Anatomy of a Drum Kit: A Tour of My Drums

In between writing stories and blog posts I like to drum.  It’s a smashing hobby; cathartic as well as creative.  I started when I was sixteen, but I’ve improved since my first off-beat battering of Smells Like Teen Spirit.  I bought my own drum set, a Mapex Tornado Rock Fusion, back in 2013 after finishing university. But it’s evolved and spread a bit since then, and received a DIY tattoo on the bass drum.  Today I pulled it out of its usual corner and gave the whole thing a polish and spruce up.  Let me show you around the anatomy of a drum kit…

The Novice

I actually learned the drums on my dad’s Arbiter Flats Lite set.  It’s a great set for a beginner since it’s so much smaller (and quieter) than a full kit, yet still acoustic.  I’ve replicated the setup on my Tornado here.

My Mapex Tornado modelling the setup I learned on

This is called a ‘two-up, one-down’ setup.  This means there’s two toms racked above the bass drum, and one floor tom off to the side.  Toms, or tom-toms, are the bouncy-sounding drums; the ones that Phil Collins (or that gorilla from the Cadbury’s advert) use for the big fill in In The Air Tonight.  Some drummers use a few as two toms (Ghost’s ghoul drummer had just one!) but fancier drummers can have loads.  The bigger the drum, the deeper the sound. So drumming on them from left to right produces the descending roll that is featured in loads of songs.

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How to Write a Novel: The Midway Point

It’s been about three months since I started work on my novel, Rosetta, and a little over two months since I described my first impressions of writing it.  I hit 50,000 words last week. That’s a little over half my forecast completed word count, which means I’m near enough halfway through.  At the very least, I’m in the thick of things! And I’ve got some new reflections on the subject of writing a novel to tell you about.  Some of them are pretty surprising; at least in light of my first impressions. It’s taught me a lot about how to write a novel.

I’m so glad I have a plan

A quick one this. I’d never have made it this far without a plan, telling me who is where and what they’re doing at any one time.  Using a plan means that everything is always facing the right direction, even if I can’t keep track of every plot strand at once.  Not everyone writes using the same techniques. But I couldn’t imagine taking on this, or indeed another novel, without a plan. It’s not an especially detailed plan, more just  broad strokes of the plot. But I wouldn’t know how to write a novel without it!

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All Write Now: Best Writing Music

Earlier this week I ambiguously tweeted that I’d written to Ludovico Einaudi. He’s the composer of, among many other beautiful piano pieces, The Waves.  I didn’t mean that I’d written a letter to him, though that’s how it came across. I only meant that I’d listened to his Islands album whilst writing. It’s some of the best writing music I have.

I tend to listen to music whilst working on my books, and was overjoyed to find Stephen King does the same, as he notes in his fascinating On Writing.  Whilst King prefers ‘loud music – hard rock stuff like AC/DC, Guns ‘N’ Roses and Metallica’, I prefer soft stuff – instrumental, electronic, classical…  Music that I wouldn’t usually spin in the car or that I’d learn the drums to.  Background music, I suppose, though I don’t want to mislabel any of the excellent albums below as merely sonic wallpaper.

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New Year’s Resolutions: Redux

Around this time last year I wrote this post about New Year’s Resolutions, and what I was hoping to achieve throughout 2015.  Without even looking at those resolutions I can already say I’m really happy with the past year and what I’ve accomplished.  I’ve done things that, if not life-changing, are certainly milestones for me in my life.  Let’s take a look at my resolutions of yesteryear…

Last New Year’s Resolutions: 2015:

  1. Maintain my blog.   Well, I resolved to post on liamsdesk at least once a week and, whilst I started off strong, you can probably see that by June I was posting mostly once a month.  A failure then?  Nah.  I made this resolution in order to build up a body of writing and to learn to write on demand.  Just because I haven’t been writing blog posts doesn’t mean I haven’t been writing – which reminds me, let’s take a look at Resolution #2…
  2. Write creatively at least once a week. I’ll give this a tick in the box.  I’ve written pretty consistently throughout this year and I’ve got a lot to show for it: I published The Witching Hours in May.  To say I’m happy about self-publishing my very own book is an understatement.  But I also wrote and released The Patchwork Carnival, my second publication, as a birthday present to myself in October.  Two books to my name is a great turnout for 2015 and I’m desperate to add another title to that list!
  3. Crack the morning jog.   Back in January I would go for a short one-and-a-half mile run before work a couple of days a week.  At the weekend I’d stretch to a three-miler.  Not only have I cracked the morning jog, it’s now actually my favourite time of day to go.  No one is around, the roads aren’t busy.  The sun isn’t too bright and it’s not too warm.  Additionally, using stats I’ve recorded on the handy WalkJogRun, I’ve gone for 69 runs (averages at 1.3 runs a week) and run a total of 246 miles.  My average pace wass 08:58 minute miles; an improvement on last year.  And in November I ran a half-marathon!  Loads of improvement here: I’m really happy with my progress.
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How to Write a Novel: First Impressions

I remember far back into my childhood when I dreamed of writing novels.  It couldn’t be that hard, I reasoned.  I could write a page every night after school, and more at the weekends.  It would be just like reading a book: I’d find out what happened as I went along.  And for the record, I still think there’s mileage in my idea of an alternate medieval universe in which everyone is accompanied by their own gargoyle, but I’m learning now there’s a lot more to writing a novel than one seed of an idea. In fact, how to write a novel is a multi-faceted question.

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