How to drum On Keyboard
How To Finger Drum Part 1/2
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hi and welcome to doctor mix on this
video I'm going to show you how to
finger drum coming up there are many
ways to program drums you can use your
mouse to input the notes into the key
editor or the piano roll you can use
step sequencers you can also use pad
controllers like the machine or the Akai
ones there are quite a few of them on
the market right now or you can finger
drum so what is finger drumming and why
should you use it with finger drumming
you're basically controlling your drum
kits using your keyboard like this so
why should you use finger drumming
instead of everything else well I feel
that finger drumming gives you by far
the most natural and realistic results
especially when it comes to acoustic
drums so what I'm gonna do today is
demystify how finger drumming works and
how you can use it to get more realistic
drums if you have any questions about
what we're gonna show today and you want
more of this content please let us know
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upcoming videos alright let's get
started the very first thing I would
suggest you do is select a drum kit that
inspires you a drum kit that you really
like so if you want to use an acoustic
drum kit that's great if you want to use
an electronic drum kit that's also fine
just make sure that you're very happy
with the sound so that you can actually
start practicing so the very first thing
you need to know is the GM mapping so
this is the general MIDI drum map which
has been around for ages and many
keyboard manufacturers synth
manufacturers were following this drum
mapping so that they you could basically
take any MIDI file that contain drums
drum parts and you could play it on
every keyboard
so most manufacturers most keyboards
follow this drum mapping now if you know
this drum mapping that's great
because then you can also play every
drum kit in a software instrument most
commercial drum libraries like groove
age and Steven slate ez drummer superior
drummer addictive drums all those pieces
of software can be mapped with GM
mapping even if they don't use it
natively so if you know this protocol
you're good to go so what I've loaded
here is a very simple GM drum kit from
Holley and Sonic free here's how the GM
mapping works
we have c1 right here and we have our
kick drum c-sharp we have our side stick
D snare D sharp
we have our clap e another snare so you
can do rolls like this then we have our
Tom's which range from F to D and we
have our high hats right here closed
closed and open now the great thing is
with open high hats you can actually
mute them choke them when you play the
closed hi-hat and that's exactly how
real drums works in real life so you can
do really nice hi-hat patterns like this
then we have our crashes the crashes
leave on C sharp and D so you can
actually play left and right crash very
very easily see like this then we have
our rides so d sharp F and B and then we
have some more elements of course you
have our tambourines there more cowbell
vibraslap and of course if you when you
go higher you get some percussion so
that's the typical GM mapping we also
have some different things over here
below the kick drum
we have drum rolls I'm gonna show you
how you can use this to create some
really nice grooves the most important
thing to know when you want to finger
drum and you want to be fast and you
want to be realistic is the positioning
of your fingers on the keyboard so I
found that the best position is this
position right here so that's how you
place my fingers when I want to finger
drum when I want to start finger
drumming that's the starting position
right right there so I have my kick drum
I have my snares instant access I have
access to my hi-hat and access to my
crash and of course if I want I have
access to my toms right so you can play
a groove if you place your fingers like
this you're ready to go you can easily
start playing a groove and at this point
I'd like to share a little story with
you the reason why I started finger
drumming in the first place actually I
think I was like 7 years old and I was
going after my piano lesson to my local
music store and one day a guy walks in
and asks the staff member to give him
some drums said can you give me some
drums and this guy was blind and you
know the guy put on a priesthood with
drums and the guy started doing this
something like that so I was like wow
can you actually do this on a keyboard
and the fact that this guy couldn't see
and he was just you know he was doing
that it really impressed me and I
thought you know I really want to do
this I really want to be able to do this
so here's how you start start with a
very simple pattern like kick drum and
snare just trust me
start with that place your hand like I
showed you before so you have your kick
drum and your snare don't do this that's
never gonna work don't do this because
you need your right hand for the high
hats so start with something like this I
know it's boring then start embellishing
the kick drum a little bit more now
right hand goes on the right position
and now we're going to add a very simple
hi-hat eighth-notes now this sounds
boring this sounds a little bit you know
very very simple but what I would
encourage you to do if you're starting
out is play this simple groove and try
and be dynamic because that's the next
thing you want to know about try and be
dynamic try and add you know
fluctuations to your playing so instead
of playing like this start playing with
more filling see with the hi-hat I'm
adding dynamics I'm adding accents so
that's the very first thing I know it's
simple but once you start getting a
little bit of a feel with your drums and
your fingers interact well with the
keyboard
that's when you're going to get more
realistic drum parts now after you do
this you can start adding more elements
to your performance so maybe a few more
snares or another thing you can do is
start adding ghost notes now I know this
is gonna be a little bit harder to do
but ghost notes is the number one reason
why you might want to finger drum
because they're really really hard to
program you need to go into your DW and
start adding those little notes and
change the velocities they're really
hard to program and you always need like
an element of surprise with your ghost
notes so the first thing I would try
would be to add ghost notes with the
snare so let's try and do this simple
ghost notes so if you cannot play fast
don't worry just play slowly now let's
create a more interesting groove with
our high hats you know start playing
just the right hand see I can close and
then when you're confident increase the
tempo
and then you can start introducing your
crushes see your crunches are right
there you don't even need to move you
don't even need to you know jump around
the cable now if I want to do rolls
there are many ways to do it you can go
like this but this is a little bit of a
harder way because you need to be like a
good keyboard player everything that I'm
showing you you can do it with that
being a good keyboard player you don't
even need to be a keyboard player just
say so you can do you can do like this
when a drummer does snare rolls he
doesn't have any other hands so he won't
be doing like you won't be doing toms at
the same time so you can take your hand
out of the hi-hats for a second you know
and maybe start very slowly dynamics and
of course you also have your toms right
here so you can go like this
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