Practice Routines - Getting it on Paper

[Isaac Lee]

This thread - http://www.houseofdrumming.com/phpbb3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1702 got me thinking a lot about how I've struggled with consistency in the practice room. I honestly believe my lack of organization, discipline, and simply working on improving my weaknesses DAILY (with occasional days off of course) has left me feeling defeated and depressed about my drumming skill. In order to help with this I am designing a routine. I thought I'd post it here so that it would help keep a record of developing this instead of just forgetting about it tomorrow. Also, perhaps it will motivate some conversation about specifics and inspire some of you guys to take action and really push for our goals and dreams.

A few things to note about the routine below;

1. GHFAL = Great Hands for a Lifetime (Tommy Igoe).
2. It's not done yet.
3. Having a routine is great, but a person still has to actually do the work. I've had routines on paper in the past and usually don't make it a week! How about you? Do you guys have any suggestions regarding how to stick to this long term?

[deseipel]

my .02 would be to

1. record where you are today, to get a baseline. This will let you compare your progress to something and show you how you are progressing or not.

2. set a goal that you can measure. perhaps one of the columns can show the goal (bpm, number of pgs completed, number of songs analyzed, etc)

3. review your progress every 90 days, note where you can improve.


If you don't know how you're doing compared to your baseline, you won't be able to improve anything and know you're improving.

[langmick]

Id throw some time in there to allow for being creative, not just practicing other books and soloing. write a new rudiment, or explore something you found interesting. Record your insights.

This might help you keep at it, and it will help you be more productive.

If Wilcoxon can write numerous books with insane combinations of rudiments so can anyone.

[Isaac Lee]

Thanks for the suggestions Deseipel and langmick.

I took the advice to set some benchmarks and recorded several exercises and grooves. Listen back is super painful but I'm excited to keep at it and record again in a month or two. It will be interesting to compare the two versions of the different things I'm working on.

I'll tell ya, listening to myself is downright disheartening. I sound terrible! I'm starting to wonder if I've been fooling myself for years thinking that I'm actually a pretty decent drummer.

[Julián Fernández]

I tried in the past to force me into practicing some stuff... Like, OK, today I´m gonna practice left foot clave just beacause it´s Monday. And frankly it didn´t worked for me.
I relate practicing to approaching literature for instance. There´s an art in the way you present someone (or yourself) with the material. I mean, if you try to read Borges or Dante without having many others books already read, you´ll find yourself kind of lost, without being able to connect with the material. The same goes to the practice time. You should be challenging yourself, but it´s really important to have some sort of felling of achievement because that the fuel that keeps the whole wheel turning.

I suggest you to keep your plans simple. Don´t make big schemes or charts yet. Go back to Stick Control and some Wilcoxon and let those little improvements inspire you. If you take it little by little (without days off though) you´ll find yourself practicing long hours every day with a much more focused and fresh approach. At least that´s what happened to me. And it was such a big difference. Give it a try.

[Isaac Lee]

I tried in the past to force me into practicing some stuff... Like, OK, today I´m gonna practice left foot clave just beacause it´s Monday. And frankly it didn´t worked for me.
I relate practicing to approaching literature for instance. There´s an art in the way you present someone (or yourself) with the material. I mean, if you try to read Borges or Dante without having many others books already read, you´ll find yourself kind of lost, without being able to connect with the material. The same goes to the practice time. You should be challenging yourself, but it´s really important to have some sort of felling of achievement because that the fuel that keeps the whole wheel turning.

I suggest you to keep your plans simple. Don´t make big schemes or charts yet. Go back to Stick Control and some Wilcoxon and let those little improvements inspire you. If you take it little by little (without days off though) you´ll find yourself practicing long hours every day with a much more focused and fresh approach. At least that´s what happened to me. And it was such a big difference. Give it a try.

Ya, I've tried it in the past without much success either. I think writing it down is good, but I think I'm over complicating things for sure. Thanks for the feed back.

[Julián Fernández]

If you didn´t succed in the past maybe you weren´t doing what I´m proposing... Just sayin´.

[Isaac Lee]

If you didn´t succed in the past maybe you weren´t doing what I´m proposing... Just sayin´.

I slept on it and when I woke up this morning I wanted to say that the reason I feel it is important to have something written down is so that I can actually continue to do that "thing" day after day. Otherwise I watch a youtube video, or pick up a lick from somewhere and get distracted with that and it will often times turn into this free for all in my practice sessions. I need to be more disciplined in there in order to really have some mastery over the basics.

Here is an interesting short article on this type of concept. It really jives well with Weckl's philosophy and also with much of what Steve Holmes has shared with me. I have been doing CrossFit so that is how I came across it.

http://journal.crossfit.com/2005/08/virtuosity-1.tpl

[Yussuf]

The biggest thing for me was listening to recorded rehearsals and gigs(it's horrible really but helps you understand your weaknesses the best).
Practising uncomplicated things/beats very quietly (no headphones with metronome)at very slow tempos for many years helped me a lot with control and touch/sound issues.
Listening to a lot of music.
Do this at a young age when you don't have a family yet.. After that it's too late .