What's your practice routine?

[currang2905]

Hi, I am pretty focused on improving my drumming and it has occurred to me that I don't really have a good routine. I've got the stick control book since everyone calls it the drummers bible and have recently picked up Buddy Rich's modern rudiments book as well as Colin Bailey's bass drum control book. I find that with stick control it is quite intimidating with the number of exercises and little text and was wondering what the best way to get through them would be? I realise there is no one correct way to practice but would really like to hear what people do since there are so many exercises in these books. Also I was wondering what everyone's practice routine is like, how long do you spend a day drumming? How long do you go through exercises? Any other tips on how to improve etc.? Would be really interested to hear from people!

Cheers

[drummer]

Welcome to Drum Chat!

With the books, think of them like school books. Rarely did you read or work on every page. The same goes with drum instructional books. I've found that if you just grasp the beginning of each section, you'll get the core of most of it. You could literally spend the rest of your life working on exercises out of books but that's not practical. I teach my students to take what they need for gigs first and foremost and you can learn more of the advanced stuff later.

I'm currently practicing odd times, soloing and creating my own original beats. I don't have a set time structure at the moment.

[jgziegler]

+1 for what drummer said.

Also, what is your level? Your routine should change in some ways to reflect your abilities. If you are a beginner or near beginner, then I can recommend a lot of good stuff. I have those books too, havent opened them in a real long time.

Personally, I think it's better to practice technique by memorizing a few really good exercises then to go through a book. One thing you might want to try with Stick Control is play it RF LH (instead of RH LH), and do 8ths on the ride and 1/4s with your LF. These won't make interesting beats, but will help build all around coordination.

At my low intermediate level, I am currently practicing doubles and dynamics via Rolling in Rhythm by CS Wilcoxon (one piece of music), broken 16ths on the HH I got from onlinedrummer.com, a set of paradiddles for building feeling for fills, some herta stuff, and some polyrhythm attempts...of course always to the metronome and just yesterday I realized that my playlist of amazing songs has a lot of cool and different drums happening (all genres), so playing along to random songs you already know helps.

A really good thing to practice is this poster from Tommy Igoe's book "great hands for a lifetime" it's a warm up set of exercises just for hands, you can google it and get the pdf, it's really good. Feel free to PM if you want more suggestions

[8beat]

Sometimes I practice rudiments and sometimes I play along with recordings. It varies from day to day, depends on my energy really. I try to learn something new every day - that helps me a lot.

[keish]

Hi, I am pretty focused on improving my drumming and it has occurred to me that I don't really have a good routine. I've got the stick control book since everyone calls it the drummers bible and have recently picked up Buddy Rich's modern rudiments book as well as Colin Bailey's bass drum control book. I find that with stick control it is quite intimidating with the number of exercises and little text and was wondering what the best way to get through them would be? I realise there is no one correct way to practice but would really like to hear what people do since there are so many exercises in these books. Also I was wondering what everyone's practice routine is like, how long do you spend a day drumming? How long do you go through exercises? Any other tips on how to improve etc.? Would be really interested to hear from people!

Cheers

Well i try to work on my doubles everyday, I practice it for 40 mins and single stroke for about 30 mins. I also try to go through different rudiments for 10 mins each like paradiddle diddle. Also i will probably work on a groove over and over until i get it so that will take up sometime. All in all i think i take about 3 hours a day. One tip from this site that has been beneficial is taking your time with your exercises sounding slow and clean is better than trying to play fast and barely getting through them. My teacher gave me the first two pages of the stick control book and also exercises 2 and 3 of Ted Reed's syncopation book and practicing it different ways really beneficial. Happy drumming

[markthechuck]

i have no routine at all which is pretty bad, i just play along to songs and learn bits as i need them, i used to do all the doubles / Triplets / 16th / paradiddles etc, now i just play what i enjoy, don't get me wrong i'll work on stuff if i'm not sure how to play it but it's nearly all for new songs i'm learning.

[longgun]

Hi, I am pretty focused on improving my drumming and it has occurred to me that I don't really have a good routine. I've got the stick control book since everyone calls it the drummers bible and have recently picked up Buddy Rich's modern rudiments book as well as Colin Bailey's bass drum control book. I find that with stick control it is quite intimidating with the number of exercises and little text and was wondering what the best way to get through them would be? I realise there is no one correct way to practice but would really like to hear what people do since there are so many exercises in these books. Also I was wondering what everyone's practice routine is like, how long do you spend a day drumming? How long do you go through exercises? Any other tips on how to improve etc.? Would be really interested to hear from people!

Cheers

Stick Control is a great book........I still use it from time to time...........I would recommend a local teacher................once you get the basics down, and know what "right looks like", it will make your drumming journey that much better.

We've all seen amazing drummers that never had lessons...........but IMO, that is the exception. As with anything.........knowing the fundamentals first, then growing from there is the best.

Time is the limiting factor nowadays...................the only time I "practice" is when I'm learning new songs.............wish I could dedicate more time, but life gets in the way!

Good luck and welcome to DC

[rickthedrummer]

What you see in my videos is my practice routine.

[skills]

My standard routine is:
•playing singles on the snare for 5 minutes.
•resting for 2 minutes
• playing singles on the snare for 5 minutes.
• resting for 2 minutes.
• playing along to songs for 20 minutes, split in 5 minutes without stopping.

Now I'm playing...
• singles for 9 minutes
• free strokes for 9 minutes.
• mixing both like llll-rrrr-lrlr-llll-rrrr-llll-rrrr-lrlr

[jmastrodimos]

This is what I'm currently doing: Rudiments for the first 1/2 hour.

I've just recently joined a band that plays only original material. They burned a CD for me that has 9 of their songs on it. Going through that set of songs takes almost exactly a 1/2 hour.

The session takes almost exactly an hour.

[slinglander]

Pretty basic warm-ups on a chair cushion: paradiddles to singles to doubles and back and forth for about 15 min. at moderate speed. -rest 15 min.- med. speed doubles for about 5 min./ice or cold water on left hand. 4-6 hrs. later play on the kit covering about 10 songs./ice or cold water on left hand after.

[kay-gee]

I don't really have a SET routine per se.

In early morning, before work, I try to get 15-20 minutes of rudiments on practice pad with metronome. In the evening, I'll try to learn something new, a pattern or whatever with pad and metronome and once I have that beat in my head I'll free form for a while on the drums.

all the best...

[xweasel]

I've never really had a set practice routine. I just practice/play whatever I feel like at the time. I used to be concerned about not being as good as I could be if I put in serious, structured rudiment practice or whatever, but now I don't think about that. I play to have fun and I'm as good as I am.

[SpazApproved]

I think of books like this....

It's great to use them and read out of them. But you need to look at it more like a speech. You don't want to read out a speech cause it sounds like you are. It's choppy and monotone. Make sure you take what you learn in the book and be able to truly "play" it not read it. Use it outside the book at make it smooth clean and practiced and many tempos with dynamics.


There's a difference between being able to reading music and playing music.