Frustrated with practicing

isawstars

Junior Member
I seriously have no idea what to do when it comes to practicing!

I take lessons 2 to 4 times a month (depends on how much cash I have). I will learn techniques, rudiments and sometimes a new groove for HH or BD independence. I go home practice new rudiments then run through old rudiments, new groove, then free style, then I'm done... all in 30-45 minutes. Super short, right?

I've been playing for 10 months now and I dont' think I'm doing enough. I know I have high standards because I watch and listen to great drummers all the time but, I know I can do more and I don't know what is missing. I also want to know how to gain the creativity to do fills and such. Ugh. I feel like for someone who's been playing for almost a year... i'm not up to par.
 
Relax,
The feelings that you have are normal.
Drumming is a lifetime achievement.
OK, so you spend 45 mins a day at practice.
You learn the concepts of what you have been taught.

Are you playing with other musicians yet?
Start playing with others and you will begin to apply what you have learned.

You'll see, When you start playing with others it will all start to kick in.
You will then feel better about yourself and your drumming.
 
i went to a benny greb clinic last week and he had fantastic advice about practicing. he suggested to keep a log/journal/record about your practice sessions.
write down what you practiced, at what speed, for how long and how you felt afterwards. if you do this, you can track your progress as you go along, which motivates b/c you can quantify your improvement.
also, recording your sessions on a video camera helps too, not only for the same reasons as the journal, but also so you can see if there's anything you can improve that you haven't noticed before, like tensing up, bad posture, etc.
don't give up and don't make practicing a chore. practicing in itself is an art and should be fun too.
good luck!
i have to hit the practice pad now...
 
I agree with Bob that once you start applying the things you have learned in a musical context, it gets more fun, and that it's also about the journey with no real end point.

I saw a Benny Greb clinic a couple months ago and thought he was the best clinician I'd ever seen. Very cool and well-grounded guy. His ideas on practicing and keeping a log I'd never heard of before, but it seems like a pretty good idea to track progress. He also had another idea that I never thought of that I thought was useful for creativity was improvise a bar and then repeat it as exactly as you can the following bar. Keep doing this for as long as you can and it forces you into a lot of uncharted territory while strengthening your memory to be able to repeat it. It's also really fun.

I think there's sometimes a mental separation between "practicing" and "playing." The important thing is keeping the important thing the important thing, which for me, is keeping the fun thing the fun thing.

I consider practicing to be the work side (which is necessary for training the brain and the muscles), and playing to be the thing that is just for fun. For me, that is just playing whatever seems interesting, or trying to figure out how Thomas Pridgen or Tomas Haake does this or that. Usually these sessions devolve into amusing "drum solos" that leave me feeling like being a drummer is the funnest thing I could possibly be doing with what little spare time I have these days.

How can you possibly not get better and develop creativity when you're having a total blast?
 
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Playing with other musicians is the most beneficial, and rewarding part of being a musician. I learned more, and progressed more in one year playing in a band than I did 7 years playing on my own. When you play in a band context you learn where you need to put things, lay out, and the time keeping isn't as boring as when playing on your own.

The second best thing for me was recording myself, or listening to practice recordings of my band. I've been shocked at how bad some things came out on a recording that I thought were good, or bad ass. This will allow you to hear what your weak points are, and what you specifically need to target, because when you're playing you're not hearing everything you're doing in the moment- whether it be because you're focusing on the groove of the bass/guitar, or a fill is too loud to hear everything else around you, causing you to lose your time within a song, etc...

Lastly, focus only on your weak points. When I first started playing I would only practice things I was good at, because it was easier, and less work. But, I also got bored quicker since it was not a challenge, and of course I didn't progress much because I wasn't focusing on weak areas, only hiding from them. These days when I practice I only focus on my weak points, or at least my less than real good points, and that keeps me more focused and interested. I don't waste time on things I'm already good at unless it's the occasional refresher for something I haven't done in a while. Oh, and always practice with a metronome. I never did this until a year ago, and it made a huge difference in my timing, meter, and focus on the groove.
 
I'm probably not the best person to post in this thread as practicing for me often enough wanders off into me playing random things. I have no discipline whatsoever. I think reading from other peoples posts in other threads that books are the way forward, if you don't know what to practice, pick up a book and there you go, drum away!
 
i went to a benny greb clinic last week and he had fantastic advice about practicing. he suggested to keep a log/journal/record about your practice sessions.
write down what you practiced, at what speed, for how long and how you felt afterwards. if you do this, you can track your progress as you go along, which motivates b/c you can quantify your improvement.
also, recording your sessions on a video camera helps too, not only for the same reasons as the journal, but also so you can see if there's anything you can improve that you haven't noticed before, like tensing up, bad posture, etc.
don't give up and don't make practicing a chore. practicing in itself is an art and should be fun too.
good luck!
i have to hit the practice pad now...

Ha! I was just about to post the same thing! Were you at the clinic in Toronto at Just Drums? Benny was truly inspiring and put a lot of things in focus. I have actually started the journal thing. His imitations of frustrated drummers during practice sessions gave me a big chuckle!
 
I seriously have no idea what to do when it comes to practicing!

I take lessons 2 to 4 times a month (depends on how much cash I have). I will learn techniques, rudiments and sometimes a new groove for HH or BD independence. I go home practice new rudiments then run through old rudiments, new groove, then free style, then I'm done... all in 30-45 minutes. Super short, right?

I've been playing for 10 months now and I dont' think I'm doing enough. I know I have high standards because I watch and listen to great drummers all the time but, I know I can do more and I don't know what is missing. I also want to know how to gain the creativity to do fills and such. Ugh. I feel like for someone who's been playing for almost a year... i'm not up to par.

i agree with all the cool things people have mentioned so far.

first of all there is no "par". your path is as valid as the next guy, its not a competition with other people. its only about you pursuing your music, your playing and developing into the player you want to be.

being inspired by other people is fantastic and can be great motivation to work through a challenge. i think comparing yourself to other players doesn't create positive results but can feed a negative mental attitude.

a few things i think that might help you are

- be goal driven - set some short medium and long term goals with your teacher and each practise gradually work away at them. all the while understanding drumming is a gradual thing, you can't rush and if you're practising everyday thats going to definitely show over time.

- think in concepts not specifics - if you approach and get confortable with many core concepts of drumming then mixing and matching and creating your own things will be a simple process. you'll notice when studying a certain style or groove concept that many patterns repeat, but are just on different drums, limbs or places in the bar. so really once you're comfortable with grooves or fill ideas concerning the main tiny physical patterns you'll be able to play hundreds more. you'll simply see that new grooves are often things you can already play with a few slight changes.

- use a metranome and play VERY slowly - whatever you're working on (unless it has a very particular bpm range it sits in) start at the slowest quarter note click (40bpm-ish)and play it relaxed and as precise as you can. gradually raise the bpm 4-5 or 10 bpm depending on the challenge, groove type and how you feel when you play it. by doing this you internalise what you're learning so it really becomes part of your playing, muscle memory and also how you think when you play.

- try to play what you hear on records - yes even if you think its ahead of where you're at have a go anyway. no one is going to hassle you about mistakes in your practise time. if its too much of a reach for something at the present time, try and create your own version that still musically fits. you can do this with grooves aswell, playing something simpler than the original but that still captures the feel of the tune.

- believe in yourself when you sit down to play or practise. stay positive and never tell yourself something is hard or that you can't do something. if you mentally approach whatever you go to practise as you're going to have a great time, it might take awhile but you're sure to get it - then you will live that. if you tell yourself its going to be hard, then its going to be hard.


like anyone/everyone it never ends with trying to improve and reach the next goal, but the above things have been really valuable to me in my practise. i hope they might help you in some way aswell.

matt
 
like someone before said, focus on your weak points. my daily routine of exercises takes like 1.5-2 hours to get through, when I started 5-6 months ago it was like 10 min. by working through books and learning songs, i find specific things that I suck at, then I devise some exercises that focus on that problem and add it to the daily list.
 
I have to say the greatest thing for me was playing with people. My second or third time playing drums ever was with four or five people playing guitar and bass. I had played Rock Band (I know, I know) and so I had the bare basics down, and I could play with people, so that was the best learning experience. Other than that, books have helped a lot.
 
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