What frustrates you the most?

What frustrates me more then anything in the world when it comes to practicing is how i can be doing 16th notes on the bass drum (single foot) to a speed of lets say 130bpm for a month straight without any effort and then OUT OF NOWHERE, the next day i cannot do it. Like i can do it for 30 seconds and then i cant. Foot spasms like crazy or im just exrtremely sloppy. I have to drop tempo dramatically. Like what the F*** I have no idea why this happens. And i wont be able to get back to that speed for like another month and i practice every day with maybe 1 or 2 days of no practice per week.

Any thoughts??

What's your biggest frustration when it comes to practicing or playing?
 
My biggest frustration comes from inside my own head....my insane expectations of myself and perfectionism. I expect way more out of myself than I should and when I can't do something right off the bat I get very upset. It's something I'm trying to work on in all aspects of my life. I have to learn to just sit behind the kit and allow myself to have fun. And the irony of the whole thing is that when I do that, I play better. It's a vicious cycle I tell ya!
 
What's your biggest frustration when it comes to practicing or playing?

Geez, how long have you got...

My biggest frustration comes from inside my own head....my insane expectations of myself and perfectionism. I expect way more out of myself than I should and when I can't do something right off the bat I get very upset...

Just have a break... and an ice cream :) you'll feel better when you seat down again...
 
Oh man I try and never let myself get frustrated drumming. That's like getting frustrated making love, the wrong time for such an emotion. A more unproductive state of mind I can't think of. When you experience frustration, you are basically at the edge of your abilities. You can either allow yourself to become frustrated, or ask yourself what you can do to get past the barrier, or accept your limitations that day and work within them. Maybe you can't do 16th's at 130 that day, but you could work on getting 16th's at 100 cleaner. You can always be cleaner. Just remember that you don't have to have motorized hands and feet to be a good drummer. I know from my day work that frustration is to be avoided at all costs, nothing good comes of it. Not saying it doesn't happen to me, I got pretty frustrated yesterday at work, cursing inanimate objects out loud for not cooperating with me, it seemed as if every little thing was fighting me every step of the way. Work can definitely frustrate me sometimes. Drumming on the other hand is mostly joy for me, so I can't relate. People have rhythms. Sometimes we can do no wrong, other times we feel retarded. As long as in the big picture you are moving forward, that's the goal. Three steps forward, 2 steps back is still one step forward.

Be kind to yourself, accept your limitations, laugh at yourself on the bad days, (I'm retarded today lol!) and try like hell to not allow yourself to degrade into frustration. At the first sign of frustration, you should develop some sort of plan, like working on your reading instead. There are so many areas to address, why beat your head against the wall in one specific area when there are so many other areas to conquer?
 
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For me it's the lack of time to practice what I want and need to work on.
 
For me it's the lack of time to practice what I want and need to work on.

I would plus 20 this

the things I want and need to work on just keep piling up and finding the time to do so is what makes me nuts

I can easily lose myself in practice and before I know it 6 to 8 hours have disappeared

I wish I could do that every day .....but life gets in the way

for example ...this week I only got about an hour to two hours per day .........I felt like I had to stop right when I started to get going

I am one of those guys that just absolutely loves practicing and get so much joy out of focussing on one, two , or maybe three things for hours and hours on end
 
I'm not usually a blamer of gear, because I can comfortably jump between the 4-5 kits that I do, but I think the expensive pedals on my home kit (the only place I can get some serious catchup practice in) are just so awkward that I'm losing ground. I'm out of work atm but I'm tempted to just lay out some savings so I can get on with proper practice.

I coulda bought the pedals I want 1/2 price the other week but I convinced myself not to. Double-kicking myself about that one.

Ah-ha-ha.
 
For me its that my hands wont play what I want them to. Sounds stupid I guess but I can hear/plan/think my way through a great accented snare fill and I understand the sticking and where the accents go but my hands just arent there yet (like a full bar of 16ths with odd accents everywhere kind of a thing-maybe a 5 stroke roll mixed in).

I thinking that understanding/thinking ahead is the first step to playing anything- like this who say you have to he able to hear/think fast to play that way, I agree. I can but cant play it yet.

Yet. I make slow gains but gains none the less and shedding is what makes it happen. I am constantly trying new sticks etc. but I know its just practice time that will make it happen. Knowing this allows me to not be frustrated in general but it would be nice if it just happened one day...
 
Very frustrated with finger in my left hand, they are so slow compared to the ones in the right hand.

Also, not having enough time to practice and whenever I practice I'm already very tired from my day-to-day job.

I don't understand either why in one day one can do things at a certain speed but another day, it's completely sloppy.
 
List is long but I wish I would practice more, I always have a good hour after work to practice but I always come up with some kind of excuse not too so instead of 10-12hours a week practicing (including weekends) I average about 4 which is pathetic. I really need to get a handle on this if I am ever really going to improve.

I plan on joinging SDS next week and hope to get some kind of routine out of it..
 
...I think the expensive pedals on my home kit (the only place I can get some serious catchup practice in) are just so awkward that I'm losing ground...

Can you explain more please? I have a bunch of pedals, but most of them are very inexpensive. I've been considering getting a more expensive one, but am thinking it might not make much difference, and I might spend too much time playing with all the adjustments available.
 
Can you explain more please? I have a bunch of pedals, but most of them are very inexpensive. I've been considering getting a more expensive one, but am thinking it might not make much difference, and I might spend too much time playing with all the adjustments available.

I am kind of in the same boat, I had a gibraltar pedal, then tried an axis, hated it, sold that bought a dw-9000, hated that as well and now I have a pearl eliminator, love it but my wife saw me looking at a Tama speed cobra so she surpised me last year with it.

The Speed Cobra is a nice pedal but I mainly use my Pearl Eliminator when playing out or my gibraltar.. the speed cobra stays on my home practice kit.. It's Nice and smooth and great big pedal board but for some reason I have not really fallen in love with it yet. I have noticed recently I am getting better with it but I don't think anyone really needs to spend big bucks on a pedal.

My drum instructor has an old yamaha single chain pedal that came with his old stage custom kit and he is like friggin Bonham with that thing.
 
"What frustrates you the most?"

Sound of my drums in every recordings and tuning-issues. Drums are in basement, concrete everywhere, maybe not best enviroment for a good sound, and if you get drums tuned as well as you could one day, you have to tune them again next day or you just not cannot play with them.
 
What frustrates me more then anything in the world when it comes to practicing is how i can be doing 16th notes on the bass drum (single foot) to a speed of lets say 130bpm for a month straight without any effort and then OUT OF NOWHERE, the next day i cannot do it. Like i can do it for 30 seconds and then i cant. Foot spasms like crazy or im just exrtremely sloppy.

BDB23, you don't have the concept of "owning" the patterns you play. In a practical sense, a pattern must be easy and effortless, irregardless of your mood. What you need to do is bolster your bottom line - what you can always nail, no matter how distracted you feel.

Could be you have a wide mood span like I do (thank you, ADHD) and there'll be a bigger difference between your best and worst than for most people - and that's diddlydumdoodly frustrating!
 
It's got to be dropping sticks.

As I know good and bad I am and I know what I need to do to improve my weak points. I can play everything my current projects throw at me BUT wether I like it or not the stick dropping fairy sneaks up on me and casts a spell and bingo I drop one. And It's just so freakin unpredictable. Grrr.
 
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