Hey everyone, just wondering how some of you keep yourselves motivated to practice day in and day out. I love drumming more than words can describe, but I recently started my first full time job and just been busy with life and it’s becoming increasingly difficult to get myself to just get up and go play, especially on days where I’m just worn out from working all day long.
Motivation
- Thread starter tszach56
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johnwesley
Silver Member
I take that you're young since you just got your first full time job. Get into a schedule, stick with it, and work the drum playing in rather than vid games, TV, whatever. You may not love playing drums as much as love the idea of playing drums. Big difference. As a musician, which is what drummers are no matter what guitarists think, you have to have passion. That passion includes discipline to schedule, though not to the extent that it becomes a job. Again, you need to love playing drums and creating/recreating rhythms etc. that are equivalent to the best thing you've ever experienced.
When I started as a 12 year old kid, I played minimum 3 hours a day, every day after school. Five to six hours a day weekends. Once I hit 15 and started hanging out with "real" musicians I played 6 hours a day every day. By 16 years old, high school was just 5 hours a day. The rest of the day I played drums, joined a band, started getting gigs. Thank God for short HS days and advanced study which got me out of high school a year early. Now in addition to playing in a band and starting to make money, I was playing drums no less than 8 hours a day. I loved drums not just the idea of them. The passion was there and so was I. You my friend need to find that passion and work it into a schedule. Good luck.
When I started as a 12 year old kid, I played minimum 3 hours a day, every day after school. Five to six hours a day weekends. Once I hit 15 and started hanging out with "real" musicians I played 6 hours a day every day. By 16 years old, high school was just 5 hours a day. The rest of the day I played drums, joined a band, started getting gigs. Thank God for short HS days and advanced study which got me out of high school a year early. Now in addition to playing in a band and starting to make money, I was playing drums no less than 8 hours a day. I loved drums not just the idea of them. The passion was there and so was I. You my friend need to find that passion and work it into a schedule. Good luck.
I practice nearly every day!
I nearly practiced on Monday, nearly practiced on Tuesday, nearly practiced on Wednesday...
Actually I'm practicing a little about once a week to make sure my limbs still move, can still do a nice roll, and I can play with a click/loop. But not trying to learn anything new right now, just making sure I don't lose what I have.
I nearly practiced on Monday, nearly practiced on Tuesday, nearly practiced on Wednesday...
Actually I'm practicing a little about once a week to make sure my limbs still move, can still do a nice roll, and I can play with a click/loop. But not trying to learn anything new right now, just making sure I don't lose what I have.
I'm 61, and I get about 1-3 hours on practice pad work daily.
Every evening, 2 hours of playing my drumset; practice, playing along to music, and recording myself.
I love the drums. I love cymbals.
There's always something I can't execute.
I also make some comfort-zone time to play along to music I love and / or want to learn.
I love music!
Drums are my biggest passion!
Every evening, 2 hours of playing my drumset; practice, playing along to music, and recording myself.
I love the drums. I love cymbals.
There's always something I can't execute.
I also make some comfort-zone time to play along to music I love and / or want to learn.
I love music!
Drums are my biggest passion!
NUTHA JASON
Senior Administrator
now well into my third decade of drumming i can look back and say my path has been a series of drives and stalls. when i have reason to practice i make time (joined new bands, had recording gigs, wrote a book, depped for other drummers, teaching advanced pupils, even moderating this forum) but i also hit doldrums where i just don't feel like practicing. sometimes for weeks on end. i took up ukulele and found that when my drumming lulled i was practicing uke. but one thing i'll tell you - after a few weeks off practicing i really enjoy getting back into it and often find bizarrely that i am stronger - perhaps all you need is a break occasionally.
Al Strange
Platinum Member
I have sticks all over the house and have a knock when I can. I don’t even think about practice, it’s just something I do...every day without fail I’ll pick up my sticks, even while watching tv I’ll have a knock on my legs, or top up my stick tricks. My wife is awesome!!?
SomeBadDrummer
Platinum Member
I love the drums. I love cymbals. There's always something I can't execute. I also make some comfort-zone time to play along to music I love and / or want to learn. I love music! Drums are my biggest passion! [/QUOTE said:
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rhumbagirl
Senior Member
Without doing a full triage on you, practice generally depends on knowledge. You need to know what to do to make yourself better. Hand technique is a good starting point, and you can find videos online, and you can practice on a pad anywhere, anytime.
gustavowoltman
New Member
Everyone is motivated by different things. Understanding what motivates you can make the difference between success and failure.
rhumbagirl
Senior Member
I guess I did assume something there about motivation. With the exception to taking lessons in the 7th grade on snare rudiments and hand technique, I've been self-taught. So I've always ran into brick walls in my progress because of lack of knowledge. And that has affected me in my motivation.
So if it's as simple as the OP says... they know what they need to work on but they've run out of time at the end of the day, then that's something else.
GetAgrippa
Diamond Member
I'm literally "addicted" to drums-if I don't get to play daily I have withdrawals. I've always had a hyperactive brain-just runs like that friggin bunny-I use to have huge issues with sleeping. I think I'm like the bug and the drums the zapper-I was "drawn" to them at an early age. Drumming seems to pacify me to think clearly about other things while I'm drumming-when I was into research some of my best ideas came while drumming. I think there is something biological/psychological about that (like schizophrenic craving tobacco-self medicating). Now I had a long hiatus from early 20's to early 30s when I started back-but that was a hectic/crazy period in my life and that outcome probably cause I quit playing LOL. I find it very medicating, primal, and biologically meditative and medicative. I practice everyday. A habit I've only adopted in recent years is I play rudiments hands and feet-sticks and brushes-everyday now. Huge improvements just from that. But I like to play along to music and people posting videos on here is a constant source of inspiration and challenge where I'll give it a go. Even that metal video of the dude with huge calves blasting-epic failure!!!!! But my funk and jazz have improved dramatically from suggestions of posters on here. But I'm in no real hurry to improve honestly-if I was I would done so-I just enjoy the journey. If I lost drums what a huge void there would be-which progressively losing my hearing really scares me. But I'm not going to quit playing, which I did entertain that idiotic idea thinking I may save my hearing which isn't likely my Doc told me. I need to learn to sight read better and maybe have some kind of visual cue/metronome so I can read and play with music even if completely deaf-I know there are deaf musicians and all deaf bands. Just have to adapt. I have such a hard time communicating with people (esp. now with masks)-and I keep yelling at everyone my wife tells me. Dammit!!!
No Way Jose
Silver Member
Quit the job. Get fired. Then you'll have lots of time and energy.
I used to play everyday. Work, school, didnt matter. I would work 10 hours in a hot warehouse moving books around, then go run my feet for two hours. My own progress was my motivation. That was 15 to about 26.
Once I stopped gigging, my motivation became about enjoying drums, not just being good at them. So now I play when I feel like it. It might be every day, it might just be on a monday. It doesnt matter at this point, I have a family and more pressing responsibilities that take precedence over drumming. They (drums) are there to make me feel good at this point, no more no less.
In a touch of irony, since I stopped being serious and more casual about drumming, I've learned things I would have never considered when I was gigging. I feel like stopping gigging was the best thing I could have done.
Once I stopped gigging, my motivation became about enjoying drums, not just being good at them. So now I play when I feel like it. It might be every day, it might just be on a monday. It doesnt matter at this point, I have a family and more pressing responsibilities that take precedence over drumming. They (drums) are there to make me feel good at this point, no more no less.
In a touch of irony, since I stopped being serious and more casual about drumming, I've learned things I would have never considered when I was gigging. I feel like stopping gigging was the best thing I could have done.
Lol, get fired first. Then you can collect unemployment and get paid while you practice.
Cmdr. Ross
Platinum Member
THIS!
I read a great article about a teacher who was asked, "who makes the best practice pad?" His answer was, "Whichever one motivates you to practice."
That drive to pick up the sticks & work the hands is what you want. If it's a pad, drum kit or pillow, work it!!
You got this OP!!
? ?
SomeBadDrummer
Platinum Member
GetAgrippa- you are sincerely awesome inspiration. I’ve played since a kid, but similarly took years off (when my kids were young there didn’t seem to be time and sold everything), until very recently when I was gifted a shell kit and added the cymbals and hardware needed. My only challenge today is that my wife isn’t musical at all, can’t carry a tune in a bag and let’s just say I play more and louder than she’d like. I empathize with you about the hearing issue, my dad has played bass and guitar for nearly 70 years and has had tinnitus for many years, I guess it goes with the territory of musicians.
C.M. Jones
Diamond Member
I'm fortunate in that I've always been intrinsically motivated to drum. I possess an innate affinity for all things drumming. It centers my mind, nurtures my body, and assures me that the universe is permeated by purposeful structure. A calming air of transcendental security infuses me when I drum. Whether I'm practicing alone, performing live, or executing a studio session, the pulse of drumming regulates my spirit, expelling shapeless uncertainties and taming vague anxieties. Were I to abandon drumming, my atomic alignment would disburse. I'd disintegrate at the molecular level, and my essence would be condemned to eternal eviction. I have no desire to be a homeless phantom. Drumming will always keep me in residence.
Xstr8edgtnrdrmrX
Local Boob
every day, I see/hear someone do something that I can't, and that motivates me. I have always been internally competitive, and feed off of that. That is why I got into and love drum corps. If one of my students comes down to the band room, and plays something, I HAVE to be able to do it at least at their level, if not better. And they know it...they always have "challenges" for me. It keeps me young, and up to date on what is hip!! Recently it has been double bass speed, and "new" rudiments
I am also the product of my father, who is ultra-tenacious when it comes to finishing a project, and doing it right. I love repping. I love the mundane, and the elusive, and the pursuit of perfection of either. No excuses. I will play 8 on hand for 6 hours trying to perfect motion and space control and sound quality in my stroke. I will spend 6 hours trying to figure out 4 mallet passages on marimba...I give no weight to one thing being "more important" to practice than another.
and like GEtaGrippa mentioned, it is a true addiction....I always have sticks in my hands, and the feel of my hands interacting with each other, and bouncing off a surface is totally cathartic. It helps quell my ODC and my Type A personality issues. I am always tapping, or leg is bouncing; songs and rhythms are always going through my head
music in general is my religion; it is my Zen; I never want to be stagnant in my pursuit of musical knowledge. There is so much that I want to soak in before I can not anymore...
I am also the product of my father, who is ultra-tenacious when it comes to finishing a project, and doing it right. I love repping. I love the mundane, and the elusive, and the pursuit of perfection of either. No excuses. I will play 8 on hand for 6 hours trying to perfect motion and space control and sound quality in my stroke. I will spend 6 hours trying to figure out 4 mallet passages on marimba...I give no weight to one thing being "more important" to practice than another.
and like GEtaGrippa mentioned, it is a true addiction....I always have sticks in my hands, and the feel of my hands interacting with each other, and bouncing off a surface is totally cathartic. It helps quell my ODC and my Type A personality issues. I am always tapping, or leg is bouncing; songs and rhythms are always going through my head
music in general is my religion; it is my Zen; I never want to be stagnant in my pursuit of musical knowledge. There is so much that I want to soak in before I can not anymore...