Finally practicing again - why do I facepalm.

ktz

Member
Hello everyone!
I'll quickly introduce myself (I know, this is boring. Feel free to skip to "tl;dr"): I'm 25 years old now, I started playing drums when I was 17 but I never had a kit at home (or close to) to be able to practice consistently.
I've been mostly practicing on pillows, my legs, living beings, flying bears and so on, but never on a real kit. The only time when I had the opportunity to play a kit, was at my band's reharsal.

Now, why did I bore you with this? Because some months ago, I bought a Roland TD9, placed it in my bedroom and started practicing on it (I can't say I like it... but it's good enough for practicing semi-silently I guess).

Now, since I started practicing, I started being VERY disappointed from myself. Basically I realised I have no concept of techniques whatsoever. I realised I cannot double stroke roll, I my endurance is just laughable, my left hand's fingers are usueless concrete sticks.

I'm working on it. Syncopation, Stick-Control, trying to practice at least 1h a day. I'm trying to fill my gaps as much as I can, but some things make me feel like I'm not capable of doing this, really.

I'll start with something that you might find just funny.

tl:dr:
While practicing the finger technique with my left hand, the stick keeps sliding forward, making me lose the balance point and eventually having to re-grab the stick from the beginning.
Any idea of why this could be happening? It doesn't with my right hand.

Also, let me include a simpler question. What makes me suffer the most, now, it's how slow I am/feel. I believe that getting decent at double strokes will give me a big boost in that regard (do you confirm, anyway) but do you maybe have some suggestion about the exercices to do to increase hands speed?


Many, many thanks.


Dan
 
Welcome to the forum!

The most likely reason that people are not replying is because you are asking questions that have been answered before. Also it is very hard to judge your hand technique without actually seeing your hands. I'll give it a shot anyway.

The sliding problem: It's normal. It's a common grip issue. Actually it's a good sign. It means that your grip is loose. You just have to get used to correcting yourself before the stick slides to far. There's no real trick to it other than playing your rudiments and adjusting the stick.

The doubles problem: Yes learning how to do good doubles will help you a lot. There are some good video's youtube that describe the techniques.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJWldEMFem4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sz1oUOtla9w

Just know that getting a really good and open roll going is hard work. It takes a lot of practice. Take your time and don't rush things.

My last bit of advice is to take a teacher. If you can buy a TD9 then you can also afford one or two lessons from a good teacher. Trust me when I say it's worth the effort.
 
Thank you very much for answering!

I've been searching a lot on this forum since yesterday, read a lot and also watched Pope's videos today (I loved the way he explains stuff. I wish he hadn't stopped).

Actually I did buy myself a couple of lessons (4 in total I think) but at that time I hadn't played a drum kit in ages so I figured I would have first removed the first layer of rust, before going back to have lessons. I'm looking for someone right now.

About the double stroke roll, I can very well understand that it's something that requires time and effort to be mastered (what doesn't on drums, anyway) and also that it's a very personal thing but, just out of curiosity, would you be able to give me an estimation of the time required to get a decent, consistent DSR at an average speed (let's say, I don't know, 16th at 170?).

I know it is a stupid question but some kind of answer would help putting things in perspective and not to lose morale. I don't really have experience in practicing. I am practicing ~1.30h per day now and I can see small improvements here and there but I don't know what to expect in terms of development.
 
It's very hard to estimate the amount of time it will take you to get good doubles. I've heard stories of people getting up to 200 bpm (16ths) in about a month or 2-3 on the pad. I took well over a year to get to that point and still find room for improvement. Then again I was pretty lazy with my rudiment practice and would tend to rush too fast. Take your time and it will come.

My suggested speed to start doubles is 100 bpm (16th notes) and work your way up. No set times. If it sounds good, it sounds good.

Exercises that really helped me were:

- 8th note singles to 16th note doubles
- 16th note singles to 16th note doubles
- accenting the second of the double

Oh and because you have a TD9 you can use the scope function to see if your doubles are nice and even as well. I find that my ear is sometimes tricked into thinking my doubles are even (whilst there are not).

As far as a teacher is concerned. You have a kit now (the same I have btw ;)) so you can have a teacher. Don't be afraid. Just go for it.
 
Thank you, from the bottom of my heart :)

Yesterday I had a rehearsal session with my band. We hadn't played in a while so I was all excited.
The thing is that now, for over a month, I've been practicing rudiments, stick control, a little bit of speed and endurance but I couldn't feel any improvement.
Yesterday it's been FANTASTIC. I started firing fills which I was NEVER able to do and with nearly no stress on my forearms. I was constantly surprising myself.

This took me back to my early days, when muscle memory started working and every day on the kit I could do something new.

It's motivating and beautiful, I can't wait to go home and para-para-diddle!
 
Well! I would say, at least for me the biggest motivation is to have a teacher with great competence! Find a good teacher! :)
 
Stick sliding is natural. You just learn to compensate, get more and more sensitive and soon it takes care of itself without you thinking about it.

Doubles are a big topic as it sort of depends. I work on them every day. I sort of have a routine that used to take me hours, but even though my current routine is still long, the routine I used to have is just maintenance and takes a few minutes. If you want something short and sweet, Sonny/Tommy Igoe's routine explained in the DVD Great Hands for a Lifetime, is very well thought out.

Doubles are great to practice at all tempos and all dynamics as they all require something different. Just doing a really loud and fast one for a minute or so is great. Lead with both hands and also do the with one hand at a time. For control you can try this:

rrll rrll rrll rrll
rllr rllr rllr rllr
llrr llrr llrr llrr
lrrl lrrl lrrl lrrl
 
...the stick keeps sliding forward, making me lose the balance point and eventually having to re-grab the stick from the beginning..
I am new to drumming, but ran into a similar problem. At 54, I have a bit of arthritis in my left wrist, which inhibits my grip a bit. I also have problems keeping my wrist at the same angle as my right hand which kind of throws me off. After going through a period of getting really PO'd, I found a pair of sticks that have a rubberized base with an indent that allows me to hold the stick better with my thumbs. I have NEVER dropped a stick using these:

http://zildjian.com/Products/Drumsticks-and-Mallets/Artist-Series/Artist-Series-Trilok-Gurtu

I don't know if they would work with electronic drums or not (not familiar with them), but thought I'd throw that out there for you. GL
 
Thank you all, really. Reading your posts makes me wanna call sick from work and go back to my pad.
Also, reading that sliding is normal is such a relief. I was afraid I was doing something wrong.

@Drifter: I tried rubberised sticks but it's not my cup of tea. It felt better a the beginning but I want my sticks to be able to slide and move without the feel of any friction.
 
Thank you all, really. Reading your posts makes me wanna call sick from work and go back to my pad.
Also, reading that sliding is normal is such a relief. I was afraid I was doing something wrong.

@Drifter: I tried rubberised sticks but it's not my cup of tea. It felt better a the beginning but I want my sticks to be able to slide and move without the feel of any friction.

Another little trick to help develop that weak hand or both hands really is to hold the stick with just the thumb and fore finger and do singles. obviously you need to utilize rebound and then start to slowly add one finger at a time. Practice this and then do the opposite; start with a full grip and subtract one finger at a time etc...

this will really show you where your grip and technique weak points are, and specifically for which fingers.

thomas pridgen has a video on youtube regarding this.
 
Another little trick to help develop that weak hand or both hands really is to hold the stick with just the thumb and fore finger and do singles. obviously you need to utilize rebound and then start to slowly add one finger at a time. Practice this and then do the opposite; start with a full grip and subtract one finger at a time etc...

this will really show you where your grip and technique weak points are, and specifically for which fingers.

thomas pridgen has a video on youtube regarding this.

Oh... I had missed this... sounds like a good advice actually.. I'll try it later today.

There's one thing that is going through my mind pretty often lately... I stopped smoking about 2 months ago now and I found myself sitting at my chair at work too much because I stopped taking smoke breaks.
For this reason, I bought a practice pad to leave on my desk and I take... practice breaks instead.
I close myself in a meeting room, start a metronome on my phone and practice for about 30 mins straight.

In a good day, I can do 1 hour divided in 2 mini-sessions of 30 minutes each one about 6 hours distant from the other.

The thing is that, after 30 minutes, I don't really feel satisfied. Do you think this is actually worth it? Is dividing the hour a bad idea? Do I need to make sure I do at least a number of minutes straight (I mean to make it count as time spent actually improving myself)? I still practice on the ekit once I'm back home, but if I could do my hour of rudiments here and then focus on kit practice once at home, that would be great....
 
Hey Dan, it sounds like you have fulcrum issues in your left hand. You should be able to play free strokes with just your fulcrum & end of the index finger without the stick sliding out of your hand. Once that's solid then your fingers are free to play the stick instead of holding the stick, and finger control is the key to double strokes.

Good luck with it! -Bill
 
Hey Dan, it sounds like you have fulcrum issues in your left hand. You should be able to play free strokes with just your fulcrum & end of the index finger without the stick sliding out of your hand. Once that's solid then your fingers are free to play the stick instead of holding the stick, and finger control is the key to double strokes.

Good luck with it! -Bill

Oh man, thank you so much for replying, I admire your job!
I had the impression that I had to work on that actually, and I'm trying to. I think it got a bit better at the beginning but now I seem to be stuck to what I've accomplished so far, in that regard.
I'm not sure how to actually practice that. I'm basically just holding the stick still and using fingers to hit the pad, hoping for my brain/muscles to figure it out as they did with the right end eventually.
Do you say is the position of the fulcrum, the way I hold or is there any exercise in particular I can try? Right now, I'm giving a try to beatsMcGee's tip as well...
 
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