------------------------------------------
|B| -----------------------------------------------------------------------
|G| -----------------------------------------------------------------------
|D| -----------------------------------------------------------------------
|A| -----------------------------------------------------------------------
|E| -----------------------------------------------------------------------

Step 2 – Knowing the frets

The frets on a guitar are shown in tab form by the corresponding number of the fret for instance 5 = the fifth fret and 12 the twelfth.

0 represents an open string, which means you just play the string without your fingers on the fret board.

Using the information above try to play this simple piece

|e| -----------------------5------0---------------------------------------
|B| -------------------4-------------0----------------------------------
|G| ---------------0-------------------5----------------------------------
|D| -----------5--------------------------0---------------------------------
|A| -------5---------------------------------0------------------------------
|E| ---5----------------------------------------0--------------------------

You start here            and end here

If two numbers are shown in the same column then you simply play these notes together.

Try this next

|e| ------------------------------------------------------------------------
|B| -----------------------------------------------------------------------
|G| -----------------------------------------------------------------------
|D| -------------------------------------------------5-------7--------------
|A| ----------3--------5---------3-------------5--------------7---------
|E| ----------1--------3---------5---------5-------------------- 8-------

If the same number is written close together several times then you repeat that note as many times as shown

For example

|e| --------------------------------------------------------------5555--
|B| -----------------------------------------------------------------------
|G| -----------------------------------------------------------------------
|D| -----------------------------------------------------------------------
|A| ----------------------------------------------------3333-------------
|E| -------55555555-------33333333-----------1111--------------

Step 3 – The Symbols

Here are the main symbols used in tablature and what they mean

/ = Slide your finger without taken it off the fret board from the first note to the one after the symbol

^ = Bend the string using the finger on the fret

^( )= Bend the string so it sounds like the note in the brackets

h = This means that you start on the note before the sign and only pick the string once, while he string is ringing you ‘hammer’ down on the note after the sign, this is called a hammer.

P= This term is called ‘pull off’ and is the opposite to a hammer, you start with one finger on the note on the left of the P and the other on the note on the right side of the P and then after picking the string you ‘pull off’ the note on the right hand side of the P.

Now that you know the most basic and frequently used tab symbols try and play this

|e| -------------------------------------------------------12/1---------
|B| -----------------------------------------------------------------------
|G| -----------------------------------------------------------------------
|D| -----------------------------------------------------------------------
|A| ------------------------3h5—5p3----------------------------------
|E| ----5^-------5^----------------------------------------------------

Step 4 – Enjoy Playing

Now that you have mastered guitar tabs, feel free to browse the web in search of your favourite song tabs to play.

But first why not have a go at this simple tab I wrote purely for this exercise. It includes every technique we have covered.

|e| ------------------------------------------------------------------------
|B| -----------------------------------------------------------------------
|G| -----------------------------------------------------------------------
|D| ---7777----/-----9999-------------------3333-----5555----7---
|A| ---5555---/------7777---------3333------------------------------
|E| --------------------------------------------------------------------


|e| ------------------------------------------------------------------------
|B| -----------------------------------------------------------------------
|G| -----------------------------------------------------------------------
|D| -----------------------------------------------------------------------
|A| -----------------------------------------------------------------------
|E| ---0h5------0h6------0h7---------0h8-------0h9-----0h10^---


|e| ---------10p8---8h10---------------------------------------------
|B| -------------------------------10p8---8h10-----------------------
|G| ----------------------------------------------------------------------
|D| -------------------------------------------------------5555--------
|A| -------------------------------------------------------3333---------
|E| -------------------------------------------------------------------0—

Thanks a lot for checking this out I hope it helped

Index or pointer finger- 1st finger

Middle finger- 2nd finger

Ring finger- 3rd finger

Pinky finger- 4th finger

X – Shows you which strings not to play, or to mute them instead.

O – This is the OPEN symbol. It shows you to strum or pluck the string it is directly above with no fingers placed on that string.

C Major – This is the name of the chord.

(Cmaj) – This is the symbol for the chord.

The barre symbol shows when to barre your 1st finger across 2 or more strings at the same time.

?3 - The dots with numbers next to them show to place that finger number on the string that the symbol is next to, and on the fret that the symbol is in. For this chord, the diagram shows to place your 3rd finger of the left-hand on the 3rd fret of the D string.

A COUPLE THINGS TO REMEMBER:

1. If there is no symbol to the right of the chord diagram, such as 5 fr, then assume that the chord is to be played between the 1st and 5th frets.
2. 5 fr – This symbol is not on either of the above chord diagrams, but for future reference, this symbol means to move your hand up the fret board, in this case, to the 5th fret, and place your fingers beginning there, according to how the chord diagram will read.

1. Each line on the tablature staff represents a string on the guitar. It looks similar to a guitar neck, when you are looking at it while you are holding the guitar in the playing position.
2. Here are the 6 strings on the guitar, from highest to lowest:
   E, B, G, D, A, E
   The thinnest string is the highest string, the high E string. The thickest string is the lowest string, the low E string.
3. Each guitar string is represented on the TAB staff. The top line on the staff represents the high E string. The bottom line on the TAB staff represents the low E string.
4. Numbers are written on a TAB staff to show which fret to place your finger on.
5. Numbers written on a TAB staff show which note on the guitar to play. Read from right to left, and place your finger on the fret number that is written on the TAB staff. Make sure your finger is on the guitar string that corresponds to the same line as where the fret number is written on. Here is an example:
   The 1 and the 3 are both written on the line that symbolizes the high E string on the guitar. So you now know to place your pointer finger on the 1st fret, on the high E string and pluck it. Next, keep your pointer finger on the 1st fret while you place your ring finger on the 3rd fret of the high E string and pluck it.
6. Now pluck each string, from the high E to the low E, without placing any fingers on the guitar fret board. This is called playing OPEN strings.

Here is the symbol that shows you to play a string OPEN: O

Now pluck each string once, from the high E to the low E, OPEN.