How to learn the I-Map system?

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I've done a search here and found various references to this but I'm still not sure what's available. I'm a non-drummer who purchased both Ultimate Studio Drums group buys earlier this year. I have an e-drum kit which I'm slowly learning to play but I'd love to learn the I-Map system as it seems like it might be a faster route to laying down acceptable grooves. I am a guitarist but i do have some very basic keyboard skills. I am aware of the videos on the oceanwaydrums.net website which are excellent but only demonstrate what can be done rather than how to do it. Various people have requested some sort of tutorial videos on the I-Map and I am wondering have these have ever been produced? if so, or if there are any other resources to help with learning I-Map, I'd be very grateful if someone could point me to them.

Thanks, Mark

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Just to clarify: what I'm looking for is some sort of tutorial resource on using the I-Map, or if that's not available, on finger drumming in general. Something that would have exercises and guidelines for developing and improving technique. I have googled this of course but haven't found much of interest except some YouTube stuff, none of it very coherent or structured. I'd be grateful for any ideas or leads that might be relevant. Somebody should write a tutorial book or something on this really useful skill. Squids? In your spare time maybe? :wink:

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I would really like to do this. You CAN find a good demonstration of how it is laid out though on www.oceanwaydrums.net in the video section. I go over each kit piece. But as far as technique goes... apart from our own youtube site which has at least a lot of finger drumming www.youtube.com/sonicreality there is no actual tutorial with tips and tricks. But there should be! So in the next couple of months I think I will do some.

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That's good to hear Squids and thanks for your reply. I have already watched those videos on Ocean Way which are excellent but yeah, what I need would be more something showing how to build up to being able to play interesting and realistic grooves from beginner level, step-by-step. What you do in the videos looks and sounds wonderful but pretty unattainable to a guitarist like me with only rudimentary keyboard skills. So I for one will look forward to it if you do get a chance.

Mark

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While you're waiting for a video tutorial, here's a couple easy tips for I-MAP and other layouts:
This is a rather basic example to develop "feel" and technique, but may be used to develop much more complicated beats. Hopefully my cryptic notation lines up correctly on your monitor.

BASIC BEAT EXERCISE:

1) Play all 1/8 notes for kick drum / snare / hihat entirely with right hand.

Practice this:

x___x___x___x___x___x___x___x___<-- hihat (right hand middle or 4th finger)
________x_______________x_______<-- snare (right hand thumb)
x_______________x_______________<-- kick (right hand thumb)


2) Now add left hand on offbeat for hihat 16ths (also see item #5):

x___x___x___x___x___x___x___x___<-- hihat (right hand middle or 4th finger)
__x___x___x___x___x___x___x___x_<-- hihat (left hand - index finger)________x_______________x_______<-- snare (right hand thumb)
x_______________x_______________<-- kick (right hand thumb)


3) Now that you have the "offbeat feel" with left hand hihat hits from step 2, substitute left hand hihat hits with accents on offbeat to ghost snare, bass drum, and snare. Not every sixteenth note is played, but there is a sixteenth feel.

x___x___x___x___x___x___x___x___<-- hihat (right hand middle or 4th finger)
__x___x___________x___x_________<-- snare ghost (left hand)
______________________________x_<-- snare (left hand)
________x_______________x_______<-- snare (right hand thumb)
______________x_________________<-- kick (left hand)x_______________x_______________<-- kick (right hand thumb)

4) Sometimes less is even better. Try just a few left hand accents and add another right hand kick drum hit. See how just 3 left hand notes make this beat's groove vs playing right hand only.

x___x___x___x___x___x___x___x___<-- hihat (right hand middle or 4th finger)
__x_____________________________<-- snare ghost (left hand)
______________________________x_<-- snare (left hand)
________x_______________x_______<-- snare (right hand thumb)
______________x_________________<-- kick (left hand)x_______________x___x___________<-- kick (right hand thumb)


5) When playing 16ths on Hihat, a real drummer wouldn't be able to play both the snare and hihat simulataneously. Therefore right hand hihat in step 2 should be modified to this:

x___x_______x___x___x_______x___<-- hihat (right hand middle or 4th finger)
__x___x___x___x___x___x___x___x_<-- hihat (left hand - index finger)________x_______________x_______<-- snare (right hand thumb)
x_______________x_______________<-- kick (right hand thumb)

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FILL EXERCISE:

For fills, practice playing 16ths (or 32nds) like this using "double" finger rolls (middle finger, followed by index finger on same hand). IMAP makes this easier since there are multiple tom keys with same pitch. Start by ignoring which key to play a particular drum sound and just tap fingers on a table top.

xx__xx__xx__xx__ <- right hand - middle, then index finger or thumb
__xx__xx__xx__xx <- left hand - middle, then index finger or thumb


Now try applying this double rolling finger technique using these sounds on keyboard (r= right, l= left):

rr_____rr________ <-- snare
__l______l_l_____ <-- high tom
____________r___ <-- low tom
1___2___3___4___ (count)

This one hand "doubles" technique (rolling middle & index fingers) also works great for simulating double kick drum or for hihat 32nd note doubles in a 16th note pattern.

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Best tip for realistic acoustic drumming is to regularly watch a real drummer. Things to observe:

* Don't have more hits going on than a drummer has hands (reason I modified hihat in above example).
* Watch how hihat pedal note is used for keeping time when playing tom fills or with ride cymbal.
* Listen carefully to how almost silent ghost snare notes enhance beats. (examples: Toto's Rosanna or Herbie Hancock's Chameleon)
* Learn how to play different styles and time signatures. Buy a book that a real drummer would learn beats from. Don't use the Amen break on everything.
* Once you develop better coordination for playing complex parts, don't over do it. The best thing to make a complex part shine is keeping the rest simple. Sometimes silence makes the greatest musical statement.


Anyone else have some quick finger drumming tips to add?

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That's absolutely brilliant Kevin. Exactly the sort of thing I was looking for. These exercises could take me quite a way forward I think. Hope you don't mind if I come back to you to clarify something if I don't understand it once I get into trying them out. The notation does look okay on my monitor in Safari. Edit: just had a quick go and some of the yellow print is mis-aligned for me, a word or two at the end of a sentence appearing on the next line down, thus throwing out the sequence. I should be able to work it out but I'll see how it looks in Windows.. Yeah, looks fine in IE.

Many thanks to you. I really do appreciate the time you put into posting these tips and I am sure they could benefit others in a similar situation to myself.

Mark

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Been getting on well with these exercises. It's great to begin to get a feel for this, and to be able to play something that sounds plausible as drumming, albeit very basic at this stage. But it's a good start. Now I want more! Probably what makes sense would be to buy a book of patterns/beats like Kevin suggested. I'll have a search around but I wonder if anyone would have any recommendations, or for any good internet resources that might have the same sort of thing?

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I'm glad that helped provide you a starting point.

Everyone has their own technique, with most people playing the hihat with the right hand and the snare / bass with the left. I found playing the main 8ths for the bass & snare with the same hand (right) as the hihat gave me significantly better timing.

Many amatuer MIDI files lack is loud / soft dynamics. Again, observing a real drummer live or video will show you how much variation there is. On hihat, a real drummer will play eighth like this:

X_s_X_s_X_s_X_s_ (X=loud, s=soft)

Sounds crazy, but I have listened to drum loops or MIDI drum beats to learn how to play beats. What's nice about that is being able to slow them down to dissect what's happening.

Some consider it cheating, but you can get a cleaner take by recording your parts as MIDI 10-15 bpm slower and then speeding up to regular tempo. And of course doing some editing.

Back on I-MAP:
One of the things I like about IMAP is the extra variations of the hihat. In my earlier examples, I had only one closed hihat playing. General MIDI has closed, pedal and open. But I-MAP provides several in between degrees of openness, which offers a more realistic sound. Learning to move between these can add significant realism. I-MAP also offers more variations for Snare, Toms and Kick. You can see the IMAP layout here:
http://www.sonicreality.com/imap/

I usually use my own keyboard layout I've developed (12 snare keys, 18 hihat keys, 6 kick keys, 7 ride keys, 5 keys per tom, etc PLUS pedal control changes that modify mapping in real time) for triggering even more nuances and better ergonomics, but I haven't found a commercially available layout that can beat IMAP.

Totally OT -- Do you know what I dream of? 2 manual keyboard finger drumming with 122 keys to map and easily reach all kinds of variations of the same basic pieces (especially cymbals) -- that would be incredible. I just can't find a dual manual MIDI keyboard with the features I'd like at a reasonable price.

Here's a site I quickly found that has free drum parts written out, I'm sure there's others: http://www.onlinedrummer.com/

Happy finger drumming!

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Thanks again Kevin. All makes sense. Sounds like you're a keyboard player though (as well as a drummer?), which must make this whole finger-drumming thing a lot easier. The layout you describe as well as the dual-keyboard dream would require a lot of dexterity I imagine.

As I say, I'm excited by the possibilities that are beginning to open up even with my limited technique. I'm also wondering about using trigger pads such as the Akai MPD-18: http://keyboards-midi.musiciansfriend.c ... sku=620023. Would this be easier/quicker to learn or are there advantages in sticking with a keyboard-based approach such as the I-Map?

Will check out the link. I'm passing by some music shops tomorrow so I'll also see if there I can find any good books.

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Marcusmax wrote:Sounds like you're a keyboard player though (as well as a drummer?), which must make this whole finger-drumming thing a lot easier.
I'm primarily a keyboardist / bassist, but also play drums, guitar and other misc. Love acoustic instruments, but virtual opens so many new possibilities.

I'm sure playing ragtime as a kid trained my left hand to move fast.
Marcusmax wrote:The layout you describe as well as the dual-keyboard dream would require a lot of dexterity I imagine.
Not really, it's actually easier to reach a second keyboard above (4 inches away) with both hands, than move 1 - 3 octaves. I've experimented a little bit with a 25 note AKAI MPK (directly over my normal 61 note keyboard) for various hit types of 4 toms. This makes going to toms from the lower keyboard snare area with both hands a whole lot easier.
Marcusmax wrote:I'm also wondering about using trigger pads such as the Akai MPD-18
I own 2 AKAI MPD24's that I setup side by side. I like using these for conga type sounds with various hit types (with 2 pitches or 4 pitches spread over 32 pads). IMO AKAI type pads are good for how electronic sounds (TR808) are played, but a rock or jazz drummer requires more timbre variations -- thus more triggers. A keyboard allows more triggers. Haha, 2 keyboards would have even more! I've also used a monster 30 trigger Roland kit (2 SPD-11 + 6 dual zone pads + 2 pedals) which gives you the vibe of using real sticks, but not as flexible as a keyboard for triggering samples.

I'd recommend sticking with keyboard drumming first, but never feel limited from trying other options -- including a real drummer. :lol:

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Excellent advice, very clear and thank you once again. Your various rigs sound pretty impressive. I came across a used SPD-2 which I was tempted by in the same shop as the Akai. Wouldn't need the in-built sounds, some of which are lovely, but it felt very nice to play; better than my fairly crappy e-drum kit but I thought it would be too similar (hitting pads with sticks) to make real sense. Better to hold off til I feel ready to get a proper Roland or similar kit. I reckon you'd need to have pretty good drumming skills to use it properly anyway.

I bought a book today which has enough rehearsal/play-along material to get me started. I also own loads of midi drum loops so I'm going to practice with those too, as you mentioned before. Add to that the net resources like the one you linked to and there's more than enough to work on.
I'd recommend sticking with keyboard drumming first, but never feel limited from trying other options -- including a real drummer.
I like this open approach. I may well try the pads too. I have 8 on my Axiom keyboard so I've been experimenting with those a bit. I found them in some ways easier to play (no waiting for the key to come up again + more room to hit) and in some ways harder (less intuitive in terms of playing several at once etc.). What you say about the pads being more suited to electronic kits makes sense. The stuff I write is mostly prog-jazz-ish so I imagine the keyboard is more suitable. By extra timbres/triggers I presume you mean more available keys to play. The I-Map is good for that as you say. I also have Steven Slate Drums which uses a different system, more like a sort of extended GM I think but I have yet to explore it properly.

And yes, for a recent project I used a real drummer in the UK who played his parts in via midi over my mixed track and I simply matched his midi file to one of my kits and tweaked it a bit. Worked very well but I'm keen to explore the DIY route at the moment.

I really appreciate the time you have put into helping me out here.

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