Monday Drum Day: First gig!
Although I have been drumming for a while I had not done a real public performance until this week. I previously played guitar and ukulele in a swing jazz group called Swing 42. The members of that band plus two more make up our new folk/pop band called River Kicks. There are three other Hivers in the band in the form of @daniellemurray, @purplesinger and @anna-newkey. In this band I am the drummer as well as singing on a couple of songs.
We have been rehearing over the last few months and have a good set of tunes. These vary from traditional folk tunes dating back centuries, through some pop/folk songs you will have heard on the radio to some more mainstream songs that we give our own flavour too.
The gig was at a gathering of druids who were celebrating the autumn equinox in a some woods in Hertfordshire. A couple of the band members are druids. I will admit that I do not know much about their beliefs, but they are into celebrating the power of nature and that is good enough for me.
We were playing in a covered shelter with a paved area for the audience. The site has no mains power, but we had a battery unit that was sufficient for our needs. I am using my Yamaha DD-75 electronic drums that need 12V. In this case I was able to use the mains adaptor, but I have bought a USB to 12V adaptor. I just need to sort out a power pack to run it and I can be mobile. I had bought a little extra in the form of some light-up drum sticks. They glow purple when you hit something. I thought it would add to the experience and I was quite glad of them as it got a bit dark in there. I also had some fairy lights draped over the drums. You can just see the drums at the rear on the left.
Unfortunately one of our members could not make it as she was taken ill. She seems to be better now and resting at home. There were still seven of us playing drums, bass, piano, flute, clarinet (plus other instruments) and two guitars.
It was a fairly small audience of 20-30 people around the site, but they seemed to enjoy it and some were dancing by the end. It was the end of their event and so people were leaving anyway as we played and we stopped as it started to get dark.
There may be some recordings of the gig to come, but here is a rehearsal recording of me singing The Raggle Raggle Gypsy, which is a song of infidelity from several hundred years ago. I am playing the drums as I sing, but I find that easy as long as the rhythms are simple. We were missing our pianist at that rehearsal. Getting everyone together can be tricky.
As I write this the SoundCloud player is not showing properly, but the link should work.
@anna-newkey also did a post about the gig with more photos.
I really enjoyed the gig, but I was feeling exhausted by the time I got home. Mind you, I had done two runs over the weekend, but I am feeling a bit stiff in the shoulders today. I am not used to continuously drumming for so long.
Rock on!
Didn't see you as a fairy lights man Steve. Gonna check out Anna's post now
Me neither.. 😄
You need a little razzle dazzle in this business and I had the lights anyway.
Good going Steve and all strength with the new band.
The dream of every musician is to make music for people.
I thought Ivan to play heavy rock but it doesn't seem more instrumental 😁.
Pd: I really like the flute in the background.
We have some great musicians and it's a pleasure to play with them. Seeing an audience enjoy the music is a real buzz.
Dude, River Kicks is such a good name for a band!
The light-up sticks are a cool idea, especially for the dim area. There was a cool guy I used to follow on Twitch and he rigged up light-up tops for his drumkit and would essentially put a light show on while playing.
I love Raggle Taggle Gypsy, it's such a great song. You've got a good voice for it man, and to be able to sing while playing is kickass. I had a punk band when I was in my teens and I played bass and sang, which was handy because all the songs were 3 cords haha, but I found it so tough.
Fairplay mate, keep rocking, looking forward to hearing some of the gig recordings if any go up.
!PIMP
You must be killin' it out here!
@killerwot just slapped you with 1.000 PIMP, @steevc.
You earned 1.000 PIMP for the strong hand.
They're getting a workout and slapped 1/1 possible people today.
Read about some PIMP Shit or Look for the PIMP District
Cheers. I'm enjoying the drumming and tried to add a little showbiz to it. Those sticks are some sort of strong, clear plastic and have a real bounce to them. That is good on the Yamaha as the pads are a bit hard and unforgiving, but it felt different to wooden sticks. I am hoping there is some video so I can see how it looked.
I have done plenty of singing and playing guitar, so I have developed the ability to multitask. I generally keep the drumming simple for now, but I want to work on adding more fills and other details. There are a couple of songs where I experiment more, but I need to make it work for the rest of the band. Maybe they will let me have a solo some time :)
!BEER
Too right man, a drum solo would be kickass. SteevStix
Ahh sure if you're not too comfortable with fills yet just stick to the straight forward rythm. But, if you have a couple of songs you can have some fun with and do fills on that's good, so at least you're building youself up.
Our old drummer would experiment a lot with fills during rehearsals, but then as we played live he'd hold back a lot and it was kind of annoying because we knew he was capable of it, and we'd go into the gigs ready to give it socks, but without the drums it made us have to tone back.
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I found it quite tiring and I didn't do any running at all! Everyone played really well, and it was a great first outing for the Riverkicks, I thought. As for beliefs, there are as many beliefs as there are druids, who are often happy to argue about them. And then argue some more. What's a bit more interesting is what music they listen to. Hmm, I feel a #TTT coming on...
I wasn't sure what to expect from the druids. They seemed a nice bunch. I'm not too spiritual, but the place had a nice vibe.
Thanks for setting it up. I'll be checking out your post soon.
!HUG
I sent 1.0 HUG on behalf of @steevc.
(1/3)
Rock on dude! That's great, I haven't played with a band since I was in college!
I didn't do enough of that when I was young, so I'm making up for it now. I've done a load of gigs in the last few years. I don't need to worry about making money from it these days.
!BEER
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Glad to see new members in your band. Hopefully everyone doing their best.
I'm glad that the audience enjoyed the show and I suggest you go to see the one of you who is ill and could not come around
Nice one!
That's tricky as she is over in Ireland and I'd need to fly there.
Forgive me if I chuckle, a bunch of druids in the forest sparked thoughts of naked ness and witchcraft dark satanic cults, enjoying black sabbath.
I guess I am way off the mark!
Kudos to you
There was no nakedness that I saw, but who knows what goes on when they are alone in the woods! What people do is their own business as long as nobody is getting hurt. They didn't seem like dark wizards to me.
Ah sensible druids then
Hello, I liked the song. I had this music as a popular Renaissance, thanks for teaching me something new. It sounds like the music they play in movies like Mr. of the Rings when they are in taverns eating and drinking
We're playing songs that would have been heard in taverns and elsewhere hundreds of years ago, but we also play newer stuff. There has always been good music to make people dance.
I had propensity to break drum sticks back when I played, so I probably wouldn't do too well with expensive light up ones! You probably don't have to strike as hard with an electronic kit though I guess. How cool that you were able to do this! I'm glad to see you are getting more comfortable with drumming.
Apparently these are made of the same material as riot shields, so they should take a beating. I've not broken any sticks yet, but then I am not playing on drums with hard metal rims. My Roland kit has plastic rims that do respond to hits, but my sticks are not even dented.
Ah, okay. That makes sense. The real question is can you spin them between your fingers yet? Riot shields! Sounds like a challenge to me!
I'll have to see if Drumeo has any twirling lessons :)
I've still got the skills. I can teach you!
That could be fun. You should do a video of your drumming for that community. Do you know all the rudiments?
I do need to learn more of the basic 'sticking'. I am considering finding a local teacher for face to face lessons, but I have plenty on Drumeo to work through.
I still remember enough to be dangerous. Some of the marching cadences we used for filler are forever stuck in my brain. I might do my first video post this week, but it isn't going to be anything with drumming.
Haha, that might be close. I actually kind of dig those Celtic drummers. The ones they carry in one hand and then the hit it with a paddle from their other hand.
I actually have a drum from India that looks like that one. He has an odd stick grip. Did you learn traditional grip with each hand holding differently? I hold both the same. There are all sorts of subtleties with technique that most people don't realise goes one. Drumming is a very technical exercise.
We learned match grip until we got up to marching band. Then if you were on a drum it's traditional grip because it is easier and it looks cooler. We did this as a showcase during halftime one year and it really lent itself well to the traditional grip:
That's not us in the video, but we used the music. Back before Youtube existed.
I'm a way off that. Need to work on my rudiments.
The best thing that can happen to a band is when the audience really love your performance and I am glad that the audience loved you performance.
PS: I never knew that a drumming community existed on Hive though.
Well I created it a while ago :) It's pretty small, but more are welcome.
Ohhh nice!
Well it was certainly different and I enjoyed being out in the fresh air for the afternoon.
I'm really loving the tune... I'll definitely make a remix of the drums only soon.... 🥰