tbl
8/17/2006, 03:35 PM
If you're like me and don't have anybody to jam with, I have a somewhat suitable replacement. You may have already figured this out, but I thought I'd share regardless. Even if you do jam with people, this is something you can do any time by yourself.
As you probably know from trying, it's pretty much impossible to play along with a song on CD (or Ipod as I use) with any regular headphones b/c the loudness of the drums swallows up anything you might be able to hear, drowning out the music and throwing your tempo off. In order to remedy that, use some in ear headphones (the kind that wrap around the outside work the best b/c they don't fall out), and then put on some gun shooting headphones over the in ear headphones. When you play the songs now, you can hear your drums just enough in the background to hear what you're doing (aside from obviously feeling what you're doing), but the song is still crystal clear and it really feels like jamming with the band.
I put my Ipod on my Rock playlist, hit shuffle, and I'm all over the place playing different songs. Today over lunch I got to jam with Zep, Nirvana, Beatles, Audioslave, Pixies, Radiohead, Pavement, and Little Richard.
It helps develop some fills and beats that you might not play on your own. Playing with guys like Soundgarden and Jimi definitely keeps you on your toes.
It's also helpful if you're a guitar player/songwriter b/c you can lay down tracks on the guitar (just make sure you're playing with a steady rhythm) and then figure out drum lines to go along with it.
As you probably know from trying, it's pretty much impossible to play along with a song on CD (or Ipod as I use) with any regular headphones b/c the loudness of the drums swallows up anything you might be able to hear, drowning out the music and throwing your tempo off. In order to remedy that, use some in ear headphones (the kind that wrap around the outside work the best b/c they don't fall out), and then put on some gun shooting headphones over the in ear headphones. When you play the songs now, you can hear your drums just enough in the background to hear what you're doing (aside from obviously feeling what you're doing), but the song is still crystal clear and it really feels like jamming with the band.
I put my Ipod on my Rock playlist, hit shuffle, and I'm all over the place playing different songs. Today over lunch I got to jam with Zep, Nirvana, Beatles, Audioslave, Pixies, Radiohead, Pavement, and Little Richard.
It helps develop some fills and beats that you might not play on your own. Playing with guys like Soundgarden and Jimi definitely keeps you on your toes.
It's also helpful if you're a guitar player/songwriter b/c you can lay down tracks on the guitar (just make sure you're playing with a steady rhythm) and then figure out drum lines to go along with it.