Greetings!
I’ve been playing the drums for quite a while (about 15 years) and never had a practice routine. In all this years I used to practice “playing along”, breaking up parts and creating for bands I’ve been to.
Well, five months ago I started a practice routine as well as a Journal and It has been awesome! I challenge myself to play every day for at least 2 hours. My main focus is double bass and hand techniques, also I’ve been working through some books.
So, today I was quantifying the hours I’ve been behind the pad and the kit and I would like to share some of it with you guys hoping for some tips. This are the totals, let me break it up a little:
Feet – I’ve been working through “Encyclopedia of Double Bass Drumming” (Rondinelli/Lauren), “Inside my Psycho Book” (Aquiles Priester), George Kollias 16-Week Workout (just started) and also some grooves I break up from songs I like (Tomas Haake, Chris Adler, Mike Portnoy, so on). In 5 months there’s been huge improvements in my double bass in both speed and control (about 50 BPM radius) and also creativity. Encyclopedia of Double Bass Drumming does wonders on both of those It has changed my way of “thinking” Single Strokes.
Hand – Been working on a daily basis with “Stick Control”, “Accents and Rebounds” and “Master Studies”. In this category there’s also rudiments, which I practice the most, been working on combining, for example, paradiddle and paradiddle-diddle (16 note feel and triplet feel every other bar), it does help internalizing. Also been working on claves, although this exercises comes with the feet (mainly timing) I count strictly as hand.
Play along – Mostly double bass songs and rarely some Brazilian rhythm ones (popular songs which I play now and then with a cover band).
Rehearsal/Gigs – Says it all. Although it’s not practice I count as practice because I play on a practice pad (8 piece one) and in rehearsal I get to feel the drums and check my improvements. As I live in an apartment, I’ve been taking my drums to a public park where I set it up (snare, bass drum, ride, hi-hat) on the parking lot and play for a couple of hours. Done that a couple of times, it’s funny (mainly because I do that on weekends).
Rhythms and Coord. – At the end of the last month I started a book called “Novos Caminhos da Bateria Brasileira” (Sergio Gomes – New Ways of Brazilian Drum), it covers a lot of rhythms such as Maracatu, Frevo and, of course, Samba. On my list is “New Breed” (Gary Chester) which I’m planning on beginning this month or maybe the next one.
Overall, I’m quite happy with the results so far. Thinking about the way I used to practice, this 5 months felt like years, it’s a shame I didn’t start it before… if I did, well…. Hahaha, never too late, right?!
As you can see by the “data” I’ll be now leaning towards rhythms and coordination as a main focus, since I’m “ok” with my double bass – as I don’t use it much.
Also, a curiosity:
I’m keeping track of the time spent on each exercise and so on. To practice 1 hour, I waste something like 20 minutes… Sometimes, on weekends, I practice all day (except for the parts I’m eating/bathroom… so on) and I never quantified more than 7 hours of practice although it feels like 12 hours, I’m just REALLY practicing for half of that time, funny, isn’t it? Hope my boss doesn’t do that in my work hours, LOL.
Just wanted to share, below you can see how I write my journal and keep track of the week total time:
08/11/2013 – Duration: 4h 10 min.
Warmup for 10 minutes. Double Bass 8 notes/16 notes/32 notes at 140 BPM for 40 minutes. Tripplets on 160 BPM for 40 minutes. 15 minutes on exercize 28 of the Ency. at 120 BPM. Same BPM exercize 29 for 15 minutes (tried both 140 and 130, can't control it, constantly exchanging left for right everyother bar.) Heel Down straight 16's at 110 BPM for 30 minutes. Double Bass straight 16's with paradiddles on hands at 120 BPM for 30 minutes. 30 minutes playing single strokes at 140 BPM on a pillow, playing 8 notes beteween DB and HI-HAT. 40 minutes playing Paraddidle/Inverted Paradiddle combined at 110 BPM (Trying to focus on the dynamics).
I’ve been playing the drums for quite a while (about 15 years) and never had a practice routine. In all this years I used to practice “playing along”, breaking up parts and creating for bands I’ve been to.
Well, five months ago I started a practice routine as well as a Journal and It has been awesome! I challenge myself to play every day for at least 2 hours. My main focus is double bass and hand techniques, also I’ve been working through some books.
So, today I was quantifying the hours I’ve been behind the pad and the kit and I would like to share some of it with you guys hoping for some tips. This are the totals, let me break it up a little:
Feet – I’ve been working through “Encyclopedia of Double Bass Drumming” (Rondinelli/Lauren), “Inside my Psycho Book” (Aquiles Priester), George Kollias 16-Week Workout (just started) and also some grooves I break up from songs I like (Tomas Haake, Chris Adler, Mike Portnoy, so on). In 5 months there’s been huge improvements in my double bass in both speed and control (about 50 BPM radius) and also creativity. Encyclopedia of Double Bass Drumming does wonders on both of those It has changed my way of “thinking” Single Strokes.
Hand – Been working on a daily basis with “Stick Control”, “Accents and Rebounds” and “Master Studies”. In this category there’s also rudiments, which I practice the most, been working on combining, for example, paradiddle and paradiddle-diddle (16 note feel and triplet feel every other bar), it does help internalizing. Also been working on claves, although this exercises comes with the feet (mainly timing) I count strictly as hand.
Play along – Mostly double bass songs and rarely some Brazilian rhythm ones (popular songs which I play now and then with a cover band).
Rehearsal/Gigs – Says it all. Although it’s not practice I count as practice because I play on a practice pad (8 piece one) and in rehearsal I get to feel the drums and check my improvements. As I live in an apartment, I’ve been taking my drums to a public park where I set it up (snare, bass drum, ride, hi-hat) on the parking lot and play for a couple of hours. Done that a couple of times, it’s funny (mainly because I do that on weekends).
Rhythms and Coord. – At the end of the last month I started a book called “Novos Caminhos da Bateria Brasileira” (Sergio Gomes – New Ways of Brazilian Drum), it covers a lot of rhythms such as Maracatu, Frevo and, of course, Samba. On my list is “New Breed” (Gary Chester) which I’m planning on beginning this month or maybe the next one.
Overall, I’m quite happy with the results so far. Thinking about the way I used to practice, this 5 months felt like years, it’s a shame I didn’t start it before… if I did, well…. Hahaha, never too late, right?!
As you can see by the “data” I’ll be now leaning towards rhythms and coordination as a main focus, since I’m “ok” with my double bass – as I don’t use it much.
Also, a curiosity:
I’m keeping track of the time spent on each exercise and so on. To practice 1 hour, I waste something like 20 minutes… Sometimes, on weekends, I practice all day (except for the parts I’m eating/bathroom… so on) and I never quantified more than 7 hours of practice although it feels like 12 hours, I’m just REALLY practicing for half of that time, funny, isn’t it? Hope my boss doesn’t do that in my work hours, LOL.
Just wanted to share, below you can see how I write my journal and keep track of the week total time:
08/11/2013 – Duration: 4h 10 min.
Warmup for 10 minutes. Double Bass 8 notes/16 notes/32 notes at 140 BPM for 40 minutes. Tripplets on 160 BPM for 40 minutes. 15 minutes on exercize 28 of the Ency. at 120 BPM. Same BPM exercize 29 for 15 minutes (tried both 140 and 130, can't control it, constantly exchanging left for right everyother bar.) Heel Down straight 16's at 110 BPM for 30 minutes. Double Bass straight 16's with paradiddles on hands at 120 BPM for 30 minutes. 30 minutes playing single strokes at 140 BPM on a pillow, playing 8 notes beteween DB and HI-HAT. 40 minutes playing Paraddidle/Inverted Paradiddle combined at 110 BPM (Trying to focus on the dynamics).
