How to keep learning and improving ?

by Rob Gordon at http://www.learn-to-play-drums.com

I'm guess I'm just like you, I'm constantly seeking ways to be a better drummer.

One way I consistently challenge myself is by taking the Guildhall School of Music exams here in England.

At the time of writing this article I had just pased my grade 4 exam.

In doing that I decided to take stock. In doing so I realised how far I had come in the 2 years that I have been taking lessons and that I have challenged myself to learn a host of new things !!!

So why do the exams ?

Because the exams force me to learn new techniques, sticking, beats, rudiments etc and to increase my musical knowledge. Ultimately this generally increase that elusive thing called muscianship.

Another great thing is when you take an exam the examiner completes a scoring sheet for you and that will give you lots of feedback on your playing.

On a side point- my examiner at grade 4, which I just passed, played percussion with Led Zep in some rehersals so I was very pleased to meet somebody who did that!!! Sorry I digress.

What I want to do was talk you through how I have approached a new piece I am learing for my grade 5 and how taking thing slow has enable me to learn new stuff.

The first piece is called Rumba Rock which unsurprisingly has a number of Rumba bits in it!!!

Well, to start with it has a syncopated bass drum pattern as follows:

A quick side point the synopated bass drum pattern in the first beat here is part of the latin clave pattern which underpins funk drumming. This pattern you will hear in lots of funk drumming from James Brown (Jabo Starks) through to the Red Hot Chilli Peppers (Chad Smith)

And then some straight forward ruffs and drags etc

The next and most complicated grove I have learnt to date goes like this.

It is a 16th note pattern which I play with alternative right and left hands on the hi hat. (i.e a single stroke roll). The right hand then drops down on to the snare for the backbeats on 2 and 4. This is pretty straight forward because you'll have heard this hundreds of time in lots of songs.

What makes this hard is the syncopated bass drum with your right foot and the opening and closing of the hi hat with your left foot.

So when I am confronted with new things, how do I go about learning this16th note groove

Well to me the big secret is to play really really really slow and I mean really really really slow.

To learn this I set my metronome to10 bpm and play the new beat that slow as I had to think about every movement as it was all new co-ordination to me.

Also, when I was resting between my weight lifting sets in the gym I would count and play this slowly on my knees.

As a new co-ordination of your limbs it will feel strange and this did. But keep moving and keep trying.

What then happens is you start to think less about he movement of your limbs and so you can start to go faster. And then you can "feel" the groove and start to play with it.

I now play this at about 100bpm!!

So in summary if its a very technically difficult thing, play it really really really slow to give your brain time to learn the co-ordinatrion required.

And to keep improving keep challenging yourself and music exams are great way to do that.

As always if you have any comments pls email me rob@learn-to-play-drums.com but please put the text "Not spam:" in your subject line first to help me sort the spam from your mail

Take Care and happy drumming

Regards

Rob