Drumming is a very personal way of expression. It requires patience, creativity, precision and endurance. If you want to learn how to play the drums, it’s important that you know what you’re getting yourself into. So, in order to narrow down your expectations and make you aware of what is realistic and not, here are 5 tips to improve your drumming skills.
How to Practice
Having a set routine for practicing is essential to improve your drumming skills. Here are some tips on how to practice properly:
a) Start with warm up drums exercises of choice. This can be simple beats, rudiments or double strokes etc. Keep it short so you don’t get distracted by working on something easy.
b) Work on your weak areas i.e. if you can’t do flams, start with practicing only flams in the beginning of every practice session for a couple of minutes or hours/days until it feels natural and comfortable.
c) Always make sure to play something you feel good playing – if you are feeling good, it makes the practice more fun.
d) Never practice too much without breaks! Always take a break every 15 – 30 minutes at least to keep your body fresh and avoid injury.
Technique
Knowing how to hold drum sticks properly, which techniques are suitable for certain genres, knowing when to use what technique or sticking is just as important as practicing. There are many factors you should consider when choosing the right technique for your drumming, but these are some general guidelines:
a) Sticks grip – depending on your style of playing and what sound is suitable for certain songs or performance, choose between matched or traditional grip.
b) Stroking – there are two types of strokes for right-handed drummers – downstrokes and upstrokes.
c) Sticking – Depending on what genre you’re playing, if the song tempo is high or low, use a four stroke roll instead of a single stroke roll to improve your control over different tempos.
Practice Beats & Fills
It is always better to start simple, for there are many things that can go wrong when playing the drums. So, instead of jumping into difficult beats and fills right away, start with some simple patterns like basic rock & pop beats, disco grooves etc. Even if you’re not interested in these genres of music, practicing them will help you improve your coordination and timing skills.
Also, it’s important to know that you should do the same thing – only harder – over and over again. Just because you can play a certain beat or fill fast doesn’t make it good. Make sure to practice patterns slowly until you feel comfortable with them and don’t rush! Once you start feeling at ease playing certain beats, increase the tempo little by little.
Always Listen to The Music You’re Playing To
This is probably one of the most important things to do when you want to become a better drummer. It’s not only about listening to your favorite music genres, it’s also about having an inner ear for rhythm and groove.
If you don’t know what I’m talking about, try this. Put on some drums heavy music with a strong beat or groove that is suitable for your skill level and play along with it. If you’re not feeling the drums in the song, if your beats are out of time – stop! Listen to how drummers are playing, understand how it all goes together and then go back to playing.
Practice Without A Metronome
Metronomes are great tools, but having some fun is necessary too! Try practicing drums without a metronome once in a while just to change things up and have some fun you won’t get by using the same old practice tips every day.
As you can see, practicing drums doesn’t have to be boring! Have fun and play with the metronome once in a while – it helps improve your timing skills too! By doing this regularly, you’ll be able to practice more efficiently without getting bored or tired.
See more: https://ezcustomgifts.com/6-essential-drumming-tips-for-the-absolute-beginner/
