I'm reading a book on the life and music of the famous Hindustani Classical maestro Ravi Shankar. The beginning goes into great detail about his practice regimen, and the sheer amount of practice he put into learning the sitar early on in his tutorship is astonishing. He was compelled by his guru to practice a MINIMUM of eight hours a day, usually getting in about twelve hours but at times as much as sixteen hours of practice a day.
I understand that for beginning drummers, generally it is more important to learn how to practice efficiently and get the most out of your exercises than the sheer number of hours involved, and that novices can get stuck learning something the wrong way and doing it that way for hours on end and not really benefiting from it. I understand that learning drums is a lifelong process and you never stop learning.
But I can't help but wonder, watching the progress of my drummer friends through their three, five, seven years of playing (I'm only 22), taking into account the amount they practice per week and how long collectively they've been playing (random example 6 hours per week for 3 years) , if someone was truly gnarly enough to dedicate themselves to practicing an insane amount, like Shankar did, like I'm sure many drummers do every day, to what level could one possibly accelerate the learning process? If you really get down your form and basics and literally, not just saying it but literally practicing six hours a day for like a year straight, how fast could you potentially progress? I know it depends on the person and their aptitude, but say someone like me who's been told by more than a few people that I learn very quickly and have natural rhythm. I mean 40+ hours of practice per week for a year is quite a lot of time behind the skins..like 2,000 hours of playing drums, you think after a year of that you'd be shredding pretty good if you have natural aptitude?
I understand that for beginning drummers, generally it is more important to learn how to practice efficiently and get the most out of your exercises than the sheer number of hours involved, and that novices can get stuck learning something the wrong way and doing it that way for hours on end and not really benefiting from it. I understand that learning drums is a lifelong process and you never stop learning.
But I can't help but wonder, watching the progress of my drummer friends through their three, five, seven years of playing (I'm only 22), taking into account the amount they practice per week and how long collectively they've been playing (random example 6 hours per week for 3 years) , if someone was truly gnarly enough to dedicate themselves to practicing an insane amount, like Shankar did, like I'm sure many drummers do every day, to what level could one possibly accelerate the learning process? If you really get down your form and basics and literally, not just saying it but literally practicing six hours a day for like a year straight, how fast could you potentially progress? I know it depends on the person and their aptitude, but say someone like me who's been told by more than a few people that I learn very quickly and have natural rhythm. I mean 40+ hours of practice per week for a year is quite a lot of time behind the skins..like 2,000 hours of playing drums, you think after a year of that you'd be shredding pretty good if you have natural aptitude?