When it comes to learning to play drums, there are five questions you should ask yourself: 1. What am I learning and why? 2. Is this natural or forced? (is it relaxed or tense?) 3. Is it easy as pie? If not, then why? 4. Am I making progress? 5. Does it sound the way I want it to? Speed is a big thing for drummers. It’s impressive and it just looks awesome. Using these five questions, let’s do some drum technique exercises that will not only give you more speed, but better tools to improve your drum technique. 1. What Am I Learning and Why?: Answering this question will help you establish a very clear goal with room for improvement. Since your first goal is speed, find out what is the fastest speed you can comfortably play, and see what that sounds like. After that, your focus should be to play any amount faster, or play a faster version of the previous easy tempo. Here are some drum technique exercises that will help you boost your speed:
Remember, let the stick do the work at all times! 2. Is it Natural or Forced?: This question is my personal favorite. No matter what you do, it’s crucial that you’re relaxed when you play. If you’re straining to play something, it will sound hard and harsh, and you run the risk of getting hurt. Make sure to check your grip. Let the stick bounce and rebound off the head with your hand. This will make the stick and your hand move in unison. 3. Is it Easy as Pie? If Not, Then Why?: If the stick is moving freely with your hand but you can’t reach the goal you’ve set, then you have to ask the question, “is it easy as pie? If not, then why?” What’s the easiest thing you can play that you don’t have to think about? Are there any similarities to this and the goal you’re trying to reach? Let’s say striking the drum at an easy, medium volume twice (once with each hand) is the first answer. For the second question, it could be that you’re only hitting the drum twice. Those two questions are really easy to answer, but it’s the third question where you start to do your problem solving. Playing fast involves striking the drum many times. The motions of striking the drum are the same, just faster. What about that motion makes it easy? Whatever that is, it’s important to maintain that same feeling when you play faster. You know you’ve reached your natural limit when this seems too difficult. 4. Am I Making Progress?: This process of critical thinking and questioning is very valuable when you’re learning drums. During practice, you will mainly be asking yourself questions two and three: Is this natural? Is it as easy as pie? Trying to get the motions to feel natural and easy is the best thing you can do to reach your goal and achieve the sound you desire. Once you’ve accomplished this, you will be able to answer the fourth question because you will be able to see and feel your progress. 5. Does it Sound the Way I Want it to?: Now let’s assume that you’ve answered all of the previous questions. The final question is, “does it sound the way I want it to?” What you’re doing may feel natural and easy, but if you aren’t getting the sound you want, you will still need to make a couple of tweaks. Since you’ve already done the work to make things easy on yourself, it will be that much easier to make these changes. Sound is generally influenced by three factors: evenness, dynamics, and sound quality. EvennessIf the sound is uneven, make sure you’re playing in similar places on the drum, and that both sticks are the same height and are going the same speed to and from the drum. Also, make sure both sticks are rebounding, and that you’re holding the sticks in similar places. DynamicsStick height, placement on the drum, and rebounding are all very important to manipulate your dynamics. If you want to play fast but soft, then you have to practice playing the natural, quick motion low, and vice versa for playing loud. If you want to play crescendos and decrescendos, you have to have an even staircase effect where your heights get higher or lower while maintaining the natural, easy feel you acquired. Sound QualityThe question of quality is the tricky one, which is why it’s the last step. In the end, you want your playing to sound good, not just to you but to other people listening as well. If you’re making fluid movements and letting the stick bounce, that’s more than half the battle and things will sound good naturally. With these little tweaks, you’re just fine tuning the work you’ve already done to make it sound “clearer.” This is similar to clicking “HD” on a gritty YouTube video, but even with that, the video still may not look great. The same goes for your sound. You may be producing nice sounds that sound easy and not hard or harsh, but people may not like the sound you’ve chosen. It’s not any fault of yours, this is how you chose to play and you should be proud of this accomplishment. Let’s say, however, a band director asks you to change your sound; you now have the ability to do that! You’ve practiced different tempos, and you know your limits. You’ve practiced different dynamics, and you know how to change them. These two elements alone can help you change almost any part of your playing! By simply learning to play faster, you have gained the necessary tools to improve your technique. Remember, everything should feel easy and natural. The stick has to rebound, otherwise it will create a harsh sound. If you approach your goals and your drum technique exercises with these five questions, you will make significant progress. You can use this method to improve your speed, drum technique, and any other goals you set for yourself. Don’t stop there. As you saw, even within the set questions there were other things you could think about. The more you ask, the more you will find out and the easier the process will become. Being curious will definitely help you grow.
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No matter what instrument you play, you want to be the best musician you can be. Learning technique, internal time, tempo, sound quality, and dynamic contrast are some of the most essential aspects of being a good musician. The next question is how often should you practice, and for how long? First and foremost, the quantity of time doesn’t matter as much as you may think. It’s the quality of the time you spend practicing that really makes the difference. Mental Capacity: Your level of focus should determine the amount of time you devote to practice. Prioritize your practice time based on the amount of time you have, and how many exercises you want to get through. If there are certain days where you have a more flexible schedule, you can spend additional time practicing, as long as you still feel mentally engaged. Your mental capacity and level of focus and concentration will help you determine when it’s a good time to stop. Physical Engagement: This one is pretty simple: if your body feels tired, stop. There’s no use trying to do an exercise when your body is exhausted. A runner doesn’t just keep going when he has run 30 miles in six hours. He stops and rests his body. Overexerting yourself on the drums can lead to physical problems. If you feel worn out, you may be playing too loud, too fast, or too much. You want to feel comfortable and loose when you play. You don’t want to grip the sticks too tight or use too much force to make a sound, especially when playing loudly. You will gradually build your endurance as you continue to play, so f you’re physically tired, stop the session. Practice Frequency: Now that we’ve discussed the length for each session, let’s talk about how often you should practice. I personally believe that it’s a good idea to not touch the instrument for at least 24 hours during the week. This doesn’t necessarily mean you need a full day off, but I think it’s healthy to take some time each day to get away from the instrument, so that your body and mind can rest. Other than that, I recommend doing some type of practice every day. This doesn’t just mean sitting at the drum set, there are several different ways to develop your skills away from the instrument. JoJo Mayer said, “away from the instrument, there is a lot to learn.” This means there are other ways to practice and improve besides sitting at your drum set. You can develop your rhythm by singing or clapping, listen to music to learn more about the songs you want to play, or do hand exercises with or without your drum sticks. Obviously, the set time at the instrument is crucial, but after that, you still have the option to keep practicing. Listen to music on your way to school or work. Do finger and wrist exercises as you ride the bus. There are many ways to incorporate drum practice into your day. Remember, when it comes to practice frequency and length, we are all different. My mental and physical endurance is not the same as yours. The key is to find a routine that works for you. If you only have an hour to practice, then make that the most efficient, productive hour of practice time. If that’s all the time you have, then think about what you can do to practice away from the drum set. If you have a practice pad, work on stick control. If you don’t have a pad, you can still do wrist or finger exercises. Your drum instructor will also have some excellent recommendations about how often to practice, and what to do during practice to make the most of your time. Make your practice efficient and productive, but don’t forget to enjoy the process and have fun! When you’re taking drum lessons and practicing on your own, you can make better use of your time by focusing on the things that will help you improve as a drummer. Proper form and drum technique are essential to improve your sound quality. While this naturally requires patience and practice, it’s not as hard as you think. Here is my three-step process to help you improve your drum technique. 1. Be Efficient: The first step is to make your movements as efficient as possible. Like most things, this is easier said than done. What is efficiency and what makes something more efficient? Efficiency means maximum productivity with minimum wasted effort. So, for our purposes, let’s say that technique is any action achieved with little to no wasted effort. From a single hit to a blast beat, the key to improving your technique is to make every movement more efficient. To start this process, you have to understand how your body moves. When you go up to the cymbal, are you over stretching or just getting there? Is your right hand doing anything weird when your left hand plays the snare drum, or vice versa? This list can go on and on, but the question is, where is there tension? Try to slow down your movements to find when and where you feel tension, and then try to relax and eliminate the tension. When I would play a drum set as a beginner, my left foot would tense up as I would play the low tom. When I released that tension from my foot, it made it easier to get to the low tom. When something feels difficult, take some time to figure out why it’s hard, physically. Once you can identify the source of tension, you can find the solution to make it feel easier. Removing tension will improve your technique, and make you more efficient. 2. Listen and Imagine: The second step to is to listen. How well are you keeping time? Are your movements in the groove of the tempo? Can you play the exercises or techniques at any dynamic? Can you hear those dynamics, rhythms, or tempos before you play them? These questions can be difficult because they all concern the intangible nature of sound. We feel time with our internal clock, and it takes time to develop this skill. The best way to practice this, is to do drum technique exercises that allow you to hear or imagine the time in your mind. Have you ever played back a scene from a movie in your head, and you could hear the dialogue in your mind? Use the same process with drums; imagine the tempo, with a metronome and then without, and focus on really feeling it, like your own personal downbeat. 3. Develop Your Quality of Sound: After tempo, the next step is to focus on the quality of sound. Being able to do your drum technique exercises at any dynamic will make you more adaptable to different situations. Remember to practice playing softly! You can always add volume later, but if you don’t practice soft, then you will never play softly. Does your technique sound harsh or nice, soft or hard, thin or thick? Compare your sound with different adjectives or objects, and then imagine what these things sound like. This will help you develop more character in your playing. What does a truck sound like? Imagine the sound in your head, and then play that sound. What does a feather sound like? Imagine it; feel it; play it. When I got really serious about drums, I wanted to know how every instrument felt at any dynamic, tempo, rhythm, or note length. This forced me to imagine what it felt like to play things efficiently in different categories. At the time, I didn’t understand how my body moved. So, I started to examine how I played hand-to-hand eighth notes. I lifted each stick painfully slow. It took me at least two minutes to get from full height down to the drum, and then three minutes back up to full height, with one hand. During this time, I would ask myself, where is there tension? I focused on relieving the tension in order to make my strokes better. Again, the key to better technique is to move more efficiently in everything you do, and hear what you do in as many styles and characteristics as possible. Patience is key. Don’t shy away from practicing slowly and softly. Push your limits. Make what you hear, feel, and do automatic, and your actions will be more efficient every time. Remove tension and make playing easier; your technique will improve and you will have more fun. |
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