Making the most of practice time

[midgard]

I am trying to get better organized with my practice sessions since I am starting to expierence a bit of a plateau in my progress. I have an area set up in the basement dedicated for drum practice where I have my music stand, a djembe, a foot pedal jam block, etc. Unlike drumset practice, it is kind of difficult to practice hand drums on a pad. Luckily I can practice in the basement with out the noise causing any major disruptions.

So, now that I have an area, here are the questions in regards to your hand drum practice sessions:

1. How often do you practice?

2. How long is your typical practice session?

3. What do you do in your practice sessions?

4. How much time do you spend in rudiments, reviewing songs, learning new songs, etc in your practice session? Or do you dedicate each practice session to one or two themes?

[bongobro]

At the risk of shattering my "image" as a disciplined practicer, midgard, I don't have a formal set practice pattern !

I don't know if you're playing in an outside band, right now, but our church guitar group practices some two hours on Tuesday night, and Quantum Fizz (the band I play in) gets two hours in on Saturday mornings.

At home, I practice once or twice a week, 30 to 45 minutes each. (With my Wal-Mart schedule lately, it's usually mid-morning or early afternoon before I go to work. On a late shift, I sure can't practice when I get home, lest I wake up Mrs. 'bro!)

While I review the rudiments from time to time (about once every three to four weeks, most of what I do is play along with different times of music (sometimes radio, sometimes CD, sometimes YouTube!) When I say "I'm jammin' along to your video," I really am, and that gets some practice time in!

I try to mix things up as I go along, since it's good to be ready for any kind of music to which you can add congas. Sometimes it's jazz, sometimes it's classic rock, sometimes it's the oldies station...and of course I've got the Quantum Fizz material to use, too! I also mix up the drums, too...start on the bongos, switch over to the congas or djembes, sometimes playin' both (or other types) at the same time...it's good since in some songs, I'm working on playing different drums at different times in the same song! (Not unlike playing 'round the set on a drumkit!)

Hopes this helps ya, bro'!