This approach attempts to allow the student to understand better the range of exercises and working mechanics of being a competent drummer. This is also a large way of how we form our exercises for our students. All students have a certain form of weakness at every point. Through this approach, we then develop exercises targeting their specific weak points and push them to greater heights. Using this approach also allows the students to gain practice time on and off the drumset, and to practice everywhere for the passionate student.

A common misconception about drumming is that it is all about coordination and this is what most beginners spend all their time working on. This is because coordination at earlier stages often produces instant gratification – learn a beat and you can play with a song instantly, learn a paradiddle, and… your family members come into the room asking what on earth are you practicing, a question that you probably cannot answer.

This is not true and is something that you will realize very soon after you spend more time on the drums. Examples of coordination exercises are your basic pop and rock beats, different fill-ins, learning how to play with songs, etc.

How To: These exercises are most effectively done on a drumset itself or with practice pad sets, especially if you are not an experienced player. This should be one of your focus when you get your hands on your drumset. For those without a drumset, you can check out rental studios around your area.

You probably heard of the term rudiments, but maybe you haven't quite understood what it does. Rudiments are probably one of the most important practices that you have to do if you want to get serious into drumming.

You can think of rudiments as your ABCs, you can't build a solid conversation with nailing your vocabs. Rudiments are everywhere, whether you know it or not. Common rudiments that you have heard of are probable single strokes (RLRL), double strokes (RRLL), and paradiddles (RLRR LRLL), but there are so much more than that. There are 40 standard rudiments that drummers must know, and a whole bunch of new hybrid rudiments that are adding on to drummer's vocabulary every day.

How to: These are all exercises that can be done fundamentally on your practice pad. It is something that you can practice in the morning/ at night and so you can clear out more practice time with the drumset. There are also specific exercises that you can do with just your fingers so you can practice on the fly!

Strokes are probably the most underrated exercises that the beginner refuses to practice. Think of strokes as your parent's life advice for your – simple, mundane, seem kind of lame – something that you will only realize the importance of 10 years down the road (I exaggerate). Strokes include your different grips (German, French, American, or even traditional), your Moeller techniques, your push-pull techniques, the list goes on and on.

Jojo Mayer has a 7 hour DVD just on hand techniques alone – you get the point. One thing to take note, strokes, and techniques are not only done on the practice pad alone, you would have to translate them into your playing on the drumset for a tangible impact.

The juicy bits of drumming, most beginners find speed impressive that's why they practice it. This may be true, but speed's function is not to impress, but to be versatile. Either way, for whichever reason you practice speed, without proper strokes you will soon find yourself stuck at a bottleneck and unable to break through certain bpm because… that's right your guessed it – your strokes suck are inefficient.

How to: Speed practice spans across both pad works and on the drumset, practicing speed on the pad does not always translate fully over to the drumset. Speed is also the segment of your practice that needs the most grind as you need to be constantly pushing your limits and conditioning. We recommend splitting speed practice as part of your pad work and drumset practice.

Mental and ear training exercises are crucial if you are looking to advance deep into drumming, these are also the fundamentals that you need to acquire to be a proper functioning musician. Mental and ear training includes visualization, hearing subdivisions, ability to focus your hearing into specifics (or vice versa, a broader view) of music. For the beginners, it would also be about identifying the drums in the music and effectively tabbing it out.

How To: The best part of this category is that it can be done on the go! While you are commuting (listening to a metronome, or using songs to practice your hearing) or when you are in line waiting for your food (listening to the BGM and using it to work on your timing), there are tons of ways to practice on the go.  We will be covering this topic in a separate post so do keep checking out on this space!

An additional part of your practice, after you have worked on all 5 areas, is groove and ideas development. Some exercises can help you in this area but this is also where you can/should express your creativity. Use the exercises that you have learned from your different categories and feel free to explore the sounds of the drums.

A lot of students have the misconception that groove and idea developments are for advanced players, as they have more vocabulary and freedom around the drumset. This is not true at all. The most important part of groove and idea development is to think of the drums as sound and not as sticking patterns, vocabulary. If you were to give your child a pair of sticks and give him/her enough room to explore, he/she would probably be more daring to come up with rhythmic patterns than formally trained students. This is because the latter is filled with self-imposed restrictions and expectations.

In our philosophy, the goal of drum playing is to express your ideas, not to execute as many exercises as you can. This is true no matter which stage you are, even for beginners – play with different sounds, motifs, and rhythmic patterns and these will be influential in your playing in the long run.

With the understanding of the 5 different categories, now we can structure your week based on these exercises and plan out an effective overview of your practice. You will also be clearer on which are the exercises you can focus on during your limited time on the set, and which you can practice on the go.

A typical week of your practice could be structured like this, assuming you have REALLY limited time on a set per week:

Day 1

Morning – 30 mins pad work (15 min strokes, 15 mins rudiments)

Commute to work/school – Mental/ear training, listen to click or hearing subdivisions in songs, etc

Evening, night time – 30 mins pad work (5 mins strokes, 10 mins rudiments, 20 mins speed)

Day 2

Morning – 30 mins pad work (15 mins strokes, 15 mins speed)

Commute to work/school – Mental/ear training, tab out songs

Evening, night time – 30 mins pad work (5 mins strokes, 5 mins rudiments, 15 mins speed)

Day 3 – Drumset Day!

Morning – 30 mins pad work (10 mins strokes, 10 mins rudiments, 10 mins speed)

Heads to studio/drumset – 2 hours drumset practice (1-hour coordination, 30 mins speed around the kit, 30 mins ideas development)

Night – 15 mins pad work (15 mins speed training)

3 days of practice, but efficient in improving your drumming. You would have realized that we place heavy emphasis on stokes, rudiments, and speed. This is because strokes and rudiments are your fundamentals that you need to be comfortable with, and speed is the segment where you need constant conditioning to see results. Also not to mention you could do all these with just a practice pad.

Of course, in between each category are different subcategories of exercises, and you can go a deeper dive into planning each category per day. If you stick to your routine, you will probably see results soon. If you can't wait, then practice more!!

So you are preparing for a jam session with your friends or trying to play a song which you have been working on for the past one month but still are unable to play it well, or at all, we can also use the 5 categories to troubleshoot your problems. Go through this checklist and see which are the areas that you need to work on:

– What is the most comfortable speed that you can play this song at, and how far away from the actual speed are you? (Coordination)

*comfortable means to be able to play the beat, or fill consistently (correctly, in time, and clean, duh) without having a knee jerk reaction, or having the need to forcefully jam your hands/legs in certain parts just to get it right.

– For parts that require proper rudiments (single strokes roll etc), are you able to play your rudiments fundamentally at that speed/ comfort around the set? (Rudiments)

– Are you effectively executing your strokes and using the right muscles? For example, relaxing your grip and using your wrist (or fingers), using proper techniques (Moeller, etc) to achieve accented notes. (Strokes)

– Are you physically able to play at the speed that the song is at this current point? You can test this by isolating your hands/ legs with the metronome and see if it matches up to the bpm of the song, and then doing the same for the whole groove. (Speed)

– Are you able to hear the subdivisions in your grooves/ fills when you are playing it? Or are you just playing it based on what you feel? (Ear training)

These are just some of the questions that you can ask yourself to identify your current problems. If you wish to know more please look out for this space for more content or simply, contact us for a free trial lesson!