Practicing

[GoMan]

Hey guys. From reading your guyses posts and stuff, seems like you guys really knowwhat youre talking about. I need some advice.

A little on my playing back ground. I am a college freshman in Hawaii. I have been playing drums for two years. I love playing and I play in a prog/funk rock band and have played in school jazz band (crappy) and local musicals. However the music scene here kinda sucks and theres not that many players that I feel i can really learn from. Standards for music is very low here and theres pretty much zero jazz or fusion.

Well I started playing almost exactly 2 years ago so this year Id like to set some good goals.... I devided this up into four categories.

1) time - ill work everything with a click, drills, rudiments and songs iplay on gigs.

2) technique- ill finish learning the 40 rudiments. Ill do a page of the stone book every week completely thoroly. Ill learn a snare solo per week from the spagnardi book. Bass drum beater off the head.

3) Reading - study my charts well. go thru the new breed and other books correctly. Transcribe one song a month (im relatively new at this)

4) Versatility- do Ted Reed Syncopation with jazz patterns 60-200 one page per week nailing it... Work my shuffles so im comfortable with them. Learn more samba variations. Mambo groove improve. Learn grooves for 6/8 latin, songo patterns.

Is there anything else i should be doing? I mean i dunno where to go and these things jsut seem to be the obvious.

The things im most concerned about not really knowing is what latin styles/grooves should I learn. Are some styles more important/ popular than others? Or isthere some basic one that i should learn first to make it easier to learn others????

The other thing is... how do you practice groove it self? what can i do to improve my feel and groove? I feel really average... like not only is my time not good and stuff but I dont feel like if I was listening to me id just think i was keeping time and thats it....not adding any feel or force to the music.....

Also how do you improve your time? is practicing to a click the only way really? or is there any kinda drill you use that works? My time sucks ... i need something.

Well now i see that this has become an uncessesarily long post... i really doubt it has much significance... but if you could help me with my questions and also if you have any practice tips or How to practice kinda advice itll help greatly. I need all the help i can get!!

Thanks for reading my wierdly long post. Ill be waiting for replys.... thanks.

[GoMan]

Crap... the post gets even longer...

I forgot to add one question.... how do you guys apply rudiments in your playing? I plan to finish memorizing all 40 rudiments by the end of febuary.... and the rest of the year i will try to make them enter my playing smoothly....

Right now I use alota drags....I use alotta flam tap type fills. I use swiss triplets going down the toms like carter beauford. I use five strokes in hi hat fills.

Other than that Im really lost as to how i will use my rudiments... like a paradiddle ... i still dont get it... it has helped me get bell patterns like neil pearts one... it has also helped me get better RLL RLL RLL kinda fills or whatever.... but what else can I do? Idont get it?

What about the longet rolls? i dont get how to fit it into music and playing...

I feel really dumb asking this kinda stuff... i feel paralized in creativity... but whatever. the only question thats dumb is a question you dont ask right? Please help!

Thanks. Go

[JohnnyHendrix]

GoMan,
I'm gonna be on Kuai doing some stuff starting monday night the 17th for around 3 months... Maybe we should hook up. I might have some thoughts, but I'm fried, I'm in California and still living in KC time..So, cant think! Sorry.. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

John

[Dazzler]

Wow, firstly good luck with your goals. A couple of things come to mind when reading your post. Some of the guys will disagree with me I'm sure but I'll say don't bother wasting your time memorising all 40 rudiments, this will be pointless, unless you want to join a drum corps. Get a few of them down sure, but not all 40. Work on singles, doubles, double single and tripple paradiddles, 5,6, & 7 stroke rolls, flams and ratemacues and that should stand you in good stead. Remember all rudiments are just combinations of singles, doubles and the odd flam anyway.

With regards to timing, check out these posts:

http://www.hostboard.com/cgi-bin/ult...c&f=609&t=3649

http://www.hostboard.com/cgi-bin/ult...c&f=609&t=3475

As far as lating grooves are concerned, find out what percussion instruments do and how the WHOLE GROOVE is assembled by the individual parts, rather than lerning a 'stock mambo' or song groove for example. You MUST have an understanding of clave too. This is ESSENTIAL. Check out these posts:

http://www.hostboard.com/cgi-bin/ult...c&f=609&t=3737

http://www.hostboard.com/cgi-bin/ult...c&f=609&t=3819

But most of all. LEARN TUNES!!!! Understand form, melody and harmony. Play with other guys as much as possible, even if it ends up with just you and a keyboard player or you and a saxophonist, it is ALL worthwhile. Some people have the idea that you can't play without a bassist. NONCENSE!! ALL playing is healthy!!

I've got to run out now so this post is cut short. I hope you have fun and that this was helpful. Remeber that you can use the search facility on this board to find previous answers to your questions!!


[img]graemlins/thumbs_up.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/music.gif[/img] [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Andy Edwards]

This all seems like good intentions but I personally could not stick to a regime like that.

I work on motivational methods first and foremost.
Once you are motivated you can practice for hours.

My routine goes like this

1) I go for a walk or do some exercise to try and still the mind.

2) I put on some music and really listen to it; but not to analyse the drumming, but to get fired up.

3) I put on a record and play along to it.

4) Once in the zone I will work music, either learning material or writing new material. I do try to record myself.

After listening to what I'm doing I try to identify what I want to improve and then do some exercises to work on these areas.

I do have a basic warm up routine which is up on my site here.

http://www.andyedwardsmusic.com/warm_ups.htm

[Suspiria]

That sounds great Andy. I've never considered getting motivated before practicing. While I do listen to some music beforehand, something like a walk or some exercise seems like a great alternative!

[XNavyDrummer]

GoMan,

Nice routine. Here are a few things that I would add. While doing all of these exercises, go for musical sounding drills where you're adding accents and playing things across the whole dynamic range from soft to loud.

Spend some time recording your practice and be real critical of things that just don't sound right. If you're not nailing things at faster tempos, go ahead and slow it down and really get the timing and form correct. Play in front of a mirror make sure your form looks good.

If there isn't a good band around, perhaps you can find an experience instrumentalist to just work on grooves an ideas. Whenever you can, hook-up with an experienced player who can give you some pointers.

If you're having trouble finding an experienced pro, check to see if there is a military band somewhere nearby and talk to the drummers there. Or if your close enough, check out some of the pro's comming in on the cruise ships to the islands.

Good luck!

[matricks]

Recording yourself... it hurts, i know, but you gotta do it. It will make your time so much more productive. I have spent, literally, thousands of hours doing things that were, say, 80-90% correct. It is a waste of time to have to go back and tighten them up. Record yourself now (early on), hear how you really sound... then bite the bullet and spend time getting to where you THOUGHT you were BEFORE you heard the tape, as in, make it sound like in 3rd person, as you thought it sounded like in 1st person.

Make sense? I think it did [img]confused.gif[/img]

[FlamTriplet]

When you apply rudiments to the drumset, you sound like a drummer applying rudiments to the drumset.
When was the last time you heard the song "pata-fla-fla"? There is no musicality in rudiments. Learn your rolls, and how to accent patterns in a stream of notes like 16th's or triplets.

[GoMan]

about recording. Yes! I desperately need to record my self and have been thinking about that for the longest time...but...i dunno how to do it for cheap? I have this 50dollar tape recorder with a build in mic but that shits depressing!!! I was trying to get some kinda MD player with a sony stero mic for like 100 each.... but im not sure which MD models 1)have the input for mics 2) have manual recording mode..... any help or suggestions?

about applying rudiments.... yeah i guess its not totaly musical and ofcourse you dont need to stick in rudiments in order to groove. But like for soloing purposes i see a lotta guys play stuff with... like say playing figures on the toms with double strokes on the snare filling in the gaps.... and stuff of that kind. thats what i wanna learn how to do... but i feel that i can learn that by practicing my roll patterns and figuring out how it translates to the set. But im sure there a lot of cool things with the other rudiments that would be very useful right? Like say the double paradiddle...if you play the right hand on the ride bell and the left on the snare you get a 6/8 latin groove and if you play the right on the hi hat and the right on the snare but more delicate ghosty textures you got a very exotic type of shuffle! Ive seen this thing that Keith Carlock does. If you check the "Say What" video on his website, when hes filling out at the end he will do this thing with the paradidle didle... wwhere hes going crash-snare-rcktom-rcktom-flortom-flortom.... or something like that... youllsee if you check it out.... the blushda is like a swiss triplet? so thats what I mean? cool licks and stuff that utilize rudiments? i mean they must be there for something right?............... ugh... long postagain.... thanks for the helpful suggestions guys!