Share your practice routine or give me suggestions for mine please(repost)

CCdrummer

Senior Member
Reposting here as I received no replies in general discussion.

For quite awhile now my practice routine has consisted mostly of working on the following areas.

1) Developing single stroke, mostly by working on the stone killer from master studies with my hands and a feet. I really like doing this, its almost a meditation type relaxing thing for me to do.

2) A bit of "stick control"

3) A bit of "encyclopedia of double bass drumming".

3) Side A of Moving Pictures using the Bill Wheeler transcriptions. I have to admit this is taking up the lion's share of my practice time, I am just having such a good time with it.

4) A little (very little) just messing around on the kit.

I would like to hear what you guys/gals are doing. I feel like I am becoming a bit of a one (or two trick pony) by just working mostly on single stroke and Rush songs.

If I wanted to become more well rounded, what would you suggest? My available practice time ranges from a low of 30 minutes to 1 hour a day,(during the week) to 3 or 4 hours. (these days are rare, tend to happen on the weekends.)
 
i've got a couple of beats / grooves that i'm working on at the moment.

i'll play the same beat at the same tempo for half and hour to and hour and then move onto the next one.

might sound boring to some but to me it isn't. i like to really get inside it and get it feeling right.

another thing i might do is play a straight groove for 15 / 20 minutes. then maybe play the same groove at the same tempo but swing it so that it feels different.
 
This is what i do (although i have more time, about 2-3 hours per day).....

In order...

1) Feet
a.15 mins of 8th notes on a single pedal while grooving. Ex. @130bpm you are playing 8th notes on the kick (or 65bpm playing 16th notes). 1/4 notes on ride and left foot hihat hitting the snare on beat 3.
b. 10 mins of the same exact thing but now my left foot is playing the 8th notes (using a double pedal of course)
c. 10 mins of double pedal 16th notes while playing same groove.
d. 10 mins of foot rudiments while playing same groove. Swithcing from doubles to singles to paradiddles with the feet.

2) Feet and hands
a. 10 mins of quads (R L K K, R L K K) over and over and then switch to double strokes ( R R K K, L L K K). This is to be done with single pedal and while keeping time with the hihat.
b. Paradiddles around the kit ( R L R R L R K K)
c. 6 stroke rolls around the kit incorporating the foot anywhere you'd like

3) Grooves - Work on some grooves that require independence. Pick one, start slow and dont stop until you nail it. Can take a day or 1 month but practice it until you own it.

4) Hands
a. singles around the kit for a half hour at all speeds.

That is my basic practice day.
 
great question was going to ask the same thing myself!

Mine is:

1 min, singles stroke 16th's at as high tempo as poss, atm 180bpm

2 mins on wrist strength, giroball get to as high as poss and hold for as long as poss

30 mins on rudiments- One day singles, 2nd day doubles and parradiddles, 3rd day flams, 4th day drags- all to a click on practice pad, bring up tempo and get as fast as can

30 mins- grade stuff, this includes songs, hands and feets patterns solos and nailing grooves

30 mins on song playing. a mixture of rock/ pop/ blues/ worship stuff- i transpose by ear and write it down then work on it to a click and bring up to the right tempo.

sometimes i just mess around for a while!
 
I usually start my day with the Lifetime Warm-Up. Then I go through a accent, double, flam routine ala Unreel/Language of drumming.

On the kit I usually warm up with a funky play-a-long. And then I have divided my practice into different sections.

1) Foot ostinato with reading and all sorts of possible rudimentary things around the kit and subdivisions. How this is organized varies.

2) Rock independence. Pick an ostinato and work through 16th note possibilities, reading some pages From Syncopation/New Breed etc... + improvising.

3) Jazz independence. Same thing. I often do this with play-a-longs or sequencer.

4) Linear stuff: I just work on a voocabulary of patterns and add new ones as I get comfortable.

5) Odd time: Just expanding comfort and adding things to basic 5,7 and 9 grooves.

6) Grooves/play-a-longs: Working on grooves I find challenging, learning songs I like.....

7) Snare drum. Working on snare etudes. Also something to do if students don't show up.

8) Latin/World grooves: I'm just trying to add some of this stuff in now as it's an area where I'm lacking in knowledge and somewhere I know basic understanding is a necessity in my musical environment.

9) Double bass: This is the thing I work the least on. I just do some basic grooves, couple of different ostinatos and some fills. I don't work hard on increasing any speed or endurance and certainly not every day as the rest my practice would suffer and I don't really need it at this point.


In the evening I usually do some endurance training on the pad.

In periods I might choose to spend one or several days working on just one aspect. I try to keep everything musical and relevant.

It's a lot to work on at a time, but I sort of view it as playing a little bit of all types of required music every day.
 
No routine - it's always been random for me (don't hit! don't hit!). These days I start playing patterns, then I try variations. When I run into trouble I repeat until it feels comfortable, then back to the pattern and variations.

I'd like to settle down and do more of this ...

i've got a couple of beats / grooves that i'm working on at the moment.

i'll play the same beat at the same tempo for half and hour to and hour and then move onto the next one.

might sound boring to some but to me it isn't. i like to really get inside it and get it feeling right.

another thing i might do is play a straight groove for 15 / 20 minutes. then maybe play the same groove at the same tempo but swing it so that it feels different.
 
No strict routine either.
Just... motions, motions, motions... repeat. Letting time cure some stuff by itself, acquiring muscle memory and paying attention to what my ears are telling me in regard to dynamic/timing evenness, accent separation etc. And (same as playing the guitar) my ears are well ahead of what my hands/feet can do.

All the good stuff mentioned will be on my plate one day but I'm still practicing motions, not grooves. Isolated hands/feet or in combination (any combo I can think of). Doing interlaced doubles on a double pedal while typing this (semi-conscious - in auto pilot mode, while working/being at the PC anyway - I have a kick practice pad & my dw2002 double pedal right under my PC desk).

One thing: I'm practicing L side lead a lot. With the result that over time some things feel as good or even better with my L side leading. This feel can shift back though. E.g. some rudiments w/ hands feel at least as good doing them L hand lead. As for feet, swivel and interlaced doubles happen better with my 'weak' side leading. That's not coincidence but a direct result of spending decent amount of time on leading with my other hand/foot.
 
...I feel like I am becoming a bit of a one (or two trick pony) by just working mostly on single stroke and Rush songs.

If I wanted to become more well rounded, what would you suggest? My available practice time ranges from a low of 30 minutes to 1 hour a day,(during the week) to 3 or 4 hours. (these days are rare, tend to happen on the weekends.)

The plethora of books, dvd's, and other resources to use for practicing is overwhelming nowadays. I think it leaves some people more confused and less focused since there's just so much information thrown at them.

My opinion on not becoming a one-trick-pony is to work with material that puts you in the driver's seat for not only developing reading, coordination and technique but also fosters your creativity in your approach to the material and ultimately your instrument. A great teacher can guide you through this process and put you on the path.

Books like Stick Control, Syncopation, New Breed, 4-Way Coordination, Wilcoxon, Jim Blackey, among others makes you think for yourself as they can be used in so may ways. Once you learn how to no longer take a book at it's face value, at that point you'll never look at any book the same way again.

Reminds me of the statement that goes something like this: Give a person a fish - feed them for a day. Teach a person how to fish - feed them for a lifetime.

As a teacher I'm the one responsible and accountable for teaching that person how to fish.

With the available time you reference, there's no way you should be feeling like a one-tick-pony with the material I reference.
 
And (same as playing the guitar) my ears are well ahead of what my hands/feet can do.
Same goes for me, but if the mind is there the body should be able to follow sooner or later.

The reasons why we practicing drums are because we like drumming, but also to get better at is. This is why i am studying other instruments too, so i can understand the other musicians better which helps me improve my drumming. Since i picked up the guitar a few weeks ago my drumming has improved too. I develop a more subtle touch to it that i hadn't before. Even though i am still in the beginner stages of the guitar, i can already sense that the skill it takes to do it compliments your drumming skills.

So, at this point my practice routine for drumming is playing the guitar first for one or two hours and than i hit the drums.
 
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