Music Is Not for Insects

If you are looking for a way to inspire your drummers to practice, you should check out the Roland RMP5 Rhythm Coach pictured below:

But before I begin this review, in light of the recent FCC ruling that bloggers must disclose payments for reviews, I would like to make the following disclosure about this review:

Music is Not for Insects in no way received compensation or a “freebie” from Roland for this favorable review. Even though the blog owner wished he would have received some free stuff from Roland, perhaps a shout out or even a keychain, this review of the Roland RMP 5 Rhythm Coach was made out of my own experience (and sweet frustration) using this awesome tool for percussion students.

Ok- now that is out of the way, let me tell you about my experience with this cool rhythm tool I will be using with my percussion students.

NOT AN ELECTRONIC RUBBER DRUM HEAD

As you can see from the photo, this is an electronic snare drum with a mesh drum head that triggers an electronic drum sound when you hit it with your drum sticks. Not a new idea- electronic drum kits have been around awhile, but the feel of the drum head is really great and you can adjust the tension on the drum head to get the right feel for your students. As with most electronic drums, you can adjust the volume, the type of drum sound (snare, tom, cymbal) and output the sound to headphones or a powered speaker or PA via an external jack. But the cool part of this rhythm task master is the Coach mode.

ACCURACY IS AN UNDERSTATEMENT

Want your percussion students to focus on proper technique and accuracy? Set the RMP5 to “Coach Mode-Accuracy Score” and you can create exercises for your students that will kick their rhythmic behinds. Here is how it works:

1. Set your metronome to desired BPM.
2. Select Coach Mode-Accuracy Score.
3. Wait for the 2 measure count off.
4. Try to play exactly with the metronome.
5. The rhythm coach will show if you are behind, dead-on or ahead of the beat on the built in display.
6. After a pre-determined amount of measures, you receive an accuracy score of how well you played.

Immediate feedback in the form of a percentage of hits right on the beat will be displayed after you play. Sounds easy? It took me 15-20 minutes of constant focus and concentration to get a perfect score playing simple quarters notes at 120 BPM! I nearly cried…but I did it! And took a picture to prove it (see Roland video below to watch coach mode in action):

Imagine how your kids will respond to the challenge. I found myself standing taller, focusing on my matched grip technique and making sure my strokes were the same height to get that perfect score.

SMOOTH OUT THOSE STROKES

There is also a “stroke balance” feature that will give you a visual cue as to how even the weight of your strokes are…get rid of that galop sound in those double stroke rolls and paradiddles. There is also a feature where you get a count off and you play through a cycle of half, quarter, eighth, triplet and sixteenth note patterns. Step it up to 6, 7, and 8 group patterns and you can really get your chops cooking. Price? Not cheap…about $250 on the street but I think it will be a valuable resource for my students.

HOW WILL I USE THIS IN MY INSTRUMENTAL CLASSROOM

I’m hoping to have this set up in a corner of my room and have my drummers rotate through using the Rhythm Coach during rehearsals. With a pair of headphones to keep the noise down, and one eye on them to make sure they don’t abuse the equipment, I expect this to be a valuable tool for my drummers. I will have them keep track of their accuracy scores and develop some friendly competition within the section. I’ll keep you posted on how it goes.

Coach Mode-accuracy score video

Trackback URI | Comments RSS