My Drum Set- Set Up

I have been asked by people how I set up my drum set comfortably with all my drums and cymbals. I said I would post about it on my blog (this blog is turning into an online lessons deal).
first of all my set up is unique and comfortable to me, but, it is not the only way to set it up, these are only suggestions on how you might comfortably set up your own set.
My set consists of four drums: two toms a snare and bass drum, and seven cymbals: China crash, hi-hat, two crash cymbals two splashes and a ride. Here is how I set them up comfortably:

 this picture shows my tom heights compared to my ride cymbal, my first tom is a little bit higher than my ride and my floor tom is a couple inches lower.

 this picture shows my hi-hat is about four inches higher than my ride.

 My floor tom is level with my snare. (I forgot to mention that the first thing you do when you get a drumset is put your stool at a comfortable level, then set your snare at a good place for you to hit, your floor tom(s) should be level with your snare and everything else will fall into place).

 my crash cymbals are level with eachother with a good comfortable reach from my seat.

 my splashes are also level.

 my china crash just sits above my hi-hat where I can reach it.

Here is the over-view of my set and it shows everything I talked about.

That is the lesson on how I set up my set, any questions just comment or you can e-mail me, if you are my student you should have it.

Marching Band

Most people think I am stricktly a drumset guy but really thats only half of it, the other side of my drumming is a huge reason why I want to go pro in percussion/music. This past week I have been through a camp that has drilled fundamentals on our music and marching. It has been the HARDEST camp I have been through and you wouldent think so but it really tests your physical abibity, one day I counted over 150 push-ups that I did for the camp. Our drill has been pretty intense over the past week especially on marching and the music we have gone over is pretty hard. As section leader and center snare over the drumline I have to teach four different parts to six different people (more than half of our drumline are rookies). here is part of a song we are playing (it is the secont half of Summon The heroes) our show is three peices: Olympic Fanfare and Theme, The Olympic Spirit, and Summon The heroes, (it is an olympic show it you havent realized it). anyway here you go:

This is written in double time and we have alot of thirty-second notes. To make it easier to figure out stickings (the order your sticks hit the drum) I added doubles (two hits for one stroke) where the thirty-second notes are, and it comes out like this. I know my sticks dont look even but its because I have accents on the downbeats in-between the thirty-second notes. anyway its not perfect but for the first week its pretty good.

StYle

You may have noticed that my blog has changed, this is because I love to play the drums (if you guys havent noticed). I love them enough to want do to something in drumming for some sort of a career, and this will help me to go back and see what my previous thoughts were on this subject (it will help me get better).

...ANYWAYS...

In my previous blogs I have posted  I have reallized that my drumming has never shown its own style; something that makes my way of playing different, or things I prefer on the drum set that dont make sense to other people, in this blog I will show you my style of playing the drum set. I will show you some picturesand examples of my style. (I will not show you everything on my style but its enought to get something started).

 This isnt a example of style I just thought it was cool that in one of the pictures we got to see what really happens to a cymbal when it is hit. It ripples like watter, and if you want to see that in action just go onto Youtube and look for, "cymbal hit in slow motion." (that also happens to a drum if you want to look that up also).

 This picture really shows my sort of stye because of the position of my hands and my posture.
My hands are a particular part of my style I am proud to show off, because, as you can notice in my right hand I am loose but have good control of the stick.
my posture is another thing I like about how I play because I am at ease and dont show tension until I have a fill or a solo.

 This picture shows somewhat of how my feet are placed on the pedals; they are even and allow me to use the, "Heel Toe" tecnique that I use on the double bass pedals (its when I roll my foot on the pedals allowing me to play twice as fast than my legs are moving, I will post a video of this soon... hopefully).

 This is another one that shows my hands and how I place them on different cymbals and different parts of the cymbals (there are at least 20 ways to hit a cymbal).

 This photo just wraps everything up; hands loose but have control, posture relaxed, and feet are placed evenly.

This picture just shows one of my favorite cymbals (the backwards one) it is called the China crash, the inverted, and other things.





This picture showes how awesome it is to live in the country because look at what I can do.

 This is just an overview of the drumset (I have added one cymbal since this picture was taken)

 new Stagg rock crash cymbal

 new Sabian rock ride cymbal

mew stagg Myra splash cymbal.
I also just got a new crash cymbal (pictures will come later) but it came too late to put it on my blog.

Stay in tune with this blog because I will try to update every month atleast...

RANDOMNESS

I recently noticed that my blog has gone untoched for several months now and just wanted to do something with it. so looking back i found some pictures of me from the last month or so and have created a blog with the name of, RANDOMNESS, unless your just weird or different you should already know this. Any way, moving on.

 this is my current profile picture for facebook, reminding my friends and myself who I really am so we don't forget.

 after the California trip i took with some of my friends my dad decided it was time to cut my awesome hair, so at the last minute Camille and I went out to take pictures of my Awesome hair here is what it used to look like. (unfortunatly i did not get any pictures of my recent hairdo so unless you come and see me sorry)

 We took some pictures of me on my drum set. and kind of got carried away because we took alot, fortunatly i did not put them all on here.

 Still rocking out (I think to the song "I Will Not Bow")

 Still going, and going and going.

 This is the part really dedicated to my hair and my undoubtfull awesomeness.

 One shot of me in my muscle shirt.

 one close-up of my hair.

 another.

and one of my arm. (told you it was random)

And since this is dedicated to my random-awesomeness, im going to throw in a word of inspiration, that I wrote  11:30 P.M. at night. (kind of weird story but i inspired myself a couple days ago).

Don't Stop

Starting over is hard, 

we pickup the tears that have fallen,

and continue the path that has betray us.

We follow new footprints, 

In hopes of finding a better way. 

We trust ourselves that again we will not go astray.

But we try again and again as many times as is takes...

Because if you never try you'll never succeed.  

Brandon Hansen

Drummer 13

A ROCK STAR IS BORN

March,31,2011 A drum set was dragged on the stage of Snake River Junior High and a man dressed in shorts and an aripostal shirt sat down, and began to play. It was not beautiful, it was not pretty, and it defiantly was not stupid, it was legendary! It was a one way ticket to becoming what he had always dreamed of!!!!!! It was indeed, AWESOME. When he finished the song he was playing he raised his fist to the crowd, which exploded into applause and stood to meet the new hero. A rock star was born. He left the stage feeling he had done his best. He was showered with compliments from his groupies he had backstage. When the concert was said and done and the contestants were waiting for the winners to be announced. The school waited in anticipation for their hero to be awarded master of all. The third place was called, break dancers. The second place followed, A talented piano player. And finally it was time to award the winner of them all... The first place spot was given to a great friend of the rock stars. He had played the guitar and had beaten this rocking rock star. Their hero, their rock star, and friend had failed...   

Or had he? As he quietly put up his drum set he was showered with hugs and good jobs by his Friends. for the next two days his face book account was hammered with people telling him good job. He had not lost, he had won! He didn't care. He is now trying to start a drum series on face book to show everyone his skills. Indeed he is full filling his dream, as a ROCK STAR.



Adding on to The Drumset

Today my dad and I went to Chesbros to look for a stand for my symbol. I'm happy we went too, because I also got a double pedal!!!! For those of you who are wondering what the heck is a double pedal or for those of you who are precussionily challanged here is the definition of a double pedal: noun A double pedal is a acsesory for the drum set used for awesomeness. Here is two  photos of my double pedal.

Here is my double pedal in action .



I also bought a symbol stand but left my symbol at school. (don't worry pictures coming soon)

The Birthday That Was Ever So AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Good morning! My name is Brandon Hansen and I have recently turned 14! Awesome huh? The presents I got are just tipical things you might think a 14 year old man would get. Here is a photo.

As you can see my presents are pretty dang cool. this photo includes all my presents, which are:

A basket ball, targets, a movie,22. shells, an extra clip, AND... (drumroll) A Savage Arms, bolt action, open sight,10 shell clip, woodstock, 22. caliber rifle!!!!!!!! now that deserves to be the best birthday ever.