One Hour of Practice

[cwignall]

how to split it for an effective, all round routine?

Work on

Speed 20 mins - i like to stagger my practice by doing 1 min of quater notes, 1 min 8th notes, 1 min - 16th notes, 1 min - 8th notes, 1 min - quater notes. like a wave pattern at a set BPM then each day/week/month increase the tempo

is that effective?

Technique 30 mins - not sure how to do this one. im assuming a combination of rudiments and parradiddles. working through the ones on the 'Vic Firth' page but some tips here would be good.

then i have another 10 mins to do something with - again some pointers would be good.

The hour i have is daily and sometimes can do more but a basic one hour to start with.

thanks in advance

[cnw60]

start with technique - not speed, and the thing with technique is that it's more about how you execute the stroke and not so much about what you're playing - and a good teacher will really help to make sure you're on the right track.

It sounds like you're talking about hands only - not working on a drum set - is that right???

If so - you could easily spend 30 minutes each day on one or two rudiments per day rather than trying to cover a lot of different rudiments in a short period of time, or just work the basic Stick Control pages. Beyond that - try to get something with rhythmic structure, Sycopation, by Ted Reed, ...

Given that an hour is not really that long - I'm wondering what other folks out there think about developing a practice routine on a weekly structure rather than daily. It seems like all of the practice threads I've read lately talk about basically doing the same thing every day, but just for the sake of argument let's say you're working on four different things and you have an hour a day - you could work on each thing for 15 minutes every day, OR you could work on two of the things for 30 minutes every other day, OR you could work a full hour on each thing every fourth day, OR any number of other variations on that theme.

But my question really is, do you guys find that it's more productive to work more intensively, but less frequently on something than it is to work on it a little bit every day?

[mattsmith]

But my question really is, do you guys find that it's more productive to work more intensively, but less frequently on something than it is to work on it a little bit every day?

I would be hard pressed to understand how one would build endurance if developng guys like us used the little bit every day approach. I will say it again and again that endurance is the most underrated virtue of the contemporary drummer. Moreover, once you build the endurance, you are no longer talking about little bit every day because you're still feeling great well past that first hour, making you want to go even farther. I think this other approach works OK for the veterans because they are spending less time practicing and more time honing their skills. On the other hand we're still building tissue.

Then...if you want to pursue speed a little more, you're not doing it at the expense of something else because you are practicing more anyway.

The biggest gripe I hear from older musicians about drummers is that they are not in the same kind of physical shape they were in 20 or 30 years ago. Maybe?

[nhzoso]

The biggest gripe I hear from older musicians about drummers is that they are not in the same kind of physical shape they were in 20 or 30 years ago. Maybe?


Meaning they are in better shape now or worse?? I assume you mean they are in worse shape but I find that very hard to believe. All we have to go by is the more famous pro's and on that note I don't see how anyone can say that??

More drummers are into working out and having healthy diets then 20-30 years ago?

[cwignall]

Never thought of an intensive daily work out.

gonna try that next week.

cos then that allows you to get good at say 5 things a week as opposed to the same 3.

so

should i say work on one of the vic firth / stick control rudiments paraddiles etc a day? (5 a week) or work on one a week until i get it nailed?

[cnw60]

so

should i say work on one of the vic firth / stick control rudiments paraddiles etc a day? (5 a week) or work on one a week until i get it nailed?

I don't know if there's any magic answer to that question...

...but - working on one or two different things each day will probably keep things more interesting than working on one rudiment for an entire week - you should be enjoying yourself, ya' know??? and the whole idea of having something 'nailed' is a relative term - it's better to think in terms of steady improvement rather than thinking you've got to be able to do something 'perfectly' before moving on. Besides, working on multiple, related things takes advantage of something called 'cross fertilization'.

and fwiw - proper hand technique just can't be stressed enough. Everything else: speed, endurance, strength, control, ... will come much more naturally when you're technique is spot on. There's a lot of good info in other threads here where people have discussed technique in great detail - check it out if you haven't already - and I'm sure Matt could weigh in, cause you know his technique has to be pretty good ;) to achieve the smokin' speed he used winning the WFD competition earlier this year.

[mattsmith]

Meaning they are in better shape now or worse?? I assume you mean they are in worse shape but I find that very hard to believe. All we have to go by is the more famous pro's and on that note I don't see how anyone can say that??

More drummers are into working out and having healthy diets then 20-30 years ago?

Non drummer band leaders say it all the time, in both North America and Europe. I think we as drummers sometimes forget that the other instrumentalists have firm opinions about us, and they are not always the same ones we believe of ourselves. And it is most often forgotten that they are usually the leaders of the band and not us.

I'm talking about the shape required to play a full 3-5 set drum gig without being tired enough to avoid obvious dragging. And naw, we really don't have to use this within the context of uber fitness drummers like Donati and Lang. I'm talking about average Joe gigging drummer as opposed to his counterpart of the past.

I believe this drum endurance problem does not come from the overall fitness of people now, but of the deemphasis of a lot of contemporary drummers to specifically address endurance issues. Some of this comes from the fact that the super long gig is starting to go away in favor of the single set show.

But as I continue to say, I firmly believe that most of this lack of endurance attention comes from this very, very new idea that technique and groove are mutually exclusive of the other. IMO there are far too many out of shape drummers calling themselves pocket guys, who are really guys not putting the time into their technical issues like they should. Endurance is one of these. Now I'm not talking about Gadd and others. I'm talking about drummers who think they are being like Gadd, but not fully understanding that Gadd works on the tedious stuff too.

You hear the following statement all the time: I have better things to be doing like working on my groove than sitting around trying to play single strokes.

Well, IMO that's why your groove drags 20 minutes in. Your drumming isn't in shape although your body might well be.

[cnw60]

Non drummer
I believe this drum endurance problem does not come from the overall fitness of people now, but of the deemphasis of a lot of contemporary drummers to specifically address endurance issues. Some of this comes from the fact that the super long gig is starting to go away in favor of the single set show.

But as I continue to say, I firmly believe that most of this lack of endurance attention comes from this very, very new idea that technique and groove are mutually exclusive of the other. IMO there are far too many out of shape drummers calling themselves pocket guys, who are really guys not putting the time into their technical issues like they should. Endurance is one of these. Now I'm not talking about Gadd and others. I'm talking about drummers who think they are being like Gadd, but not fully understanding that Gadd works on the tedious stuff too.

You hear the following statement all the time: I have better things to be doing like working on my groove than sitting around trying to play single strokes.

Well, IMO that's why your groove drags 20 minutes in. Your drumming isn't in shape although your body might well be.

Of course - given the statistics about the decline in the fitness level of the American public over the last 20 -30 years - I wouldn't assume that our bodies are in any better shape than our drumming (putting aside the obvious exceptions).

IMO - the problem exists as much in the mental aspect of one's playing as it does in the physical realm. No doubt - fitness is a fundamental requirement, but I'll bet that you could not let Mr. Gadd touch a drumstick for two years - and after that time, he could still lay down a tasteful solid groove for more than 20 minutes at a stretch... not saying it would be his best, just better than most of us...

But I hear more people dragging their groove because of lack of focus, or overplaying just for the sake of showing off, which can be another guaranteed groove-killer. So it's not just the quantity of practice, it's the quality of it as well, as you say, putting the necessary time into the tedious stuff (like extended practice time with a metronome, or maybe even just sitting up straight...) because it builds both mental and physical discipline.

[mr_hayward_99]

Back to the question asked

if you divide your practice into 2 or 3 slots

ie 20 mins on hands/ 20mins on feet - technique developing doing rudiments for control or extended practicing for increasing endurence.

remianing time - move on to drum set

(you should be warmed up by now, if not do some linear stuff)

do some work on independence . you can change the exercises you do to increase your independence skills. ie work on some new breed one day, and the next day you might not feel like doing that so you could practice a samba foot ostinato whilst improvising with your hands.

hopefully this should explain how i practice and hope it helps.

p.s. do you have to limit yourself to 1 hr. you can practioce technique in front of the tv and if you want to get faster then you need endurance so sitting and watching the tv doing single stroke rolls for 45 minuites should not take up part of you practice time. its just watching tv time