Practice Plan Advice

[Chopstix44]

Good morning, I’m using a practice plan to organize my practice sessions. I’m practicing 4-5 days a week for 1h on average per practice day.

At moment my schedule looks like that:

Warm-up:
16ths Single Stroke Roll with moving accents - 2 min

Triplets with moving accents in 12/8 - 2 min

Double Stroke roll alternating between 8ths and 16ths - 2,min

Single Paradiddle alternating between 8ths and 16ths - 2 min

_

Independence:
12/8 drum beat with moving accents on bass drum - 3 min
16th hand foot coordination exercises with slide technique‘ish double strokes - 3 min
_

Styles/Songs:
The Sugarhill Gang - Rappers Delight - 3 min
Killerpilze - Nimm mich mit (with Song and w/o)
Brdigung - Brennt den Club ab (with Song and w/o)

As I have issues with especially the last song mentioned chorus I got introduced to two more independence exercises and I also got introduced to the basics of calypso (I guess it’s called „Soco“).

Now if you have still mistakes such as playing wrong things within the pattern or when you’ve got the timing solid and most of the time no mistakes in other exercises. Would you still drop them for now to add the three new exercises or how would you incorporate it to your practice session?

Adding it on top and extending your practice time or would you drop something for now?

Hope you can help me out.

Have a great day/evening/night !

 

[JimmyM]

That’s a little too rigid for me to plan out practice sessions to that degree. I pretty much take as long as I need to work on improving whatever I’m doing, or at least till my attention span runs out.

Would I add onto my workload without perfecting what I was doing before? Possibly if I was far enough along where I thought getting it down was within reach within the next couple days. But I think you might want to be less concerned with the time you spend on any one thing and let yourself expand or shorten the time depending on how you think you’re doing.

 

[Xstr8edgtnrdrmrX]

I like the layout of your plan!! My only suggestion would be to add to, or find other things to use during the warm up period...maybe add some Stone Stick Control exercises, or flam rudiment stuff, just to keep it fresh

I break my practicing up into hands time on one day, and drum set on the next....that gives me more time to do both

 

[Chopstix44]

That’s a little too rigid for me to plan out practice sessions to that degree. I pretty much take as long as I need to work on improving whatever I’m doing, or at least till my attention span runs out.

Would I add onto my workload without perfecting what I was doing before? Possibly if I was far enough along where I thought getting it down was within reach within the next couple days. But I think you might want to be less concerned with the time you spend on any one thing and let yourself expand or shorten the time depending on how you think you’re doing.

Well, I was keeping it like that for a long time and started to think about what to work on when I started practicing but then I got pointed to scheduling it out.

I like the layout of your plan!! My only suggestion would be to add to, or find other things to use during the warm up period...maybe add some Stone Stick Control exercises, or flam rudiment stuff, just to keep it fresh

I break my practicing up into hands time on one day, and drum set on the next....that gives me more time to do both

Thank you! Then I’ll add it.
Well, you probably will laugh now but… yet I haven’t been taught many rudiments. Doubles and Paradiddle were something I taught myself when I was self taught but the way there understanding and getting it down was… I hadn’t any clue what I was doing. So yeah, yet I only know these 4.

So you mix it up? And play one day just Rudiments and the next just Drumset?

Interesting method. How many days do you practice a week?

My only issue is that I can’t play drumset 7 days a week because I’m living in an apartment and although I seem to have very chilled neighbors as they don’t bother an acoustic set with only meshheads on the batter while on the Resos are still normal resos and some low volume cymbals during working days at between even 10:30 AM local time to rarely 8:00 PM but I bet they would hate me practicing at Sundays and holidays.

So usually it is like:

Mo, Tues, Thurs, Fri, Sat = Practice

On Wednesday I have lessons when there aren’t school breaks (in my country music schools open and close using the regular school breaks which are state based) so usually I’m so busy that there is usually no practice on Wednesdays, when there are holidays I’d practice on Wednesdays as well and therefore have the opportunity to play 6 times a week.

 

[Jonathan Curtis]

Hi @Chopstix44 , interesting questions.

I used to think a lot about "routines", and would obsess about creating the perfect routine, scheduling it all to the minute, and all that.

My honest opinion these days it that it's a waste of time, for a few simple reasons. Genuine improvement requires a number of things:

- Achievable and measurable goals
- Focused repetition geared towards those goals
- Critical feedback to bridge the gap between current and desired ability

A catch-all practice routine doesn't allow for any of this. You talk about doing 2 minutes of this or that rudiment. 2 minutes will achieve literally nothing in neurological terms. Your brain and nervous system need time to understand that there is a pattern being repeated, understand that there is a desire to improve efficiency with that pattern, and to integrate certain processes to allow for that to happen. That takes many thousands of repetitions over sustained weeks of regular reinforcement.

It is my opinion that truly successful practice needs to be considered in the same way as an athlete attempting to improve in one specific event. Imagine you are trying to be an Olympic 100 meter sprinter. You want to be the best and win the race, right? The routine you describe could be likened to a simple fitness routine: a few press ups and sit ups, some light stretching, skipping, a 1km jog; that's fine for people to do regularly, and will sustain a half decent level of fitness, but it is not achieving the stated goal: improving the 100 meter sprint. Instead, you would need to gear the training to do things that specifically improve sprinting: leg strength training, form, starting, sustaining speed through each phase; you get my point.

Bringing this back to drums, having taught and played professionally for over decade, I am 100% convinced that general practice routines are a waste of time. Instead, we need to define a clear goal and work towards it until we achieve it.

This might look like the following:

Goal - To play "Gingersnap" by Pratt at the written tempo
This gives us a very clear goal that is measurable and achievable. We can then gear our practice towards this. We may find it contains a specific rudimental application that we are unfamiliar with. Therefore, we can isolate it and practice it with focused repetition, then plug it back into the overall context, which is the piece.

Approaching it in this way not only addresses real applications of drumming, but gives you something tangible at the end: the ability to play the piece!

You can gear your goals to whatever you want to achieve. You listed a few songs to play along to. Why not use those as complete goals, where you tackle the exact groove and the associated coordination, the particular fills, during which you extrapolate them and internalise the underlying concept and vocabulary, and rudimental applications, etc.

Hopefully you take my point. Over the decades I have been playing, I have attempted and failed hundreds of "perfect" practice routines. In the end, all of my progress comes from working towards clearly defined goals. For me, these are usually particular pieces I am working on, which push my technique and concept in a particular direction.

A few months ago, I did a video about this where I talk through my entire practice session, outline why I'm doing it, and try to link it back to everything I have just suggested. Give it a watch and it might give you something to think about. Let me know your thoughts and we can discuss further if you like:

 

[OHD]

I agree with @Jonathan Curtis, I would stick to one or two things that you want/need to improve (you could tackle one need and one want per practice session for example), and build the whole practice on them. It could be a song from your band, a style you want to get proficient or a lick/pattern that seems cool and you would like to improvise with. It doesn't matter what it is, but the key is that it has to matter to YOU. Forget what others tell you (especially online), think & feel for yourself: "what do I need to work on?"

Warming up in this case, unless you are trying some extreme stuff right out of the gate, is more mental than physical. Just do whatever you are planning on practicing but in a lighter/slower/more relaxed way. Get your hands moving & the blood flowing, but more importantly, get your mind engaged.

Then go through the exercises, introduce some variations, and apply them to music ASAP. That's where you prime the stuff to come up on your playing without forcing it. One hour gives you plenty of time to develop a couple of ideas.

That's the gist of it. Let me know if it helps!

 

[I-P]

Not to blow smoke up JC, but his fulcrum, finger, etc videos on YouTube have been the thing to kick my slack ass into focus and result. Something I have been lacking for years.

 

[Jonathan Curtis]

Not to blow smoke up JC, but his fulcrum, finger, etc videos on YouTube have been the thing to kick my slack ass into focus and result. Something I have been lacking for years.

Please, blow away!

(In all serious, thank you, I'm glad they helped!)

 

[Bozozoid]

Hi @Chopstix44 , interesting questions.

I used to think a lot about "routines", and would obsess about creating the perfect routine, scheduling it all to the minute, and all that.

My honest opinion these days it that it's a waste of time, for a few simple reasons. Genuine improvement requires a number of things:

- Achievable and measurable goals
- Focused repetition geared towards those goals
- Critical feedback to bridge the gap between current and desired ability

A catch-all practice routine doesn't allow for any of this. You talk about doing 2 minutes of this or that rudiment. 2 minutes will achieve literally nothing in neurological terms. Your brain and nervous system need time to understand that there is a pattern being repeated, understand that there is a desire to improve efficiency with that pattern, and to integrate certain processes to allow for that to happen. That takes many thousands of repetitions over sustained weeks of regular reinforcement.

It is my opinion that truly successful practice needs to be considered in the same way as an athlete attempting to improve in one specific event. Imagine you are trying to be an Olympic 100 meter sprinter. You want to be the best and win the race, right? The routine you describe could be likened to a simple fitness routine: a few press ups and sit ups, some light stretching, skipping, a 1km jog; that's fine for people to do regularly, and will sustain a half decent level of fitness, but it is not achieving the stated goal: improving the 100 meter sprint. Instead, you would need to gear the training to do things that specifically improve sprinting: leg strength training, form, starting, sustaining speed through each phase; you get my point.

Bringing this back to drums, having taught and played professionally for over decade, I am 100% convinced that general practice routines are a waste of time. Instead, we need to define a clear goal and work towards it until we achieve it.

This might look like the following:

Goal - To play "Gingersnap" by Pratt at the written tempo
This gives us a very clear goal that is measurable and achievable. We can then gear our practice towards this. We may find it contains a specific rudimental application that we are unfamiliar with. Therefore, we can isolate it and practice it with focused repetition, then plug it back into the overall context, which is the piece.

Approaching it in this way not only addresses real applications of drumming, but gives you something tangible at the end: the ability to play the piece!

You can gear your goals to whatever you want to achieve. You listed a few songs to play along to. Why not use those as complete goals, where you tackle the exact groove and the associated coordination, the particular fills, during which you extrapolate them and internalise the underlying concept and vocabulary, and rudimental applications, etc.

Hopefully you take my point. Over the decades I have been playing, I have attempted and failed hundreds of "perfect" practice routines. In the end, all of my progress comes from working towards clearly defined goals. For me, these are usually particular pieces I am working on, which push my technique and concept in a particular direction.

A few months ago, I did a video about this where I talk through my entire practice session, outline why I'm doing it, and try to link it back to everything I have just suggested. Give it a watch and it might give you something to think about. Let me know your thoughts and we can discuss further if you like:

Whoa...love your answer...what a great thread and responses. I'm reading all closely and taking what I need for my way back into the game. This thread is gold to me .

 

[Jeff Almeyda]

Hi @Chopstix44 , interesting questions.

I used to think a lot about "routines", and would obsess about creating the perfect routine, scheduling it all to the minute, and all that.

My honest opinion these days it that it's a waste of time, for a few simple reasons. Genuine improvement requires a number of things:

- Achievable and measurable goals
- Focused repetition geared towards those goals
- Critical feedback to bridge the gap between current and desired ability

A catch-all practice routine doesn't allow for any of this. You talk about doing 2 minutes of this or that rudiment. 2 minutes will achieve literally nothing in neurological terms. Your brain and nervous system need time to understand that there is a pattern being repeated, understand that there is a desire to improve efficiency with that pattern, and to integrate certain processes to allow for that to happen. That takes many thousands of repetitions over sustained weeks of regular reinforcement.

It is my opinion that truly successful practice needs to be considered in the same way as an athlete attempting to improve in one specific event. Imagine you are trying to be an Olympic 100 meter sprinter. You want to be the best and win the race, right? The routine you describe could be likened to a simple fitness routine: a few press ups and sit ups, some light stretching, skipping, a 1km jog; that's fine for people to do regularly, and will sustain a half decent level of fitness, but it is not achieving the stated goal: improving the 100 meter sprint. Instead, you would need to gear the training to do things that specifically improve sprinting: leg strength training, form, starting, sustaining speed through each phase; you get my point.

Bringing this back to drums, having taught and played professionally for over decade, I am 100% convinced that general practice routines are a waste of time. Instead, we need to define a clear goal and work towards it until we achieve it.

This might look like the following:

Goal - To play "Gingersnap" by Pratt at the written tempo
This gives us a very clear goal that is measurable and achievable. We can then gear our practice towards this. We may find it contains a specific rudimental application that we are unfamiliar with. Therefore, we can isolate it and practice it with focused repetition, then plug it back into the overall context, which is the piece.

Approaching it in this way not only addresses real applications of drumming, but gives you something tangible at the end: the ability to play the piece!

You can gear your goals to whatever you want to achieve. You listed a few songs to play along to. Why not use those as complete goals, where you tackle the exact groove and the associated coordination, the particular fills, during which you extrapolate them and internalise the underlying concept and vocabulary, and rudimental applications, etc.

Hopefully you take my point. Over the decades I have been playing, I have attempted and failed hundreds of "perfect" practice routines. In the end, all of my progress comes from working towards clearly defined goals. For me, these are usually particular pieces I am working on, which push my technique and concept in a particular direction.

A few months ago, I did a video about this where I talk through my entire practice session, outline why I'm doing it, and try to link it back to everything I have just suggested. Give it a watch and it might give you something to think about. Let me know your thoughts and we can discuss further if you like:

This is a fantastic post. Couldn’t agree more

 

[Duck Tape]

That looks like an okay routine, I would ask if you have trouble with those particular “moving accent” or grid exercises or if you just like to play through them everyday?

Reason I ask is - I fell into a trap of thinking I needed to do them everyday long after I understood them and could play them on demand. If you have trouble with them, then I would agree with Jonathan, definitely shed them a little longer each day, and if you can identify which notes you actually have difficulty with, then focus more on those. I don’t think anyone needs to rehearse playing a bass drum on the ‘1’ for anymore than a few bars, but you might suck at the ‘a’.

My initial thoughts though, were not to do the same things every day. Accrue a number of exercises that benefit you and have a day 1 and day 2 to cycle through, and as you pick up new things to practice add a day 3 etc. And by exercises I don’t just mean exercises, have musical and creative topics e.g 1 hour of songs with complex ghost notes, or drumless songs.

Personally I used to just write a list and my work for the week was to complete the list each and every week, the only punishment of course is to feel bad/guilt about not doing your homework (but I rarely let myself down), and the reward is ticking off each item on your list.

If you would like some suggestions on things that helped me develop you are welcome to ask, I don’t want to rant on for no reason, you can even pm me if you like.

Edit: I will add that in no way am I accomplished, I only speak about my routine in a past tense because I have entered a new stage where I feel I am “prescribing” myself new exercises based on my weaknesses and quite done with repeating the same old things, because i) I can do them easily ii) I am no longer improving at them iii) playing them is now boring and the tedium can actually make me worse at performing them.

 

[Mhm]

I have a similar routine to you, in the sense that I have a detailed plan (including time spent in each exercise) of what i'm working on.

For example, after a 6 year hiatus, I'm coming back into drums, especially double bass drumming and blast beats.

Now, my routine is as follows (at the highest BPM where i can maintain a relaxed and controlled execution):
Different types of blast beats with both feet and R and L hand lead - 10 minutes
Double pedal subdivision pyramid over basic groove (4s, 8s, 8s triplets, 16s and 16s triplets) - 10 minutes
Then I do specific weak foot exercises (different patterns suggested by Larnell Lewis, video on youtube) - 5 mins
Rudiments with my feet (singles, doubles, 3 notes on each, 4 notes on each, paradiddle and its variations) - 1 minute per pattern (total of 8 minutes)

Knowing that i want to work on other things as well (groove, coordination, playing to songs, etc), but trying to remain as focused as possible on the subject, I established specific BPM goals per exercise.

I also do hand exercises (1 page each day of stick control and 1 page of accents and rebounds per practice session) and working on hand + foot combos.

In total I practice for about 1 hours, no rests, focused session, including a hand + feet warmup.

I feel that working this way has given me positive results, however sometimes I feel that I might not be as "productive" as I could be.

 

[Chopstix44]

Hi @Chopstix44 , interesting questions.

I used to think a lot about "routines", and would obsess about creating the perfect routine, scheduling it all to the minute, and all that.

My honest opinion these days it that it's a waste of time, for a few simple reasons. Genuine improvement requires a number of things:

- Achievable and measurable goals
- Focused repetition geared towards those goals
- Critical feedback to bridge the gap between current and desired ability

A catch-all practice routine doesn't allow for any of this. You talk about doing 2 minutes of this or that rudiment. 2 minutes will achieve literally nothing in neurological terms. Your brain and nervous system need time to understand that there is a pattern being repeated, understand that there is a desire to improve efficiency with that pattern, and to integrate certain processes to allow for that to happen. That takes many thousands of repetitions over sustained weeks of regular reinforcement.

It is my opinion that truly successful practice needs to be considered in the same way as an athlete attempting to improve in one specific event. Imagine you are trying to be an Olympic 100 meter sprinter. You want to be the best and win the race, right? The routine you describe could be likened to a simple fitness routine: a few press ups and sit ups, some light stretching, skipping, a 1km jog; that's fine for people to do regularly, and will sustain a half decent level of fitness, but it is not achieving the stated goal: improving the 100 meter sprint. Instead, you would need to gear the training to do things that specifically improve sprinting: leg strength training, form, starting, sustaining speed through each phase; you get my point.

Bringing this back to drums, having taught and played professionally for over decade, I am 100% convinced that general practice routines are a waste of time. Instead, we need to define a clear goal and work towards it until we achieve it.

This might look like the following:

Goal - To play "Gingersnap" by Pratt at the written tempo
This gives us a very clear goal that is measurable and achievable. We can then gear our practice towards this. We may find it contains a specific rudimental application that we are unfamiliar with. Therefore, we can isolate it and practice it with focused repetition, then plug it back into the overall context, which is the piece.

Approaching it in this way not only addresses real applications of drumming, but gives you something tangible at the end: the ability to play the piece!

You can gear your goals to whatever you want to achieve. You listed a few songs to play along to. Why not use those as complete goals, where you tackle the exact groove and the associated coordination, the particular fills, during which you extrapolate them and internalise the underlying concept and vocabulary, and rudimental applications, etc.

Hopefully you take my point. Over the decades I have been playing, I have attempted and failed hundreds of "perfect" practice routines. In the end, all of my progress comes from working towards clearly defined goals. For me, these are usually particular pieces I am working on, which push my technique and concept in a particular direction.

A few months ago, I did a video about this where I talk through my entire practice session, outline why I'm doing it, and try to link it back to everything I have just suggested. Give it a watch and it might give you something to think about. Let me know your thoughts and we can discuss further if you like:

I had language wise trouble to follow along, I find your English quite advanced. Is it British English or are you from New York?

Ok, back to the Topic and the bits I could understand:

Yes, you’re right, I was recommended to make a plan by for example my former teacher and found out for myself that if I dont have a practice plan what I did before, I would just focus on something so much because it is very difficult for me that I neglect other topics i.e forget time and space.

Well, if I need to address my goals:

I want to be able to play the mentioned songs in original speed and I also want to be able to play the things I listed on my plan without mishits and making it sound as it should for now. I don’t focus too much on speed because I’m in general not one of the fast drummers.

And yes, I have tons of questions to you.

Whoa...love your answer...what a great thread and responses. I'm reading all closely and taking what I need for my way back into the game. This thread is gold to me .

Glad you like my thread.

That looks like an okay routine, I would ask if you have trouble with those particular “moving accent” or grid exercises or if you just like to play through them everyday?

I have trouble in such a way that my dynamics are not that great, as in the non-accent hand is not quite enough or I simply play the accent on the wrong note by accident.

My initial thoughts though, were not to do the same things every day. Accrue a number of exercises that benefit you and have a day 1 and day 2 to cycle through, and as you pick up new things to practice add a day 3 etc.

Ok, so can that be any efficient when I have just 4-5 days I can play per week?

 

[Xstr8edgtnrdrmrX]

Well, I was keeping it like that for a long time and started to think about what to work on when I started practicing but then I got pointed to scheduling it out.


Thank you! Then I’ll add it.
Well, you probably will laugh now but… yet I haven’t been taught many rudiments. Doubles and Paradiddle were something I taught myself when I was self taught but the way there understanding and getting it down was… I hadn’t any clue what I was doing. So yeah, yet I only know these 4.

So you mix it up? And play one day just Rudiments and the next just Drumset?

Interesting method. How many days do you practice a week?

well, as a bit of backstory, I am a band director/percussion instructor for a living, so I get to practice everyday by playing along with my students, so I get the hands reps a lot. I get to do more personally focused drum set reps on the weekends.

My only issue is that I can’t play drumset 7 days a week because I’m living in an apartment and although I seem to have very chilled neighbors as they don’t bother an acoustic set with only meshheads on the batter while on the Resos are still normal resos and some low volume cymbals during working days at between even 10:30 AM local time to rarely 8:00 PM but I bet they would hate me practicing at Sundays and holidays.

So usually it is like:

Mo, Tues, Thurs, Fri, Sat = Practice

On Wednesday I have lessons when there aren’t school breaks (in my country music schools open and close using the regular school breaks which are state based) so usually I’m so busy that there is usually no practice on Wednesdays, when there are holidays I’d practice on Wednesdays as well and therefore have the opportunity to play 6 times a week.

you still seem to practice more than most people I know here in the States who ave better space situations than you!!!

 

[Chopstix44]

well, as a bit of backstory, I am a band director/percussion instructor for a living, so I get to practice everyday by playing along with my students, so I get the hands reps a lot. I get to do more personally focused drum set reps on the weekends.



you still seem to practice more than most people I know here in the States who ave better space situations than you!!!

Thanks. I don’t know how much people with usual space situations practice (I would practice 7 Days a week if I were so lucky) but that I do practice so much is that I want to study drums and become a drummer for a living one day too.

In Germany you can either study drums (pop & jazz) in university but because unlike the states not everyone has an high school diploma as high school is not the only but our highest school degree. There are lower ones as well and if you have anything lower you can’t so easily get accepted to music universities, the second way are private institutes.

I want to do the second option but it’s a long way.

The part with playing while teaching is something my former teacher has told me about himself.

 

[Xstr8edgtnrdrmrX]

Thanks. I don’t know how much people with usual space situations practice (I would practice 7 Days a week if I were so lucky) but that I do practice so much is that I want to study drums and become a drummer for a living one day too.

In Germany you can either study drums (pop & jazz) in university but because unlike the states not everyone has an high school diploma as high school is not the only but our highest school degree. There are lower ones as well and if you have anything lower you can’t so easily get accepted to music universities, the second way are private institutes.

I want to do the second option but it’s a long way.

The part with playing while teaching is something my former teacher has told me about himself.

so how old are you?

 

[Chopstix44]

so how old are you?

27. but that does here only matter at music universities, I believe maximum age is 35.

 

[Jonathan Curtis]

I had language wise trouble to follow along, I find your English quite advanced. Is it British English or are you from New York?

Ok, back to the Topic and the bits I could understand:

Yes, you’re right, I was recommended to make a plan by for example my former teacher and found out for myself that if I dont have a practice plan what I did before, I would just focus on something so much because it is very difficult for me that I neglect other topics i.e forget time and space.

Well, if I need to address my goals:

I want to be able to play the mentioned songs in original speed and I also want to be able to play the things I listed on my plan without mishits and making it sound as it should for now. I don’t focus too much on speed because I’m in general not one of the fast drummers.

And yes, I have tons of questions to you.

I'm British, certainly not from New York!

I'd be happy to offer suggestions as best as I can if you have tons of questions. Feel free to send them on here, PM me, or via my personal channels, whichever you like.

Either way, best of luck. You're attitude is great and I hope you persevere and achieve your goals.

 

[TMe]

I’m using a practice plan to organize my practice sessions.

For some of us, it's important to have a plan to deviate from. By that, I mean we probably shouldn't get too locked in to a specific routine, but having a plan is often better than just "winging it". I find that with no plan, it's easy to sit and stare at the drums, wondering what I should do next.

These days, I'm doing more "winging it". But if I'm at a loss, I pull out my plan and work on that.