Practicing s-l-o-w-w-w

There was another thread recently on playing slow, it might have been Larry's, in which Derek Roddy said practicing slow is all well and good, but practice is useless if you're not practicing what's applicable.

My teacher had me practice things more along the lines of dynamic control, as opposed to timing control, but both are good things to examine. I would practice timing just so long as it doesn't consume the regimen.
 
Derek Roddy said:
Here's a great exercise to work on spacing and to really nail the fine motor control of your timing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQwgyUlMeNw

It's a bit rough at the beginning but, gets better as I go along.

It's tough to get solid. It took me 5 days to nail this short vid! Haha.



D
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Epic Derek, & damn tasty too. Sooo hard to pull off. 5 days you say? Hmmm, I fancy a go at this :) Haven't got 5 days to spare though :(

Looks like Andy might just bare his arse big time on this ;) ;) ;)
 
Derek Roddy said:
Here's a great exercise to work on spacing and to really nail the fine motor control of your timing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQwgyUlMeNw

It's a bit rough at the beginning but, gets better as I go along.

It's tough to get solid. It took me 5 days to nail this short vid! Haha.



D
Click to expand...

I love playing super slow tempos. It gives you a second to think about what to play, it really challenges you to keep time, and helps you understand subdivisions better. Just because the tempo is 12.5 bpm, doesn't mean it has to sound slow and boring, like you showed. You really got to exercise your creativity and knowledge to make it not sound dull. So i think it helps with playing more musical. Also you really really notice imbalances in your playing lol.

My metronome only goes down to 20 bpm though, but I have set it to 20 multiple times and man, it is a challenge for me at least. Since I started doing this, I've never set my metronome above 150 bpm (except when I'm learning a fast song), because I want to get a lot more comfortable at incorporating rests, 32nd note, sextuplets, 5's, and 7's etc etc.
 
DustinB said:
because I want to get a lot more comfortable at incorporating rests.
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That's a BIG part of it. Not enough drummers think about this and, how important the space in between the notes are.

In actuality, the notes we play are meaningless, it's the space between the notes that define us as players.
Even when playing fast.

D
 
Derek Roddy said:
That's a BIG part of it. Not enough drummers think about this and, how important the space in between the notes are.

In actuality, the notes we play are meaningless, it's the space between the notes that define us as players.
Even when playing fast.

D
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mmmm?? I'm picking up what your putting down, however, may I suggest that the notes we play are not meaningless.

Maybe, both the notes and the spaces (the notes we don't play ?? [which would those be] are what define our judgement as players as to what should be played and not played.

Did I screw that whole line of reasoning up for you? I don't mean to. It's just when I read your post twice, I thought that the the weight of importance on what is not played is not necessarily more relevant than what we DO play.

Love you Roddy. If I'm being a pedantic asshole, just say so.
 
I don't think I conveyed the message correctly so, let me try again.

If you ask any drummer to play a single note.....whether it's a 16th, 32nd, whole note, half note, etc.....is meaningless without the space behind it.

The space behind the note is what signifies what note value we're playing. Without that understanding and knowledge of space....the note itself is useless.

Make sense now?

D
 
Yeah, I get it.

Most of our conversations take place referring to the notes played within ALL the "space".

You know, we take all these 1/4s, 1/8s, 1/16s, triplets, bars, measures, phrases and so forth and divide them into easily related fractions of math. From a more subtle perspective, the space before and after the notes related to the beginning moment of a note is very important.

Some of this applied is not as "deep" as the last paragraph. Sometimes it's as simple as when you come off a big fill and then instead a big snare flam, or crash, you just don't play anything. Those are great moments of deliberateness where the space between the notes is as big as the notes you do play.

I've been playing a lot of mid tempo and slow songs lately with my band. I really enjoy that bigger canvas that comes with a lot of room to decide what to play and not to play.

Practicing slow has helped me a lot with keeping a good feel and groove to our songs that aren't fast and fun, so to speak.
 
Playing really slow is great practice, but 30 BPM may be a bit much. The space in between the notes is indeed key, but when you're practicing really slow having some subdivisions going will help out tremendously. Then once you turn off the met you'll be using those subdivisions to evenly navigate the spaces between the notes.

Another thing to keep in mind is when you're practicing in the slower ranges, use the next faster tempo's technique. That way you slide right into faster tempos easily as every different tempo requires a different technique.
 
Derek Roddy said:
I don't think I conveyed the message correctly so, let me try again.

If you ask any drummer to play a single note.....whether it's a 16th, 32nd, whole note, half note, etc.....is meaningless without the space behind it.

The space behind the note is what signifies what note value we're playing. Without that understanding and knowledge of space....the note itself is useless.

Make sense now?

D
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Perhaps another way to look at it is that the space is what matters, and the notes define the space. An analogy might be drawings. It isn't the lines themselves that make meaning - the lines simple establish borders and corners. It is the relationship between those lines that is really what the drawing is.

In music, the notes establish the pulse, like pitches establish the sense of a key. The pulse is then one of the features that really makes meaning as is is what drives resonance in the brain, acting in a sense like a form of mind control. If a drummer is thinking abstractly about what pattern of notes is to be played, the relationship between the notes, what really makes the meaning, the very thing that the musician is really trying to convey, is lost.
 
Since discovering this thread, my practices have been so much more productive.

Slow down. Who would have thunk it?

Now if several of you could send me an email reminder, I would really appreciate it.

Monday through Friday @ 6PM Eastern Time
and Saturday/Sunday @ 11AM Eastern Time

SUBJECT: SLOW THE F DOWN!!!!
 
larryace said:
Here it is:

http://www.drummerworld.com/forums/showthread.php?t=86999&highlight=the+simplest+thing

Thanks for the mention Phillipe!
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<sarcasm>Thanks for showing me this thread</sarcasm>

I've attempted it for the past 2 nights, but for only about 20 minutes each time. That's about as far as I get before the wife ventures down into the basement, slaps me in the back of the head, and goes "Seriously? can't you practice something else? SERIOUSLY??"

For noobs like me, it's awesome when you can really bury the click for a few minutes straight. But it sure exposes how technically weak I am yet.

So, I thank you, and hate you simultaneously.
 
Mr Roddy's concept of notes being as important as the spaces behind them reminds me about something cool I saw in a guitar video.

John Frusciante of the Red Hot Chilli Peppers was talking about how people seem to visualise notes falling exactly within a 16ths grid, even novices at an instrument. He says he deliberately slows or speeds up his playing at times to avoid falling into that neat grid pattern and I got to say it works for guitar.

Might not be too much use on an instrument like the drums, where you're providing the backbone for the music, but it's a useful way to think of structuring a solo beyond just leaving out notes every now and then.
 
When I learn something new, i usually have to do it ridiculously slow. And even then, I'm making a lot of mistakes and feeling pretty awkward.
Once I've got it down to where I feel it's acceptable to me, I start pushing myself - first up to my limits, and then past my limits to where i start to lose control of it, and it gets sloppy.
Then I have to slow it back down again.
But usually, each time I slow down and start working back up again, the speed I can reach while still maintaining good technique increases, until I reach a limit I just can't seem to go beyond, even with additional practice.


About notes, spaces and timing - drums are a percussion instrument - when you hit a note, it doesn't sustain.
With a lot of other instruments, when you hit and hold a note, it can sustain for the specified note value. With some instruments, like synthesizers, it can sustain forever (or until someone cuts the power - ha ha).
While those notes are sustaining, it's possible to modulate them to obtain variations in sound.
A lot of techniques for drums, roll variations in particular, are attempts to achieve some semblance of sustain. And things like applying pressure to a head with one hand while striking it with the other, or hitting a head in different places, are ways to obtain variations in sound.
 
Derek Roddy said:
That's a BIG part of it. Not enough drummers think about this and, how important the space in between the notes are.

In actuality, the notes we play are meaningless, it's the space between the notes that define us as players.
Even when playing fast.

D
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This is great advice. Neil Peart exaplain it, as no matter how fast or slow you play, you want to be able to hear and feel every note.
 
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