Music Beat Machine

Advice on a more mellow, quieter snare drum?

I am joining a new band that plays “americana” music- much lower stage volumes than my previous gigs and am looking for advice on a more mellow snare.
I currently use a Pearl free-floater with a brass shell and puresound snares- it sounds incredible but I would really need to alter my playing style to make it fit in with this group- it’s way loud.
So I am looking into wood snares, but it seems that all the marketing hyperbole has words like “cutting”, “crack”, and other LOUD sounding adjectives. I need mellow. Any advice would be appreciated.
Yes, I moved from promark 747’s to 7a Jazz from Regal Tip. Diffinately makes my ping ride (22″) sound prettier but that brass snare still wants to rock!

Have you tried different sticks?

How to Play the Snare Drum : 8th Note Bucks Marching Drum Exercise on a Marching Snare Drum

Stick Control: For the Snare Drummer $7.01 George Lawrence Stone’s Stick Control is the original classic, often called the bible of drumming. In 1993, Modern Drummer magazine named it one of the top 25 drumming books of all-time. In the words of the author, this is the ideal book for…

Progressive Steps to Syncopation for the Modern Drummer $4.54 Progressive Steps to Syncopation is one of the most versatile and practical works ever written for drums. Created exclusively to address syncopation, these drum lessons have earned their place as a standard tool for teaching beginning drummers syncopation and strengthening reading skills. This instructional book includes many accented eighths, dotted eighths and sixteenths, eighth-note triplets an…

Essential Elements 2000 Percussion Book 1 Plus DVD and CD $5.10 Essential Elements was the major breakthrough for beginning band methods in the Õ90s. Now Essential Elements 2000 will take band programs into the next millennium! EE2000 features:¥ A CD featuring a professional soloist in every Student Book 1 ¥ Great performance music with planned first concert. ¥ Even more great tunes, motivating students to practice and stay in band. ¥ Special Rubank¨ Stu…

Contemporary Studies for the Snare Drum $15.95 By Fred Albright. For Snare Drum. Percussion – Snare Drum Method. Book. 64 pages. Published by Alfred Publishing.

Winning Snare Drum Solos Sheet Music $9 By Tom Brown. For Snare Drum Solo (Unaccompanied). Snare Drum Solo. Level: Grade 4-6. Published by Kendor Music Inc.

Winning Snare Drum Solos For The Beginner Sheet Music $9 By Tom Brown. For Snare Drum Solo (Unaccompanied). Snare Drum Solo. Level: Grade 1-3. Published by Kendor Music Inc.

Alfred’s Beginning Snare Drum Solos Sheet Music $6.95 By Dave Black, Sandy Feldstein. For Snare Drum. Percussion – Snare Drum Collection. Book. 24 pages. Published by Alfred Publishing.

Alfred’s Intermediate Snare Drum Solos Sheet Music $6.95 By Dave Black, Sandy Feldstein. For Snare Drum. Percussion – Snare Drum Collection. Book. 24 pages. Published by Alfred Publishing.

Six Unaccompanied Solos for Snare Drum Sheet Music $6.95 By Michael Colgrass. For Snare Drum. Percussion – Snare Drum Collection. Book. 16 pages. Published by Alfred Publishing.

Polyrhythmic Studies for Snare Drum Sheet Music $14.95 By Fred Albright. For Snare Drum. Percussion – Snare Drum Collection. Book. 72 pages. Published by Alfred Publishing.

Standard Snare Drum Method $14.95 By Benjamin Podemski. Edited by Anthony J. Cirone. For Snare Drum. Percussion – Snare Drum Method. Book. 96 pages. Published by Alfred Publishing.

Simple Steps to Snare Drum $7.95 By Anthony J. Cirone. For Snare Drum. Percussion – Snare Drum Method. Simple Steps Series. Book. 56 pages. Published by Alfred Publishing.

10 Intermediate Snare Drum Solos Sheet Music $10 By John H. Beck. For Snare Drum Solo (Unaccompanied). Snare Drum Solo. Level: Grade 3-4. Published by Kendor Music Inc.

Advanced Solos / Snare Drum Sheet Music $8 By John H. Beck. For Snare Drum Solo (Unaccompanied). Snare Drum Solo. Level: Grade 5-6. Published by Kendor Music Inc.

Corps-Style Snare Drum Dictionary $5.95 By Jay Wanamaker. For Snare Drum. Percussion – Snare Drum Method. Book. 48 pages. Published by Alfred Publishing.

Contemporary Album for the Snare Drum $7.95 By Stanley Leonard. For Snare Drum. Books/Methods. Level: Grade 3. Published by Ludwig Music Publishing.

Snare the Drum $15.99 Snare the Drum

Winning Snare Drum Solos For The Intermediate Drummer Sheet Music $11 By Tom Brown. For Snare Drum Solo (Unaccompanied). Snare Drum Solo. Level: Grade 3-5. Published by Kendor Music Inc.

Snare Drum Duets $14.95 The Competition Collection. By Thomas A. Brown. For Snare Drum. Level: Elementary-Intermediate. Student Book. 31 pages. Published by Carl Fischer.

No Snare $13.58 Tender Forever’s Melanie Valera stretched her sound on the joyous Wider, and its follow-up, No Snare, is just as aptly named. Where Wider embraced the thrill of falling in love, No Snare shrinks into itself as protection against a breakup, with drum machines guiding its songs like a pacemaker installed to replace a broken heart. “Got to Let Go” opens the album with a statement of purpose, its cheap drum sounds underlining how spare the song is and vice versa, with Valera’s French accent adding to the aloofness as she sings “I can’t feel you anymore.” Love and music blur together on these songs, most strikingly on “Like the Snare That’s Gone” — about the blows dealt in a relationship, this literally percussive love song features clever touches like tapping on water-filled jars instead of cowbells. Valera’s emotions heat up on “Only the Sounds You Made,” and the song fills with brass, strings, and clapping beats that sound equally inspired by contemporary R&B and Björk — indeed, much of No Snare feels like a smaller-scale version of Björk or Imogen Heap’s mix of spare sonics and overflowing feelings. Throughout the album, Valera alternates between accepting the silence after a breakup and filling it with audacious arrangements, and between mourning and healing, capturing all of a relationship’s phases with lyrics like “you stretch my bones” and “I felt the love I couldn’t give.” “Nowhere Good Enough” reeks of emotional burnout with its charred-sounding guitars, while “But the Shape Is Wide” lightens the mood and allows some hope. Given that No Snare’s concept and music are so focused, Valera courts the risk of repeating herself, but her intensity carries the album (as does the fact that it’s a mere 26 minutes long). This might be Valera’s smoothest-sounding album to date, but emotionally, it’s her rawest — and her most impressive work yet. ~ Heather Phares, Rovi

Primary Handbook For Snare Drum $11.96 (A Beginning Method With Play-Along CD) Written by Garwood Whaley. Instructional book and examples/accompaniment CD for snare drum. 48 pages. Published by Meredith Music.

Snare Drum Pocketbook Sheet Music $1.25 By William Schinstine And Fred Hoey. By William Schinstine and Fred Hoey. For Drum (Snare). Solos. Pocketbook. All Styles. Level: Beginning. Pocketbook. 32 pages. Published by Mel Bay Publications, Inc.