Monday Drum Day: Folking it up

Although I have been drumming for over a year I have not really played with anyone else apart from early on when I took my little electronic 'drum mat' to a couple of sessions. In the jazz/swing band I have been playing with in the last couple of years (Swing 42) I have played guitar and ukulele. I did play some djembe at a few gigs, but did not always take it. Now @daniellemurray has started a new band (name not finalised) that will be more about folk music, but with rock/pop leanings. Think The Waterboys, Bellowhead or The Pogues. I said I was up for doing some drumming.

We were meant to have our first rehearsal last month, but several people were suffering from COVID or other bugs. We tried again this week, but were still missing several. @anna-newkey stepped in as guitarist and singer. Danielle plays clarinet and recorder whilst Bob (not yet a Hiver) plays flute and piccolo. They are both using effects pedals for more sound variety.

I have my new Roland e-drums, but getting that set into the car and setting up elsewhere would be a major undertaking. I had pondered selling my Yamaha DD-65 portable kit, but it may be ideal for this scenario. I thought about using the basic footswitches it came with, but the kick pad and pedal is much more usable. I 'borrowed' a doormat to put that on from the hall as it has spikes to stop things sliding around. I had my high hat footswitch, but forgot the adaptor to plug it in. That meant the high hat was always open, so I had to use other option to keep the beat. You will also see my ukulele and my tablet mounted on the microphone stand. I packed most of my gear into a large suitcase with wheels as drumming gear tends to be heavy.

We had a fun few hours trying out some songs. We need to experiment with arrangements to see what works. I hope we will have @purplesinger with us to play piano and sing next time as well as a bass player.

I did not record any music, but Bob did. You can hear the tunes the others already posted here and here. I think we are already sounding like a band. Having played together a lot before we can pick up tunes fairly quickly.

I kept the drumming pretty simple. I think you can hear the sticks on the rubber pads as well as the output of the amplifier. That should be less of an issue at a gig when we would be more amplified.

It was really good fun and they seemed to like what I was doing.

Stay tuned for more.