Polishing faster techniques, how to proceed?

[Mighty_Joker]

Hail Drummerworld,

I have been practicing a lot recently on my pad set up, as I live abroad at the moment and have no access to my own, or any actual drum kit.

I have mainly been working on fundamental techniques, such as the key rudiments and, for the sake of my band, faster beats such as blast beats and double bass patterns. Annoyingly, these techniques are actually pretty hard to get good at, especially when one is trying to blast beat at 240bpm, or single/double stroke roll at a similar speed.

My question is, when pushing my speed while trying to maintain control and proper technique, what is the best (in your opinion) method of practice. For example, if I want to play smoothly and controlled at 200bpm on a single stroke roll, and currently I CAN technically play that, but it is a little sloppy and uncontrolled, should I play at that speed until I gain the control, ie. practicing what I am BAD at to improve it, or should I drop the tempo to, say 185, where I can play it comfortably, but to really drill the techniques into my muscle memory.

The same with a fast blast beat or double bass pattern... should I gain the speed and control by playing at a speed that I am poor at so that my muscles become used to that speed, or should I drop it down? I am not really sure how to proceed on both fronts.

I am interested to hear people's thoughts on this. Thanks very much.

Jon

[stasz]

Pull it down to where you can play it with control and then drill it some more. Considering the speed you're at I'm sure you understand that it takes a long time for these types of things to happen. You're obviously doing something right to be able to play that fast, just keep hacking away.

[Mighty_Joker]

Thanks for the input. I'll try it that way for a while and see what results I yield.

[abe]

I'm going to say something Jeff Almeyda has told many times before: so called muscle memory comes from VERY accurate and controlled practicing for hours. For example, single stroke roll at 60 BPM ( yes, it's slow, but that way you can control every stroke) for 90 min. It's bit crazy, but it works. Look at Mike Mangini!

[caddywumpus]

What good does it do you to practice something "incorrectly"? If you want to get faster, push yourself to play for longer periods of time at the fastest speed that you can play "correctly". In time, you will be able to go faster. It's a slow process, but don't get impatient and cheat yourself of playing cleanly.

You'll thank yourself later.

[schist]

Annoyingly, these techniques are actually pretty hard to get good at, especially when one is trying to blast beat at 240bpm, or single/double stroke roll at a similar speed.


Are blast beats and single strokes at 240BPM not essentially the same thing?

[Mighty_Joker]

Thanks for all the input, it confirmed what I thought.

@ schist: Yes and no. While your hands are playing a single stroke roll different parts of the kit, usually the snare and a cymbal, when you include the foot patterns, it can throw things off a little. But yes, obviously a strong single stroke roll will help a traditional pattern blast beat, and vica versa.