One hour to practice

[2bsticks]

If you only have one hour per day to practice your drumming whether it be on a kit, pad or both. My question is how can I get the most out of that hour? What works for you? I find myself playing along to tracks minus drums and although I find it fun and I do feel I'm getting something out of it I still feel cheated. When it comes to rudiments I have to admit I'm weak. I would love to incorporate more rudiments into my playing. Maybe spend an hour a day on just rudiments for a while? Your input is always welcome.

[samthebeat]

Keep it simple, work on a few ideas, and as its only and hour try to cross train as much as possible.

For example, work on groves that use doubles and singles......like paradile grooves, work on grooves that use dynamics, same with fills.

I have in the past split it like this

warm up 10-20mins, a doubles, singles with a foot ostinato undeneath. Make as challenging as possible. doubles on the feet, samba pattern or something, varied tempos, just get the juices flowing, and get yourself feeling centered and in control of the sticks.
eg. rlrlrlrlrrllrrllrrllrrll, there are loads of great warm up excersises that incorperate both.

A Lick, or sticking, a rudiment, applying around the drumset, for exapmple, drag combos, six stroke rolls, for a begginer single stroke rolls. 20 mins

A groove 10mins with a metronome, same groove 10mins with some backing trakcks

To be fair, you should try to find at least two hours, if you can only make noise for one hour, spend the other on the pad.

I think the thing the thing is with practice routines is keeping it simple, you cant practice everything, you cant even in three hours practice everything, or learn everything, many ideas/patterns will take a couple of months at least to get cooking, and you have to get to that point before you move on with stuff, otherwise you will end up a jack of all trades, master of none.

[rmandelbaum]

This is just my opinion, you have to figure out what works for you.


well as for the practice pad, I find time that is not my standard practice time. You can work on the pad while watching TV.

I would get a book and spend that hour on the kit. Spend 10 or 20 min worming up and having fun. Play to a recording or solo or whatever. Just get the juices flowing. then spend most of the rest of the time working out of the book.

I like to spend the last 5 or ten messing around again.

I firmly believe you have to work on new things in a structured way but if it is not fun you will not stick with it.

[Ian Ballard]

If you choose to be an autodidactic (self-directed/educated) drummer or simply want to deviate from a structured curriculum, there is a way I've found that gets good results:

First, figure out what aspects of your playing need improvement (make videos and recordings of yourself playing grooves and musical ideas).

Second, write down some key things you want to strengthen.

Third, spend half your practice period doing the "mundane"; the rudiments, techniques and other things you listed, then spend the other half playing musical ideas that incorporate what you practiced in the first part. For example, if you think your doubles need help, after you've worked on mechanics and some metronome work, come up with an ostinato with your feet and play double-stroke things only and try to tax all the possible combinations on your kit in whatever time you have left. If you're satisfied with what you hear/see, go onto the next thing next practice time.

I don't think you NEED more than an hour to practice. You just need to spend that hour developing your ability to play whatever comes to mind, based on the things you need to make better.

Lastly there is something I tell all my students: Never say, "weakness" or refer to your abilities in any disparaging way, using any negative terms. Recognize that you are human and even the "great masters" mess up from time to time. Your mind, particularly your subconscious, is not only capable of anything, it controls your physical actions. If you tell yourself, "I'm bad at double-strokes", your body has no choice but to obey.

Good luck!

[2bsticks]

Thanks for the feedback guys. Some good advice indeed

[sciomako]

Ian Ballard is spot on!

Some personal experience...

I subscribe to the approach that 1/2 of the practice time are spent on techniques that one wants to improve and 1/2 should be applying whatever learnt in muiscal context (e.g. play-along).

That's the theory. But in practice I realize I'm not that disciplined. At the end, I end up with just this: "Practice whatever I can't do that's high on my weakness list", regardless it's a mundane rudiment or an enjoyable play-along.

I know many people say it's better to practice frequent, everyday, no matter how short the session is, than having infrequent and long session. This doesn't seem to work for me. When the session is too short, stuff doesn't sink in...

[Hercraft]

Ian Ballard is spot on!

Some personal experience...

I subscribe to the approach that 1/2 of the practice time are spent on techniques that one wants to improve and 1/2 should be applying whatever learnt in muiscal context (e.g. play-along).

That's the theory. But in practice I realize I'm not that disciplined. At the end, I end up with just this: "Practice whatever I can't do that's high on my weakness list", regardless it's a mundane rudiment or an enjoyable play-along.

I know many people say it's better to practice frequent, everyday, no matter how short the session is, than having infrequent and long session. This doesn't seem to work for me. When the session is too short, stuff doesn't sink in...

I play drums for 10/12 years now. And just this year I realise the important of a practice routine, I had the same problem of the discipline, but I overcome it and... thats when things began to happen. I strongly suggest that you make a routine and emply 60% of the time in the basics:

For example, this is my 1 hour routine:

10 min, 90bpm, Step HiHat in quarters, with metro, RLRL (focusing on each stroke)
10 min, 90bpm, Step HiHat in quarters, with metro, LRLR (focusing on each stroke)
20 min, 95 bpm on a zero rebound surface, Step HiHat in quarters, with metro, RRLL
10 min, 3 rudiments from the rudimental ritual of alan dawson
10 min, groove/fill working on ideas like linear phrasing, complicated ghost notes/syncopated grooves, a play along, a transcription, etc.

I hace 2.5 hours practice routines, but if i had only 1 hour thats it will be my routine.

I think singles, doubles and rudiments and independence is the best you can practice.

That depends of course in what level are you and what you wanna become :- )

sorry my english, my two cents

[Matty G.]

Ian had some great things to say.

Start by taking an inventory of your playing. Then choose to work on something that's basic to what is lacking in your playing. You don't have to learn a new style or groove or tune necessarily, unless you need to for a gig that's coming up. Think about going DEEPER with the stuff that you already can play. (Just don't try to cram: 5 minutes of this, 5 minutes of that, 5 minutes jazz, 10 minutes double-bass, blah blah, then you'll be skimming, not getting better) Maybe after listening to a recording of yourself, you find that you have timing problems. Then pick a groove and play it against a metronome. Maybe break it down, going slower than you think you need to. Play until the click disappears, or until playing with the metronome becomes really really easy. Start and stop often, putting the sticks down for mini-breaks. Then take away the nome and record yourself.

This may seem like slow progress because you're not learning 10 new things every time you practice, but I've found that when you truly solve all of the glitches inside ONE groove and take it to a new level both neurologically and muscularly, or to the level of MASTERY, which is a way of saying that THE MUSIC PLAYS ITSELF, then ALL of your groove playing will improve. The next practice session just pick up where you left off. Maybe add some fills or transitions to that groove, or learn another one, or take it to a faster tempo. The deeper you go, the more you develop your own sound, and the more fun you have, because it becomes self-expression, which is the point of music, not a bunch of exercises.

[Wavelength]

I divide my practice time in half, spending 50% of my time on technique and 50% on playing. Most of the time I'll spend fifteen minutes on singles, another fifteen on doubles, thirty minutes on hand/foot combinations and an hour on working on grooving and improvising in various styles. If I have just an hour, I might spend ten minutes on singles, doubles and coordination each, and thirty minutes on playing.

To get the most benefit from your practice, always use a metronome. It's best not to have it click on quarter notes, but rather

- on 2 & 4
- on 8th note up beats
- on 8th note triplet upbeats
- on every second 8th note triplet of each quarter note
- on every fourth 16th note of each quarter note
- on every second 16th note of each quarter note.

This way the click won't create the time for you to follow, and this forces you to keep time yourself. Try it out -- it's a lot more difficult than it sounds.

[Hercraft]

To get the most benefit from your practice, always use a metronome. It's best not to have it click on quarter notes, but rather

- on 2 & 4
- on 8th note up beats
- on 8th note triplet upbeats
- on every second 8th note triplet of each quarter note
- on every fourth 16th note of each quarter note
- on every second 16th note of each quarter note.

This way the click won't create the time for you to follow, and this forces you to keep time yourself. Try it out -- it's a lot more difficult than it sounds.

Very Interesting Wavelength, I ll try it.-

[Hercraft]

Ian had some great things to say.

Start by taking an inventory of your playing. Then choose to work on something that's basic to what is lacking in your playing. You don't have to learn a new style or groove or tune necessarily, unless you need to for a gig that's coming up. Think about going DEEPER with the stuff that you already can play. (Just don't try to cram: 5 minutes of this, 5 minutes of that, 5 minutes jazz, 10 minutes double-bass, blah blah, then you'll be skimming, not getting better) Maybe after listening to a recording of yourself, you find that you have timing problems. Then pick a groove and play it against a metronome. Maybe break it down, going slower than you think you need to. Play until the click disappears, or until playing with the metronome becomes really really easy. Start and stop often, putting the sticks down for mini-breaks. Then take away the nome and record yourself.

This may seem like slow progress because you're not learning 10 new things every time you practice, but I've found that when you truly solve all of the glitches inside ONE groove and take it to a new level both neurologically and muscularly, or to the level of MASTERY, which is a way of saying that THE MUSIC PLAYS ITSELF, then ALL of your groove playing will improve. The next practice session just pick up where you left off. Maybe add some fills or transitions to that groove, or learn another one, or take it to a faster tempo. The deeper you go, the more you develop your own sound, and the more fun you have, because it becomes self-expression, which is the point of music, not a bunch of exercises.

I have to desagree here. I think that half of your study have to rely on techinque of any kind.
Maybe focused in the issues you take apart, but, singles and doubles... you ALWAYS
use. And improving those are a very solid background tool for grooving or soloing.

[h3r3tic]

You can get most out of your practice if you invest in quality. Even if you'd have only 20 minutes... it doesn't matter. The thing is you don't have to practice everything in that specific hour because some things take lots of time to get it down to make it easier for you to understand so...
My advise to you would be to not worry if you can't practice everything in one hour. Keep the other things that you couldn't accomplish in that day to next day.
Drumming is not just physical it's also mental. So the mind also needs to get that info in its system so take your time, make most out of it even if you'd have 5 minutes. The important thing is to practice and make most out of it!
Jojo Mayer said : "Strive for quality and not quantity!"

[Matty G.]

I have to desagree here. I think that half of your study have to rely on techinque of any kind.
Maybe focused in the issues you take apart, but, singles and doubles... you ALWAYS
use. And improving those are a very solid background tool for grooving or soloing.

I can see what you're saying. My feeling about technique is that it's not important until it is... haha, that's sounds a little weird. But basicially, I feel that there is a lot of music you can make without a boatload of technique. When I went to Brazil, I saw cats who couldn't even hold a stick properly, but who were grooving on a higher level than a lot of pro's...

Where technique comes into play is when you can't do something musically without a certain technical mastery, then you must work on technique. But technique doesn't always mean: singles, doubles, and other moves you can do with a stick or a pedal... technique is a broad way of saying, the tools you need to execute musical ideas. Your sense of rhythm is included, so is coordination, so is fluidity, relaxation, your musical vocabulary, and your personal sense of phrasing, dynamics, and tone.

So under my approach, I do work on technique, quite a bit, but I don't just sit down and practice a technical exercise because I want 'more technique'. I try something musically first, observe why it's not happening. From there on out the practice is very "technical."

Does that make sense?

[Hercraft]

I can see what you're saying. My feeling about technique is that it's not important until it is... haha, that's sounds a little weird. But basicially, I feel that there is a lot of music you can make without a boatload of technique. When I went to Brazil, I saw cats who couldn't even hold a stick properly, but who were grooving on a higher level than a lot of pro's...

Where technique comes into play is when you can't do something musically without a certain technical mastery, then you must work on technique. But technique doesn't always mean: singles, doubles, and other moves you can do with a stick or a pedal... technique is a broad way of saying, the tools you need to execute musical ideas. Your sense of rhythm is included, so is coordination, so is fluidity, relaxation, your musical vocabulary, and your personal sense of phrasing, dynamics, and tone.

So under my approach, I do work on technique, quite a bit, but I don't just sit down and practice a technical exercise because I want 'more technique'. I try something musically first, observe why it's not happening. From there on out the practice is very "technical."

Does that make sense?

YES it does!
And now we AGREE completely!
Sorry, english is my far away second language and its very difficult to me to express myself clear. I agree with you and thats what I practice. I dedicate some time to raw technique, and then I apply that to a musical enviroment.

Keep it up!

[nfiora]

I have recently found how important playing Singles Doubles and the Rudements along with a metrenome. I usualy start my practice by doing this and try to run each thing that i practice through my metronome starting at 80bpm and concentrationg on making every stroke sound the same. After I do that I then go to playing with music or working on techniques that I want to learn.
Is there anyone out here that will play 4-6 hours in a day? Is that too much? Also what do you guys think are important Rudements to practice besides the Parraddidle, Flams, Flamadidle, Single strokes, and double strokes?

[mckinetic]

I guess I'm lucky as right now 4 hours of practice time is a minimum. I play mostly out of the Advanced Funk Studies book, trying to make the exercises musical, adding this or that.
Probably like most rudiments are my weakness as well.

[2bsticks]

UPDATE!

I appreciate all the great feedback. Since I last spoke here I have purchased a recorder (Zoom H2) I have to say it really opened up my ears. Todd Sucherman was kind enough to reply to me and expressed the importance of recording your practice sessions. He advised me to work on a couple of play along tracks and listen carefully to what I'm playing. Groove, fills etc and it's really been a big help. I also play my metronome through my sound system and work on my rudiments for a bit, then at the end of my session I TRY to incorporate some rudiments into a groove. Quite a challenge.