It is possible to improve an aspect of your playing in as little as five minutes. This concept can be applied to your general practice routine, and it will help you target specific drumming topics effectively.
• Make a list of your drumming weaknesses. It can be as comprehensive as you can make it, or it could just be five or six areas that you would like to target for a couple weeks.
• Practice those specific topics in a focused manner for at least five minutes, five days a week.
• After two or three weeks, you will notice significant and lasting improvement in those target areas.
Is more better? Yes, to a limit. Ten or fifteen minutes on each target area will lead to greater improvement. But at some point, this is not so – you will lose focus in your mind and see diminishing returns. It is the daily connection to the musical idea, more than the length of time with it, that is the most important factor in developing a lasting change in your drumming.
Remember, this is one of several effective ways in which to practice. Sometimes you need to just play with no agenda. Sometimes you have a part to learn and must hammer it out for two hours. Adding this five-minute routine to your variety of practicing methods will give you a powerful tool with which to improve target areas and monitor progress. Seeing those results quickly is one of the primary motivating factors for practicing in the first place – it will keep you coming back for more.
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January 29, 2011 at 9:29 pm
meowmixx
Two thumbs up! Reminds me of a saying I heard years back that I liked: Inch by inch, cinch. Yard by yard, very hard. However, practicing hard (if done carefully/mindfully) is fun when it primes the brain to keep practicing while you sleep. I’d see it a lot with piano–not being able to get a difficult passage one day (no matter how hard i try) yet magically able to play it fluidly and effortlessly the next. It feels so good when that happens….
I like reading all your blurbs on developing/improving musical skills and didactic approaches. They amuse and entertain the way good blurbs should, but more than that, I think you have many good ideas and creative approaches and applications, and appreciate you taking a few moments to share them with others. I’ve only been playing drums for a few weeks now, but they are quickly becoming my favorite ‘guilty pleasure’, so I hope you continue to share your ideas on effective practicing strategies beyond the ones for people who don’t want to (or have time for) practice. They’re good thoughts, it’s just….I wonder if a different communication mechanism might serve better for reaching those who would most benefit from these ideas?