I am about six months into my Drumeo membership and loving it. I could spend all day watching drumming videos if I had the time and the community is great. One of the features is a monthly community collaboration where we all play the same song and someone has the tricky job of editing them all together. Last month I just missed taking part as I forgot the deadline date. This time I just made it in time. The song was Saints of Los Angeles by Mötley Crüe, which is not one I knew. Now I have heard it lots of times as I practised the song and checked out videos by others that they put on the forums.
One of the instructors did a video where he showed different levels of playing along from beginner to expert. I was going to try the intermediate one, but realised I would not be able to keep up the bass drum pattern all the way through and so I did the basic one. I did try to get some fills in though. I was following the drum tablature, but was never going to play it note for note. I was just looking for where it changed.
I did another multi-angle video using my phone to capture what my feet were doing. The whisky bottle was an in joke as the instructor had a bottle of Jack Daniels by his kit in tribute to the band's reputation. I am still having some issues with sound synchronisation, but just had to shift the audio a little in Kdenlive and it looked better. It may still be slightly out. I line up the two video feeds by looking for loud beats in the sound waves.
The videos that some people produce are amazing, but it all takes time. I do need to work on my editing skills as there is much much I could do with this application.
Last weekend I was doing swing jazz with some friends, which is a very different drumming skill, but it is all fun. I do not really have a specific skill I want to learn. On the Drumeo lessons I am doing lately the genre is metal, but they mix it up there. I can pick and choose lessons for what I want to do with plenty of backing tracks in each style. I can see me renewing my membership this year and maybe I will consider doing the lifetime one. With the other schools for guitar, piano and singing I would always have something I could be learning.
If you know any drummers then please tell them that Hive has a community they could join. I will look out for posts by others that I can cross-post here.
Rock on!
