Proposed practice routine - what do you reckon?

[jimcroisdale]

Hi all,

Well, I've finally decided to take on the drums head-on and get stuck into some proper practice, after a few months of mucking about playing the odd song at our local jam night.

My aim is to be an 'employable' drummer, in 5 years time i.e. a drummer who can keep good time, play at an appropriate volume and generally be asked back....

I suppose I'd say I'd like to be a rock/pop drummer. I am not interesed in double kick, blast beats or enormous kits. Like a recent thread here, i really like drummers such as Abe Laboriel Jr and Bernard Purdie - real groovers who can lay it down all day long.

I have got a practice room where I can keep my kit set up for free and I'm looking at spending some quality time down there getting some miles under the tyres.

I should point out that I'm a decent guitarist and bass player and I've made all the common mistakes on those before learning what is truly important. i plan to use that to advance as quickly as possible in my goal. The room is owned by a drum teacher and he has offered me free lessons, but I thought I'd see how far I can get on my own for a bit. He thinks I'm kinda ok already, with no bad habits to speak of.

So, here's what i had in mind.

1. Use a metronome to start with, and vary the tempo of course.
2. Start with a straight beat. Hats on 1/2/3/4, kick on 1, snare on 3 and play that til I'm blue in the face, keeping it as tight as possible.
3. Same, but with 8th note hats (I have a decent push/pull thing going on apparently)
4. With the two above, practice so I can put the kick anywhere I want it.
5. With 2 & 3, practice so I can put the snare anywhere I want it.
6. 2/3/4/5 All together - any combination of kick/snr/hats.

I reckon that will give me a good grounding if I take a couple of months to REALLY get it tight?

Then I'd be looking at doing a similar thing but with swing, 3/4, shuffle feels, and also adding open/closed hats and accents into the bargain.

Does anyone think this sounds like a plan?

Cheers,

Jim

[Denus]

A few thoughts:

#1) Congrats on picking the drums as your next conquest. Nothing more primal and gratifying than crushing the skins.

#2) I'm gonna throw in some elements to your practice routine that can help you on your way. Here we go:

Firstly, you forgot the MOST IMPORTANT PART: LISTEN TO RECORDS! There's no point in practicing at all if you're not listening to the music you want to play, or want to be able to play (Even if the style isn't your favorite... ex: in high school I was HUGE into prog rock... hate it now... on occasion I still pull out my old Liquid Tension 1 CD and go for it... it can't hurt me to revisit the music I don't play anymore... it's a good challenge and refresher).

Seriously, this is FAR MORE IMPORTANT THAN ANYTHING YOU MENTIONED IN YOUR STEPS 1-6. I started playing when I was 12 years old. I didn't open a drum book or own a metronome until I was 16. I started easy, my first two records I bought and learned to play were Beck "Odelay" and that Bare Naked Ladies CD with "One Week" on it (spring 1999!). After that, I rediscovered Primus (first introduced to them when I was 6). I played nothing but Primus songs for the next year... whipped me into shape. After that doesn't really matter, just a natural progression, but I view those 3 records as MONUMENTAL to getting me going. The first 2 were fun pop albums where I learned the basics, and then Primus was the challenge piece at the end of the lesson chapter, ya dig?

So, there's that little lecture. Pick something on the simple side to get you going, AC/DC, old Motown, etc... and learn it NOTE for NOTE. Be able to sing the drum part the entire way through. If you can sing every drum fill and groove accurately your brain will be able to tell your limbs how to play it.

Next, get your hands on a copy of "Stick Control" by Lawrence Stone. The first 3 pages of that book are GOLDEN. Just a compilation of 2-measure phrases. First, learn to play an entire page down from start to finish, no stops, etc. Then, go back and put a foot pattern underneath it. Something that's relevant... like kick on 1/3, or on 1&/3& (think We Will Rock You). Pick a song you wanna learn, and copy + paste the kick pattern underneath the exercises in the book. Practicing sticking patterns over kick patterns is a sure-fire way to get your body functioning and comfortable at any given tempo and/or style. Once you're comfortable there add your left foot on beats 1/2/3/4.

This is a great way to cover the two important aspects of early drumming you'll need to assault... Concept and Technique. Drummers who don't listen to music have a poor concept of musically relevant drumming, & drummers who don't practice technique don't have the ability to execute the things their musical mind "hears". Take care of both, now!

If you have any questions about this stuff or why you should even consider this approach just let me know (here or pm is fine)!

Hope that helps.

[jimcroisdale]

All splendid stuff!!!

Yeah, I should have mentioned - I will have opportunity to actually play with other bands and musicians as soon as I feel ready. That was kind of the point of my proposed practice routine - to get me up to speed so at least I can play a steady beat without dropping my sticks!

I have one guitarist/singer all ready to jam with me, and I visit two regular local jam nights that will be more than happy to have me play.

I'm just a little concerned about letting the team down so I wanted to do a bit of private practice before unleashing myself.....

Cheers,

Jim

[AnalogueRazor]

If you don't already, earplugs!

Speaking of volume, practice playing loud and soft versions of each exercise. Getting control of the dynamics is really important, even for rock stuff. Anything you learn, you should be able to play loud or soft, fast or slow.

[dcrigger]

Originally Posted by jimcroisdale

Does anyone think this sounds like a plan?

To become what you desire to be in five years, in all honesty... no, probably not.

What you've come up is really impressively logical - but IMO falls short of the mark. It makes the assumption that path to playing drum beats well - simply, musical and with authority is paved by breaking beats down to their basic components and solely master putting them back together.

Which is indeed part of the work ahead of you - but really isn't the "core" work that enabled one to eventually play those beats with skill, nuance and expressiveness of a Purdie or Abe Jr.

Just as you usually can't discern the exercises, drills and activities involved becoming masterful at a sport. Meaning every skill mastered in the pursuit of great playing ability isn't always demonstrated during the play itself. It can't be simply "reverse engineered" - even though this is what the lion's share of people do when trying to learn the drums.

Which is all fine and good - and I'm sure they have some fun doing it. But few of them ever learn to play all that well. As even when they are able to play basically the right notes for a beat, groove or fill, their underlying lack of well rounded technique still colors or taints the feel they are able to express.

As for that path successfully leading to the already lofty goal of becoming an "employable" drummer who even hints at the abilities of those you mention in five years... I seriously doubt.

There is no merit badge given anywhere for doing this solely yourself. And the fact is - 99% of the time is often the key to frustration and eventually giving up and failure.

While teaching at Musician's Institute and the Grove School of Music, I saw scores of self taught drummers - five, ten years done the path from where you are now - really struggling. They had finally hit the "self taught" brick wall - they good play lots of stuff, had played in a few bands, and had put in hundreds of hours in the shed working on their playing.

Yet they were stuck. There was a controlled, fluid, relaxed, yet powerful feel that they coveted, knew they absolutely needed to master in order sound like the best in their classes or like their teachers. And in ever case, it always broke down to fixing holes in their basic technique, gaps in their playing foundation that were sabotaging the feel of even the most basic grooves. And only going back to sometimes square one were any of those guys able to work their way to the next level. Of course, needing to do tons of foundational work tens years into something is very discouraging, and for many of them this just signaled the end.

And the funny thing is regarding the self teaching aspect - no teacher can completely teach you to play the drums. No matter how intense your technical course of study - there is still most of the work that Demus mentioned that you have to do on your own anyway. In fact, Demus mentions the two tracks - Concept and Technique.

The Concept part - is listening, playing along with - records... countless records. Cataloging in you mind and playing countless grooves and groove variations and how they worked on this record... and on that record.

The Technique part - getting your hands and feet to be able to play what your mind chooses - regardless of tempo, dynamic or complexity.

Where a teacher can do little more with the Concept part beyond pointing in general direction, and yes a certain amount pick something apart and figure why the player played it that way - but still the heavy lifting of exploring and digging in here falls totally on the student.

Where the technique part is just the opposite - sure the student still must put in the work. But the course of study, the corrections along the way - why take 3x's, 10x's longer reinventing a wheel, that has already been expertly invented, tweeked and fine tuned? Going alone on basic technique is a fools errand IMO - and the compromises that result always eventually rear their ugly heads further down the line.

So no - while ingenious and creative on the surface - the paths that lead to the level of drumming you desire are pretty well documented. If you're goal is to figure it out yourself - then certainly you have to pursue that without assistance. But if you're goal is to learn to be a proficient player in the shortest time possible and with a study plan with the highest likelihood of success. Then find yourself the best teacher you can - and get to work. :-)

Actually that applies to the free lessons offered - great if they are really great. Not so great, if they are merely free.

Good luck and have fun with this -

David

[jimcroisdale]

David - thanks so much for spending the time to type that out!

Again, all amazing information for me to consider.

I guess I should define 'employable' a little more clearly. I'm not really meaning 'world class', just someone who could play in a covers band with some degree of success, and avoid the drummer cliches of playing too loud in the wrong places with poor timing.

I know several drummers on this level already, most of which are self taught, and some of which who have been playing for less than 5 years.

This includes the drum teacher (well, 6 years). However, his students are mostly beginners and I would not really consider him an option, free lessons or not, nice chap thought he is.

I suppose I have made plenty of these conceptual mistakes on other instruments already, so have some understanding of the problems that occur down the line. I started playing electric guitar around 18 years ago. I did have a teacher for a few years and I did study 'rock' technique quite avidly. This enabled me to become a great 'bedroom' guitarist.... Years later, I had a 3 year stint in a busy rock covers band and i learned more on those 3 years than I did in the previous 12. I'm a more rounded guitarist now, but that's not saying much.

So when I started playing bass seriously 18 months ago, I tried not to make the same mistakes. Of course, I concentrated hard on getting the basics (and not-so-basics) right, but I also joined a 60s/70s/80s pop/rock/glam/rock n roll covers band to try and get a better grounding in the actual music side of the instrument as well. It's worked pretty well - my phone is always ringing with bass jobs, although I am aware that some of that will be down to the scarcity of bass players in our little backwater....

So, with the drums, I'm trying to capitalise on both of these previous experiences. I suppose, typing this, it's obvious now that my plan should be exactly what you are suggesting.

1. Get a teacher - like I did with guitar - to help me with technique.
2. Play along to (alone or with a band) tons of different music, like I am doing with bass.

And I know a drum teacher too, now i think of it. Where's his email address......

Cheers,

Jim

[Denus]

A final comment I'll add is summed up by this word:

¡OBJECTIVITY!

The one thing my teacher instilled in me more than anything was "objectivity"... the ability to sit back and say "that sucked", "that was good", "I need to work on this deficiency", "I've got this down, time to replace it in my practice routine".

I say this because MY PERSONAL JOURNEY (YMMV) was exactly opposite that which dcrigger suggested... the music I liked got my technique together (I was playing Zappa, Mahavishnu, Dream Theater, etc Note-for-Note by the end of the 8th grade through high school... not at all bragging, that's just how it went down, guys in college were running circles around me when I arrived on campus... each band/album I discovered took my technique to a new level), and yes, further study with my teacher DID improve my technique, but the most valuable thing Ed taught me was how to LISTEN, how to use my musical ear. Technique was such a minimal part of my lessons because that was not a personal deficiency... yes, every semester we had a lesson book addressing technique, some kind of groove study or crazy independence thing... we went over it ONCE at the beginning of the semester, then we were on our own and expected to pass the book with flying colors on our Juries and Barriers just before finals week.

So I'm just saying that, in MY case, we WERE expected and DID improve our technique largely on our own. Ed realized long before I did that I was lacking in my ability to analyze music, add something relevant to the song being played, make others feel comfortable on the band stand, etc etc. Technique was taught in a manner to produce consistent and deliberate sounds, and that was that. The rest was all concept.

Of course, this was at a music school where the average player was already coming in with decent technique, so again... since you're just starting YMMV.

PERSONALLY, I can learn technique all day long from YouTube, instructional DVDs, books, etc. I needed someone to turn my ears on, teach me to listen in the moment to the quality of sound I'm producing, to listen to the other players and soak up the information they're offering, and probably most importantly the humility and grace in being able to acknowledge when things suck, blow, or when they're ripping, without getting all bent out of shape and butt-hurt about it (¡OBJECTIVITY!).

That's my story, only putting it up to show that everyone's journey is a little different, but in the end it still comes down to Concept & Technique.

[dcrigger]

Originally Posted by jimcroisdale

David - thanks so much for spending the time to type that out!

Again, all amazing information for me to consider.

I guess I should define 'employable' a little more clearly. I'm not really meaning 'world class', just someone who could play in a covers band with some degree of success, and avoid the drummer cliches of playing too loud in the wrong places with poor timing.

I know several drummers on this level already, most of which are self taught, and some of which who have been playing for less than 5 years.

This includes the drum teacher (well, 6 years). However, his students are mostly beginners and I would not really consider him an option, free lessons or not, nice chap thought he is.

I suppose I have made plenty of these conceptual mistakes on other instruments already, so have some understanding of the problems that occur down the line. I started playing electric guitar around 18 years ago. I did have a teacher for a few years and I did study 'rock' technique quite avidly. This enabled me to become a great 'bedroom' guitarist.... Years later, I had a 3 year stint in a busy rock covers band and i learned more on those 3 years than I did in the previous 12. I'm a more rounded guitarist now, but that's not saying much.

So when I started playing bass seriously 18 months ago, I tried not to make the same mistakes. Of course, I concentrated hard on getting the basics (and not-so-basics) right, but I also joined a 60s/70s/80s pop/rock/glam/rock n roll covers band to try and get a better grounding in the actual music side of the instrument as well. It's worked pretty well - my phone is always ringing with bass jobs, although I am aware that some of that will be down to the scarcity of bass players in our little backwater....

So, with the drums, I'm trying to capitalise on both of these previous experiences. I suppose, typing this, it's obvious now that my plan should be exactly what you are suggesting.

1. Get a teacher - like I did with guitar - to help me with technique.
2. Play along to (alone or with a band) tons of different music, like I am doing with bass.

And I know a drum teacher too, now i think of it. Where's his email address......

Cheers,

Jim

Jim -

In so many ways, it didn't really matter how you defined "employable" as my advice would have been the same. In a nutshell, regardless of the goal, you'll always have a far greater chance of achieving it - quicker, faster and usually just better - with assistance, guidance, feedback... whatever you want to call it. Why go it alone - when it is so easy to enlist an expert guide to help navigate the journey with you.

And as your point #2 correctly addresses - there is still TONS of personally specific, self generated study to do as well.

Sounds to me like you're completely on the right path with this. I wish you the best of luck with it and hope you have a great time with your drumming pursuits.

David

[cortisol]

Jim, you need to overcome your presumptions about the instrument. Open your mind.

Here are some fun things for you to learn about....

What is a fulcrum and what is the pinch?

What does stick height and mass have to do with timing?

What does playing open handed mean and what advantages are there in playing this way?

How can someone go from playing with finger control to playing with wrist control?

If you can answer those questions I bet you will have fallen in love with learning the drums and had your mind blown by the history of drumming and what is possible on the drum set.

Just to further add that 5 years might be a good estimate for learning an instrument from scratch with no experience of music making but musician skills are transferable. It should be possible to play to a high standard within 6 months to a year and be worthy of joining a kick-ass cover band.

From the looks of things you seem to think that drumming is just about coordinating your limbs in patterns around the kit! If you take that approach you will develop a weak unskilled snare hand and you'll be limited to playing simple cliched patterns and when you do the covers some of the fancy bits and nuances will get paved over with limited unskilled replacement parts. But non the less, drums are a joyous instrument to play! As a multiple instrumentalist myself I think drums are the most fun you can have playing in a band!

[mrmike186]

Some great advice so far. I can not stress enough the importance of playing along to music whether it is play alongs or other musicians. Also try to record yourself. This helps give you a sense of what sounds musical which is the ultimate goal

Of course this does not mean you should only play to music. I like your idea of using a system to be able to play any rhytmn with any limb wherever you want. I think you would really be interested in Benny Greb's rhythm alphabet from his dvd "The Language Of Drumming" which would help you to achieve the goals you have set out but maybe has some things in it you may have not thought of yet.

[The Pressman]

Originally Posted by Denus

Seriously, this is FAR MORE IMPORTANT THAN ANYTHING YOU MENTIONED IN YOUR STEPS 1-6. I started playing when I was 12 years old. I didn't open a drum book or own a metronome until I was 16. I started easy, my first two records I bought and learned to play were Beck "Odelay" and that Bare Naked Ladies CD with "One Week" on it (spring 1999!). After that, I rediscovered Primus (first introduced to them when I was 6). I played nothing but Primus songs for the next year... whipped me into shape. After that doesn't really matter, just a natural progression, but I view those 3 records as MONUMENTAL to getting me going. The first 2 were fun pop albums where I learned the basics, and then Primus was the challenge piece at the end of the lesson chapter, ya dig?

Great advice. I remember rocking the Primus for a couple of years..

And when you really wanna challenge - start working through as much Frank Zappa as you can.

Yes, listen and absorb as much as you can, but also don't forget your 40 basic rudiments.

Check out DRUM RUDIMENTS - Free Drum Rudiments Videos and Drum Lessons on the 40 Snare Drum Rudiments
Practice through the ones you can do, at different speeds and volumes, until you're comfortable, then start moving on to the harder ones. There's no point half-knowing and badly executing all 40 rudiments, so get a few really good then start branching out.. Some of them are more helpful than others, and I'm sure you'll find a few favourites that you really like to play. (I'm a sucker for double paradiddles )

Also, make sure you get proper stick control and technique down as soon as possible. Weather it's Matched Grip (French or American), Traditional or Moeller, make sure your really comfortable with it and can play as long as you want without any fatigue. I would recommend getting lessons on this, or maybe attending a workshop. It can take years (literally YEARS) to undo a bad technique, and can cause long term damage if left unattended. (Even though your teacher said there's no bad habits, it might pay to get him to really check this one out).

A good exercise combing the above two points is practicing in front of a mirror (no, not for checking your hair ). Sit down with a practice pad or snare drum in front of a full length mirror as you work through the rudiments. Make sure you are symmetrical, with good posture, back straight, no unnecessary arm movements going on, and that your sticks have an even height of raise and bounce.

When I first started playing drums, I tried to practise somewhat like what you have proposed - but to be honest it just about killed my desire to play drums, so for while I just pounded along to whatever I could. Then once I started going through things like rudiments, and in a similar way you have described, I had a drum-centric musical understanding and background to apply and relate them to. (But this is where your experience with other instruments will come in).

FWIW, now my practice routine consists of 20-30 minutes of rudiments at different speeds, 30-40 minutes of "grooving" to a metronome, 40-50 minutes of learning songs and playing along to records, 10-15 minutes of drum soloing, then another 10 minutes of rudiments to finish. But this is flexible - while it is important to practice, don't get hung up if you miss a day, or can't do a full routine or whatever. I also recommend playing with other musicians, no amount of practice compares to the experience of playing in band.

So good luck, it's good to see you're committed to practising and willing to ask for advice, as far as I'm concerned not much beats playing the drums.

[jimcroisdale]

Thanks for the continued advice everyone!

I know I was quite simplistic in my initial ideas for a practice routine. I am not a stranger to rudiments and actually quite enjoy pad practice.

My proposed plan was basicall something to build up my stamina for a few weeks without just getting stuck playing one beat....

I start my drum lessons next week so we'll see what he has to say as well.

Cheers all,

Jim