Hello to drummers of the world and welcome to my latest blog. I’ve been asked recently by some of my pupils and those in the wider drumming community to write a blog outlining my thoughts and views on practising.
Pete Williams recording at the Premesis Studio – London
Before I start, my goal in this blog is to provide you with food for thought. I want to address the widest possible drumming audience so I will not be recommending any specific exercises, or saying how long you should practice for. Drummers’ experience, ability and goals will vary in the extreme from the 6 year old playing in his bedroom who practices for 10 minutes a day, to the 30 year old professional who drums for 6 hours a day. It is really important that as a drummer you are trying to find out who you are and develop your own unique sound. So my advice from here on is aimed at helping you make your practice as productive as possible.
I think a key word you need to consider when thinking about drumming is ‘balance’. First of all I would like to think about the word ‘balance’ within the context of general life. Here are some examples of balance in life:
-The balance between spending money now and investing for the future.
-The balance between experiencing rich food and drink now and maintaining your health for life.
Everything in life can be viewed as a balance and getting these balances right can be important for your long term happiness and development.
Now let’s think about drumming and drum practice in terms of ‘balance’:
-The balance between repeating a drum pattern to perfect the feel and challenging yourself with new patterns.
-The balance between practising as much as possible and making sure you experience life so you have something to express through your drumming.
-The balance between expressing your ideas on the drums and playing for the song.
-The balance between learning fast complex licks or working on improving your musicality.
This list is by no means definitive but I believe that thinking about these statements and deciding where the balance lies for you can really help you to understand what kind of drummer you want to be and also help with your goal setting.
Here are nine ideas that will help you get the most out of your playing:
1, Goal setting: Once you have visualised the kind of drummer you would like to be it is time to set some goals. The first set of goals should be long term; this is the big picture, where you would like to be in a year’s time. Aim high and be specific! After that you need to build some stepping stones towards your main goal. You can break them up into monthly blocks or use events and gigs as marker points. This helps you to break up the year and make the goals more achievable. The next level is your short term goals which can be used to structure your practice day to day.
2, Structure: Now think about today’s practice; what are the baby steps you need to take to help you reach your first stepping stone? Write them down and order them, start with slow repetitious technical work, this will help get your mind focused and your body warmed up. Now work on areas that involve build speed, feel or creativity. Lastly always give yourself time for free expression with no rules at the end, this will give you a chance to subconsciously apply things you have been practising and help them to naturally enter you playing. Avoid trying to work on to many ideas at once and make sure you keep a clear focus on your desired out come for the practice.
3, Tempo and click: Make sure you use a click to help you practise ideas at the right tempo and help you to realise if you are inclined to rush or drag in places. Remember, faster is not always harder, make sure you practice slowing exercises down as well, this is great for your time keeping and feel. When you want to increase or decrease tempo do so in small increments working with the click.
4, Quality over speed: Always put increasing quality over speed. It easy to want to look ahead to where you want to be, try to enjoy the journey and perform to the best of your ability now. There is no real practice, every time you hit a drum you are playing and performing, make it count.
5, Parts of the kit: If you’re inclined to get distracted, think about what parts of the drum kit you need. If it is the snare drum just use the snare, if it’s kick, snare and hats get rid of your toms and cymbals.
6, Isolation: If you find yourself struggling with a new exercise make sure you work out what’s troubling you and isolate it. If it’s the left hand play it on its own, if it’s beat 4 just work on beat 4. Get straight to the heart of the problem.
7, Jamming with rules: When you want to make something harder and develop some freedom in your playing, don’t change too many variables at once. Look at what you’ve been practising and change one thing at a time. Keep it focused.
8, Record new ideas: When you come up with a good new idea make sure you keep a record for the future and this will stop great grooves and licks from falling into the abyss. Whether it is on video, audio or manuscript, your notes with help refresh your memory and trigger new ideas.
9, Record yourself: Filming and recording yourself playing is a great way to get some accurate and sometimes brutal feedback on your playing. Being involved in the act of playing something can skew your perception on how good or bad it sounds.
I hope you will find this blog helpful. As I said at the start, this is just a small collection of my ideas on how to make the most of your practice and is by no means definitive. If you have any comments to add or topics you would like to see me cover in the future please get in touch.
Finally remember do not be intimidated by the depth and wealth of drumming knowledge out there, use it to inspire yourself and make you the drummer you want to be. You are an individual and are competing against no one but yourself.