We caught up with veteran drummer Donnie Bell to talk about his drum tuition site Math Drumming.
Why did you start Math Drumming?
I’ve been teaching drums since 2004 but I wanted to find a way to foster a community of likeminded musicians – so Math Drumming was born in 2017.
Today, Math Drumming is a hub for resources, drum courses, groove libraries, and merchandise for beginner, intermediate and advanced drummers alike.
How does the site help drummers?
From intricate polyrhythms to odd time signatures, as well as grid studies, anything goes. As a drummer, you know how frustrating it can be to try to learn new drum patterns and find yourself hitting your head against a wall. Math Drumming will help you get unstuck and develop your technique seamlessly, with intuitive tips and tricks that will blow your mind.
We played an instrumental track on which you collaborated with Brazilian prog rock multi-instrumentalist Rodrigo Andrion. What can you tell us about that?
That particular track consists of a heavy distorted bass guitar, raunchy sounding electric guitars, and a synthesizer equipped with a wide array of eclectically dissonant sounds.
My drum track opens up with an 11/8 groove on the kick, snare, and hi-hat. There is also a 4:3 polyrhythm that swings the eighth note for those who enjoy listening to jazz.
The tempo also changes several times between 150bpm, 140bpm, and 110bpm. Listeners will have fun figuring out this genre of music!
What music have you recorded and released to date?
Here are some examples of our arrangements:
What do you hope your students will achieve?
We love inspiring drummers of all genres from all over the world to try incorporating Math Drumming in some form, whether it be implementing an odd meter, polyrhythm, fractional time signatures, grids, or flipping the beat.
What are your plans for the future?
Our goal is to one day have eventually collaborated on music incorporating Math Drumming with at least one person from every country.
We hope to continue building our platform and growing our community of Math Drummers.
Where can people find out more about you?
Everything I’ve played in drum covers and collaboration videos can be found in our video library for free on our website mathdrumming.com. Give it a try and apply it to your own drumming!
