Practice!

SilenceDogood

Junior Member
I only have 30 mins-1hr/ day to practice drums and i'll only be practicing on my pad. Any suggestions on what to practice? And another thing, I have 1 hour a week to practice on a kit. Any suggestions what to do with my 1 hour on the kit? I have very limited time for practice, so I want to ask for suggestions to maximize my time. Thanks guys! :)
 
Depends what setting you're in, if you're just warming up or keeping your hands fast and loose which is how I usually practice now I just do basic things:

* Single stroke rolls slowly at first
* Double stroke rolls
* Paradiddles/Double paradiddles
* Roughs/Buzz rolls
* General mess around

I usually have the TV on when I'm doing this on a silent head drum and I have a pair of sticks down the side of my couch at all times.

If you're working on technique practice in front of a mirror. If you're studying from a book you can work on it on the pad. They're good for muscle memory too.

As you can pretty much guess most of the lessons I've had were on a pad. (I'm a poet and I don't know it)

Once you're on a kit incoroprate your pad work into your fills/groove. Work on your grooves, bass drum technique. But enjoy yourself!
 
Depends what setting you're in, if you're just warming up or keeping your hands fast and loose which is how I usually practice now I just do basic things:

* Single stroke rolls slowly at first
* Double stroke rolls
* Paradiddles/Double paradiddles
* Roughs/Buzz rolls
* General mess around

I usually have the TV on when I'm doing this on a silent head drum and I have a pair of sticks down the side of my couch at all times.

If you're working on technique practice in front of a mirror. If you're studying from a book you can work on it on the pad. They're good for muscle memory too.

As you can pretty much guess most of the lessons I've had were on a pad. (I'm a poet and I don't know it)

Once you're on a kit incoroprate your pad work into your fills/groove. Work on your grooves, bass drum technique. But enjoy yourself!

Good suggestions.

Spend plenty of time on the 40 rudiments. Try to throw in different foot ostinatos to add to the challenge once you get the patterns down to keep your feet engaged.

Although some here might have a different opinion, I like to use the practice pad AND the pillow, to help to dually focus on the fingers and the wrist. The pillow is especially helpful when I am doing one-handed 16th note patterns and adding in accents to help with my Moeller stroke.
 
My suggestion is pick only one thing and work it for a full hour. Deeper practice moves you forward faster than broad practice.

Put another way, you get way more benefit from laser focusing on just one thing in that hour than skimming over 5 things in that hour.

Deep practice > shallow practice. IMO.
 
awesome suggestions by mikyok, Hewitt and Larry below

my advice would be

when on the pad is the time to check your movements and "technique" and make sure you are getting the most from your movements and allowing the stick to help you and bla bla bla ... don't try to be a speed demon ... try to be clean and smooth

when on the drums play along to music that you love and record yourself.
playing music is what it is all about right?.... yeah.
so play music .... and via playing music the "technique" you lack with rear its ugly head and tell you what you need to work on to make the music sound good.

don't try to force your pad work into your drumset playing.
nothing sounds worse than someone who sounds like they are playing exercises when playing music

the gap between your pad work and set playing will eventually close and become somewhat seamless ... but don't force rudiments onto the kit.
this is a huge mistake that too many drummers make and they constantly sound like they are practicing on the bandstand

your pad work will eventually leave a residue that will bleed subconsciously into your playing of the instrument.... let it happen naturally

- when in the gym work on your technique and strategy
- when in the ring forget about all that, let your instincts take over and just fight
 
I've been recently practicing time and groove a lot. And clearing my mind when I'm playing and just concentrating on the music.

The latter has helped my a lot, since I sometimes think too much when I practice and play. It's like yoga/mindfulness for drums and has to be practiced. If I can relax and concentrate, I don't need more than 2-3 hours of practice a day, and It's heaps more effective than before. It takes some time to get used to.
 
awesome suggestions by mikyok, Hewitt and Larry below

my advice would be

when on the pad is the time to check your movements and "technique" and make sure you are getting the most from your movements and allowing the stick to help you and bla bla bla ... don't try to be a speed demon ... try to be clean and smooth

when on the drums play along to music that you love and record yourself.
playing music is what it is all about right?.... yeah.
so play music .... and via playing music the "technique" you lack with rear its ugly head and tell you what you need to work on to make the music sound good.

don't try to force your pad work into your drumset playing.
nothing sounds worse than someone who sounds like they are playing exercises when playing music

the gap between your pad work and set playing will eventually close and become somewhat seamless ... but don't force rudiments onto the kit.
this is a huge mistake that too many drummers make and they constantly sound like they are practicing on the bandstand

your pad work will eventually leave a residue that will bleed subconsciously into your playing of the instrument.... let it happen naturally

- when in the gym work on your technique and strategy
- when in the ring forget about all that, let your instincts take over and just fight

A while back you showed us an example of doing the "table of time" on a pad. I do that all the time now, running sub-divisions to a click. I have found it's one of the more "musical" non-musical exercises. I've even had improvement in my bass foot by doing the same divisions with that. When playing music, I feel way more confident that I'm moving around in sub-divisions correctly. Things like 8th triplets get into my playing in a good way, where before, I might have avoided it to make sure the time was always solid.
 
Back
Top