# Help me make my drummer blast!!!



## s5470Pro (Nov 4, 2011)

Ok in a nutshell I have a drummer thats really good, BUT he was sheltered and grew up to bands like Pantera, Metallica and currently listens to KsE and non brutal bands.

I have heard him go crazy with fills and what not but we need him to blast NOW. I gave him the Extreme Drumming 101 dvd but I think hes just lazy or doesnt have time to practice outside of band rehearsal. Any suggestions?


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## sk3ks1s (Nov 4, 2011)

Yeah. Let him continue to play his instrument tastefully.


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## that short guy (Nov 4, 2011)

s5470Pro said:


> Ok in a nutshell I have a drummer thats really good, BUT he was sheltered and grew up to bands like Pantera, Metallica and currently listens to KsE and non brutal bands.
> 
> I have heard him go crazy with fills and what not but we need him to blast NOW. I gave him the Extreme Drumming 101 dvd but I think hes just lazy or doesnt have time to practice outside of band rehearsal. Any suggestions?


 

This might sound like a stupid question, and if it is you'll have to forgive me, but did you ask your drummer if he likes the blasting sounds? I'm only asking this question because I know a lot of drummers that don't like blasting because "there's not that much creativity/originality to blasting and it takes away from the song". 

Once again if this is a dumb question I'm sorry, but it might be why he hasn't started blasting yet.


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## TRENCHLORD (Nov 4, 2011)

Best bet would just be to casualy start throwing in some Suffocation or Morbid Angel or even better yet Nile when your on breaks or tearing down or whatever.

If hearing faster blasters is sort of a new thing for him, then just give it time to sink in his blood so that it becomes something that HE is trying to emmulate.

And of coarse it's entirely possible that it won't really catch his interest right away, but musicians (especially ones that have clearly proggressed since starting out) do naturally look for ever more challenging styles/techniques to grow and keep from getting bored.


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## s5470Pro (Nov 4, 2011)

that short guy said:


> This might sound like a stupid question, and if it is you'll have to forgive me, but did you ask your drummer if he likes the blasting sounds? I'm only asking this question because I know a lot of drummers that don't like blasting because "there's not that much creativity/originality to blasting and it takes away from the song".
> 
> Once again if this is a dumb question I'm sorry, but it might be why he hasn't started blasting yet.


 
No stupid questions here.... yes we asked him, and if he wasnt into it We would have got a different drummer. We will use it to add to the song. We are not grind core blast happy but belive it or not (to the "some drummers")blasting over certain parts followed up by a heavy part actually makes the heavy part heavier if that makes sense



TRENCHLORD said:


> Best bet would just be to casualy start throwing in some Suffocation or Morbid Angel or even better yet Nile when your on breaks or tearing down or whatever.
> 
> If hearing faster blasters is sort of a new thing for him, then just give it time to sink in his blood so that it becomes something that HE is trying to emmulate.
> 
> And of coarse it's entirely possible that it won't really catch his interest right away, but musicians (especially ones that have clearly proggressed since starting out) do naturally look for ever more challenging styles/techniques to grow and keep from getting bored.


 
Thank you for the first real reply. Thats what i have been doing, introducing him to more technical bands that use blasting to their advantage. Its more of not a want for him but a how to. Was looking for tips on building blast skills easily if you dont have alot of time on your hands.

*mod edit: nobody flamed you or said anything offensive, you really need to take it down a notch*


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## GSingleton (Nov 5, 2011)

Personally...You do not need blasting. Be different.

Better yet do a different style of blast, like btbam


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## CTID (Nov 5, 2011)

I've played drums going on 6 years, which isn't the longest time, listen to metal, am 18 years old, and I can tell you here and now that blast beats are the most boring, unoriginal, annoying things to play or listen to. There's a reason talented drummers like Blake Richardson from BTBAM have done around 4 blast beats over the past 3 albums he's played on.


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## K3V1N SHR3DZ (Nov 5, 2011)

GSingleton said:


> Personally...You do not need blasting. *Be different*.
> 
> Better yet do a different style of blast, *like btbam*






CTID said:


> ...blast beats are the most boring, unoriginal, annoying things to play or listen to. There's a *reason* talented drummers like Blake Richardson from BTBAM have done around 4 blast beats over the past 3 albums he's played on.




Sure, Blake is kinda neat when he does the odd-time stuff, but he sucks at brutal. 


I'd recommend playing him lots of stuff where blasting is in the "proper" context. I used to hate it until I got hold of some stuff where the blast was used to enhance the song instead of as a default beat. Now, I LOVE blasting when its not overdone.

PS: I didn't think anyone else in the STL area liked brutal. Most good bands skip us, and many of the locals I've seen are either shitty christian Bro-core or trendy mall-core. Except Axe Minister. They pwned.


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## oddcam (Nov 5, 2011)

You can start by covering "Reckoning," and then "I Would Do Anything" by Killswitch. They both have multiple blast beat parts.

From there you can find other songs he likes that have blast beats.

He sounds like a tasteful drummer, as someone said, so maybe explain to him that blast beats can just be another part of his inventory - something that may fit a few parts of a few songs in the future. He can learn to blast tastefully (just like Justin Foley) without being a complete fucking 'Tron.


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## GSingleton (Nov 5, 2011)

the blast beats blake does require more control. The feet only do the beats of one hand, mostly the right hand. So that his hands are double time against his feet.


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## Bigfan (Nov 6, 2011)

GSingleton said:


> the blast beats blake does require more control. The feet only do the beats of one hand, mostly the right hand. So that his hands are double time against his feet.



Isn't that a default blast? That's how I play them at least


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## brutalwizard (Nov 6, 2011)

sounds like he is having a blast not blasting, so stop blasting him about doing blasts before he blasts and gets so mad he blasts off at full blast out of your band.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/blast


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## Levi79 (Nov 6, 2011)

I had the EXACT same problem back when I had my band. My drummer was awesome, but never wanted to learn to blast. I'm not a huge blast beat fan, in fact I usually dislike them, but there's sometimes when they just fit perfect. He listened to the same stuff as your drummer probably too. KSE, As I Lay Dying, Bullet For My Valentine etc. I made some parts that needed a blast behind them and he wouldn't do it. He couildn't do it and pretty much refused to learn cause "they sound like shit". 

I suggest showing him some songs by his favorite bands that use blasts and some songs where blasts are used very tastefully (BTBAM)


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## s5470Pro (Nov 7, 2011)

kgad0831 said:


> Sure, Blake is kinda neat when he does the odd-time stuff, but he sucks at brutal.
> 
> 
> I'd recommend playing him lots of stuff where blasting is in the "proper" context. I used to hate it until I got hold of some stuff where the blast was used to enhance the song instead of as a default beat. Now, I LOVE blasting when its not overdone.
> .


 
Thats exactly what im talking about. Use it right. again as the first post states we are not grindcore, we dont want blasts at all times just certain parts. 

PS HE LIKES BLASTS AND WANST TO LEARN THEM 

trying to help him find excersises and techniques to get better and faster and mix them up with different blasting types. The only thing I can tell him is just blast all day long over and over and do nothing else even when you poop bring your drum pad.


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## s5470Pro (Nov 7, 2011)

brutalwizard said:


> blast - definition of blast by the Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia.


 

with definitions like this who wouldnt want to blast? 

PS: KSE does not blast.


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## TRENCHLORD (Nov 7, 2011)

gkdrummer&#39;s Channel - YouTube

In case you're not aware of this guy's instructionals, they really kick it (pi).


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## Tobi (Nov 7, 2011)

if he doesnt have time to practice then he wont learn blastbeats. It takes time to get them coming acurately.


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## muaddib09 (Nov 7, 2011)

I found that when I am playing on 2 and 4 on the snare for up tempo songs that keeping that back beat going at fast speeds is hard to sustain for awhile. Think really fast punk beat. Once I reached the threshold for max speed naturally the blast seems to come out. I would say push the tempo of your songs if you are trying to get him to blast. But everyone is different. This was just how the blast came about for me.


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## The Reverend (Nov 8, 2011)

The first time I heard a blast beat I was forcibly reminded of a monkey hitting a snare relentlessly. I like how a lot of death metal/deathcore bands tried to legitimize themselves by blasting away into the sunset. I get so tired of it being used as a go-to. I get tired of go-to parts in general. 

Youtube has a shit-ton of videos on how to do this and that. Consult that?


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## in-pursuit (Nov 8, 2011)

you guys are all missing the most important fact of life as it relates to this situation - you cannot *make* a drummer do anything_._


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## s5470Pro (Nov 8, 2011)

muaddib09 said:


> I found that when I am playing on 2 and 4 on the snare for up tempo songs that keeping that back beat going at fast speeds is hard to sustain for awhile. Think really fast punk beat. Once I reached the threshold for max speed naturally the blast seems to come out. I would say push the tempo of your songs if you are trying to get him to blast. But everyone is different. This was just how the blast came about for me.


 
Actually the fast "punk beat blast" he can do pretty well. Its the "default" blast hes having trouble with, The one where every hit matches perfect. I can only tell him slow down your feet fool.



in-pursuit said:


> you guys are all missing the most important fact of life as it relates to this situation - you cannot *make* a drummer do anything_._


 
lol yes the title should be different. We are not making him, we are trying to help him.

You guys are very defensive of drummers  I can make him do whatever I want he is my slave. All of you drummers are just slaves to your guitarist.  haha joking


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## CTID (Nov 9, 2011)

s5470Pro said:


> The one where every hit matches perfect. I can only tell him slow down your feet fool.



Well he's obviously not been doing it very long, it's not something that you can pick up in 5 minutes and be doing perfectly, it takes a ton of practice to get it down perfectly.



s5470Pro said:


> You guys are very defensive of drummers  I can make him do whatever I want he is my slave. All of you drummers are just slaves to your guitarist.  haha joking



The band follows the drummer. Therefore band = drummer's slave.


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## muaddib09 (Nov 9, 2011)

this may help as well. Tell him to play sixteenth notes with his hands. then tell him to play the bass. the bass hit should match up with the hand that he is riding on or hitting the hi hat with. basically his foot will be doing eighth notes. start off slow then work up to meltdown speed.


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## Steve08 (Nov 13, 2011)

I'll suggest some actual exercises as opposed to offering general (though useful) advice.

There are two main ways of learning the traditional blast. The traditional blast is what most people think of when blasting is brought up because it's arguably the most common one, and was the first kind of blast ever invented. It consists of a single stroke roll played between the ride/hi-hat/etc. and the snare, with the bass drum matching the right hand, like a very fast skank beat, essentially. You can do it with alternating feet or with single foot-- single foot is easier to do at slower tempos, two feet requires more control and balance at slower tempos and is easier to mess up (imo). Single foot sounds more straight, double foot sounds much better at extremely fast tempos like 260-280 bpm. Any time someone does a single foot blast that quickly it's usually sloppy-- yes, even George or Derek.

Since almost nobody starts out learning single foot blasts, the exercises will have both feet alternating.

Okay, so the first one, which is the easier of the two, would be to play a measure with just the right hand playing in unison with the feet, and then in the measure after that, adding the left hand in, making it a complete blast. It's best to start this very slow, like at 140 bpm, then gradually speeding it up. This one is good to start off with because you can learn to line everything up without having your feet and left hand be totally independent from one another-- the second exercise I mentioned covers this.

Say the drummer at hand has learns to play a traditional blast with the method outlined above. After a while, he'll probably realize that blasting without adding any other cymbals for accents or embellishment is fucking boring and then attempt to do this, and most likely fail-- because he is used to having the right hand keep the bass drum in check. So the next logical course of action would be to remove the right hand entirely.

For this exercise the only thing you really do is play this over and over at varying tempos: right foot, left hand, left foot, left hand, and so on. It should be noted that this is NOT easy to do and your drummer will probably need to play this much slower than the first exercise, but after a while, he'll be able to do more interesting things with the right hand during a blast, which is good.

Other types of blasts (there are numerous and anyone serious about blasting should be good at all of them) include the bomb blast, which is identical to the traditional blast except you add double bass so you're matching every note played on the hands on the feet, which is much harder. Sometimes people move the right hand over to the snare and the left hand onto the hi-hat for the bomb blast. There really isn't anything to do to learn them other than just doing it very slowly and working it up over time.

The two others would be the hammer blast, which is also the lamest-sounding blast, and the free hand blast. The hammer blast is also usually called the Suffo blast as Mike Smith started playing it with Suffocation early on-- it consists of hitting the right and left hands in unison with the right foot and then hitting the right and left hands in unison with the left. It's much easier to do compared to the traditional blast because the coordination involved is much simpler. The hammer blast is almost always done with two feet although people (like Blastphemer as an example) do them with one foot occasionally. The freehand blast would be the hammer blast except with 16th note double bass. Zach Gibson plays a ton of these on TBDM - Miasma, and KC Howard uses them a lot too. There's nothing more to learning them other than just taking it slow, although something you can do to make the hammer blast easier would be to play either just the right or left hand in unison with the feet.

Also, a few things should be noted-- traditional blasts usually sound extremely lame until about 230-240 bpm unless the drummer is good and can make them "cook", traditional blasts also stop sounding good at approximately 280 bpm. Hammer blasts sound even lamer until around the same tempos, more 240-250, and sound much better than traditional blasts at extremely high tempos (280-300). The 16th note double bass counterparts (bomb + freehand) to both those blasts usually sound far more intense and sound good at slower tempos where traditional and hammer blasts would sound lame. Like, freehand blasts sound really good and intense at 210-220 bpm but hammer blasting at the speed would just be right out. Traditional blasting too, for the most part, although TBDM - Miasma would be another good example, primarily because Zach Gibson is the cat's pajamas.


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## thedarkoceans (Nov 14, 2011)

I wouldnt say that blasts are boring.if they are used well,and with creativity,they're great.


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## Stealthtastic (Nov 14, 2011)

I'm personally not a fan of blasting whatsoever, in my personal opinion it takes away from the song.

As far as your'e band to what you want man, just intro duce him to faster drummers and blasting more, and maybe he will begin to incorporate it.


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## skeels (Nov 14, 2011)

Doesn't anybody play like Keith Moon anymore? Bill Bruford? Art Blakey?


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## cap-tan (Nov 15, 2011)

BUY A METRONOME. Tell him to start as slow as possible with whatever blast pattern he wants to do and gradually increase the BPM's as he gets more and more comfortable with it.


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## Steve08 (Nov 15, 2011)

skeels said:


> Doesn't anybody play like Keith Moon anymore? Bill Bruford? Art Blakey?


Nah, primarily because two of those guys are dead and one of them doesn't play live anymore. 

Bruford and Art are both phenomenal, to be sure, and Moon is good as well, but I don't really see your point as blasting doesn't and would not fit in any of their styles-- however, as a counterexample example, my drum teacher saw Jojo Mayer live with NERVE, and apparently Jojo played a blast for a couple seconds as an embellishment.

From my perspective, you're implying being able to perform blasts with competency (I don't consider being able to hold a mid-tempo traditional blast for 10 seconds as being competent) means that it's somehow impossible to be creative. :/

What about Jon Karel from #12? Danny Walker of Intronaut? Mike Heller? Derek Roddy? Kai Hahto? Brad Fickeisen?


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## eurolove (Nov 16, 2011)

Well i'm afraid drummers only learn blast beats a level 63, your going to have to do some serious training, maybe battling against wild drummers in victory road, or using the exp share while battling other trainer drummers will help him get there quicker, good luck!


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## Micah55 (Nov 17, 2011)

I've never really blasted much or anything but when I want to play something that sounds kinda like a blast I play like alternating singles on the ride / snare with straight 16ths on the single pedal. I think thats called a black metal blast... or something. Its pretty easy, the other kind of blasting in my opinion is too overly technical to pull off tightly for how lame it looks and sounds to play.


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## ArrowHead (Nov 18, 2011)

I took one lesson with this guy. I played in a band with him for a few years. When it comes to blasting, I've never seen another drummer do it better.



As far as blasting goes, Darren has one of the smoothest and most impressive abilities I've seen. The one thing he taught me (how much can you really teach a newb drummer in one lesson?) that applied a lot to building up blasts was "stepping stones".

Set your metronome and play 16th notes. 

Do LLLL RRRR LLLL RRRR LLLL RRRR - 4 on each hand
Then LLLL LLLL RRRR RRRR
LLLL LLLL LLLL RRRR RRRR RRRR
LLLL LLLL LLLL LLLL RRRR RRRR RRRR RRRR

(I start on left out of habit - I'm a lefty. Sorry if it confuses you)

In other words play 16th notes to the metronome playing 1, 2, 3, and 4 groups of 16ths with each hand. Do the same thing with your FEET, and use a metronome. Increase a few clicks and keep trying to build speed with it. 

As you can see in his videos (he's got a ton on youtube - Darren Cesca) he's built up a ton of speed and ability on both sides of his body and plays a pretty symmetrical kit.


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## ArrowHead (Nov 18, 2011)

Darren Cesca - New original song - YouTube


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## GSingleton (Nov 18, 2011)

Bigfan said:


> Isn't that a default blast? That's how I play them at least



Not really. His feet are playing the beats of his right hand. So for example, it is like his feet are playing 8th notes while his hands are doing 16th notes.


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