Practice plan...

[Skin Beater]

I just came up with a simple practice plan, i'd like input.

1 hour a day rudiments, all of them.
1 hour a day stick control.
1 hour a day New Breed.
1 hour a day drumset, playing with a click, working on different styles, exercises, just anything.

What do you think? Post your practice plan.

[Ellx]

you mean you plan to play the drums for 4 hours a day? 3 of which would be semi-boring. Bet you won't be able to keep it going, what with school or work.

Everyday i do like 1 hour or so free drumset play, and maybe 5 mins rudiments (Im a slacker eh?), i want to get stick control though.

[Skin Beater]

Yeah 4 hours isn't a really big deal if you are a serious drummer and plan to do something with drums as a career. Rudiments aren't boring to me.

[We_Love_Lime]

Yeah 4 hours isn't a really big deal if you are a serious drummer and plan to do something with drums as a career. Rudiments aren't boring to me.

Suck Up ;).

Naw go for it.

[Loser]

I have fun with rudiments myself. I don't know if I could do an hour of those + 1 hour of stick control EVERY single day though. You should probably include freeplaying in your practice schedule, unless you already do but do not consider it part of your actual 'practice'.

As for the 'boringness' of lengthy rudiments/stick control work, I have found that using actual music as a metronome can be somewhat fun, sometimes you have to concentrate a little more to stay with it. The only downside is, the speed is already set, so if you can't keep up with the song, you have to go to a slower one rather than simply changing the metronome speed.

[Pauly]

Unless your already practicing 4 hours a day, I think its going to be difficult to get into that routine.

Also, if your going through all 40 rudiments in 60 minutes, thats only a little over a minute for each rudiment. It'll be more beneficial to choose only a couple of rudiments, practice them, then incorporate them in your playing. Start off with 3-4 rudiments for 5-10 min each.

[Loser]

Unless your already practicing 4 hours a day, I think its going to be difficult to get into that routine.

Also, if your going through all 40 rudiments in 60 minutes, thats only a little over a minute for each rudiment. It'll be more beneficial to choose only a couple of rudiments, practice them, then incorporate them in your playing. Start off with 3-4 rudiments for 5-10 min each.

It's actually an entire minute and a half per rudiment!

[jalel]

I do 30 mins of feet practice and 30 mins of hand practice each day. Both practices focus on rudiments and working through Stick Control.

[Jezen]

I prefer playing rudiments to a click late at night on my pad. Forget music, with a click I can listen to the strokes and to be honest my reward for the effort is completing a pattern up/down to a certain tempo with certain dynamics, stick height, keeping it clean ect ect ect...

That's the way it's done really. You work hard to play paradiddles at 200bpm and when you worked hard enough, you get your reward: The ability to play that sticking at that tempo.

[GhostNote]

Well, i have a one hour-90 minutes one, i dont use it much but yeah, here goes:

1st, 10-15mins: warm-up or rudiments (selected few)
2nd, 20mins: something straight
3rd, 30mins: Favourite style, honing skills ect.
4th, 20mins: Play along to records
lastly, 10-15mins: Do something you've never tried before



hope it helped,


-GN

[Jezen]

Aside from physical practice, remember you can carry out mental training after hours when noise is not permitted. Counting out cross rhythms ect.

[Zildjian]

4 hours a dayy is alot..it would be hard to stay on track...My schedual is 5 on practice bad, an hour just jamming and making up stuff, 30 min on my instructional books

[Skin Beater]

I already play around 4 hours a day, it's just not real focused. I also include freeplaying into the hour of drumset playing. It's not that hard for me to do 4 hours, because I don't have a job and I just go to school two days a week. The original intend of this thread was though, to see if this was a good plan, if it would be good to dedicate an equal hour to all 4 of those areas, or more/less somewhere?

[Josiah]

It's actually an entire minute and a half per rudiment!


Wich is a considerable amount of time considering the time size of the rudiiment. You should be able to "practice" it over 100 times.

AT 100bpm you'd get 100 reps in a min flat.

[Skin Beater]

So do you approve of my practice plan Jos? Anything you would change?

[SkaRabbit]

longer on stick control

[ThugsRook]

my practice plan is as follows....

1) sit down
2) play drums for however long i feel like
3) have fun
4) when im done, i get up


:chug:

[SkaRabbit]

i tend to practise a hell o a lot on my pad. Alot of my kit work involves working on my grooves and dynamics

[Swiftay]

hmm, i like my practice plan, i don't have specific time slots though, i just do it as long as i feel is right!

Practice!

Single Stroke - Starting with two strokes around the kit, then three, then four, all the way up to six, start again at faster tempo.

Double Stroke - Double stroke roll around the kit. left and right hand on snare at the start, right hand moves around, left hand stays on snare, then left hand follows the right once the right has got to the floor tom, all of this done at increasing tempos.

Flam (and variations eg. Flam Tap) - Yet again, just flams around the kit, at increasing tempos.

Paradiddle (and variations eg. Paraparadiddle) - Yeah, yet again, paradiddles around the kit, increasing tempo.

5 stroke (all the way to 13 Stroke) Roll - Yeah, i think you can figure out where i do these.

Double Bass Work - Yeah, i just do the same rudiments, except on my double bass.

Whatever my Teacher assigned me! - My teacher usually assigns me a page or two to practice and get down really well. Right now i'm basic two pages of basic jazz coordination, yay!

and the grand finale!
Freeplay! - This is where i screw around! yay!!

and yeah, that's basically what i practice!

[Skin Beater]

my practice plan is as follows....

1) sit down
2) play drums for however long i feel like
3) have fun
4) when im done, i get up


:chug:

Well that was a waste of a post. This was geared more towards the serious drummers who have a strict practice regiment.

[Ellx]

I'd probobly be doing the same as you, If I was a bit more mature, and had only 2 days school per week. Im fairly serious about drumming, but I can't see myself fitting that in with homework & stuff.

[ThugsRook]

Well that was a waste of a post. This was geared more towards the serious drummers who have a strict practice regiment.

Post your practice plan.
i am serious.

you seem TOO serious.

[FockerTheLopper]

I just came up with a simple practice plan, i'd like input.

1 hour a day rudiments, all of them.
1 hour a day stick control.
1 hour a day New Breed.
1 hour a day drumset, playing with a click, working on different styles, exercises, just anything.

What do you think? Post your practice plan.
If I had 4 hours to practice I'd be so much better then I am now and not to brag but I'm pretty good for playing a little under 2 years and I don't have time on my set every day. I try to get at least 2 hours just tapping with hands and feet and sticks any time I'm free. You have 4 hours thats pretty good but get a teacher and do those 45 minutes each and your teachers exercises 1 hour

[DuckinFutch8]

how do you only go to school 2 days a week?

[Swiftay]

^^^hahaha he said IF he only went to school 2 days a week, then he would practice that much

[DuckinFutch8]

...It's not that hard for me to do 4 hours, because I don't have a job and I just go to school two days a week....

no, he definitaly said he just goes to school two days a week.

[Ellx]

Just noticed in that 4 hours of practice I don't see any music theory time.

[some jive turkey]

I just came up with a simple practice plan, i'd like input.

1 hour a day rudiments, all of them.
1 hour a day stick control.
1 hour a day New Breed.
1 hour a day drumset, playing with a click, working on different styles, exercises, just anything.

What do you think? Post your practice plan.

4 hours a day is a really long time to study music. If you can do this EVERY day, then that's pretty impressive. Most people don't have that kind of time, but if you do, more power to you. I wish I did.

I think you're routine is a little abstract, personally. All of the things you're studying are good, but I think you should try make your goals more specific. I also think you're better off committing to something shorter like an hour a day, and then adding and building things on top of it when you get the chance. Pick something in your routine and place it as top priority. I think this is usually most practical if it's something you can do on a practice pad (in case you're traveling, bedridden (ha) or whatever)

My practice routine:
For instance, My current top priority:I'm working in Stick Control, but doing a full page a day (specific goal) I've got the exact date marked on my calendar, I should be done with the book (march 19th, march 20th, I'm going back into Master Studies). For this type of practice I plan on alternating between stick control, syncopation, master studies, then pure rudiments for a while, (repeat the cycle)

Sometimes I work a few exercises ahead in stick control, ocasionally I slack--but I always know if I do, it eats at me, and then bust my *** to get back on track with it. A page a day with that book takes me roughly an hour-I'm in no hurry tempo-wise and I practice each drill 20x at the very least.

I also have a great page of left hand builder exercises that I made up, that just really bitch-slap the weak hand and get it moving right away. I'll post them in the lessons forum, if I can figure out how.

The rest of my practice routine is drum set playing. I go to my rehearsal space probably 5-6 days a week for about an hour and a half. Sometimes gigs, or band rehearsals obviously interfere. Within that time I focus on soloing(usually as a warm up), playing with a click or the CD "turn it up and lay it down"(alternate warm up). Then I'm currently try to get through some of "Beyond Bop Drumming". Then I practice some very intense uptempo playing for about 5-8 minutes. Then I stretch my hands, (ouch)

If I have "extra" time after that, I have a pile of books to work on. Sometimes I get inpired to rexamine something after jamming with some friends. Other times I just go through some crap in New Breed, but it's low on the totem pole right now, as I have higher priorities that I want to improve upon, namely jazz comping, uptempo skill, hand skills.

There are of course always more things I want to work on, but I try to be realistic, and I think consistency yeilds the best results. Musicianship is very challenging and it takes a very long time, lots of patience, lots of hard work, and tons of self discipline. It's no wonder most musicians are unskilled. I'm actually reading a book titled "getting it done", which has increased my self discipline and as a direct result I'm getting more out of practicing these days.

Hope this helps.

[Tillmon]

I just came up with a simple practice plan, i'd like input.

1 hour a day rudiments, all of them.
1 hour a day stick control.
1 hour a day New Breed.
1 hour a day drumset, playing with a click, working on different styles, exercises, just anything.

What do you think? Post your practice plan.

You'll never stick to that.

[SkaRabbit]

i have a gf...good to practise finger technique....

[Josiah]

i have a gf...good to practise finger technique....


Yes... that is so true. Mmmm that is so true. One of those times I do say you should lick em.

[SkaRabbit]

Woo i love getting quoted.

Her words to me were. "your working on a bit of finger stamina eh? that should come in handy" she then walks into the nextroom leaving me drooling.

[Skin Beater]

You'll never stick to that.

Oh, so you know me and my habits enough to judge? That's impressive considering you have no idea who I am. I only go to school 2 days a week because I go to college. 4 hours a day is not that big of a deal for someone serious about drumming. I know piano majors who practice well over 8 hours a day, just depends on your level of dedication. I know I probably won't be able to complete the entire 4 hours everyday, but I should be able to do it at least 4 days a week and I think that my plan covers all the bases and could build a nice foundation.

[MeaninglessPhoto]

I do 35 minutes of practicing a solo
25 minutes of playing to a CD
15 minutes of rudiments
10 minutes of double bass workouts
5 minutes of bragging to my neighbor that im better than him :lol:

[Electric Requiem]

I finally bought stick control today (along with a cowbell!) and I'm going to try to stick to a page a day doing everything at least 20x. Ive done one page today and I think Ill do another since I have some amount of enthusiasm for improving since I just started a band.

[some jive turkey]

do stick control on the cowbell :D

[fiojamdrummer]

I'm working in Stick Control, but doing a full page a day (specific goal)

I'm not good at reading the music... I only undeerstand the first few pages!! How'd you guys work em out? Do you already understand the music or do you set about finding out on the net? Maybe a music theory web site? Or do you go to a teacher? Can anyone explain some of the exercises? Audio post maybe from some lovely fellow drummer? ;)


I also have a great page of left hand builder exercises that I made up, that just really bitch-slap the weak hand and get it moving right away. I'll post them in the lessons forum, if I can figure out how.

That would be FANTASTIC!! :thumb: