Finding time to Drum

WyattDrumming

Junior Member
I am just writing up this quick post about how I am really having trouble finding time to play and practice drums. This is something I absolutely love to do. I just don't have the needed time to do it. I just started high school again and have homework obviously, but I also have cross country/Track and Field practice right after school also. I end up getting home usually around 6:00 PM and at that time I start working on homework, studying, and getting myself in a peaceful mind after all the running of that day. I believe I may only be able to drum on the weekends. Hopefully doing weekends only won't deteriorate my ability/skill of play. Any ideas?
 
Sounds like you've got a busy lifestyle. There's really not much I can suggest, other than to re-evaluate your priorities. Obviously school is of the utmost importance, but as far as your extracurriculars go, if you want to drum, you have to make the time yourself.
 
You should join the band program at your school. What are you doing running in track? Concert Band and Marching Band may not be your cup of tea, but the thing is, you're playing a drum. In high school that's all I ever did, it all applies to the music you eventually end up playing.

Not telling you to not do sports if that's your passion, but if you have another passion, there are ways within your educational system to be able to do them. This is a case of learning how to make time for what you love.
 
Does your school have a drumming room that is free over lunch times? Maybe you could sneak in 1 lunchtime a week to get some extra practice. Maybe you could just do pad work during the weekdays and drum kit on the weekends? I probably played around 3 hours a week during school and don't have any regrets about how much time I put in, so if you can find that time on the weekend you should be good. Everyone is different though, only you can judge how much time you need on the kit per week to improve, I had friends that would play 10+ hours a week, but they probably played a bunch of nothing actually useful to increasing their skill set.
 
When my son was in high school just a few years ago practice came first. There were 4-6 ours per day. Then homework. I agree with Bo. Get in the band program at the very least. Doesn't sound like drumming is important enough to you or you'd make the time.
 
Drum pad, drum sticks and 5-10 minutes a day with rudiments or Stick Control will take you a long way.

Good luck with school; glad that is your priority.

GJS
 
I played sports and made music all through school, including running (cross country and track). You just have to get it done.

When you love something enough, you find the time. There's no such thing as "can't." When you say "I can't," I hear "I won't."

Finally, I'm not you and I'm not your coach. But I have to say that if you're not in a peaceful puddle of endorphins after running, there's something amiss. Running always centered me, and after a run I was so peaceful everything was groovy, man, totally groovy.
 
Usually they don't like people who aren't band students coming into the band room and messing with the instruments, so that's not really a good option. I think if you want to be a musician, you should quit track and sign up for band. Right now you're prioritizing music dead last of all the things you are doing-- if you plan on continuing that, you'll just have to get your playing in whenever there's literally nothing else you'd rather be doing.
 
Usually they don't like people who aren't band students coming into the band room and messing with the instruments, so that's not really a good option. I think if you want to be a musician, you should quit track and sign up for band. Right now you're prioritizing music dead last of all the things you are doing-- if you plan on continuing that, you'll just have to get your playing in whenever there's literally nothing else you'd rather be doing.

On the one hand, you could keep your current lifestyle and then use a practice pad and sticks for (at least) 20 or 30 minutes each day, then play your kit on the weekends.

... Or you could look at your life and see if your lifestyle matches up with your priorities. School is obviously very important (who starts school in the beginning of August??) but what are your plans for after graduation? Are you looking into pursuing music as a career, or is it just a hobby? What about Track, is that something that is important to you, or is that just something to do after school?

I don't want to say that you have to re-evaluate your priorities, but just make sure that you are spending time on what's most important to you. If music is important, then you need to move it up on the priority scale and move something else down.
 
I believe I may only be able to drum on the weekends. Hopefully doing weekends only won't deteriorate my ability/skill of play.

There's a big difference between thinking you don't have the time and knowing you don't have the time. Give it a little while and you'll see for yourself. IF you truly want to pursue drumming, you will find the time. Trust me, I went through high school sports as well, and it doesn't get any easier in college. If you want to play, then play.
 
We manage our time, and it's not just for drums but for life in general.

That means we set a priority list, and the things with the greatest priority get done. Everything else does not get done.

So if you want to play drums, some other activity has to stop.
 
Don't quit track..... I repeat..... Don't quit track! There is time for both. I ran like the wind as a young lad (1600 & 3200) and played in A band (not "the" band, though I did take lessons through the school system).

Shut the T.V. off and close the laptop.

I will admit, the academic workload students have today compared to mine in the early 80's seems more demanding.

Practice playing around your kit in 15-20 minute intervals. Maybe between homework and dinner.

Good luck with your time management. It only gets worse as the years pass.
 
I played sports and made music all through school, including running (cross country and track). You just have to get it done.

When you love something enough, you find the time. There's no such thing as "can't." When you say "I can't," I hear "I won't."

Finally, I'm not you and I'm not your coach. But I have to say that if you're not in a peaceful puddle of endorphins after running, there's something amiss. Running always centered me, and after a run I was so peaceful everything was groovy, man, totally groovy.

Heck, when I was in high school I played three sports and STILL formed a rock band outside of school. The thing is, I think things have changed since we were in high school (1970's for me). I was a pretty good student, but I seldom remember having more than about an hour's worth of homework a night. There was just a story in the news yesterday questioning if the amount of homework assigned today is excessive. We're talking kindergarden and 1st grade getting an hour's worth a night (experts recommend only about 10 minutes at that age level) and high school assignments taking 3-4 hours per night. Times have changed...
 
When you'll have kids and a dog to walk and a house to take care of, not mentioning business trips, you'll be sorry you didn't use your free time at high school better :)

It's all a matter of priorities and equipping yourself - practice pad, e-kit...
 
When you'll have kids and a dog to walk and a house to take care of, not mentioning business trips, you'll be sorry you didn't use your free time at high school better :)

It's all a matter of priorities and equipping yourself - practice pad, e-kit...

^^ Perfect. Once you have kids, dogs, house, and work time gets even more scarce. You just gotta manage your time well and you will find a balance where you can still play.
 
Ok so.....you must be returning to HS? Way to go!

When I was in HS several kids were in band and played varsity sports as well. One was an all state wrestler, another swim team, a couple water polo, and several ran track and we had two track seasons per annum. Others were heavily involved with math club, debates, cheer etc etc.

I'd highly recommend focusing on academics first; then running second; them drumming third.

Join the concert band or wind ensemble first. Orchestral drumming will demand reading, rudiments, and stick control as well as knowledge of all the standard percussion instruments which will, believe it or not, transfer directly to your drumset.

Get a big 12 inch practice pad and practice daily. Do it while relaxing in front of a TV if you like. Then maybe get a practice set, or drum on your bed if need be. My parents forbade drums in the house so it was pillows, bed, and air-drumming every night for an hour for me. I listened to tracks with headphones, and taught myself all the drum parts. Then at school or with friends I'd try it on the drumset. Because I was in concert band I was able to hang with the other drummers at lunch break and work on drum stuff. Also, my HS had a drumset in a practice room and if you had a free period you could sign in to that room and practice. That way I got quite a bit of practice without even owning a drum myself.

Practice for me was late at night air/pillow drumming, and during the day on school equipment. If you want to progress faster take lessons. There's no way you can learn all this without someone showing you some skills. Even Buddy Rich watched other drummers play and talked shop.

Good luck to you. Keep academics first. Everything else will fall into place. Dont be afraid to ask other athletes how they manage their time and other activities. I'm sure there's a lot of wisdom walking around those programs....
 
Drop out of school, it's a waste of time anyway.
 
Get up earlier ... ;-) Seriously ..

If you're home for 6 surely you can spare 30 minutes to an hour to play drums? Home work surely can't take you all the way up until bed time.. Also drumming after exercise sounds good to me; you'll be all loosened up.

If it was me, I would find the time while you're young and at school. You have more energy now than you ever will, and more capacity to learn. I wish I spent more time on music when I was young rather than sitting in front of a screen. I'm 37, but even when I was at college and uni there was online chat - complete waste of time, I regret it - but our brains will unfortunately often choose the path of least resistance for stimulation (partly why a screen based life is so popular; its easy), and you have to fight that.

Basically, it sounds like excuses to me.. Sorry..
 
I am just writing up this quick post about how I am really having trouble finding time to play and practice drums. This is something I absolutely love to do. I just don't have the needed time to do it. I just started high school again and have homework obviously, but I also have cross country/Track and Field practice right after school also. I end up getting home usually around 6:00 PM and at that time I start working on homework, studying, and getting myself in a peaceful mind after all the running of that day. I believe I may only be able to drum on the weekends. Hopefully doing weekends only won't deteriorate my ability/skill of play. Any ideas?

What does "getting myself in a peaceful mind" even mean ??

I'm 44. I can quite genuinely tell you that I've never felt the compulsion to spend time "getting myself in a peaceful mind".

Ditch that pretentious crap and whack the hell out of your drums would be my advice.
 
You didn't mention if you had a girlfriend but I'm assuming you don't or else you wouldn't have time to play even on the weekend ; ).

I have 4 young kids (5, 8, 8 & 11) I work in the day & freelance late at night almost every night. That's without counting helping with homework (they do have way way more than when I was at school) and their activities.

So what I do is carry drumstick where ever I go (home office & work office).

Don't ever give up what you love doing and always make time for your health, so sports ARE A MUST don't give that up...EVER! Other stuff (TV, Social Media crap you can do without).

Here's a my practice set-up at work. No joke I really improved my trad grip technique this way.

Good luck
 

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