practice vs. playing

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monster

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hey,

i'm new to drumming (6 mo.) and have been taking lessons for a couple of months. It has recently come to my attention that i perhaps "play" too much w/o enough practice. I tend to jam and goof around for an hour+ a day and don't practice rudiments/timing at all. I have been told nevertheless that I am learning quickly. My question is this: am i hurting my longterm developement by not focusing on stick control/timing etc. now? i actually am interested in those things but really all that i want is to develop quickly and be as good as i can. should i "get serious" or just keep on loving the jam?........thanks

monster
 
I've never read a more serious and thought provoking thread since I first logged on about a year ago. the answer to your question: RUDIMENTS, RUDIMENTS, RUDIMENTS.
Then ... JAM, JAM, JAM.
And when you are done, start all over again. And don't stop until your fingers bleed and puss pours from your blisters.
Okay, I might be a little melodramatic, but you get my point.

You need an edge over other drummers. I'm not going to give you the spiel my private instructor gave me at the age of eight, about being always being able to find work with an orchestra as a percussionist (unless that's what you want) if you are fully versed in percussion theory and can read music. No, instead imagine being able to work out poly-rhythems for drums, timpani, congas, timbales, gong and marimba in your head and then writing it down with a pencil and paper, while an untrained percussionist, sits scratching his head saying, "oh, we can just use drum loops or samples instead."
You can take anyone's transcribed music, sit down and in moments you can be playing anyone, anytime (hopefully with your interpretation). NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, EVER stop studying theory.

Having said that -- NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, EVER stop jamming. It's the fruit of music. It's what (most) musicians strive for. Why do you think a lot of classically trained musicians spend their time either listening to jazz or playing improvisational music on the side. It's what seperates us and makes us different from other musicians ... our ability to interperate and improvise.

I remember when I first saw Ringo Starr on the Ed Sullivan show in 1963. I knew then what I wanted to do. I wanted to be a rock and roll drummer. So, my parents bought me a cheap, pawn shop drum set and sent me directly to the old Indiana Music Store in downtown Indianapolis for lessons. I sat down for my first lesson at age eight and expected to start banging, "Twist and Shout" at my first session. Instead, he had me play single strokes for a half hour, LL RR LL RR LL RR, etc. I was bummed.

But just a few years later, I was jamming with Joe Morrello of the Dave Brubeck Jazz Quartet, playing in concert bands and hanging out with the percussion section of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. Then on weekends, my "little combo" and I wound play high school "sock hops" and I was still in grade school!

My point is you need both. Just because you play rock, don't look down on theory. It's what seperates man from beast. Or percussionist from "bangers."

framos
 
framos,

thanks for the reply, your thoughts echoe some of what i've been thinking about (although it is obvious to me that your concept of rudiments and theory is developed well beyond mine). It definately seems to be about balance. so practcally speaking, how do i pull that off? how do you organize your practice time? what sort of things that you worked on resulted in breakthroughs?

monster
 
monster said:
framos,

thanks for the reply, your thoughts echoe some of what i've been thinking about (although it is obvious to me that your concept of rudiments and theory is developed well beyond mine). It definately seems to be about balance. so practcally speaking, how do i pull that off? how do you organize your practice time? what sort of things that you worked on resulted in breakthroughs?

monster
Click to expand...

Let me give you a piece of advice:


Buy Jim Chapin's videotape on snare drum rudiments, get a pair of 2s or 3s marching sticks, a pair of diggit stick weights, and practice your rudiments.

Work on them slowly with a metronome. Pay attention to the strokes themselves, pay attention to the lengths (height) of the strokes, and try to make them as even as possible.

5 months ago, I lost the ability to play my kit...long story.....a friend needed a place to live, so we took her in, and to make room for her, I lost my home studio/practice space...so these days my kit is living in the family room. I decided to make use of the time away from the kit to work on my hands.
Istarted putting in 45 minutes a day, and just working on one rudiment at a time...so for a couple of weeks, it was paradiddles (rlrr lrll) and then double paradiddles (rlrlrr lrlrll).

Then, I decided to get on my doublestroke rolls (rrllrrll).

I know, real exciting, huh?
Well, I played in marching band and all of that in school, and when I was 18 - I was known as one of the local "badasses" on the drumkit.

Well, right now- my chops are better than they have EVER been!

Learn the Moeller technique (which is what Chapin's video is about) which teaches you tghe economy of motion in regards to your hand's movements.

It will change your life!


Tim
 
I'm so glad to read this post!

I went to the montral jazz festival yesterday and i saw an amazing drummer there (well...i must say two) one guy was playing only the bass drum and another guy was playing the snare the hi hat and a cimbal. The main drummer was so creative with is snare i still don't believe what i've seen. When i arrive home i tried to emulate some of is beat but i'm not even close to is thing.

I've never take any lessons (exept one cheesy starter video dvd) but i'm regulary jamming with a guitarist friend playing metal song or easy retro songs using almost always the same beat. I feel like i'm missing something.

First...i have a roland v-club set (yeah, yeah...the rubber one with the blue td 6) should i update it to a mesh head snare? if i do will my snare play benefit alot? i don't know if i'm just unskillfull or if it's the rubber pad that stop me.

Anyway... from what i've seen yesterday i think everybody can learn just by watching somebody else playing... At least it motive me to try different things.

I'll try to get the video tape and see how a mesh snare will cost me.

How...if somebody have experience with mesh head kit pls give me some feedback about the feel and resistence of these little thing!

Azathoth
 
Great advice Tim, I´m doing almost the same using SYNCOPATION and STICK CONTROL books while watching TV. Do you think the video could be more effective than this books??.
 
thanks Tim, you are the second person in a month to recommend that specific video. I'll pick it up and start the motion.....
 
Well, the reason I specifically push Chapin, is that Chaoin was Moeller's premier student.

Th Moeller technique is simple...hold your sticks in your hands, and just make sure that when you lift the sticks, that your WRIST is rotating, instead of fully lifting your arm....you use the Physics and natural motion of your body, instead of trying to force your body to do something it 's not meant to do.


I'm having a lot of fun, just with the sticks and a pad and stick weights.

I haven't tried them, but I've heard that...oh I can't think of his name...Dom Famularo...that's who it is (I knew it would come to me if I waited a second!:D) has some sticks called "pad sticks" that are designed for padwork....anyway, I heard they were really good.

I am totally into the whole rudiment thing these days and it's cool, because I know when i get back on the kit - I'm going to REALLY wail!:D:D:D




Tim
 
The Chapin video is very good for hand technique.

monster, it's good that you are questioning your approach. It is very, very hard to unlearn bad technique once it is ingrained. However, once good technique is in place it will always be there for you to work and improve on.

Learning good technique allows you to actually play things you may have in your head. Certainly working on your tempo is critical to being a good drummer.

Playing to recordings is a good way to work on tempo and to learn and practice different grooves.

However, in addition to working on technique and timing it is equally important to find people to jam with.

Playing an instrument by yourself is very limiting. Learning to interact and "communicate" with other musicians is what truly allows you to grow as a musician. Imagine how boring it would be to only talk to yourself, with no one else to exchange ideas with or to learn from - same with music.
 
I had a lesson with Jim Chapin when he came to the college. He signed my copy of coordinated independence. The Moeller technique is definitely fabulous. Jim Chapin told stories about Buddy Rich practicing rudiments when he was already an older drummer.

Pretty much all the good drummers are not handicapped by their hands and have finger control on the sticks. If you don't have the discipline to practice rudiments join a drum corp, that'll do it.

I never practiced rudiments with a metronome until I started breaking them up into my feet on a drumset. Just practice paradiddles, double paradiddlesl, ratamaques, five and seven stroke rolls, flams, flamtaps and open stroke rolls to start with. You might want to have a drum lesson or two just just to get your hands straight, it's really that important.

Practice with a click that gives you a "one" as a different sound than 2 3 4. When you get that practice with the click on 2 and 4 only. You should be able to shift from time to double time and back effortlessly with the click.

Then Jam with people and CDs. It sounds like a lot but it gets easier pretty quick.
 
Practice Vs. Playing

I think this is a great question because I came up against this nearly two years ago when I started having drum lessons. My drum tutor asked me how many hours a week I was practising, so I told him about all the hours I was playing in my band. Then he said "You haven't answered the question. How many hours do you practice the drums?" He wasn't just being a pain in the arse - he was just making sure I understood the difference between playing and practising. As it happens I was playing the drums a hell of a lot but not getting much practice done.

Only when my band split up last year did I actually start making serious improvements in my playing. I now spend more time practising than ever before.

Playing, at least for me, is just treading water. It's the sum of all I know about my craft. To get better at playing I have to go through the tedious shit of actually doing my rudiments. Maybe 'tedious shit' is too strong (it just feels really tedious when you are starting out doing seemingly 'useless' stuff like paradiddles.) But the rudiments can be interesting when applied to grooves. Just yesterday I was playing paradiddles all round the kit and making things tougher by slipping in different accents in the paradiddle. Great fun & good practice too.
 
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