Practice Routines

[cwignall]

after reading a few posts on here im questioning my technique so just wondered if you can give me some pointers:

i set aside 1 hour a day to practice.

I either drum on a pad along with songs varying between single and two stroke rolls and with mix tempo songs i feel it working and its fun also!

but then i work on these:

Singles:

R L R L R L R L R L

Doubles:

RR LL RR LL RR LL RR LL

Triples

RRR LLL RRR LLL RRR LLL

mix em up as much as poss. as a basic drummer,

i play 'as fast as i can' but at a speed where its perfect and tight then build up the speed.

if i keep practicing like that will i improve?any better ideas?

[jazzsnob]

Use a damn metronome. Seriously, I just don't understand why someone wouldn't use a metronome. It's the only way to get serious technique. If you can do singles at 160 bpm, then you just move up to 168 and there you have a great challenge!
USE A METRONOME USE A METRONOME USE A METRONOME DAMNIT!

[vadrum]

i have to agree, if you want to SEE progress then get a metronome and keep a journal. metronomes make it very easy for you to track your abilities over time and keep record of your improvements. this will also help you figure out how to work thru slumps in order to get past a plateau.

what youre doing is fine and will work, but my question is why are you questioning your technique? what are you trying to accomplish by doing these exercises? do you find yourself using these patterns often or are you just trying to build some general ability? if its general ability that you want and you feel youre at square one w/ your techinque then go back to the beginning and include rudimental practice, open to close to open.

there are several good technique books and dvds out there such as the haskell harr method, the sturtze method, the moeller book, there are dvds by joe morello, dom fomularo, etc. all regarding technique that will provide great information. as far as exercise oriented books the stone book is fantastic and you are doing some examples of the exercises included in that book.

i guess it all really depends on what you are trying to get out of your practice time. speed, more consitency in rudimental phrases, more consistency between hands, stick control, etc. knowing that it would be easier to come up w/ more specific answers to your question.

[Michael G]

When I decide one day to play like a robot I will be sure to get a metronome as soon as I can.

[ajgdrums722]

When I decide one day to play like a robot I will be sure to get a metronome as soon as I can.

Wow...you've got no idea.

[jazzsnob]

When I decide one day to play like a robot I will be sure to get a metronome as soon as I can.

NO ONE thinks you're cool when you post things like this.

If you have perfect time, a metronome shouldn't affect your playing at all. You know Tony Williams, Elvin Jones and David Garibaldi all practiced with metronomes constantly, and they have three of the most mimicked time feels in drumming history.



If you play with a metronome and it feels like your playing is robotic, newsflash, your time sucks, so get to work on it. No excuses.



But hey, if you and I(or any sensible drummer really, not just me) are ever competing for a gig, and they say that you'll need to play with a metronome and you respond "ewww metronomes are yucky!" then I'll just do a little dance and get my rent paid. Yippie!

[Class A Drummer]

When I decide one day to play like a robot I will be sure to get a metronome as soon as I can.

Listen. You really need a metranome. It is a great investment. I would know. Before i got mine, i was barley ever able to keep time, unless i was playing with other musicians. But seriously after working with it for about a week, i realized what i was doing wrong and why i could never keep a striaght beat in time.

Get a metranome. Im pretty sure great drummers like Steve Gadd have used them, and he is like the farthest from a robot when it comes to drumming.

[nhzoso]

When I decide one day to play like a robot I will be sure to get a metronome as soon as I can.

LOL, This falls right in line with your other 4 great posts. Ahhh if I could only be that cool again. I used to be but then I started doing things like wearing seat belts, and practicing with metronomes and it all went away.

Any idea's on how I can get it back?

[emmerson]

When I decide one day to play like a robot I will be sure to get a metronome as soon as I can.

okay dude a metronome is to GUIDE YOU not to train you to be a robot i know alot of people who played with a metronome one week and take one week off from it and repeat ... i agree with jazz snob ... suck it up and stop complainning about how youre not solid enough and play to a click!

[jackothedrummer1]

So the thread has been hijacked.

To go back to routines. Definately grab a metronome buddy. That is just simply one of the most fundamental parts of a drummer. It should not affect your groove, as mentioned in the other posts. Make sure that you can play exactly with the metronome before you move on. Cleanliness is a HUGE part of our job requirement. If you are playing EXACTLY with the metronome, you shouldn't be able to hear the met, unless it's absolutely blaring. So get onto practicing!!

To The Hijack, Smooth Jazz......... How could you even think about saying that? A drummer should LIVE with their metronome. The metronome builds a strong sense of pulse and time keeping abilities. The met is used for recording purposes and to enhance live gigs (which are generally not played with a met). Absolutely nothing about ones playing should change by practice with a metronome except a more solid sense of time and pulse and cleanliness!!!

[dogtordrum]

I agree completely. I have landed countless gigs that start with the same comment "you don't speed up or slow down." I usually spend 20 to 30 minutes on rudiments with a metronome then spend the rest of the time on tunes. The most enjoyment I get is from playing along with tunes, the most technique I get from the rudiments. Try paradiddles with the metronome at 168, just remember that the accents have to sound the same all the time. Just might take the insanity meter over the top!

[cwignall]

thanks for the replies.

Yes i will get a metronome this week! i have been paid! (any recomendations apreciated)

i want to become a good drummer - sounds very general i know but this is what i mean:

i want (as you said) to go back to basics and improve speed and abilitity and just to be able to use my kit to the full. rather than just being able to play songs in a band.

oh and can someone explain the difference between rolls, parradiddles and rudiments?

cheers

[TitanSound]

Roll: A seqence of notes (singles, doubles etc) played in succsession

A paradiddle is a rudiment: RLRRLRLL

Rudiments: www.vicfirth.com/education/rudiments.html

[vadrum]

youre on the right track. buy the stone stick control book and work thru it for control and consistency between hands and pick up on the rudiments. if you really want to pull your hands together it may be benificial to get a teacher even if all they show you is the rudiments.

the metronome will help w/ speed and will help you track progress. find different ways to use it, don't just have it hammer out quarter notes all the time. this will help keep you from relying on the metronome but it will allow you to use it as an effective tool..

as for drumset applications, take the exercises you are doing and find ways to use them on the drumset. there are excellent applications listed in the thread on stick control. researching drummers like steve gadd or alan dawson (among others) will show you ways that rudiments can be applied to the drumset as a whole. try not to treat these ideas as just exercises though, eventually (down the road) you want to look at how they can be applied to the music you are playing.

with an hour to spend you can make a good routine out of all of the suggestions on this thread and i believe you will see plenty of improvement by implementing these ideas.

[drumbandit]

weres a good place to get one or doesnt it really matter just get one? t

[Spreggy]

LOL, This falls right in line with your other 4 great posts. Ahhh if I could only be that cool again. I used to be but then I started doing things like wearing seat belts, and practicing with metronomes and it all went away.

Any idea's on how I can get it back?

LOL, here's how I came to respect the met. I took a gig 8 yrs ago playing with this big party band in town, which is actually maybe 75 musicians pooled together, and everybody gets booked based on their own availibility. Pretty sweet, work when you want. But to play the gig, you have to be able to play to a click. My buddy says hey join this band, if for nothing other than straightening out your time. I was like the rock stars above, my time was great in some mystical place in my mind, yada yada. I had feel baby, I could grooooove. So I audition and get it, and they say "Here are a ton of tapes of how we do each song, and here are the sequences". Sequence, what? Yeah, we have a sequence for every song, how else are you going to get 75 musicians to hit everything the same way? You can play with 7 people one night, and tomorrow night's gig will have a completely different 7, and the sequence adds extra horns and keys and so on.

So it goes this way. There's a laptop on the keyboard, keys player hits the space bar and the next song starts. I get 4 clicks into my headphones, then 4 more to start the band, and clicks thru the whole song. Well let me tell you that was when I learned just how much my time sucked. Now I'm Joe Time, since I've played so many hours with the click. And I can spot the non-click guys a mile away, there's no patience and feel and room in their playing, and every song gets played at the same tempo by the third set.

[jazzsnob]

weres a good place to get one or doesnt it really matter just get one? t

Just get one. Some have all sorts of bells and whistles but I like me a simple metrobot


EDIT: haha spreggy, good story, I just joined a band 6 months ago that has a few two hour practices a week and it's ALL with metrophones. It's been a pretty amazing experience and change for my time. People who don't like playing a click with their bands just really don't get.

[murphinelli]

weres a good place to get one or doesnt it really matter just get one? t


Here's a good basic,no frills one for a drummer. Amazon sells it for $25.

Seiko SQ-50 Quartz Metronome

A lot of excellent posts on this thread. Metronome is where it's at. Eat with it, sleep with it, play with it!

ASIDE:
I remember a fun exercise we used to do in high school band class. My teacher had this vinyl record...remember them?!! It had a bunch of different clicks/beats in various time signatures. He would play a sample, you would get the beat going in your head...he'd then turn the volume off for about 5,10, 20 seconds, then turn it back on. You're task was to keep on time in your head...and when he turned the volume back on...you should be right on...Fun little drill and very difficult. He also did this same drill with background noise/distractions being played at the same time. This was to help you focus/concentrate on the beat even more.

[Nick45498]

Metronom is very useful thing. I even don't even know how to learn drumming without it. You must stroke straight whether you robot or not ;-).

[gusty]

if you want to be really cheap like me...only cause i cant afford a proper one at the moment...metronomeonline (www.metronomeonline.com)

[BigSexyPanda]

lol that was hilarious watching smoothjazz get bashed, but i agree he definitely needed that.

Back to subject, heres an awesome metronome my friend has. I like it 'cause not only does it fit right into your ear, but you can also set it to play triplets and 8th notes with accented quarter notes and all this other stuff. Here (http://www.music123.com/Korg-MM1-On-Ear-Micro-Metronome-i46812.music) it is.