Foundations of Effective Practicing

Having established an understanding of what we as Christians are doing when we undertake our pursuit of drumming, we now turn to how we go about the task.

The following are some of the principles which will guide our study:

1. Practicing is to be our primary day-to-day concern.
Performances rest on, or depend upon, the knowledge and skills that a drummer has developed in his practicing. The quality of a performance is established by the work done prior to it. Therefore, the major thrust of our work as drummers is in preparation for our performances.

2. Practicing is to be self-consciously oriented toward equipping ourselves to perform better.
This seems obvious, but the majority of “practicing” I hear around my rehearsal space isn’t really practicing; it’s playing. True practice is deliberately repeating things one cannot play (or play well). In other words, if you are playing something you can already do at a performance level, you’re not practicing.

3. Though practice requires a great deal of repetition, it does not have to be a drag.
When we are easily bored, the problem does not lie in the material, it lies in our attitude. If playing the drums is what we love, then doing it for an hour or two ought not be boring. It becomes boring because often we do not seek enjoyment from playing the drums so much as we’re looking to be entertained. We are to remember what we are doing and what it is for.

4. If you cannot play something without making mistakes, you are playing it too fast.
This is the primary source of frustration for any student I have ever taught (and for me as well!). We keep trying to play something at a tempo that we can’t handle, until we get fed up and quit. A better alternative is to play so slowly that you can’t make a mistake. It doesn’t matter how slow that is. Try it one note at a time until you can handle it.

5. Practicing something begins with understanding it.
We often try to play something without taking the minute or two that it takes to simply look through it or count it down. Begin an exercise by “shaking hands” with the new concept, movement or pattern and have a clear idea in your mind of what you are learning. This will make your repetition of the exercise much more effective.

Take some time to evaluate your practice habits in light of these principles. Where are you lacking? Where are you getting it? What are your results? Are you satisfied with them? We’ll continue with practicing next time.