Hi comrades and welcome to the first improvement megathread of February!
I hope everybody had a great January and is ready to continue making progress and kicking ass this month.
As usual, some discussion ideas:
- Do you want to share something you've done in the previous week? Everything counts, nothing is too small.
- What would you like to do next week?
- What aspect of life would you like to improve?
- Do you have any streaks? For example, "sober for one day." Feel free to post your streak every day in this thread.
- If you don't have a continuous streak, did you manage to abstain from something for a day or more?
- Did you come across some useful information or resource that might help others?
:unity:
mokey practice
Arm technique:
[v] Upstroke, 65BPM. 5 mins each arm. Not sure how useful this is honestly. I'm not going to spend a ton of time on this.
[v] Rebound stroke, 100BPM. 5 mins left arm. I can't actually play this this fast, I think the issue is that my stick isn't bouncing enough in my hand. Working on press rolls should open my hands up.
[v] Triple Stroke 65. 5 mins each arm. This can open my hands up too. I'm watching the back of my stick and noticing that the left doesnt travel as much as my right.
Foot technique:
[v] Heel Down. Left foot. 70-80 bpm. 15 mins. Beater slightly digs in, pedal stays with boot, do not try to bounce the pedal. I made some changes from last week and gained about 10 BPM from the changes. I might be at my goal of 90BPM sooner than later. My right foot can go 95 but I'm not trying to match here.
[v] Full leg left. 125-140. 2.5 min x 4. Flam between the ball and then heel. Go slow for the first bit and get the motion down and then play 8th notes. I took a lesson with a metal guy who basically pointed out the stiffness of my ankle in full leg and that I'm not trying to incorporate any leg for midtempos. Midtempo playing utilize mixes of leg and ankle motion.
120 and below is all leg, 130 is mostly leg with some ankle to 170 where its mostly ankle and little leg
[v] Ankle Technique left leg. Experiment using more leg. 170-155 down. 2.5mins x 4
Groove Studies: [v] Jazz ride with permutation worksheet. Bass drum on 3 and its partitions. Now it sounds like reggae lol. I discovered a way to play a 2 beat the feels like the way I play my 4 beat. Very happy. 30 minutes.
[v] Sextuplets 60 benny greb app. 10 mins. Just play sextuplets but the click goes out for two bars.
[v] Sextuplets 60 10 minutes. Just 10 minutes of playing sextuplets in the pocket. Only difference with this is subdividing in my head differently. Sextuplets can be felt in 3 or 2.
[v] Triplets 60 benny greb app. 10 minutes. Same as above.
[v] Triplets 60. 10 minutes. Same as above.
Listening/Ride Cymbal:
[ ] Listen to Recordings, take notes.
We're listening to Ray Brown right now. I need to take this more seriously. Just doing it in the car 4x a week isnt enough.
Transcribe:
[ ] Minority
I need to force myself to work on this too, I always put this one off. I rarely get to it.
After I finish my traditional grip studies, its all going to be brush and transcription work. When I studied classical my teacher said that learn technique well and the music will just come to you or be easier to learn.
I also will put time into brushes again. I want to be a great ballad player.
Total Practice time (with no breaks) 2hrs 10 mins. More if I actually do my transcription and listening work.
I really like your write ups, I've never seen drumming laid out so mechanically clear
I mean its all a lot deeper than what im writing, i hope no one is trying to learn from what im writing because its only just notes of what i think i need to improve on personally.
Of course, yours are just very straightforward in explaining bits about technique in a way my drummer friends have never been able to explain. Maybe I'm just appreciating your note taking skills