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A Simple Way To Increase Your Hand Speed

Photo credit: R'eyes'

You know the one about the Ninja and the corn right?

Jumping was one of the most prized skills a Ninja could develop. They had to be able very agile in order to sneak into buildings without detection and avoid slashing attacks from swords and spears on the battlefield. So from a young age Ninjas were trained how to jump high.

Legend has it that when a young Ninja began his training he had to first plant a corn stalk in the ground. Then every day for the rest of his training he had to jump over the corn stalk. As you can imagine it was very easy in the beginning but as the corn grew, the Ninja had to keep jumping over it even if grew taller than he was. Their training was so strict that if he ever failed to jump over it then he had to plant a new corn stalk and begin again.

Photo credit: opencontent

How Ninjas Can Help With Drumming

A very strict way to train. Ninjas take their training very seriously. After all, their lives depends on it. How about us? Although we're only talking about drumming here, and not a life-or-death situation, you have to realise that if something is important to you then you owe it to yourself to practise it. Every day. With discipline.

I'm writing this to answer someone who I follow on Twitter. Here's what she asked me: "any way to increase hand speed? my playing seems to be super slow (especially true for my left hand)." TroisNyx

I remember asking my drum teacher questions like that and how hopeless it made me feel sometimes. Like that young Ninja I was always looking at other people who were jumping over 6ft high ears of corn and wondering how I could ever do the same. It's always easy to forget that it takes time and dedication. Especially when you're watching a lot of YouTube videos!

Good News And Bad News

The bad news is its going to take you a long time before you'll see big increases in your hand speed. The good news is that if you practise with discipline for long enough its inevitable that you will get faster. A lot faster. Lets try something out: Give yourself 1 month and I guarantee that you'll have faster hands by the end of it.

I'm not asking you to get up at 4am to practise or practise for 10 hours a day or stop playing video games. Here's what I'm asking:

Work hard for just 10 minutes every day for a month and keep a track of your progress. Some people find this difficult to do so you need to ask yourself, how badly do you want to get faster? If someone put a gun to your head and said they would shoot you unless you practised 10 minutes a day would you do it then?

How You Will Increase Your Hand Speed

From now on you're training like a Ninja so you better hope you look good in black. Your training is 1 very simple exercise for 10 minutes every day. Then raise the speed by 1 BPM the next time you play it. You're going to be like that Ninja jumping over the growing ear of corn. You won't notice the difference day to day but when you look back at your progress after a year or even a month you're going to see huge improvements. You're friends are going to see a completely new drummer.

To be honest after a while you will find it very difficult to keep improving every day. Some days you will not finish the whole 10 minutes. When this happens, keep at that speed until you can play the whole 10 minutes.  So you may be stuck on the same speed for a few days or weeks or even months. You're going to find this frustrating and tedious. But thats ok. Stay disciplined and keep thinking about the big picture.

What You'll Need:

• Pair of sticks
• Pair of hands (preferably your own)
• Practice pad
• Metronome
• Piece of paper
• Pen
• Stopwatch

How To Do It

1. Download this chart so you can keep a track of your increasing hand speed.
2. Play 1/8 notes with your right hand along to the click for 5 minutes. Use whatever speed you can finish the exercise at comfortably. Then do the same thing with your left hand (you may want to use a lower speed).
3. Write down the speeds that you were using and how long you played it for on the chart.
4. If you mange it for 5 minutes then put the metronome up by 1 beat per minute the following day. No more and no less than 1 beat per minute.
5. If you didn't, stick with the same speed until you can play it for 5 minutes
6. Repeat until you've completed the chart.
7. Look back on your progress and feel like a champion!

Try this

Stick the chart on your fridge, bathroom mirror, front door etc. somewhere you'll see it every day. This helps to keep you on track.

Oh and make sure you keep a pen right next to the chart. If you can't find a pen, you won't write down your speed. If you stop writing down your speed, you'll stop practising.

My fridge is covered in charts and tables. I have a chart for my blog, teaching, practising, housework, workouts and food that I eat. 

My girlfriend thinks this a bit weird (She told me yesterday: "You are bizarre but I do love you") but its the only way I can keep myself motivated to meet all my goals and targets that I set for my self.

What do you think? Am I crazy or just ultra-motivated? Write your comment below.

The Bottom Line

Why are most drummers faster than you? Is it because they are more talented? More musical? More muscular? The truth is that they are just practising more than you. And I know its difficult to keep motivated to increase your hand speed like this but... the only way you'll fail is if you stop doing it.

Think about it this way:
1 BPM every day for 30 days... Thats a potential increase in speed of 30 BPM

1 BPM every day for a year... Thats a potential increase of... well you can figure it out.

Is this a simple way to increase your hand speed? Yes.

Is this an easy way to increase your hand speed? No.

Its going to take discipline, determination and a lot of coffee but you can do it.

Was this post helpful to you? Have you ever tried a training programme like this and seen results? Are you actually a Ninja?

Share this post and write your comment below.

Alex

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