How often do you guys play?

I forsee this thread developing into a "playing" vs. "practicing" debate. The title of this thread led me to think of playing as performing, or at least playing with other humans, not just practicing for 27 hours a day.
 
how the hell did you get 8hours of practice time a day in highschool! im at school from 9 till 4......an hr and a half kit practice, then study from 7 until 10...then maybe half an hr or so on the pad on my legs , something like that....oh, when i leave school in the summer i'm doing an 8hour a day job on the kit! Then off doing music in college so should have good time there, i have to to make up for the lost time, but i try and make it efficiant

I'm fortunate that I had teachers who understood that I had talent, and didn't care if I skipped out of some classes to play, as long as I maintained an A average, which I could do with my eyes shut. My day basically went like this:

5 AM - Wake Up
6 AM - Go to school, sit behind the kit and practice (1 hour of playing in)
7 AM - Some of the guys from the jazz band would show up and we'd jam (2 hours in)
8 AM - Homeroom was spent in the band room rehearsing (2 hours 20 minutes in)
8:20 AM - Either band or orchestra, alternating every day (3 hours in)
At least one class a day was skipped (with permission) to practice (4 hours in)
12 PM - Lunch in the band room jamming with same guys from morning (4.5 hours in)
After school, if we had marching band practice or jazz practice, that was three hours right there. If not, I would spend that time practicing at home. (7.5 hours in)

When I got home, I would spend a half hour or hour behind the drums, just blowing off steam (that was probably the least "practicing" part of the whole day, just me tearing into the kit and clearing my head), and then start on homework, which usually took about an hour. Then it was either working on a pad, or being on the internet, talking to friends, etc. I would be asleep around midnight, get five hours of sleep, and repeat.
 
I forsee this thread developing into a "playing" vs. "practicing" debate. The title of this thread led me to think of playing as performing, or at least playing with other humans, not just practicing for 27 hours a day.

Well, if you read the first post, it's not about playing out or just jamming with people. With that said, I think that all performances are practices, and all practices with other people are performances.
 
Well, if you read the first post, it's not about playing out or just jamming with people. With that said, I think that all performances are practices, and all practices with other people are performances.

"Jamming" is even more boring than practice! : P
 
"Jamming" is even more boring than practice! : P
Ha! I couldn't agree more - nothing worse than just holding it all down so that everyone else can trade solo's until hell freezes over. Speaking of hell, that's just what I imagine it's like!

If there's any difference between playing and practicing, then I think it's fair to say that I've never practiced a day in my life.

Actually, I have enough things in my life that require discipline, things that pay the bills, that I don't want to be bothered with it when it comes to drumming. That has to stay fun (a playtime activity) or I don't want anything to do with it.
 
Yeah particularly when no one is actually saying anything in their solos. Every time I meet a new musician its always "we should jam sometime"... I usually just smile and nod, but honestly that is the last thing I have time for. I usually just say something like "call me for a gig anytime".
 
Speaking of Jamming;
I have been playing in a band where the bass player had some issues. He would learn the songs and he could play the notes but There was always something missing in his playing.
His timing was awkward, he wouldn't help me through fills and transitions. Not much feeling in his playing!
One day I asked him if he had ever jammed with a drummer before. He said no, he had always played in cover bands and they had never jammed.

I asked him to show up an hour early for our next band practice.
He did and we started to jam, just bass and drums. We did this for several weeks. I would lay down a pocket and put fills in after every 4 or 8 measures. I told him to listen to the beats and fills and play what he felt. I also showed him what I played and how I counted, Etc. I taught him how to think like a drummer.

After about a month of doing this once a week for an hour, He began to improve dramatically! He could feel out everything that I and the band played and respond to us.

Jamming is and important part of band development. We now set aside about a half hour of practice time for the whole band to just jam together.
It is a little boring for me sometimes, But the benefits outweigh the tediousness.

Sorry to drift from topic.
 
Jamming is and important part of band development. We now set aside about a half hour of practice time for the whole band to just jam together.
It is a little boring for me sometimes, But the benefits outweigh the tediousness.

Damn good idea, Bob. Tedious? I like jamming more than anything!

Early January our singer was on hols so we did some bad vocals in some songs, played a couple as instrumentals, and jammed. The high point of the evening for me was a sprawling 17-minute jam on a couple of themes where everyone had a solo and the last 5 minutes or so were completely spaced out - almost like early Pink Floyd at times.

Tedious? I call it a breath of fresh air :)
 
I'm fortunate that I had teachers who understood that I had talent, and didn't care if I skipped out of some classes to play, as long as I maintained an A average, which I could do with my eyes shut. My day basically went like this:

5 AM - Wake Up
6 AM - Go to school, sit behind the kit and practice (1 hour of playing in)
7 AM - Some of the guys from the jazz band would show up and we'd jam (2 hours in)
8 AM - Homeroom was spent in the band room rehearsing (2 hours 20 minutes in)
8:20 AM - Either band or orchestra, alternating every day (3 hours in)
At least one class a day was skipped (with permission) to practice (4 hours in)
12 PM - Lunch in the band room jamming with same guys from morning (4.5 hours in)
After school, if we had marching band practice or jazz practice, that was three hours right there. If not, I would spend that time practicing at home. (7.5 hours in)

When I got home, I would spend a half hour or hour behind the drums, just blowing off steam (that was probably the least "practicing" part of the whole day, just me tearing into the kit and clearing my head), and then start on homework, which usually took about an hour. Then it was either working on a pad, or being on the internet, talking to friends, etc. I would be asleep around midnight, get five hours of sleep, and repeat.

i gotta start getting up early! pitty though i can only play behind a kit for an hour and a half a day, at most, if i got up early it would just be me playing stuff on my knee
 
Jamming is and important part of band development. ...But the benefits outweigh the tediousness.
Okay, fair enough. When I was a teenager and playing with my brother and his friends, that was all we did was jam. Later in high school with another set of musician buddies, that was still all I was ever doing. But it was great from a musical development perspective. We were doing jam versions of songs from Santana, Jeff Beck (Freeway Jam, Lead Boots), Larry Coryell, etc., and some originals jams.

I think the reason I'm so burned out on jamming is that I was overexposed to it at an early age, and never got to play a "song" until I was in my 20s. Then I got thoroughly hooked on the songwriting process and never looked back.

It still is obvious to me even now who hasn't been through that phase in their development, because they're utterly incapable, or just don't have the ears to come up with something on the fly. Even when in depths of songwriting mode, you need to have that ability.

Apologies for equating jamming with some hellish pastime!
 
I was agreeing with you Mike. Jamming can be torture sometimes. I was like you, I spent years jamming. It still is a necessary means to an end sometimes. It also does have its great moments!
 
I was agreeing with you Mike. Jamming can be torture sometimes. I was like you, I spent years jamming. It still is a necessary means to an end sometimes. It also does have its great moments!

I don't get it. What's torturous about jamming? Improv (in any area of life) is the funnest [sic] thing ever!

If the musos are competent and unselfish and you're being a slave to the rhythm it can't go wrong. Especially fun if you have a vocalist who can make up words on the fly. Is it the lack of structure and the danger of doing some seriously stinky work?
 
I don't get it. What's torturous about jamming? Improv (in any area of life) is the funnest [sic] thing ever!

If the musos are competent and unselfish and you're being a slave to the rhythm it can't go wrong. Especially fun if you have a vocalist who can make up words on the fly. Is it the lack of structure and the danger of doing some seriously stinky work?

I think you're right, it's the lack of structure that doesn't appeal to me. Maybe not so much doing something seriously stinky, but more like, "well if I'd known that was going to be there, I wouldn't have..." You know?

It might be my Neil Peart influence, but I really enjoy being able to set up a drum part than I can sort of craft or fashion into something interesting that moves with the song, rather than just guessing at it all the time. I also like knowing where all the changes are going to be (without them always being super-predictable) and when and how the song is going to end. Also, arranging the song allows for some unconventional, experimental, or unexpected parts and changes.

Unlike Neil Peart, though, I never play the same song the same way twice. I just like to know where I am in a song. Maybe within a song, there's room for open sections that aren't quite worked out all the way, so that getting through is more like surfing a wave where you're just rolling with it, but you can pretty closely guess how much time you have before that wave crashes into the beach.

Last thing is that I'm thoroughly burned out on the idea of everyone taking solos. It used to be every song had to have at least one. It's just a form that I'm not terribly fond of anymore, maybe never really was. My favorite feature of the grunge movement was the near extinction of the solo.

I was agreeing with you Mike. Jamming can be torture sometimes. I was like you, I spent years jamming. It still is a necessary means to an end sometimes. It also does have its great moments!
Sorry about that Bob, I misread the intent of your post.
 
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i gotta start getting up early! pitty though i can only play behind a kit for an hour and a half a day, at most, if i got up early it would just be me playing stuff on my knee

Yeah, getting up early really helped me out! And while it's a bummer that you might have to use the knee, or the pad, or whatever, it's still a great chance to develop. I now live in an apartment where I can't have a kit set up. I play my kit at multiple shows a week, and at band rehearsals, but I can't actually play a kit at home at all...and yet, I still improve from all the pad practice.
 
I don't get it. What's torturous about jamming? Improv (in any area of life) is the funnest [sic] thing ever!

If the musos are competent and unselfish and you're being a slave to the rhythm it can't go wrong. Especially fun if you have a vocalist who can make up words on the fly. Is it the lack of structure and the danger of doing some seriously stinky work?
When you have jammed for many years you look forward to set structure with a slight bit of improv.
Don't forget I played in numerous Grateful Dead/Phish like jam bands. It gets old after a while.
The band is jamming and everything is going fine, Then the band comes to a point in the song and everyone looks at each other for direction while I smash cymbals to hide the train wreak! LOL
 
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When you have jammed for many years you look forward to set structure with a slight bit of improv.

Don't forget I played in numerous Grateful Dead/Phish like jam bands. It gets old after a while.

The band is jamming and everything is going fine, Then the band comes to a point in the song and everyone looks at each other for direction while I smash cymbals to hide the train wreak! LOL

Bawb, I've jammed lots and lots. Everything from jamming out songs to completely freeform noodle-fests. I think what happened is my last "serious" band in the mid-80s was 100% scripted. Every beat was the same every time. The next few bands allowed for some looseness but the song structures were still set by the bar. Same with the current band. It's been a long time since I played in a band where songs would have free sections that returned to the arrangement at a cue rather than a bar count.

MikeM said:
Unlike Neil Peart, though, I never play the same song the same way twice. I just like to know where I am in a song. Maybe within a song, there's room for open sections that aren't quite worked out all the way, so that getting through is more like surfing a wave where you're just rolling with it, but you can pretty closely guess how much time you have before that wave crashes into the beach.

Last thing is that I'm thoroughly burned out on the idea of everyone taking solos. It used to be every song had to have at least one. It's just a form that I'm not terribly fond of anymore, maybe never really was. My favorite feature of the grunge movement was the near extinction of the solo.

Yes, I rarely play songs exactly the same way twice these days, usually because I have a bad memory :) As a child of the 60s and 70s I still enjoy solos but in a "normal" song I like solos to "sing" - to continue the tale told by the vocalist, not just playing the melody but keeping the vibe going.
 
Minimum 2 hours a day...

30 minutes on a pillow

30 on the practice pad

and 1 hour on the drumset...
 
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