worn out on complaining about it.
Or, in YouTube speak: 40 things that are DESTROYING/KILLING/MURDERING/OTHER VIOLENT THING TO your drumming progress OMG!!! [photo of genius youtuber looking non-specifically surprised]
Not forty, these are some persistent habits of behavior I see with a lot of students, that don’t really help them, so we work on them. Note how I am able to express myself without resorting to any violent imagery whatsoever. “We would do well to note them, and try to improve.” I’ll reveal the secret to that in another post.
Anyway:
Stopping for mistakes
Most students, if they play something that is not on the page, regard it as a mistake, and will stop playing. I encourage them to continue, and try to get it the next time, but it’s very hard for them to continue playing voluntarily after that.
In fact there are two lessons for any pattern on a page— one is the pattern itself, and the other is all the other things you play that are connected to that. Some of which you didn’t play on purpose. We want to acquire all of that, in a single continuity of playing.
There are times to get a thing exactly right— when working on an actual written piece, and when working on very complicated patterns
Sloppy counting
We count a lot of rhythm in my lessons, and I always insist on getting the timing of it exactly, and on saying it strongly— and on what we play afterwards being at the same tempo. It’s a very powerful thing, when done correctly, and connecting it to what is played. Even when saying the counts of a rhythm in conversation, I’ll say them in their correct relative timing.
One tempo
We all have a natural speed at which our hands like to move, and many students will just play that speed all the time, and have a very hard time holding any other tempo. This is actually the source of most rushing and dragging— the player is not good at forming a concept of a tempo, and making their hands state it. Instead they’re playing off the physical motion of it.
Bad sound
A lot of students will not play the drums for a good sound— often just from not hitting them with any enthusiasm— or will tolerate a poorly balanced sound.
Grip
Many have a hard time keeping their back fingers on the stick— even while we’re addressing it directly, with me saying OK, now close up your back fingers. They will also find it difficult to articulate their wrist to move their hand, instead of playing from the elbow, or in a rotatating motion.
Too fast
Most students will play a thing too fast, make a mistake and stop, and immediately attempt it again at the same speed. Maybe even a faster speed. They’ll hack away at a thing for ten minutes and never quite get it. I’ll ask them to slow it down and they’ll play the same speed.
No connection, no ongoing, steady tempo
When working on one thing— one page of stuff— we want it to be continuous; either going straight from one pattern to the next, or putting a metered stop in between patterns. I want a sense the student is feeling one steady unbroken pulse the whole time.
Instead of that, it will go like:
||: Plays pattern 1, kind of peters out, looks at pattern 2, gets ready to play pattern 2 :||
[Repeats process for all subsequent patterns.]
Occasionally they will do that when I don’t want them to— I’ll sometimes use rubato or unmetered pauses to work on certain things, and they’ll have a hard time not playing to a metered grid.
Not all of these can be easily addressed working alone— they can be very hard to correct actually in the lesson with me supervising. And they’re kind of small items, but someone routinely taking care about them will be making much better use of their practice time.
I am happy to help you with any of the materials on the site, and with anything else drumming related— contact me for private lessons, online world wide, or in person in Portland, Oregon. All levels of players, and all people, are welcome.
Email Todd | Call or text +1(503)380-9259 | Chat on WhatsApp