→ KNOW WHAT TO PRACTICE! Build 4-way independence, Grip your sticks for speed & fluidity, and Reach your musical goals with the FREE e-guide, “The 3-Part Daily Practice Routine.” www.thenonglamorousdrummer.com/the-3-part-daily-practice-routine
I started playing drums in 1969. I went to college on a drum scholarship. I've played country, rock, jazz, contemporary Christian, musical tours (eg Godspell), etc. Until 2005, when I started to loose my faster grooves. Diagnosis: Parkinson's disease. Since then there has been a slow but progressive decline in my technique. Enough about how I got here. Moving forward. Your series of videos are a welcome framework to efficiently structure my practice time to regain a little of what I've lost. Thanks. I appreciate your work.
I hope you find what you're seeking with your playing, a humbling experience I can imagine, so cool that you're not letting the diagnosis decide your path, as much as possible at least.
When you start a book or chapter on this topic (e.g. 4-way Coordination, Afro-Cuban rhythms, New Breed etc), you get a massive amount of return on your investment of time by just nailing one exercise. So even though it feels frustrating to go so slowly (because the book contains hundreds of exercies), you actually make a lot more progress than you think just by sticking with a single exercise and taking your time. For example, learning a single mambo groove that uses left-foot clave might take you months even though it's two bars. But the payoff is huge. And I find independence is actually underrated on the drums. Independence doesn't just mean you can play more, it means you can play more in time. Many times, not being able to play a groove in time is actually an independence problem, not a timing issue. I can often play a foot pattern in isolation in time, but it goes out of time when I play with other stuff -- even though I can technically play it.
I appreciate this video a lot today. I have told myself many times that it’s gonna take a while for me to be “good” and give myself grace but sometimes I do struggle with patience and I know that’s what triggers the rut and when I do power through that’s when I feel the most growth indeed. It’s so annoying but worth it 🥁
So true. I started playing early 2020 at age 48. I knew I was taking this on as a long-term learning project. That said, just taking (mostly--ugh, COVID) weekly lessons and practicing regularly during that time, I've accomplished a ton. And each new exercise comes easier than the last, as I build my comfort level on the kit. To me, the best comparison is learning to drive a car. My first car was a manual, and I had to think of every little thing in the car, while paying attention to everything outside the car. Over time, it became ingrained. Now, the car is like an extension of my body. I don't have to think "push right foot on gas pedal 15%" etc. Patience will get you there.
So often I think ‘maybe I’m just one of the people that can’t and won’t get it!’ Or I feel like learning takes me 10x longer than it should. You always remind me how untrue that is. Thank you!
Love this channel. One of the things that helped me was breaking down poly-rhythmic grooves into linear patterns, then playing the pattern as slow as it takes (and I mean SLOW) to play in perfect time. Next you very gradually speed it up until it becomes second nature. What ends up happening - kind of by accident - is that you develop a sort of vocabulary of poly-rhythms that you can blend together. If you start out thinking of a groove as a collection of separate things happening at once, you will have a much harder time teaching your body how to play. The simplest of these for me was playing patterns of 3 against patterns of 4 and vice versa. If you slow it down enough it becomes a fairly easy linear pattern. Only when you speed it up does it create the illusion of overlapping grooves.
Thanks Stephen, as a newbie suffering ‘separation anxiety’ this video will help my mindset. I do all the fiddling and adjusting on a daily basis and being a gadfly around the kit and yes getting impatient, your vid today is the key. Thanks again, off I go…👏🇦🇺✌️
Thank you for this video brother. Especially the first few minutes of real talk encouragement and guidelines. I am proof that someone can exhaust all the gear tricks and hacks to maximize a practice kit, but I didn’t start seeing results till I was spending at least an hour every couple days on the kit. Even when I got bored I made myself go to open mics and it has helped me learn that I’ll eventually be playing on some Backline Kit instead of my own that I’ve set up to be comfortable on but no other musicians will give me a pass for sounding like poop if I can’t apply 4 limb coordination and independence wherever I go. And being able to apply my skills in any environment under any conditions not only will help me with my own anxiety playing live, but will open up so many more doors of opportunity as this turns from a hobby, to my life as a drummer. Oh and Happy Thanksgiving 2021!
I blew out my right shoulder so I won’t be behind my kit for a while 😟. I guess the Evans Realfeel and my weak hand will be the focus till I’m fixed and healed. I hear shoulders are a nightmare. 😫
I messed my left one up in BJJ a few years back, and it took while to come back. Be patient. Working on your weak hand is a great idea in the down time. Good luck "Crash"
What a great 30,000’ perspective! I think about how young children learn language - they’re listening and experimenting and refining all the time because it’s all around them, and learning new words / phrases / grammar / syntax is rewarding. They can express themselves and experience mor interesting give and take in their relationships. Practicing music is best when we take the same approach. We practice moving through a learning curve because the activity is intrinsically satisfying and we acquire the ability to express ourselves with other musicians for ourselves and any audience we might want to play for. The trick is to resist self criticism when we’re still middling through the early stages where a new pattern feels and sounds awkward. Thanks for the terrific lesson!
Very well said, and I'm sure all of us that have watched this needed to hear it, and perhaps got some comfort by it as well. I just had a similar discussion with my wife, who sometimes thinks Im just playing the same song over and over. Yet, she doesnt realize, as I explained, that in one attempt, I may be working on some new fill ideas, on another, getting better timing, or yet another, working on technique like ghost notes. To give her credit, she has bought a practice pad herself, to see if she can understand what it is I am actually doing, because playing the drums is so foreign to her. And to be fair, much of it is foreign to me as well! Sometimes I see the glimmer of advancement on my part, and sometimes I feel like I have hit the wall. But I dont want to give up now, even though Im much older then when I started ( and quit ) so long ago.
Keep at it! I started late in life {50s} and get frustrated sometimes, feeling like I've hit a wall. I've been playing for 8 years and thought about stopping at points, but I enjoy it too much and don't want to throw away advancements I've made. As I get older, I'm becoming more patient and I'm trying to apply that to drumming. Your wife sounds great! My dear wife has endured a lot of my practice and I'm lucky she so understanding! Good luck
@@tomd1690 I totally understand the frustration. Also, we need to be kind on ourselves. I don’t know about you, but I don’t plan on getting in a band or anything. I do want goals to keep the hobby fresh, for sure! I enjoy playing to music, and having my acoustic set has really spoiled me now! My electric drums feels like it was made by a toy company. Glad your still playing my friend.
There is no substitute for playing/jamming with others. Just played a coffee house gig with a guy I haven’t jammed with in years. 1 practice beforehand. Still made $50, a meal and an invite back!
But Stephen! I feel I had to sacrifice 4 way independence to focus on timing, speed, dynamics, and getting around the kit. Coordination seems to come so slowly that I feel that I was sacrificing everything else. I was actually better at it till recently but now I’m know I’m much better at everything else! What now?
Lol the truth will set you free! But it usually makes you mad first😃. Stephen this is exactly what I need right now. Downloaded book and hitting the drums already! Happy Thanksgiving all! Thanks Stephen!
I dont have a drumset but i do have a stick and made up small bucket snare, im gonna have my kit once i played good on rental drum just to not waste my money if i finally decided to buy one, i practice a lot on my mind with the stick
One other point about playing along with your favorite songs: Most modern songs are in perfect time, so you have the added advantage of a "built-in" metronome. . . (Not that "perfect time" is necessarily our goal for a particular piece of music.)
52 next month & been tryin'ta play for a lil' over 4mos now (bassist for 40 yrs). At first I never expected to have the coordination even close to be The drummer I'd wanna have In my band, with me on bass(🥴And I still don't! 🤣)! I've got rhythm...and coordination...on strings! Lol... in fact I bought 'em so I'd Have a set for Real Percussionists, and thought I might as well try'n learn Somethin'! I've Made Progress, both quicker than I thought I would, and also way slower than I Wanna Now! It's frustratin' for sure because I've played with some really good drummers. I know I've gotta give it time...and tons of me Says since I've Played a Percussion Instrument (Bass IS!!) What's The Problem!? I can Hear what I wanna do, but sometimes I hear Bass parts, and the hardest part is Not hittin' SOMETHIN' through Every Bass guitar note! 🤦🏻♂️ And, it's jus' not "natural" right now (of course). All that said, I really appreciate these lessons on here! Because every time I'm ready ta "Kieth Moon 'em" (& I don't mean playability! 😆), I get a lesson on here that Slows Me Down enough to Progress, keeps me humble & realistic to keep goin', and I might also owe ya for anger management! 🤣🤣🤣😅😏 🧏🏻♂️ For reals, though... 💁🏻♂️ Thanks Man!! 😉👍🏻👍🏻 🙋🏻♂️ Much Appreciated all the way around. 🙏🏻💙🤙🏼
Im a supppper beginner☺️ and im only using a Electric Drum pads that i brought on Online Shopping, coz i dont have enough budget to buy a kit. But I just want to say that thanks for the tutorials✨❣️ hope you notice my Message 💕😘
Personally I find I’m able to sort of sing along and play to songs that I’ve known/loved the longest. People who can do that blow my mind. Good luck! ☮️ 🥁🤘🏼
→ KNOW WHAT TO PRACTICE! Build 4-way independence, Grip your sticks for speed & fluidity, and Reach your musical goals with the FREE e-guide, “The 3-Part Daily Practice Routine.” www.thenonglamorousdrummer.com/the-3-part-daily-practice-routine
I started playing drums in 1969. I went to college on a drum scholarship. I've played country, rock, jazz, contemporary Christian, musical tours (eg Godspell), etc. Until 2005, when I started to loose my faster grooves. Diagnosis: Parkinson's disease. Since then there has been a slow but progressive decline in my technique.
Enough about how I got here. Moving forward. Your series of videos are a welcome framework to efficiently structure my practice time to regain a little of what I've lost. Thanks. I appreciate your work.
I hope you find what you're seeking with your playing, a humbling experience I can imagine, so cool that you're not letting the diagnosis decide your path, as much as possible at least.
When you start a book or chapter on this topic (e.g. 4-way Coordination, Afro-Cuban rhythms, New Breed etc), you get a massive amount of return on your investment of time by just nailing one exercise. So even though it feels frustrating to go so slowly (because the book contains hundreds of exercies), you actually make a lot more progress than you think just by sticking with a single exercise and taking your time. For example, learning a single mambo groove that uses left-foot clave might take you months even though it's two bars. But the payoff is huge.
And I find independence is actually underrated on the drums. Independence doesn't just mean you can play more, it means you can play more in time. Many times, not being able to play a groove in time is actually an independence problem, not a timing issue. I can often play a foot pattern in isolation in time, but it goes out of time when I play with other stuff -- even though I can technically play it.
Spot on!
I appreciate this video a lot today. I have told myself many times that it’s gonna take a while for me to be “good” and give myself grace but sometimes I do struggle with patience and I know that’s what triggers the rut and when I do power through that’s when I feel the most growth indeed. It’s so annoying but worth it 🥁
So true. I started playing early 2020 at age 48. I knew I was taking this on as a long-term learning project. That said, just taking (mostly--ugh, COVID) weekly lessons and practicing regularly during that time, I've accomplished a ton. And each new exercise comes easier than the last, as I build my comfort level on the kit. To me, the best comparison is learning to drive a car. My first car was a manual, and I had to think of every little thing in the car, while paying attention to everything outside the car. Over time, it became ingrained. Now, the car is like an extension of my body. I don't have to think "push right foot on gas pedal 15%" etc. Patience will get you there.
So often I think ‘maybe I’m just one of the people that can’t and won’t get it!’ Or I feel like learning takes me 10x longer than it should. You always remind me how untrue that is. Thank you!
Love this channel. One of the things that helped me was breaking down poly-rhythmic grooves into linear patterns, then playing the pattern as slow as it takes (and I mean SLOW) to play in perfect time. Next you very gradually speed it up until it becomes second nature. What ends up happening - kind of by accident - is that you develop a sort of vocabulary of poly-rhythms that you can blend together. If you start out thinking of a groove as a collection of separate things happening at once, you will have a much harder time teaching your body how to play. The simplest of these for me was playing patterns of 3 against patterns of 4 and vice versa. If you slow it down enough it becomes a fairly easy linear pattern. Only when you speed it up does it create the illusion of overlapping grooves.
Thank you for the guide Stephen. I look forward to implementing it tomorrow morning during my practice time.
Thanks, Stephen! Awesome gift!
Thanks Stephen, as a newbie suffering ‘separation anxiety’ this video will help my mindset. I do all the fiddling and adjusting on a daily basis and being a gadfly around the kit and yes getting impatient, your vid today is the key. Thanks again, off I go…👏🇦🇺✌️
Thank you for this video brother. Especially the first few minutes of real talk encouragement and guidelines. I am proof that someone can exhaust all the gear tricks and hacks to maximize a practice kit, but I didn’t start seeing results till I was spending at least an hour every couple days on the kit. Even when I got bored I made myself go to open mics and it has helped me learn that I’ll eventually be playing on some Backline Kit instead of my own that I’ve set up to be comfortable on but no other musicians will give me a pass for sounding like poop if I can’t apply 4 limb coordination and independence wherever I go. And being able to apply my skills in any environment under any conditions not only will help me with my own anxiety playing live, but will open up so many more doors of opportunity as this turns from a hobby, to my life as a drummer.
Oh and Happy Thanksgiving 2021!
I blew out my right shoulder so I won’t be behind my kit for a while 😟. I guess the Evans Realfeel and my weak hand will be the focus till I’m fixed and healed. I hear shoulders are a nightmare. 😫
I messed my left one up in BJJ a few years back, and it took while to come back. Be patient. Working on your weak hand is a great idea in the down time. Good luck "Crash"
What a great 30,000’ perspective! I think about how young children learn language - they’re listening and experimenting and refining all the time because it’s all around them, and learning new words / phrases / grammar / syntax is rewarding. They can express themselves and experience mor interesting give and take in their relationships. Practicing music is best when we take the same approach. We practice moving through a learning curve because the activity is intrinsically satisfying and we acquire the ability to express ourselves with other musicians for ourselves and any audience we might want to play for. The trick is to resist self criticism when we’re still middling through the early stages where a new pattern feels and sounds awkward. Thanks for the terrific lesson!
Thanks for all the drumming tips as I have so many of the topics bookmarked for repeated viewing!
Honestly it's good to hear it's difficult. Because I practice coordination and it goes so slow. I was wondering if it's normal :D
If it were easy, nobody would do it.
Happy Thanksgiving! Thanks for giving. This is really helpful.
Great lesson Stephen
Thank you for the insight. Broke it down really well and left me inspired to commit myself to the "long haul."
I was sceptical to signing up to your newsletter at first, but damn, you really deliver!
You got it bro it’s all heart put in the work no matter if it’s drum lifting fishing etc if you love it do it over and over results will come thankyou
Very well said, and I'm sure all of us that have watched this needed to hear it, and perhaps got some comfort by it as well. I just had a similar discussion with my wife, who sometimes thinks Im just playing the same song over and over. Yet, she doesnt realize, as I explained, that in one attempt, I may be working on some new fill ideas, on another, getting better timing, or yet another, working on technique like ghost notes. To give her credit, she has bought a practice pad herself, to see if she can understand what it is I am actually doing, because playing the drums is so foreign to her. And to be fair, much of it is foreign to me as well! Sometimes I see the glimmer of advancement on my part, and sometimes I feel like I have hit the wall. But I dont want to give up now, even though Im much older then when I started ( and quit ) so long ago.
Keep at it! I started late in life {50s} and get frustrated sometimes, feeling like I've hit a wall. I've been playing for 8 years and thought about stopping at points, but I enjoy it too much and don't want to throw away advancements I've made. As I get older, I'm becoming more patient and I'm trying to apply that to drumming. Your wife sounds great! My dear wife has endured a lot of my practice and I'm lucky she so understanding! Good luck
@@tomd1690 I totally understand the frustration. Also, we need to be kind on ourselves. I don’t know about you, but I don’t plan on getting in a band or anything. I do want goals to keep the hobby fresh, for sure! I enjoy playing to music, and having my acoustic set has really spoiled me now! My electric drums feels like it was made by a toy company. Glad your still playing my friend.
That’s what I needed to here thank you for your Knowledge keep rockin🥁
Thanks for all of the awesome videos! 🥁🎼❤
There is no substitute for playing/jamming with others. Just played a coffee house gig with a guy I haven’t jammed with in years. 1 practice beforehand. Still made $50, a meal and an invite back!
Thank you stephen😇
But Stephen! I feel I had to sacrifice 4 way independence to focus on timing, speed, dynamics, and getting around the kit. Coordination seems to come so slowly that I feel that I was sacrificing everything else. I was actually better at it till recently but now I’m know I’m much better at everything else! What now?
Lol the truth will set you free! But it usually makes you mad first😃. Stephen this is exactly what I need right now. Downloaded book and hitting the drums already! Happy Thanksgiving all! Thanks Stephen!
I dont have a drumset but i do have a stick and made up small bucket snare, im gonna have my kit once i played good on rental drum just to not waste my money if i finally decided to buy one, i practice a lot on my mind with the stick
One other point about playing along with your favorite songs: Most modern songs are in perfect time, so you have the added advantage of a "built-in" metronome. . . (Not that "perfect time" is necessarily our goal for a particular piece of music.)
Thanks for this helpful video my good friend!! 😊🥁🇵🇭
52 next month & been tryin'ta play for a lil' over 4mos now (bassist for 40 yrs).
At first I never expected to have the coordination even close to be The drummer I'd wanna have In my band, with me on bass(🥴And I still don't! 🤣)!
I've got rhythm...and coordination...on strings! Lol... in fact I bought 'em so I'd Have a set for Real Percussionists, and thought I might as well try'n learn Somethin'!
I've Made Progress, both quicker than I thought I would, and also way slower than I Wanna Now! It's frustratin' for sure because I've played with some really good drummers.
I know I've gotta give it time...and tons of me Says since I've Played a Percussion Instrument (Bass IS!!) What's The Problem!? I can Hear what I wanna do, but sometimes I hear Bass parts, and the hardest part is Not hittin' SOMETHIN' through Every Bass guitar note! 🤦🏻♂️
And, it's jus' not "natural" right now (of course).
All that said, I really appreciate these lessons on here! Because every time I'm ready ta "Kieth Moon 'em" (& I don't mean playability! 😆), I get a lesson on here that Slows Me Down enough to Progress, keeps me humble & realistic to keep goin', and I might also owe ya for anger management! 🤣🤣🤣😅😏
🧏🏻♂️ For reals, though...
💁🏻♂️ Thanks Man!! 😉👍🏻👍🏻
🙋🏻♂️ Much Appreciated all the way around. 🙏🏻💙🤙🏼
Im a supppper beginner☺️ and im only using a Electric Drum pads that i brought on Online Shopping, coz i dont have enough budget to buy a kit. But I just want to say that thanks for the tutorials✨❣️ hope you notice my Message 💕😘
What about 5 way independence including singing?
Personally I find I’m able to sort of sing along and play to songs that I’ve known/loved the longest. People who can do that blow my mind.
Good luck!
☮️ 🥁🤘🏼
TLDW:patient repetition
5 mins and he still ain't said shit...
Bro should hit the gym hard tho
Imagine trapezius on that goose neck.
@@LordsofMedia
Imagine being polite instead of an a$$hole.
@@RoyalMetal9 Imagine having a laugh.
I will dislike any and all videos in which you are talking over music.
Knobhead