Drum Practice Management Software

zambizzi

Platinum Member
Ya know...being a software engineer geek by day (it's way more creative than it sounds) - I got to thinking. Wouldn't it be cool to have some sort of small application to manage your practice time, what you practice, logging practice, etc.?

I know a lot of us use paper and/or recordings to track these things and measure progress...but we probably all do it differently and wish it could be better.

I recently wrote out a list of things I've learned since I started and it made me think - if this were in a database and easily manageable, it might be useful to other drummers!

I'm thinking it might be laid out to categorize the different types of things a drummer is working on. It could have some sort of calendar where notes could be kept on practice sessions...along w/ sound clips, drum tabs, etc.

Does anyone else think this might be useful? I'd build it and give it away...there's no money in selling software and I already have enough going on in my life. I'm thinking it'd be licensed to be free of charge and freely distributable (open source.)

If yes, throw me some ideas to incorporate. If enough people are interested I'll try to start working on it.
 
Uh... Yeah. I've had the though myself quite a bit. The fear I'll waste a bunch of time on it and not complete it is what has kept me from doing it thus far. I have one of those projects on my flash drive already.:)

My thought was categorizing things into what they work on, like independance, singles, doubles, that kind of thing. Perhaps you could you assign percentages to each excersise as to which skills it works.

Maybe another further categorization could be speed or endurance.

these are just some initial thoughts I've had, obviously there would be more thought needed but it would be nice to be able to quantify some things we practice and be able to looks back to see if you are accomplishing what you would like.

.Net programmer???
 
Uh... Yeah. I've had the though myself quite a bit. The fear I'll waste a bunch of time on it and not complete it is what has kept me from doing it thus far. I have one of those projects on my flash drive already.:)

My thought was categorizing things into what they work on, like independance, singles, doubles, that kind of thing. Perhaps you could you assign percentages to each excersise as to which skills it works.

Maybe another further categorization could be speed or endurance.

these are just some initial thoughts I've had, obviously there would be more thought needed but it would be nice to be able to quantify some things we practice and be able to looks back to see if you are accomplishing what you would like.

.Net programmer???

EXACTLY! It's easy to dream up a project but never actually go anywhere w/ it. As it is, I've got a fairly big one going, outside of work. However, this is something I feel like I need to use to stay organized and keep my practice routine on track.

I actually built a database already and thought about doing a Swing GUI over it (Java). Yes, I'm traditionally a MS programmer (asp.net, C#, etc.) but have moved more into Java in the past couple of years. The grass is greener!

If you're interested in helping out in any way, PM me and we'll talk more.
 
I just finished producing a drum book for my first drum set teacher, Jay Lawrence. His approach is unique. Rather than focussing mostly on rock or technique or Latin, he regulary assigns students across six prongs: technique, reading, jazz, rock, Latin, and musicianship. I use the book to teach my own students, as well because it creates an excellent framework for creating real musicians out of drummers.

I'd love to see an online or app-based practice management software, particularly one that is configurable to allow multiple areas of focus and to then track progress...e.g. a metronome journal for a jazz skill/exercise that not only lets me log my tempos, but shows me progress over time.

I give your idea two thumbs up and offer my own free support...I'm a full-time technical writer and can create both printed and online help materials, to boot.

I'm interested to see what you decide.

Derek
 
If you look up smart music, you could use it to help manage your practice. You can write up a exercise, and play it, and smart music will tell you the note you played (for horn instruments and the such), and whether or not you played the rhythm right.
 
Whoa, I just realized how old the original post was for this topic. Hmmm. I'm guessing it's an idea either dead or gone?
 
I was thinking the same thing. this is an old post but a great idea. Doesn't seem to hard to put a data base together and some scripting.......perhaps open this discussion up again now that there are more commercial options to consider.
 
Back
Top