Practice routine...

[superbatmat]

Hi guys !

I need your help right now !!!

I can work the drums for three hour a day and I don't know how I have to work !

I work on jazz stuff, latin stuff, rock, brushes, technique, play along...

I don't know how to organize my time ... ...

Some Ideas ???????

thanks so much....

[ace76543]

write down everything you do throughtout the day. Eventually you'll fall into a schedule. Worked for me.

If that doesn't work, Write down everything you do anyway. After a week or two look back on what you've written and build a schedule off that.

for example

I basically subdivide (in my head) my playing into three categories: warm-up, exercises, and playing songs/noodling around. My warm up would be the same every day, say..

5 mins rlrl @100 bpm feet
5 mins lrlr @100 bpm feet
5 mins rlrl @110 bpm feet (recently moved up from 105)
5 mins lrlr @110 bpm feet
etc. for 20-45 mins

next would be exercises, say..

Lesson 9 stick control (2 mins each excersise + 20 beat thing 4 times)
10 mins independence exercise x
etc for however long

then finally I wind down and release all the tension I've built up doing frustrating exercises with playing a few songs, or messing around with ideas until i get bored

[Dave_Major]

I have slightly changed my practice ideas recently.

I used to be very quantity driven i.e i'd try and play for as long as I could and hope I was improving. This was really not the best as I ended up just noodling and not getting better.

I decided to re-evaluate my goals. I started working out what my long term goals are.
In my case they are

Be comfortable in every situation
Improve general hand technique, especially left hand
Improve single bass drum control/heel toe.

From that I broke it down into my medium term goals, i.e what do i need to do to achieve those goals? What books? Exercises? etc.

These medium term goals form my daily practice which i write down on a sheet that i can fill in.

Therefore I am not working mindlessly for 3 or 4 hours i am being structured and getting the best results for the least amount of time spent.

I try and do an evaluation at the end of the day as well.


IF you don't know what you want to get/where you need to improve record yourself and a multitude of sins will be revealed.

Hope this helps mate

Dave

[superbatmat]

Thanks for your help !

I subdivide my playing in categories already.

15 mins of warm up, rudiments, wilcoxons and after working on jazz or rock...

But my question is:

How to work when you want to play a lot of kind of music !

How to subdivide my pratice time if I want to work on latin stuff, jazz, rock/funk, brushes... ???

Do you think I have to play all these style every day for 30 mins or just play one for 2hours ???

[aaajn]

Great thread, Practice routines are one of those things that just don't happen, I am a product of whatever feels right at the time. Probably very inefficient.
What I started doing is using rudiments as practice. I have them on my lap top in 40 photos. I play the photo show at 1 minute per rudiments and literally practice for 40 minutes on that. At the end, My brain needs a rest and then I start the fun stuff. Lasts for about an hour, hour and 15. The Steve Smith Video talks about practice routines. Thanks for all the suggestions.
John

[superbatmat]

I think practicing rudiments for 40 mins isn't realy good for for me...

For me praticing rudiments is a warm up ! Rudiments are in all technical problem of all kind of music you can play... Same for independance. I never work just on independance, It's not music independance it's fitness... ...
When you play jazz you work on independance same when you pla yrock or latin...

I think working some hours on rudiments or independance is not a solution. Try to play music when you practice and don't play drums like a sport...

[Dave_Major]

If you have lots of things to work on, like I do, prioritise them and remember working on things like co-ordination/independance will improve your groove playing so it is important to work on those things as well.
Thomas lang and John riley (2 very different players, i think you'll agree) both say they work on more complicated things and stretch themselves to make playing simpler things easier and in turn sound better. I'm sure loads of other players do the same.

It sounds like you have loads of ideas and things you want to work on, which is good, but it isn't a race and there's nothing to say you have to be working on everything all the time.

What is really important? Are you going to be playing alot of jazz in a band? are you poor at reading or groove playing?

To your thoughs about rudiments. I use rudiments as a warm up as well but doing something like stick control or even just basic rudiments at slow tempos allows you to analyse the movement and effectively clean and streamline your engine (to quote John riley again....it sounds like I have some unhealthy obsession or something!) Which is never a bad thing.

Another thing your practice routine will be different from everyone else because you are different.
How does you brain work? Are you mathematical? do you need lists and order? do you get disctracted easily? All these things will influence your practice routine.

What to practice is easy. Stuff you can't do. How you practice is up to you.

Cheers

Hope I helped

Dave

[ChipJohns]

Great Article in the May 2009 ModernDrummer Issue by Marc Dicciani.
It's actually called "Cross-Training"

There is a practice chart that has columns for:

Technique
Styles
Musicality/Improv
Reading/Literature
Other


He has a list of "Essential Practice Tips:"


Be sure to listen. It's one of the most important ways of learning the drums and developing your own voice
The drum pad can be a valuable tool for improving certain aspects of your playing
Contextualize. You need to practice and study in a musical setting whenever possible
Practice at many different tempos, to stretch your comfort zone and to recognize that different tempos require different playing approaches.
Wear ear protection, and take breaks frequently to give your hearing a rest.
Plan your practice routine carefully and change it up every couple of weeks to avoid working on the same thing for too long. which may slow your development.
Good practice sessions should be both fun and frustrating
Practice everyday, even if it's just for a short while.
Concentrate and focus while you practice, and eliminate distractions (television, cell phones, etc.)
Be patient


Each of these subjects has a little more info but these are the main points. Great article.

I have decided to implement some of these into my routine..

[superbatmat]

Hooo !!!

What an Essential practice tips... ...

So cool and helpful ! Thanks ChipJones...

[bjparadiddle]

Always be working on your weaknesses. If it's slow tempos, play them with a metronome. If it's latin tunes, get with latin tunes.

[Toza]

Concentrate and focus while you practice, and eliminate distractions (television, cell phones, etc.)


No! You should be able to concentrate in every situation, with television, phone ringig etc..!!!!!!!

[Skulmoski]

This summer, I just changed the way I practice. I used to be fairly structured (being a linear type of guy). Now I have incorporated what I call the "confusion principle": change your routine drastically to stretch yourself. In this case, I focus on one thing for a long time; for example, I might only practice my foot technique - nothing else. In a recent Drum magazine, Neil Peart wrote about practicing only his hi hat technique for a few months! Jojo Mayer spoke about working on a drum solo using only triplets. You get the idea. I still keep a log of what I do.

Keep practicing, mix it up!

GJS

[JPW]

I have these blocks of practice time where I rotate different excercises. Those blocks always have the same type of excersises but every one of them is different from the previous one. They loop around at like 1-3 months time, but no two days are the same. But I also have some excercises I do every day. At least for now, until I get my free stroke going better.

[paradiddler]

Hi all.

I too recently had to re-evaluate how I approached my playing, and practicing in particular. I even took my kit apart, only to be left with my practice pad on the snare stand! There are other things I did (and realized) as well that I'd like to share with you. Maybe it can give you some insight as well as to how we want to play, practice, and how to document our progress. I wrote an article about it:

Brute Force Learning (http://theparadiddler.com/2009/09/03/brute-force-learning/)

Enjoy the read! There's an interesting parallel to X-Men that you may find amusing.

[MadJazz]

I think working some hours on rudiments or independance is not a solution. Try to play music when you practice and don't play drums like a sport...

Very true.

Play drums like music, not like sports.

[yesdog]

my practice routine is warm up by playing rudiments and soloing around the kit.
I might do some play alongs. I practice reading and do stuff with a click track
for me when i practice coming up with new grooves fills somtimes nothing happens or I will stumble on somthing that keeps me busy for hours. Right now I got a great deal on some recording equipment. I have been into recording myself (what an eye opener). even though I have been playing close to 30 years its a great tool to find out what you need to
work on. I posted some stuff on the your playing forum. I also record when I do a gig. I have not been happy yet. I feel I get alot out of practing new things that I cannot play
Its A great feeling once you break it down and end up playing it. If I am in the right mind set I can play for hours and somtimes i only play for ten minutes.

[JPW]

Very true.

Play drums like music, not like sports.

So people like Thomas Lang and Mike Mangini or even Benny Greb are just playing a sport. I don't buy that. Rudiment's and independence patterns are the vocabulary, music is the language.

[aaajn]

So people like Thomas Lang and Mike Mangini or even Benny Greb are just playing a sport. I don't buy that. Rudiment's and independence patterns are the vocabulary, music is the language.

It's funny you should mention sports. I posted earlier that I copied each rudiment onto a slide in a laptop show. I play each rudiment for 65 seconds, one minute to play and 5 seconds to goof off. It takes me 40 minutes. (who would have guessed)

Anyway, it is like running on a treadmill versus outside. You are forced to stay focused on the task. At the end of 40 minutes, everything is cooking. Then when I plug in the iPod or start working on drills and fills, they flow. When I don't do the rudiment drill, everything is harder and my timing is crappy.

For me, it is very much like sports but I am still very new at this.

[JPW]

It's funny you should mention sports. I posted earlier that I copied each rudiment onto a slide in a laptop show. I play each rudiment for 65 seconds, one minute to play and 5 seconds to goof off. It takes me 40 minutes. (who would have guessed)

Anyway, it is like running on a treadmill versus outside. You are forced to stay focused on the task. At the end of 40 minutes, everything is cooking. Then when I plug in the iPod or start working on drills and fills, they flow. When I don't do the rudiment drill, everything is harder and my timing is crappy.

For me, it is very much like sports but I am still very new at this.

Well, drumming IS a physical act, so performing it to the extreme is going to be athletic. But I don't know of any reason why would it make it less musical to think it in smaller pieces like rudiments or patterns. I have practiced loads of independence pattern stuff and it has only made me more creative, not the other way around. Like Dom says in his book "For the most growth you must follow the path of most resistance." I feel playing only on music tracks is not really resistance. It's only fun. It's ok if you only want to have fun. I like growth.

[MadJazz]

So people like Thomas Lang and Mike Mangini or even Benny Greb are just playing a sport. I don't buy that. Rudiment's and independence patterns are the vocabulary, music is the language.

Do you aspire to be Lang, Mangini or Greb? I don't. I prefer a real job and keep music as a hobby. That's why I take things with a grain of salt.

Technique won't automatically make you a good musician. Check Bellotti's videos to see how much musicality can be achieved with simple technique:

http://www.vicfirth.com/education/drumset/bellotti.html

[JPW]

Do you aspire to be Lang, Mangini or Greb? I don't. I prefer a real job and keep music as a hobby. That's why I take things with a grain of salt.

Technique won't automatically make you a good musician. Check Bellotti's videos to see how much musicality can be achieved with simple technique:

http://www.vicfirth.com/education/drumset/bellotti.html

Of course technique doesn't make you a great musician. It's the same thing with poetry, we all know a lot of words but not all of us can make great poems. But without knowing any words there wouldn't be so much diveresity in the world of poetry either.

I'm somewhere between, I don't necessarily need drumming as a job, but I'm really serious about it as a hobby, I take it more seriously than the stuff I do to pay the taxes. But I have tried different types of practice and have found out that rudiments and independence patterns are the most time efficient way to gain more creativity with this instrument. But of course if you can only average 30 mins a day of practice I can't recommend them for you. But to say they are not at all usefull is just completely ignorant. Just be a realist and say you don't have enough time for them to really have the effect you are after.

I know a lot of drummers who are completely satisfied with playing over mp3's and stuff like that. And it's ok. I don't want to force anyone to do anything they don't want to. But if you want to grow to be more than that and increase your vocabulary, just randomly bashing stuff really isn't that efficient. Not that it can't work but it isn't time efficient.

I hope you see my point and not think this just as a personal attack. We all have a little different backgrounds and different amounts of time to work with this stuff, different goals too. So it's obvious many different styles of practice can work for spesific ways of living and spesific goals.

[jake_larson]

I usually spend about an hour warming up with stick control and basic beats then i decide what should I start on (latin, funk, jazz, double bass, and so on) and try to spend ample time in different styles to get comfortable with anything then wind down with jamming to my ipod in shuffle mode and work out new grooves in styles from jazz to metal and so far its worked for me.

[Funky Crêpe]

a question for anyone who has practiced 10 hours a day or close to that, what did ye do exactly? if someone could give me a sort of blow by blow account it would be great, because the most i can practice a day at the moment is three, is it just a matter of elongating everything?

and i think that if you have a small amount of time to practice, most of the time should be spent without music...warm up, then practice each style you can play and try and come up with something new, then for maybe15mins try and get a jojo mayer like track thats drumless and implement your stuff....playing with music that already has a beat should be only played the odd time in my opinion, even though it is fun!

[BillBachman]

I generally have a hard time practicing for more than 2 hours, but that's just me. I try to vary what I practice and use books/long exercises in order to take me out of my comfort zone. Once my passion for getting better leaves me though, I'm done.

[jivadayadasa]

I generally have a hard time practicing for more than 2 hours, but that's just me. I try to vary what I practice and use books/long exercises in order to take me out of my comfort zone. Once my passion for getting better leaves me though, I'm done.

I have to take short breaks to keep going and also vary exercises on a single day. I like what Jojo said about practicing things that are difficult. I try to "work" at least a little bit on things that are extremely hard for me every time I sit down to play. Sometimes though, I am not mentally prepared or tolerant enough to plow through to a point of progress - so I look for something I'm comfortable with and just spend time meditating on that and looking for more subtle progress.

Bill, I just wanted to say your HH looks amazing and someday I will save up for it. I have long thought about a remote hat but the mush factor + high cost always kept me away. Yours looks promising and I'm looking forward to going for it asap.

[Monica McCoy]

Your should consider getting a teacher. I've never given the idea of organizing my practice because he gives me so much stuff to do. I'm never thinking what to do next, just how do I get it all completed by the end of the week. An instructor will ensure that the things you are practicing are in the areas you need to develop.

[Matty G.]

Some great ideas on this thread, but I must say, some of the practice routines listed below beg the question; practicing for what?

To me this is the most important question when sitting down to practice. And to that end, if you don't have gigs and sesssions to prepare for, good luck practicing toward anything meaningful.

As for formulating a 'routine', oh brother... I used to be all about that. I eventually found that while it can be comforting to have a list of things to check off everyday, and sastifying to know that your practice sessions are rolling off the assembly line like Model T's, having a 'set routine' can also be a way of ignoring the reality that the needs of the actual music you are trying to play are constantly changing! I find that practicing requires a lot of trial and error. Not blind repetition. At least that's my opinion, one that comes from trying almost every single way of unsuccessful practicing :)

What do you need to get together before your next gig? What gigs would you like to try out for? What are your weaknesses holding you back from performing at a higher level?
Usually, when you ask these questions, one or things will inevitably jump out and that will be the thing you need to investigate, work on, and devolop

Practicing 1/2 hour of stick control is fine and dandy if it gets you to that end, but once you've gone through a sufficient amount of that sorta thing, it's time to start customizing exercises that get you from Point A to Point B. Obviously, any meaningful exercise will lead you Back to Basics, as Dave Weckyl put it some years ago, (afterall, aren't we always going there?) and you may even discover the Stick Control exercises in a new light.

But, going back to the main point, if you don't play regularly, then knowing which Basic you need to work on will alude you and progress is going to be very hard to spot. How many times have we all practiced exercise after varied exercise of a rudiment only to find out on a gig that we didn't know it as well as we thought we did?