How often/much do you practice your rudiments?

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savage8190

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Pretty self explanatory...how much to do practice your rudiments?

I only have about an hour a day to practice and I have trouble slotting them in. I feel like I should be doing them more consistently because I'm having some trouble picking up my hand speed.
 
My suggestion would be to vary it up a little. 20 minutes a day for week one and then spend only 5 for the next etc. That way you can devote a week to hand speed and then another to something else while maintaining the progress you have made in the week you focused on them.

For me though, 20 minutes is the bare minimum for seeing any real improvement in a specific area quickly.
 
I keep a Real Feel practice pad on a snare stand nearby at the ready and when I'm not out playing, I do work on the pad drilling a few rudiments for about 30-45 minutes a day. When I was a kid, I'd set up a practice pad in front of the tv and just drill for hours on end when I wasn't in school. When I joined my first drum corps I got to do the same thing, but now wearing the drum and marching all over a field and touring the US.

I miss being a kid when playing was all I had to worry about ;)
 
Everyday. I keep a practice pad in the car and head to the park at lunch. I also keep a pad by my chair in the living room and work on rudiments while watching tv.
 
I spend way more time practicing rudiments on a pad then I do practicing the full kit. I'm lucky in that I gig 4-5 times a week, so I get plenty of kit work in, but when I'm at home I just focus on rudiments.

A couple times a year, I'll set up a kit at home (or at a practice studio) and practice, but most of my efforts are on the pad.
 
Every day. I keep a pad on the coffee table and practice rudiments while watching TV. Probably at least 30 minutes a day.
 
30 to 60 mins per day. Getting your hands working can be just as important as 'kit time'. I wish I did more of it early on.
 
I practised a rudiment once. It was awful.

In all seriousness, I am beyond terrible at structured practising, and I basically never do it. I know I should and I know it shows, but to me it sucks so much of the fun out of playing that I'd rather stop playing than have to sit down and work on rudiments and technique.
 
Maybe I could fit in more time on the pad when I'm watching TV or something. I find it hard to focus with my army of children running around though :).
 
Any time I'm not at the kit or practicing guitar I'm at the pad.

What happens at the pad depends. I'm not necessarily going through a rudiment routine, just working on little things that I feel aren't up to snuff. I can do this for several hours.

I sometimes play the pad while watching TV, but it's more like working on an etude identifying a bar or two that's technically difficult and then isolate that. Working fingers, left hand, left hand matched, a pattern I'm not used to that just needs repetition.

When really going for a routine or an etude there are no distractions.
 
Practice? I remember that...

I do play the whole time I teach lessons locally so that certainly counts for a lot. It's usually not a particular rudiment though, but an exercise isolating a given hand motion. These can be much more effective that many of the rudiments rudiments since you're strategically focusing on one element and really have the chance to perfect it.
 
I keep a pad next to my throne. Not the drum throne. Ewww!

JK!

I only practice when I feel the urge, which goes in cycles. I'm at a point where if I don't practice for a few weeks, it really doesn't detract from the skills I need for gigs. I'd say that the hand/feet skills I need for practicing are greater than the skills I need for gigging. Gigging is easy, fun and enjoyable. Practice for me is fun and challenging and a little enjoyable, but it can't compare to playing out. Playing out is where my overall musical skills/timing/mental focus gets the workout, practice is where the technical/muscle aspect gets the workout. Like at a gig the other day, I tried to slip into the practice mindset in the few minutes I had before we started our first song, and it felt foreign. It's 2 completely different mindsets with me.

But to answer the thread question, no set thing. Whenever I feel like it. Most of my practice energy goes to my weak hand, which isn't that weak anymore, but it still doesn't possess quite the degree of finesse that my dominant hand has.

On a completely unrelated note, I've been liking doing diddleparas. It's more of a mental workout for my brain than paradiddles.
 
every day.. it can rage from 5-30 minutes on the pad. more if the wife is out and I'm just watching tv.

always working on my doubles, diddles, etc.

I will even hit the pad for a bit before going down to the kit.. I do it before playing shows too... I use it for practice.. but also as a warm up.

I can tell you if you want good grooves and fills work on your rudiments. you may not know it now but once you have them and are able to move them around it is night and day.

I WISH someone had showed me how cool you can get your fills sounding once your rudiments are good. I use to play em on a snare or pad and say. this is dumb.. and go back to my annoying 16th note fills around the kit.

Now I can be creative and have some pretty awesome stuff happening without having to work too hard.
 
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