I seem to have lost my way...

[ns3476]

Iv'e been playing drums for almost 3 years now, and feel like im not getting any better. I feel like im playing the same stuff over and over again, it doesnt sound bad, but i want to get over playing the same things. It all seems to sound the same when i try to put something togeather on the drums. Got any suggestions???

[gusty]

yeah i know how you feel, ive been playing for about 4 years, but a little while ago i felt i wasnt improving. i guess its just a thing that will pass.
do you practise much? and do u have a formal teacher?

[jazzsnob]

What's your practice routing like?

[ns3476]

Well im not taking lessons right now. I took some when i first started but that was it. I practice everyday for maybe about an hour or so. I just kinda play whatever when i practice.

[jazzsnob]

Well that's the problem! You're not practicing smart. You need to come with a routine and stick to it. You also need to leave your comfort zone. Try spending half an hour on hand technique(focusing on singles and doubles) on a pad, half an hour learning a new groove and perfecting it, half an hour playing along to a cd and half an hour screwing around. There you go, much more effective than just "playing around."

Unfocused practice is not going to garner results.

[ns3476]

I will take your advice on that then, thanks man. Yeah your right it was pretty stupid of me to just play around all the time. I need to focus more.

[gusty]

i wish i could play for an hour a day...haha i'd get so much better

[Quadruple Groove]

YEa, just playing around will get you nowhere. I know that from personal experience.
I've messed around like that for about 3 yrs too, now I've started to play seriously and I'm seeing much better results.

[gusty]

say if you were able to practise for about half an hour a day, what would be an effective practise routine? (for me, sorry for hijacking your thread)

[Talon]

say if you were able to practise for about half an hour a day, what would be an effective practise routine? (for me, sorry for hijacking your thread)
Knowing me, I'd probably spend the whole time playing to my iPod. :P

What I'd think to be more effective is to spend about 5 minutes doing nothing but 16th notes (or 16th-triplets) to a metronome on double bass, 10 minutes of Stick Control, and 15 playing to new material.

[gusty]

Knowing me, I'd probably spend the whole time playing to my iPod. :P

What I'd think to be more effective is to spend about 5 minutes doing nothing but 16th notes (or 16th-triplets) to a metronome on double bass, 10 minutes of Stick Control, and 15 playing to new material.
dont have a double bass, or a metronome haha, what is stick control and new material, thats like new grooves and stuff right?

[Talon]

dont have a double bass, or a metronome haha, what is stick control and new material, thats like new grooves and stuff right?
Stick Control, the snare training book; most drummers only use the first page (well, those that I know anyway... :P), but even that one page is enough to occupy you for hours upon hours of training. I'm sure there's a scan of that page somewhere, try Googling it.

By "new material" I mean simply playing to whatever I've been listening to; I just got Steve Vai's "Alien Love Secrets," I'd jam to whatever you've been working on or listening to recently.

[Talon]

Here it is; work on it like you've never worked on anything before. One useful strategy is to play #5-8 (without stopping) and then repeat them over again.

http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/8813/stickcontrolpage1pi2.png

[gusty]

thanks for that, haha should be sweet, at the moment im just putting the final touches on a drum solo, then hopefully moving onto some Dream Theater with my teacher, haha should be a good challenge!

[SLEEPY BRiGHT EYEZ]

I also agree with dusting off your practice routine, but I will also suggest you try a new arrangement of your kit. Drop a tom, or move something, and it will force to you construct rhythms in a new way. I love to change my kit around every three months or so. At least, that seems to be the average over the last year. It's fun because it always forces me to be creative and look for new setups that I like. I'm trying to document all my layouts for future reference too- sort of like having a playbook for a sports team.

[Jeff Almeyda]

Well that's the problem! You're not practicing smart. You need to come with a routine and stick to it. You also need to leave your comfort zone. Try spending half an hour on hand technique(focusing on singles and doubles) on a pad, half an hour learning a new groove and perfecting it, half an hour playing along to a cd and half an hour screwing around. There you go, much more effective than just "playing around."

Unfocused practice is not going to garner results.

YES, YES, YES!

Here's the second secret to getting good:

REPETITION

Pick a hand exercise and work it through hundreds of reps. Play that groove for 30 minutes straight. Don't flit around from concept to concept. Milk something for all it's worth before you move on.

I treat practicing much more seriously than most do. I keep a daily log of my practice routine. That daily log is based off of a six week "program" that I've set for myself.

Let's say you want to get faster (who doesn't?). Create a realistic practice routine focusing on that.For that time you may spend 50-60% of your time on speed stuff and the rest on grooves and coordination. Do that for six weeks. Re-evaluate and continue.

Mike Mangini's Rhythym knowledge VOL 1 is a great book that deals with these very concepts.

[Gil_drummer]

Jeff and jazzsnob speak the truth. Repetition goes for any instrument, any discipline. You bash the idea into your skull and into your muscle memory through constant repetition. It may get boring and frustrating, but nothing comes easily.

[jazzin']

I think the boredom and frustration will be happily put up with or just disappear once you realise how much you improve and are able to do new things you didn't think possible.
Thats the cool thing about a good practice routine, when you incorporate what you learn you see constant improvement and rarely get as bored with the dull repetitive exercises.

[Drummer Karl]

Well...just guess how many possibilities/variations you have with a Paradiddle...the answer I can give you: MANY. Just take ONE rudiment and experiment with it: On what instruments on the drums can I play it, the right hand maybe on the floor tom, the left here...
I think you know what I mean. Or: How can I accent? How does that affect the playing, would this sound like a shifting then?
How does that sound if I double the singles in the rudiment, so that I have 32th instead of 16th then (just examples)

and example with the Paradiddle: RLRR LRLL

first step: going through the handing with different accenting
second step: play it musically on the drum kit...so for example: R on the ride cymbal, L on the snare, accent on every quarter note (when playing it as a 16th note version)
third step: playing it with a song maybe...

ETC.

so, overall keep up experimenting! and write it down, too! so, also try what you can`t do, not what you can do easily.

Karl

[Talon]

thanks for that, haha should be sweet, at the moment im just putting the final touches on a drum solo, then hopefully moving onto some Dream Theater with my teacher, haha should be a good challenge!
Dream Theater without double bass?? That sounds a bit sketchy to me, if not impossible. ;)

[ns3476]

Thanks for all the help guys. I really appreciate it. Im gonna go find a good routine that works for me right now.

[komodo]

Ha i mainly use the first page of stick control at the moment,switchin continuesly between feet and hands doing the exercises keepin even an a constant tempo.Then i play along to music,then i just test creativity playing different time signatures and such. Then if i learnt something at a drum lesson i have to perfect it,drives me insane knowing how to do something but not being able to :P

[ns3476]

Ha i mainly use the first page of stick control at the moment,switchin continuesly between feet and hands doing the exercises keepin even an a constant tempo.Then i play along to music,then i just test creativity playing different time signatures and such. Then if i learnt something at a drum lesson i have to perfect it,drives me insane knowing how to do something but not being able to :P


Yeah i know what you mean. I hate it when i know i can play something but i just cant quite play it right. I love to play along with music to, i feel like it can help you learn alot. As of right now the main thing i need to work on is speed and groove.

[gusty]

Dream Theater without double bass?? That sounds a bit sketchy to me, if not impossible. ;)
there is a little trick that i figured out myself and even he uses it. Sure, i cant do RLRLRLRLRLRLRLRL on my feet, but say you're playing a groove, u do 2 really quick bass hits before the hat. sorry, thats too hard to explain in words, see if this might help:

1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +
H x x x x x x x x
S x x x x
B x xx
^ These two are in between + and 4

You just do one quick hit, then as it rebounds, hit it back again. Haha you've probly figured this out before, although the song i want to learn, Home, he uses that a fair bit.

EDIT: It stuffed up

[Talon]

there is a little trick that i figured out myself and even he uses it. Sure, i cant do RLRLRLRLRLRLRLRL on my feet, but say you're playing a groove, u do 2 really quick bass hits before the hat. sorry, thats too hard to explain in words, see if this might help:

1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +
H x x x x x x x x
S x x x x
B x xx
^ These two are in between + and 4

You just do one quick hit, then as it rebounds, hit it back again. Haha you've probly figured this out before, although the song i want to learn, Home, he uses that a fair bit.

EDIT: It stuffed up
Yeah, I remember that line; that's during the "lake of fire" section, right? I play to DT more than anyone else (and I know that's not necessarily a good thing).

Regardless, if you're going to start playing prog, you should stick a double pedal on the top of your priorities list. You can play about the first half of "Home" without one, but during the instrumental sections, you need to do DB flams during one of the 9/8 sections (right before the 19/16 bit), and a lot of other stuff I can't remember right now.

[yakbutter]

Do you read music? There is so much material out there to practice that there is no reason to get stuck or be bored. The X factor is being able to read. If you can, just buy a book related to something you want to learn. Problem solved.

[ILikeMacs]

The best thing I always find is research another drummer, find their recordings, videos and buy them and study them. You can get so much inspiration from the greats of all idioms!

[ns3476]

The best thing I always find is research another drummer, find their recordings, videos and buy them and study them. You can get so much inspiration from the greats of all idioms!

Yeah that is a good thing to do, you can learn a few things from watching some of the videos on this website of people that have really good technique.

[ns3476]

You guys can also feel free to use this thread for whatever you want, asking people for suggestions about getting better and stuff like that and what practice routines should be like. I took some of the advice that i have gotten off of this thread and its helped me out a ton. I really appreciate you guys helping me out with getting a routine for practicing.

[d.c.drummer]

Take a break and listen to music outside of your genre. Then go back to your kit and try out some of the new stuff you listened to.

[KLittle123]

I think all drummers go through this and it's simply that you're not pushing anything new at yourself. You probably sit down and play whatever your heart desires. Go buy some sweet drum books or videos or try to learn new beats off CDs, even better...go get a drum teacher. Its just the fact you're not learning anything new.

[ns3476]

I think all drummers go through this and it's simply that you're not pushing anything new at yourself. You probably sit down and play whatever your heart desires. Go buy some sweet drum books or videos or try to learn new beats off CDs, even better...go get a drum teacher. Its just the fact you're not learning anything new.


Maybe i should go listen to some jazz or something like that, instead of playing rock all the time. I could work on some nice grooves rather than just playing stuff really loud. Not that it sounds bad or anything but yeah i should examine a different genre a little more and try to play somethings that i normally wouldn't.