Band-in-a-Box and PowerTracks Pro Audio have a lot to offer drummers and percussionists. Band-in-a-Box provides an endless supply of music for jamming and a great band to play it, while PowerTracks Pro Audio can open any standard MIDI or WAVE file and play it back. You can even record yourself playing! Both products come with the dynamic 3D Drum Kit Window and always play in perfect time - a great way to practice.
Rudiments are the foundation for all drumming technique. All drummers and percussionists, no matter what their style, should be able to play the rudiments fluidly at any tempo.
Rudiments can be practiced using a single drum or pad. Start slowly and increase the tempo as you improve, proper sticking is more important than speed. Remember to practice using opposing sticking. For best results, practice with a metronome. It keeps your tempo steady and gives you an indication of your progress as you are able to increase the tempo. Both Band-in-a-Box and PowerTracks Pro Audio have metronomes that you can use.
The Band-in-a-Box metronome is normally used for recording, but it is easily adapted for drum practice. In a new song, enter a rest on beat one of the first bar and leave the rest of the song blank. Set the length of the chorus from 1 to 256 and the number of choruses to 40. Hit Record and you'll get 10,240 bars of rock solid metronome accompaniment. Save this song and use it anytime you want to practice rudiments with a metronome, it works especially well when wearing headphones.
You can use the Edit Current Bar settings dialog box to program tempo changes, either manually or automatically. The percentage tempo change feature automatically adjusts the tempo by the percentage you set every time the song reaches that bar. This means that there is a cumulative effect with each chorus, which could get interesting after a few times around.
Another neat thing about the Band-in-a-Box metronome is that beat one is accented with a rim shot, followed by high hat for the rest of the measure.
In PowerTracks Pro Audio, open any file and mute the parts you don't want to hear (all of them if you simply want a metronome). In the Options menu, select Metronome and check the Playback option. Select a tempo you are comfortable with, or tap a tempo on the "-" or "=" keys. Now when you press play you will hear the metronome. You can choose different drum notes for the metronome and set their velocity in the Metronome dialog. You don't need to use an existing song, it's easy to make custom practice files. You can even program tempo changes, for example an increase of 10 every sixteen bars, or switch to different meters. PowerTracks Pro Audio is a great tool for making your practice more fun, more challenging, and more effective.
If you want to record your progress, plug a microphone into your soundcard, aim it at your drum and press the audio record button. If the Recording check box is selected in the Metronome Options Dialogue Box an audible metronome will play along as you record. Once you have completed your recording press stop and listen to your results. In most cases (single soundcard users) the metronome will be recorded along with your practice session giving you the opportunity to analyze your playing and hear where you need further practice.
Once you have become familiar with rudiments on a single drum or pad these same patterns can be practiced on a full drum kit.
Playing with the Band Sure rudiments are good for honing your chops but, like practicing scales on a melodic instrument, rudiment practice never replaces the fun of jamming with a band. This is where Band-in-a-Box becomes the perfect tool for every drummer. Enter the chords, choose a style, mute the drums and press play - it's that easy! Even if you are not familiar with chords and notes, it's easy to have Band-in-a-Box generate an entire song for you, choose a style and press play.
Band-in-a-Box can even show you the drums and percussion parts in the Animated Drum Kit Window. This dynamic 3D Drum Kit Window is a fantastic way to see how different rhythms are played while you are listening to them. This sizable window is an animated display of a complete MIDI drum kit, with all 61 drum sounds displayed on their respective instruments. Watch the various drum instruments being played or play-along/record on any drum instrument by using the QWERTY keyboard or a mouse. The computer keyboard, the piano key number and sound names can all be (optionally) made visible on the hint line as the mouse cursor passes over any instrument.
Click here for a larger screen shot of the animated drum window
Once you are confident in playing along set the tempo to one that is comfortable (four taps on the '=' sets the tempo), mute the drums, press play and you are ready to jam, learn and have fun!
All of the styles available for Band-in-a-Box have the authentic feel of a real band. Many of the newer styles (since Styles Disk 9) include live MIDI drum tracks, recorded in real time by a real drummer. Practice your favorite styles and learn some new ones. With over 500 styles available from classical to hip hop, Jazz, country, rock, bluegrass and Latin there are styles available for every drummer.
Here are some drumming links that may be of interest:
