Skills not developing.

Hello everyone, I've been reading these forums for a while now but I finally decided to register and ask a question myself.

My skills just don't seem to be improving anymore, I've been playing for about 1 1/2 - 2 years, can't exactly remember when I started. I find that I just get stuck in a rut and play the same songs all the time, and even when I'm not playing songs I just play the same beats and fills. I do try to learn new songs but I find that it doesn't help much anymore, learning songs is a great way to improve as a beginner but at some point you have to start doing a lot more. I haven't noticed any improvement in months. A teacher would be great for me right now but it's not an option at the minute. Could anyone recommend things that I should be doing/learning to progress at a faster rate? I wish there was a plan laid out somewhere with things to practice and play, but things are never that simple!

Thanks.

In either instance an investment must be made. You can either invest in DVD's and learn from those, or you can hire a teacher. Personally, I would hire the teacher maybe every other week to start, he'll surely come up with stuff for you to work on and guide you down the path of drumming enlightenment.

But if you absolutely have no $$$, then it'll be difficult to train yourself especially if you don't know where to go or what to do.

Yes, this kind of situation usually requires someone with more experience to guide you through.
Some stuff you might be able to do on your own that usually help a lot with conceptual development is learning musical theory, specially in regards to rhythm and drums. Do you know how to read and write music? If you do, work more, transcribe harder stuff, take that interpretative skill to the limit and then work on the tough stuff you're transcribing; difficult stuff to write down is rarely easy to plaay, and even harder to play to a pulse if it's displaced or in odd groups.


Fox.

Fox, I can't read music it all. I am pretty skilled at figuring stuff out by ear though, probably because that's how I've always learnt music. I think I'll add that to things I need to work on.

Since you can't read music, you will have a difficult time trying to progress on your own. I would talk to a teacher and see if you can at least do at least a lesson every now and then. Maybe once you get a bit more money coming in, you can switch to weekly lessons.

Jeff

ludakot said:

I think I'll add that to things I need to work on.

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Well, if you can't do it at all, that should be pretty much the *only* thing you should work on at the moment. A decently skilled player can figure some things out, but as I wrote on another thread recently, as good as you might be, there's just some things you've got to sit down and get on paper to be able to fully grasp it and play it cleanly against a pulse.
I usually refer people to the intro of this live performance from Gavin Harrison. Listen at about 0:18, that kind of misleading stuff (and thousands other examples from many drummers) just won't come to you by just listening over and over; it needs to be conceptualized.
The required musical theory for drums is a lot simpler and easy to grasp than it might seem, give it an honest shot.


Fox.

If you're in college or high school join the school band. You may be going, oh band is stupid, all they play is classical. It can be frustrating at some points. But you do progress, you'll be forced to learn new things and overall it will help develop your rhythm and how you play.

Fox622003 said:

Well, if you can't do it at all, that should be pretty much the *only* thing you should work on at the moment. A decently skilled player can figure some things out, but as I wrote on another thread recently, as good as you might be, there's just some things you've got to sit down and get on paper to be able to fully grasp it and play it cleanly against a pulse.
I usually refer people to the intro of this live performance from Gavin Harrison. Listen at about 0:18, that kind of misleading stuff (and thousands other examples from many drummers) just won't come to you by just listening over and over; it needs to be conceptualized.
The required musical theory for drums is a lot simpler and easy to grasp than it might seem, give it an honest shot.


Fox.

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Can you recommend any websites to learn about drum theory and drum notation etc? Thanks.

kyle said:

If you're in college or high school join the school band. You may be going, oh band is stupid, all they play is classical. It can be frustrating at some points. But you do progress, you'll be forced to learn new things and overall it will help develop your rhythm and how you play.

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I'm not in school but I am planning on joining a band soon, which is part of the reason why I want to improve. The drummer from my friends band left and he always wanted me in the band anyway, I just wasn't good at the time.

ludakot said:

Can you recommend any websites to learn about drum theory and drum notation etc? Thanks.

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You should do a google search for "learn to read drum music notation" or something like that, there's tons of very good material out there.THIS was one of the first results I got, and it's a nice short intro that might help with some basics.


Fox.

ludakot said:

Fox, I can't read music it all. I am pretty skilled at figuring stuff out by ear though, probably because that's how I've always learnt music. I think I'll add that to things I need to work on.

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youre not the only one. i cant read music. i recommend that you expose yourself to as much as you can. watch videos on youtube or here on the dw main page. if you reeeeally like a video get the dvd.

also, for now, narrow your preferences down to a handful of drummers you like. learn how they do it. mine from the past have been lars ulrich, carter beauford, steve jordan, stanton moore, and john bonham to name my bigguns.

i guess ill close with this.
use you ears and even though you dont read music, still try and lean as much as you can. ?learn a new beat? record it, find out whats its called, why.. etc.

good luck, lemme know if i can help.
taylor


ps look into shuffles. learning how to shuffle really opened doors for me. maybe its all the ghost notes.. but i think there is something special in the "groove" your body falls into while making a beat. steve jordan is the wise one on groove.