Welcome to enable Drums!

We recommend you work through the pages in a particluar order to get the most out of the lessons. You can navigate through the pages in the recommended order by using the next and previous buttons on the left side of the page, or the 'next lesson' link at the bottom of each page. However, if you want to go straight to a particular page, you can use the navigation menu at the top.

If you get stuck and need to refresh your memory about icons and navigation, the help button on the left will bring you back to this page.

You will encounter the following icons so you might like to familiarize yourself with them first:

Icons

Beginnings is an introdution to learning drums covering everything from setting up your kit and how to hit the drums, to reading drum music and grooves.

Techniques The technique menu shows you how to master rolls (like the one used in raffle draws and marching), how to use your pedals, how to use brushes and do flams, drags, rim clicks and rim shots.

Styles The style section contains most of the concepts and exercises in this CD-ROM.

Theory The theory page covers relevant theory information and includes 6 musical theory animations.

Reference The reference menu is very thorough about everything from setting up a kit to percussion instruments. Definitions of words are given in the glossary and will also appear by hovering the mouse pointer over certain words throughout the program.

Session Time Session time is for when you just want to kick back and jam. Percussion ensemble pieces are also found here.

Viewing enable Drums while at your drum kit

When sitting at your drum kit you might need the fint size larger to help see from a distance. When using Internet Explorer (recommended) go to the view menu and select "increase font size" or "decrease font size". On Mozilla Firefox and Safari, hold "control" and press the "+" key to zoom in. Hold "control" and press the "-" key to zoom out.

Van Basco MIDI Player

This MIDI player comes to you courtesy of VanBasco software. It contains its own help menu by clicking on the "?" icon as indicated below.

Control Window

The control window allows you to slow an example down using the tempo slider if you want to make it easier to learn.

MIDI Output Window

The output window is very useful when an example contains more than one instrument. The blue box makes an instrument the focus by turning down the volume of all of the other parts. You can completely mute the other instruments by clicking the red box next to them. By isolating instruments you can more easily hear the drum parts.

About the Authors

	Jason Torrens started playing drums at 13 and began formal lessons at 16. Learning from Darryn Farrugia for over 3 years and playing in many styles of music for the next 8 years. Jason plays in rock band Bugdust, from Melbourne, and has taught drums for over 10 years. Jason plays Pearl Drums and Zildjian Cymbals.
	Brendan Jacobs founded BJ Multimedia in 1999 and released the first enable Electric Bass CD-ROM later that year. Since then he has revised and expanded the content of enable Bass including the new acoustic bass material. Brendan is also the editor of the enable Keyboard and enable Guitar CD-ROMs and is delighted to complete the series with enable Drums.

Copyright

The copyright on this program belongs to Enable Software Pty Ltd, BJ Multimedia and Jason Torrens. All rights are reserved. Contact us at jt@enabledrums.com

Thanks to and for their images on this software.