Secret to Drum Success?

Just keep trying and also "practice" by playing along to the music you love !

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

Just like you, I'm constantly seeing advice on how to be a better drummer.

Usually it has to do with buying new teaching material, getting a new practice routine/attitude, or learning some new technique from a magazine article. But over the years I've noticed something much simpler that almost always leads to success.

No matter what your level of playing ability is, how little you think you now know, or what your specific drum problems might be at this time you can eventually achieve success if you JUST KEEP TRYING.

Life seems to award the spoils to those who show up day after day. In most endeavours in life, the real key to success is just being there and just keeping on trying.

How do I know this firstly my own experience and also whenever you read about the great players the question of how did they climb to the top always get asked?

The answer it always seems to be is that they didn't give up, but keep on trying!!.

They just kept going, putting one foot in front of the other day after day, and refusing to throw in the towel when stuff seem to get too hard either technically with their drumming itself or in getting gigs and recognication.

More practically the "Great's" always seems to have done the following:

1) Remembered that being a drummer is about being a musician first and a drummer with lots of technical ability second

2) Practising by jamming along to lots of music to develop their musicianship and that thing called "Feel"

3) Always adopting a willing to learn attitude and

4) Accepting that drumming is a journey and not a place that you get to and then stop.

I can just about guarantee that as beginner drummer (or even a more seasoned player) your first few attempts at something won't sound or feel that good.

It's your sixth, seventh, 101st attempt that will start to feel comfortable, start to groove and will deliver the goods for you.

Remember you'll have days at the kit that don't go right, and times when quitting seem like the smart thing to do. But keep moving and keep trying, even if they are only small steps.

If its a technical thing thats holding you back play it really really really slow to give your brain time to learn the co-ordination required. Eventually your brain will move the co-ordination required from the consious part of your brain to the unconsious part and the co-ordination will begin to feel "natural".

And so your refusal to give up will create a momentum for you. So how do you not get frustrated at technical things that are holding you back. Stop and just have fun by jamming along to music that you love!

Rediscover your joy of playing and then go back to the technical stuff that seems to be holding you back.

You may well find that you have given your brain the time it needs to learn the limb co-ordination needed and in the interim you have been having fun and not struggling with something you couldn't do. And avoided, hopefully of, getting down on yourself!!

Here is a listing of online music stores where you can get to buy the music you love to play along too.

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

Regards Rob