Went to the psychiatrist, didn't really change any medication, which is good.
Just talked for a little bit about my life blah blah.
I like him though. He's a great guy.
Went home, played League.
Geez... That Olaf buff? It's truly truly outrageous. First Olaf game in a while, and I went something like 7/1.
It was pretty good.
Next game, not so much. Everyone fed the Fiora, who proceeded to murder us all. I think she's a bit overpowered right now.
Hopefully they adjust her cooldowns. I hope they leave Olaf the way he is though. He's fun.
However, I don't have the Brolaf skin, so I'm clearly not a good Olaf. Oh well.
Then I played some Deus Ex. That game's amazing.
I love it.
My first run through is a mix of stealth and other stuff.
The Augmentations that I rushed were:
1. Invulnerable to EMP
2. Lift heavy objects
3. High jump
4. Icarus landing augment.
5. Wall punching power
Those are the ones that I absolutely had to have.
Before I bought it, I owned a completely *cough* legitimate copy of the game. That one, I didn't really work on hacking. However, I upped my hacking to level 4 terminals, and it's amazing. You get more exp. And lots of stuff. It's totally worth it. I don't bother with 5 because I just use automatic hackers for those.
No need to waste time.
I'm having fun with the double barrel shotgun that I got in the augmented edition of the game. It's amazing.
I mean, it's probably more practical to use the real in-game shotgun, but you just aren't as badass.
Popping the shells out the back and snapping in another two just makes you feel awesome.
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Oh!
I'm actually feeling better today!
I'm so happy.
I'm planning on having people over to my house tomorrow, and I was worried that I'd be too sick.
I'm not though, so I'm super excited.
And when I get home after this class, I need to drum. I haven't played my drums in a week and a half or so.
Pure torture.
Not sure exactly what music I'll be playing.
I think that I'm going to start writing down my favorite songs to play, so one of these days, when I can actually make a video, I can start putting up drum covers on Youtube.
UGGGHHH I wish my camera wasn't pathetic. I also wish I had 2 or 3 mics so I could record.
I really really really want to get my covers on Youtube to see if I can get input on how I play.
I also want to do a drum duet with someone.. I mean, it doesn't have to be put on the internet, but I really really want to play with another person. So many different options.
I want to do a video with me playing the same song at two different times.
I want to try that with the song Clocks by Coldplay and Sunchyme by Dario G.
I've already played those songs with different parts each time, and it's exceptionally fun.
Ugh.
I don't think people want to do a drum duet because they're intimidated. That sounds so selfish, but what I mean is that.. People think I'm a good drummer.
Frankly, I really don't think I am.
But that's what people tell me.
People don't want to play with me because I'm too good.
I really don't believe that, but oh well.
I'll figure it out.
Someone out there will drum with me.
I'm excited.
I also am really excited to drum when I get home.
I'm watching various Cobus Potgieter covers in the background during class.
It makes it easier for me to pay attention. Having music in the background, and something to watch while I take notes.
I feel like such a hipster, but I was watching Cobus videos before he was this famous.
I was watching his old old stuff, when he had long emo hair and glasses, recording in his basement.
As someone who's watched all his videos, it's really interesting to watch and see how his play style has changed.
It's awesome!
Carter Beauford and Cobus are the two most influential drummers in my life.
Carter because he's just a pure god on the drums, and Cobus because he's so young, but so good.
He also has one of my favorite play styles ever.
I mean, if you're able to analyze two drummers' styles, you would notice that I take a lot of my style from him.
It's so hard for me to really point out exactly what it is though! That's the weird thing.
I know that my style incorporates little bits of various music genres, but I can never point out exactly what it is.
Background on my drumming history:
My mom played me the song Kit Kat Jam by Dave Matthews Band for me, and told me that one of the drum fills sounded really cool.
That got me loving the drums.
It's so interesting to me that 5 years of drumming was started by a sound clip that was around 1.5 seconds long.
It's just.... Hearing the fill really awoke something in me I guess.
Starting in 8th grade, I asked my parents for a drum set. One of the kids in my class was selling his set, so I bought it off of him for 80 bucks (well, my parents bought it for me).
Then one year, I don't remember how long it was..
But my parents bought me a Ludwig Accent Combo drum set. As far as drums go, it was only $500.
That's really cheap (price-wise at least) for a set.
But it's a great set. I still use it.
I've replaced the heads 3 times, and I'm slowly just adding pieces to the set.
I tuned it to sound the way I want to, I have a couple decent quality cymbals.
I'm definitely not complaining. I love my set.
But I want to get a new set some day, hopefully a DW or Gretsche set.
Yum.
When I started, I didn't want lessons. Actually, I still don't want lessons.
That's why, honestly, I don't think I'd be able to play with professional musicians.
Oh it doesn't mean I have no musical education. I played clarinet in our school band for... 4-5 years?
I'm not quite sure.
So I understand tempos and beats, rhythm patterns, and the basics of how to play and read music.
The thing is, I never took drum lessons. I never had a metronome.
I wasn't given basic patterns to memorize, rhythms to play.
I never looked up "how to play the drums" on the internet.
To this day, I have never taken a drum lesson.
I know that sounds really.. Self righteous, but I have to explain why I am okay with that.
Ever since I started playing the drums, the only way I've learned is simply by listening to music.
That's it.
That's why:
1. I wouldn't fit with most bands, as they would want someone who can do the basics and specific things.
2. I have an extremely strange play style.
3. I've never been bored with drumming.
My entire drumming philosophy is based off of just listening to songs, and watching drummers play.
If you've been to a concert with me, you know that I won't jump or dance around.
I'll be craning my neck, wishing I was taller so I could get a better view of the drummer.
My play history is pretty ridiculous.
Crazy.
For the first year or so, I played really simple stuff.
Old rock, classic rock, the Beatles, Credence Clearwater Revival, that kind of thing.
That's where I learned the basic format of a fill. Ringo Starr is obviously still one of my favorite drummers.
He wasn't crazy complex, but he was still really good.
Then I completely did a 180. My friend Cooper got me into Metallica!
Lars Ulrich became my favorite drummer. Strong, simple beats, with fast and heavy fills.
Bam. I played metal, I listened to metal, I ate, slept and breathed metal music.
It was what I liked.
The only thing, was I didn't have a double bass pedal.. So most of my playing were songs that sounded better with a double bass, but I just didn't have one. So I played the song as if I had a double!
That's one of the reasons I don't have a very strong double bass background. I just didn't get it early enough to really really focus on it. Even now, I don't use my double bass as a super strong, fast, hard backgrou
nd beat. I'm much more comfortable using it for triplets, short bursts, and basically anything except fast drumming.
After Metallica, I would say I moved on to a wider range of music. I mainly started playing punk-ish stuff.
Not necessarily punk.... But music that wasn't metal.
The reason I started looking into pop and more modern rock music was because of Cobus's drum cover of of Face Down by Red Jumpsuit Apparatus. That got me into the faster music.
Yellowcard, Blink-182, Red Jumpsuit, Plus 44, Box Car Racer, Angels and Airwaves, Sum 41, Green Day, that type of thing.
That's the drumming "phase" that I think was the longest, because it had so much room for personal interpretation in song style. I was able to drum and play my own fills, without it sounding awkward.
Punk music is what gave me my main background in how I play. It was a good foundation for how I play.
Not too crazy complex, but enough differences that I could learn various different things.
I think that the punk section of my drumming was going on up until last year-ish.
At that point, I started widening my listening and playing scope.
I listen to pretty much anything, and I play pretty much everything!
Off and on, I've had stages of playing jazz or swing, or latin music.
They're not very often, but I'm slowly learning more and more about those genres.
The drum cover of Super Bass by Kyle Jordan Mueller has really really influenced my play style.
I now listen to a lot more modern pop music. That stuff is so much fun to drum to!
There is just so much you can do!
You can base your main rhythm off of the vocals, the synth, the instruments, whatever you want.
Then you can base your fills off something completely different!
I love playing pop music too.
That's basically what my drum history has been like up until now.
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I still have no idea what to define my own play style as.
I'm a little bit of everything.
I wonder if I can break down each piece of the drum set and analyze which genres influence each piece the most....
Hmm.
Never tried that, but I'll give it a try!
As usual, this post is basically me thinking on paper.
So this will actually help me!
So let's try this out.
I use my high hat.. Hmm. I think the way I use my high hat is more based off of jazz and pop music.
Whoa. That's.. different. Uhh. Well I suppose it's because when I play on my high hat, I favor either strict rhythms that don't change, or I play in a way.. How do I describe it. Oh!
I'll explain it the way Carter did. Basically, if you play a constant 8th note pattern on your high hat, then start removing individual beats. That's how I play it.
I remove beats, I do short rolls, I open and close my high hat.. All of those are based off of the rest of the music. Is it a moment of silence that I need to punctuate by stopping the high hat? Is it a moment of silence that I need to break up? Do I want to keep my high hat in sync with the bass? Guitar? Vocals? Should I open or close it, or alternate?
I think the high hat is one of my favorite pieces of my drum set.
How do I use the bass drum.....
I think it's mostly influenced by metal and harder rock, along with punk.
My bass drum and tom work is heavily influenced by Disturbed.
I often play my bass drum in fairly simple patterns. But I'm a fan of tossing in triplets and short bursts. It's my favorite way to break up the monotony of a 4/4 pattern.
My toms are very... unique. I use so many different genres in the way I interpret what I need to use the toms as.
I think that if I had to pick a certain genre....
Maybe hard rock, then punk.
I know lots of people say all of Disturbed's music sounds the same..
They do definitely have an extremely unique song, that you can guess just off of the way the toms sound, or the guitar.
I think Mike Wengren definitely has my favorite tom work.
Just the way he focuses the toms, the rhythms he uses, the long or short fills.. I love it.
I incorporate the toms into each section of a song, it just depends on the song's sound.
I'm a fan of using them in breakdowns and harder bridges.
If I use them as a fill, it's generally faster, with varying dynamics on each tom, according to the rest of the instruments.
I guess the way I use them really depends on the song itself.
But heavy metal and punk have influenced the way I use them.
The snare drum..
Pretty much every single genre.
Faster, punk beats.. Harder metal beats.. Rolls, double strokes, like jazz.. Poppy, snap sounding beats like pop..
I think my snare drum basically is whatever genre I need it to be.
It's my second favorite drum piece!
China cymbal..
Definitely metal. I use it during breakdowns. I don't normally incorporate it with the main part of a song.
Unless of course, I need it. That's weird. But a china cymbal isn't something you can just toss in anywhere.
It's best for heavy breakdowns because it gives a constant rhythm, but it's enough of a "crack" sound that it leaves silence, which the other instruments either fill in or emphasize.
It's fun to use, just doesn't belong everywhere.
Ride cymbal!
Jazz. And punk. I don't really use it as a straight 4/4 beat often. I use it as a light filler sound while I use the bass and snare to emphasize the main beats. Or I really use the bell of the ride. The bell is, I think, my 3rd favorite piece. You can use it in so many ways!
I absolutely adore playing a song, then hitting the bell to give a great "ding" sound that can really influence the sound. I think I play it more jazz-y though. You know.. A rhythm that you can change if needed. Break up the 8th notes, use the bell or the inside of the cymbal, or the outside of the ride, all at different points, if needed.
Every other cymbal.....
Hmm. Basically like the snare. Too many genres have influenced the way I use cymbals.
Seriously.. I don't think there's a particular way to pick how I use cymbals. Oh well.
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I suppose that's all I could really think of saying.
I don't have much else to really talk about.
Hmm.
My mood is all weird right now.
Oh well!
At least I finished the blog.
Have a good evening guys (:
-Nolan
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Top Five Songs of the Day
- Clocks by Coldplay
- Shiver by Coldplay
- 6 Foot 7 by Lil Wayne
- Eh Eh by Lady Gaga
- Can I Take You Home by Breathe Carolina
Song Lyric of the Day
~We lock out the world and we'll stay there forever.
Say it to me- Three letters
Fall from your mind to your mouth.
Can I take you home?
Am I second guessing? Am I asking too much?
One simple word will set the record straight.
Betrayed by clenched hands
Wear your smile like a mask.
Your tightened fists, they give your heart away.
I don't mean to rush, or be obvious,
but my impatience keeps on dragging me into temptation,
this mad compulsion
And tell me now, will you come with me?
Can I take you home?
Open yourself up to me and surrender.
Can I take you home?
We lock out the world and we'll stay there forever~
-Can I Take You Home by Breathe Carolina
Video Game of the Day
The Darkness II
Youtube Video of the Day
Picture(s) of the Day
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