How much you practicing?

Hi Matricks,

To answers your questions, there is a certain amount of repetition. I have used certain techniques to get me through the boring stuff:

I downloaded loads of lectures (audio only, no music to screw up the time).. so I;ve learnt about lots of stuff whilst doing certain finger / hand or foot exercises ; )

I dont believe in watching movies while practicing.. in fact I often lower the lights in my practice room to get into a kind of meditative state and avoid visual disturbance. Steve Smith talks about that on his DVD, I've done it for years and it helps with focus.

Also if I am only really focused for 6-7 hours at least no-one will die, unlike an air traffic controller ; ) ~(and they have computers to tell them to waken up!)

My intense practice comes from being the age I am and realising that if I dont do it now I never will.

I dont advocate this kind of practice to anyone else, it just happens to be right for me...

I guess I should say that 80-90% of the time I am pretty focused... I like to see the results, and I dont like not being able to perform things that I can hear...

T.

The only way anyone can get in more than 2 or 3 hours a day is if he is either in prison, or has NO other interests, friends, commitments or family.

I WISH I could practice every day, but for the last 5 years, I'm lucky if I can get in an hour a month. I'm currently shopping for a house though, so that may change.

When I DID own a house, I would practice about 3 hours a week and back in my first 5 years of playing (when I lived with my parents) I used to practice around 5 hours a week.

Hi drumming sort of person,

I'm not sure I agree with your opinion that one cannot practice more than three hours a day and not have a life. How do you describe someone who works in a company essentially paying their bosses mortage, and working normal 8 hr days... These are often people with wives, husbands, kids etc... are they abnormal?

For me it is less abnormal to dedicate your time to an art form, if you have a talent for it, and there is no reason why - in the technologically advanced societies a few of us lucky humans share - that we cant work a little, practice alot and play alot.

I practice drums pretty much full-time but I also love books, I have a collection of over 4,000... I read at the weekends, I work a couple of hours a day in a very cool bookshop / cafe where i get to meet great people, hang for a while and go to various events. but my focus is always on improving my core skills as a drummer.

That is my centre... and a huge part of my life.

Regards,

Tim

I think Tim forgot to mention he is part machine in his introductory post [img]wink.gif[/img]
On a more serious note, that routine is really elaborate and like you said, not for everyone to copy.

Tim, in NO way was I saying that you were abnormal or anything less than a great guy...

I'm sorry if I came across as a self-righteous idiot. If anything, I am TOTALLY jealous of your situation and I admire your dedication and discipline in being able to make such excellent use of your unique situation.

But for MOST of us, I believe that anything more than a few hours a day could do more harm than good. I believe that it is equally important to LISTEN to great music and to PLAY with other musicians (even other drummers) in order to foster our ability to communicate on the instrument.

Hi Drumming sort of person,
I totally agree with you, and apologies if I got on my high horse [img]wink.gif[/img]

Quote:

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But for MOST of us, I believe that anything more than a few hours a day could do more harm than good. I believe that it is equally important to LISTEN to great music and to PLAY with other musicians (even other drummers) in order to foster our ability to communicate on the instrument.

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Very true. Playing with other people, as my first ever teacher taught me, is like the difference between masturbating and f**king... [img]tongue.gif[/img]

I've given up a nice apartment etc.. to do this, but I just feel that it is right for me.

ciao,

Tim.

I wanted to add that the main reaon I posted my current schedule was because Matricks said he hadnt got much of a response before so I thought I would be really up front and just go through what I am doing, in a really open way...

tim.

Quote:

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Very true. Playing with other people, as my first ever teacher taught me, is like the difference between masturbating and f**king...

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Haha... Tony said that in a clinic once, but instead it was that "Practicing the same thing is like... well, it is like j*rking off"... indeed [img]tongue.gif[/img]

Quote:

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I wanted to add that the main reaon I posted my current schedule was because Matricks said he hadnt got much of a response before so I thought I would be really up front and just go through what I am doing, in a really open way...

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">And it is CERTAINLY appreciated! I love hearing how much others practice because it reminds me that other people are spending time uncovering new things, discovering new things about themselves and their playing... to me that inspires me to do the same, not settle for 'kinda trying to be really good' [img]wink.gif[/img]

It is appreciated, everyone's comments are appreciated because i didn't start this topic to throw down the practice gauntlet (and if i did, well, Tim's got me beat for sure!), i did it so that others, including myself, can have an idea of what is going on as far as this goes. I get VERY inspired when i hear a great player and they say that they never really practiced more than (fill in the blank)... shows me that working on the right thing and also working on other types of practicing (i.e. listening) go a long way. On the other hand, hearing how Virgil or Weckl can bust their ass all day long, that kicks my ass in another way and reminds me to not use *Drummer A* who only practices (blank) amount of time, yet is still great, as and excuse to not hit the shed and work it out.

No information is bad information [img]biggrin.gif[/img]

Some drummers say they don't practice very much anymore but I'm sure they practiced a lot in the past, unless they are genius (they develop ideas in real time, i.e., playing with other people) or get a 'divine inspiration'. In my case, I have to work hard on drums and I try to use a good portion of my free time. Because I have a day job, I can only study for 1-3 hours daily. My practice regimen changes from time to time, according to my needs. I've studied many books, such as those from Chaffee, Gratton, Riley, Duduka, etc. but now I think I need to improve my musicianship. So, lately I start my practice with some stretching (that is very important!) and some warm-up exercises (e.g., Moeller, sticking variations, rudiments or even some grooves). Then, I study some written grooves or phrases or jazz comping exercises (many of them are exercises or transcriptions made by myself) and try to improvise using them (I want to enlarge my vocabulary). Later, I play along with some CDs. When I play along, I use different approaches:
1 - I keep a repetitive groove, with few variations (in order to get consistency of performance).
2 - I play around a groove, trying new ideas.
3 - I play a groove with different and improvised fills.
4 - I apply 'crazy ideas', like metric modulations, 'over the bar line' phrases, polyrhythms etc.
5 - I try to insert studied ideas in my playing ('Rational approach')
6 - I play 'from my heart' (without pre-conceived ideas. 'Musical approach').
7 - I mix different approaches.

Currently, I've been studying samba-jazz, straigth-ahead jazz and linear stuff. Now I'm going to start some foundational studies (thanks to Tim Wilson!). I play with two bands (jazz and prog rock styles).
When my free time is too short (lately, I've had many problems to solve) I only do some stretching and play along recordings, without doing technique studies. Sometimes, when I'm very tired to play drums, I make transcriptions.
I love music and drums (I have a BIG CD collection) but I think life outside drums is VERY important too, you need to get inspirations from other sources, even non-musical ones ('Variety is the slice of life'). So, I take English classes (my native language is Portuguese), I LOVE reading (literature, phylosophy, psychology, science etc.), European and independent movies (I love Bu?uel ones!), painting and arts in general (I'm a great fan of surrealist art, Escher, Kandinsky etc.). And at last but not least, I have a lovely girlfriend [img]biggrin.gif[/img]

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ April 17, 2005 12:13 AM: Message edited by: Navega ]</font>

Anything more than an hour a day for me was a bonus , but since i started thinking about taking music i practice maybe 2-3 hours a day. It depends really because sometimes i will get bored and theres no point in practicing when you are bored.

i've heard this quote somewhere, its at the time where Vinnie was practicing insane amounts of time.

Vinnie: "Hey Billy, How many hours do you think i should practice everyday."

Billy: "Practice only until you stop having fun, my young padawan"

i use that as a guideline to practice...but i also believe in strict no messing about practice....

3 hours of strict focused practice can be a lot more useful than 8 hours of unfocused sloppy practice.

Also remember, practicing everyday is very important, it is very easy to loose the ability to paly things or at least some of it when you stop pracitcing even for short periods of time. Mental practice is also important, go over things which you are doing in your head whilst your on the bus or in bed trying to get to sleep

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ April 17, 2005 01:08 AM: Message edited by: S.P ]</font>