While practicing - better to focus on one thing or diversify?

[Arpanet]

This is a fairly pedantic question, but I'm concerned about getting the maximum effect out of every practice. Say I have Stick Control, Syncopation, 4-Way Coordination, and The Art of Bop Drumming. I have an hour to practice. Would it be better to split the time up between the four, or work on one a day, or even just work on one and ignore the others until I'm all the way through it?

[Seafroggys]

mostly practice out of one book, but quickly review the others so you won't forget....like 15-20 min out of 3 books, 40-45 min out of the book of the day

[Josiah]

This is a fairly pedantic question, but I'm concerned about getting the maximum effect out of every practice. Say I have Stick Control, Syncopation, 4-Way Coordination, and The Art of Bop Drumming. I have an hour to practice. Would it be better to split the time up between the four, or work on one a day, or even just work on one and ignore the others until I'm all the way through it?


Depends on YOU. If you can handle concentrating one a single thing.. then awesome. Most people can't and tend to loose focus after afew mins.

That's totally cool too! If that happens, then switch to something else. Maybe take a lil walk, grab some water, etc


I'd say split em up, but don't stop with one unless you find your mind wandering (sign of full capacity in short term memory processing) or such. Then move to another..


In this manor will you gain the most efficient use of your time. Perhaps add more "modules" to pick from.. rudiments, tiem keeping, creativenss, etc etc giving you a much wider variety to pick from, however all being great things to practice.

[Arpanet]

Attention span is not an issue... sometimes I'll be practicing Stick Control, glance at the clock, and see that 2 hours have gone by. I just don't have the time to devote 5+ hours a day to practice, as much as I'd like to - hence the desire for an efficient daily practice routine. I like Seafroggys' suggestion - if I only have 2 hours or so a day to practice, I'll spend an hour or so focusing on one aspect, and split the remaining hour up between various other "modules," to use your term, Josiah. How does that sound?

[Josiah]

As I mentioned before, if you can bust out that stuff straight. Then go for it. That's really the best so long as you can pull it off.

However yes, like seafroggy's said, don't put off the other stuff fully. You still need to work some things daily, like rudiments (at least some), wrist excerises.. the kind of stuff you would (and should) do for a warm up.

If you can put 40 solid mins into a given book, then yea, I'd say go for that. Just mix em up day by day, etc.. do what seafroggy's suggested.

[Arpanet]

OK, thanks much for the feedback. Here's what I've worked up. Basically, I do the "core" part for both hands and feet, then pick one module to focus on and maybe work on a few others for a bit as well.


CORE – 1 hour
______a. Rudiments – 15 mins (open-close-open)
______b. Exercises – 15 mins (metronome)
________i. 8 on a limb
________ii. 2-4-8-3-16-32 vs. 4 (alternate limbs)
________iii. Moeller technique/Heel-toe
________iv. “Sprints”

II. MODULES – 1 hour
______a. Groove – learn one new groove from poster or develop one idea
______b. Fills – practice from books or develop one idea
______c. Timing & Improvisation – play along to tracks or jam to metronome
______d. Coordination – 4-way Coordination & rudiments b/w hands and feet
______e. Book – Morgenstein, Syncopation, Stick Control, Bop Drumming, Rondinelli

[Josiah]

That woudl be a sick practice routine.

I absolute assure you, 100%, if you followed such a routine daily (using a click of course right?). You would be a glorious player in a very short amount of time.

[some jive turkey]

it sounds good.

There is maybe too much material for an hour's worth of workout in mod 2 though. But I'm just basing that opinion on the practice routines i write for myself. I would only work on 1-4, maybe only 3, things in an hour's time, no more. I always find that a little "extra time" helps to focus on something rather than tossing the book aside and jumping straight on into the next thing. i try to be as realistic as possible about it.