Increasing Power Behind The Kit - Horsepower vs Handling
Smoke rubber, not cigarettes. Source: dicktay2000
Disclaimer
Building power is a worthy goal. But it takes time. There are no shortcuts. It must be built brick by boring brick. And the work must be done. Oh yes, the work must be done. Don't expect any quick fixes.
With that out the way...
This is a subject I was
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The Myth Of Timing
Timing. It's easy to get lost. Source: fdecomite
Everyone talks about the importance of having good timing. Or being able to play in time. Or good time-playing. It doesn't matter how you say it, it's the most important thing you need to develop. But also the most difficult. Because it doesn't exist.
The way most people (myself included) first go about working on timing is to put on a click and play a groove along with it. There's nothing wrong with that, it will work great for a beginner and if you've never done it before it'll really sort out a lot of problems. But there comes a point when
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Why You Will Never Be A Good Drummer Unless You Cheat At The Lottery
Win. Source: dplanet
Cheaters always win
You've played the lottery before. If not, then you know what it is. But do you know how cheating at it can help your drumming? Obviously, you can use the money you win to buy new gear, build your own studio, quit your job and spend all your time drumming. But this article has nothing to do with money. It's about practising. Stay with me on this, it will all make sense soon.
What practising is
Let's say you want to show off a new fill at band practise or at your next gig. You have to practise that fill first before you can do it. You need to completely ingraine that fill, not just in your mind but in your central nervous system. This is what people mean when they say that something is stored in your "muscle memory".
When you get to this stage you can play the fill on automatic pilot, you can play it without having to concentrate, you can play it while thinking about something else entirely and, most importantly, you can
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What To Do When You Lose Motivation To Drum
Life is over. Source itsjustminna
You begin to doubt yourself
Maybe everyone was right. Maybe you're wasting your time. Maybe you're no good at anything. You wonder if you'll ever be able to play like your heroes.
Does this sound familiar? I've felt like this a lot with my drumming and it's not a good place to be.
Fortunately, there are things you can do to get your motivation back.
Here are 6 of the best things that will get you back into the drumming groove again.
To start with, the most important thing is:
Don't panic
It's totally normal for your motivation to rise and fall. Just realise that it's a temporary phase and that you will get through it. Try your best at this time to...
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The Progress Plateau - This Is Why You Keep Giving Up
Ayers Rock Plateau. Photo Credit: Palentour
You're on top of the world
You've just learned something new, you're ecstatic, you're on a roll, you're making great progress, you're psyched to be practising every day. You couldn't be happier.
Then all of a sudden you stop getting better and you stay at the same level for a long time and then you actually start to get worse. Sound familiar? What happened? Want went wrong?
Congratulations! You just
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How To Use The Explicit Part Of Your Mind To Become A Better Drummer
Explicit content. Photo credit: FLY2005
Sadly, there's no swearing, sex or violence in this article
It's all about understanding your psychology, hacking into different parts of your brain and using it to your advantage to become a better drummer.
Basically, your memory is split into 2 sections and each section stores different types of information.
Explicit memory
In this sense, the word explicit means to make something clear or visible. The explicit part of your brain is used for
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The 4 Stages You MUST Pass Through To Become The Drummer You Dream Of
Climb Up. Photo credit: Sara. Nel
The view's better at the top
...but how do you get there? How do you learn to do something? How do you learn to do anything? These are big questions. When you know the answers, you will truly be unstoppable.
Knowing how to play stuff on the drums is cool but learning new things consistently over a long period of time is what will set you apart from the other drummers that you know.
Before we look at the 4 stages, lets quickly cover some definitions that we'll be using:
- Conscious: You are aware of something.
- Unconscious: You are unaware of something.
- Competence: You are good at something
- Incompetence: You are bad at something.
So, how you do learn anything? You MUST pass through these 4 stages:
Stage 1 - Unconscious Incompetence
Put it this way: You suck at drumming and you don't even know it. You don't know what you're doing. You don't know how to get better because you don't even realise that you can get better.
Drummers at this stage are
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What I Am Doing To Kick My Most Disgusting Habit
Kicking bad habits. Photo credit: Hoggheff
No it's not drugs, cigarettes or nose-picking
Its far worse. I'm writing this as my first social experiment and as an extension on one of the points I talked about in How To Practise Every Day - 13 Useful Tips. In that article I recommend that you should practise first thing in the morning. This is really easy for me because I don't have to be at work until the afternoon. I can be up at 9, 10 or 11 and still get at least an hour of practise in before I have to go anywhere. But most people tell me something like this: "Alex, I don't have time to practise before I go to work/college/school."
Ok, fair point but I know people who get up early, practise in the morning, work at least 8 hours and still practise for a few more hours at night when they come home. So what's the real truth? Is it actually impossible to get up early in the morning? Can only
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Why You Should Work Your Ass Off In 2010
Are you awake? Photo credit: Jennie Faber
So far this year, 2 deaths are on my mind.
28 Decemeber 2009:
Jimmy "The Rev" Sullivan, 28, drummer for Avenged Sevenfold dies at home.
Tributes flooded in all day on Twitter for The Rev. It was amazing to see the depth of feeling for this man from so many people. Here is the 1st line of Jimmy's obituary in the LA Times:
"He is found dead at his Huntington Beach home; there are no signs of foul play. The band, often referred to as A7X, has sold nearly 2.5 million albums."
That's a pretty cool opener. How many people will have that written about them? Avenged Sevenfold have been working their asses off since they formed in 1999. Even if you don't like their music you have to respect them for putting in so many years of dedication to their band.
Even tough its so sad that Jimmy has passed away, he is still
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Why You Should Keep Your Practice Space Tidy
Photo credit: rileyroxx
Does this look familiar?
This is an expansion on one of the points that I talked about it in
How To Practise Every Day - 13 Useful Tips.
Keep it clean
Question: Why should you shower every day? Because you care about yourself enough not to go out smelling really bad. You owe it to yourself and the rest of humanity to maintain good personal hygeine.
If you stopped showering it wouldn't be long before people started noticing and then began avoiding you. They wouldn't have a very high opinion of you. "Yeah that Alex is a nice guy. He smells a bit though..."
In the same way, your practice space is a direct extension of you, your mind and your identity as a drummer. A messy practice space broadcasts "I don't really care about what I'm doing."
I'm sure you'd much rather spend your time in a nice, tidy space rather than be around a huge mess. But there's more...
Traffic Jams will slow down your progress
We've all been in traffic jams before. They are not nice places to be. You're
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