Re: Practice
Originally Posted by
MikeRoyale
I would strongly encourage you to obtain the services of a professional drum teacher. If economic conditions allow, a teacher will provide you with the guidance needed to formulate a proper practice routine. If for whatever reason you cannot work with a teacher right now then I would suggest the following:
1. Develop a warm up routine. Look into the Lifetime Warmup by Tommy Igoe. Every drummer should warm up for at least 10 minutes before starting to chop wood.
2. Learn about and practice rudiments. There are two types of drummers, those that play rudiments and know it and those who play rudiments and do not know it. There are a million books regarding rudiments - if I had to suggest one it would be "Stick Control" - referred to as the Bible by many of us sacrileges drummers. If you can spend a minimum of 15 minutes per day working on rudiments you will become a better drummer.
3. Footwork. Every practice session of mine includes 10 to 15 minutes of work with just my right and left feet. I play simple rudiments with my feet, always to a click, with the goal being a steady increase in tempo. There are a ton of feet exercises available online - if nothing else you can play page 5 of "Stick Control" with your feet.
4. Beat and groove work. I spend about 30 minutes working on beats from the book I am learning out of, "Essential Rock for the Drumset" by Doug Auwarter - a local guy. Again there are many books out there that illustrate different beat combinations. A kind of fun challenge I try to do each day is play a fairly simple beat (time keeping should be on the ride cymbal) for 5 minutes straight without any fills or deviations from the groove. Sounds kind of easy - it ain't.
5. Song work. This is where I spend the majority of my practice time. This one needs no further explanation.
So there you go - you have a ~ 2 hour practice routine! Cut everything in half, except rudiment work to minimize your practice time...
Warmup x 10 minutes
Rudiments x 15 minutes
Footwork x 10 minutes
Beat and Grooves x 30 minutes
Song Work x 45 minutes
That sums things up pretty well. With point number 2, not only would I recommend Stick Control, but also to get a copy of the "40 PAS Rudiments" chart (or something similar), my chart is courtesy of Vic Firth....and one video that I definitely recommend, which really made me work a lot with my hands and get a great handle of the rudiments, is Pat Petrillo's "Snare Drum Rudiments" video, which I think unfortunately is still only in VHS cassette format (I can double-check that, as I'd like to have a DVD version myself). My cassette copy also had the booklet showing the complete list of rudiments to work on. Pat also shows way to apply a number of those rudiments around the kit. Great great educator.
"...it's the Paradigm Of The Cosmos!" Stewart Copeland on Youtube
668: The Number Of The Guy Next Door To The Beast.
"A random act of kindness; it keeps my heart in shape!" - Late8
Bookmarks