Alright, here it is! A challenge I’ve been waiting for! December Drumming!
Similar to the Jamuary Song-A-Day and May You Make Your Movie challenges I did earlier in the year, this time I wanted to focus exclusively on the drumming or percussive elements of music.
Although I’ve come up with a few ideas on what to do throughout the month, I will give myself some leeway in this challenge in an effort to try out as many things as possible.
The idea is simple: create a drum track every day throughout the month of December.
Where I will give myself some leeway is in how much I consider something to be a “percussive” instrument (the piano, after all, in a very broad manner, is a percussive instrument). Further, there are some elements I want to work on or get better at, notably within the EDM sphere of sounds and layering sounds using MIDI or other computer elements.
Failing any sort of success, I’ll fall back on a drum solo for the day. Who knows, what would 31 days of drum solos sound like? Would it be boring and sickening to listen to? Or would it be the greatest drum concept album ever conceived?!
The ideas so far:
| Paradiddles | Rudiments Together |
| Hand claps | Hands on desk |
| Beat Boxing | Drum solo |
| Ride cymbal | snare solo |
| EDM elements | Metal on computer |
| Time signatures | No drum sound |
| Tribal | Meditation |
| One Take | Layers |
The tools haven’t changed very much since the beginning of this year. I’ll still be using Logic Pro and Garageband on iPad for much of the music creation and post production. I still have my Zoom H4n, but a newer phone which should enable me to create some things on the go and, more importantly, save files and edit them without having to transfer them to the computer first.
I also have a drum practice pad and a set of sticks but no drumset proper. That will be left to the iPad for now unless I’m able to find somewhere that has a kit I could play.
So, with that, let’s hit it off! 😀