• Learn how to learn! Decide ahead of time how to take in information in an orderly way that will be easy to remember and recall.
• Warm-Up. Remember to warm-up each hand and foot separately, using a repetitive pattern, until they are loose and agile.
• What do you do with those negative thoughts that come when you fail to properly execute a particular exercise or concept that you have been working on? The answer is to go back to a more simplified version of the exercise and slow the tempo down. Learn to be content with playing slow and simple. Allow yourself to have the vision and inspiration to see how the simple things, when played with precision, will blossom into something magnificent when they are more complex.
• While you are in the process of simplifying, think about the details of each part of the pattern and how each part should feel, (Zoom in on the part) so that you can produce a sound that is smooth, even and interesting. Once this is achieved, then speed and complexity can be re-introduced.
• When warming up, use exercises that will loosen each hand and foot and make them flow with ease and independence. For example, start with a repetitive pattern where the kick is on beats 1,2,3,4 in a 4/4 meter. Meanwhile, your hands will play a repetitive pattern on the cymbals, tom, or snare (Use a para-diddle(RLRR-LRLL) or RLLR-LRRL in 1/16 notes). When you are warmed up with this, then change the kick to the offbeat of each downbeat, while keeping the same pattern on your hands. Every 4 measures or so, change the kick back and forth between these two feels.
• Don’t be afraid of switching back and forth between a simple version of a pattern and a complex version. Sometimes your mind and your brain need to associate the simple with the complex in the same warm-up exercise.
• Learn to use your mouth to speak the rhythms that you will eventually play with your hands and feet. For example; If you are having difficulty playing a pattern with your hands, then try the following; Using a slow tempo, play a basic pattern on the kick with your foot and slowly speak the hand pattern without using your hands. You will also benefit greatly if you speak with tone changes and volume changes to help yourself understand and clarify the pattern. During this process, try to associate a certain tone of your voice to a certain place in the measure. Also, begin to assign these tones to your hands.
• Search for the best sound of a pattern by adjusting your posture and fine-tuning it. Listen for when the best tone from the drum is achieved and try to recognize what fine-tuning you had to do in order to get that sound. It might be posture, pressure, dynamics, or the spacing between strokes of the sticks, etc. The goal is to be able to more immediately and naturally play that perfected sound.
• Monitor yourself. Try to listen to your own playing as if you were someone else listening to you. While listening, if any part of the sound or feel is lacking, stop and separately work on that area. Resist the temptation to avoid or overlook this important process. Keeping this kind of habit will achieve an awesome sound in your playing, because you are always keeping yourself accountable to a high standard of playing. in all of this analyzing, be careful that you don’t lose your joy in playing or that you don’t make other musicians in the band miserable. Share your methods with the other musicians but let them learn at their own pace and keep accountability for themselves. It’s a balance of enjoyment and analyzation. If the analytical methods are driving you crazy, just back off, relax and enjoy the music for a while.
• Do not allow fear of inability to stop you from trying unknown patterns that you might see in print, or that you might suddenly be inspired with in your mind. Use the above methods to shape these new ideas.
• Remember, before you begin to practice, prepare yourself to be completely relaxed.
• When you begin to practice a pattern or exercise, take some time to close your eyes and focus on the sound and technique that you are producing.
• Practice with different weights of sticks. You can even use pencils [eraser side on the heads] to get an extremely light feel. Try playing with brushes for a half hour, then switch to “Rods”(Blastix) or regular sticks and feel how much more speed you have.
• Slightly modify some of the patterns that you are already very comfortable with, to create new sounds and patterns.
• Sometimes it can be difficult to memorize patterns or phrases in drumming. We need to find a simplified way of remembering it, much in the same way that we would memorize a phone number by associating parts of the phone number with numbers we are already familiar with (a birthday or a street route).
• When performing, keep yourself accountable by checking how your basic technique is doing (posture, stick height, clarity and separation of strokes, etc). Don’t assume that because you learned the very basics years ago, that you are always playing them when you should.
• Whether you are soloing, or in ensemble, give a considerable amount of thought to those who will be listening and watching you. Keep in mind that you are providing a service for the listeners. That service is their enjoyment.
• When soloing, strive to be like a good songwriter. Keep enough repetition to make the patterns familiar to the listener, but don’t let them get bored. Learn to modify the repeating patterns just enough to stay memorable, yet new.
• When playing in ensemble, strive to think like a good arranger or composer. Make your part enhance the main theme of the song. The main theme could be in the vocal part or bass guitar, you just have to recognize where it is. Watch that you are not standing out too much in the arrangement. However, Be sure that you make enough of a rhythmic statement for the song.
• It is helpful to not get too attached to our own creativity. Be open to the opinions of others and even ask them for their thoughts and ideas. The combined creativity of a good team can be a powerful thing.
• Listen to the parts of the other musicians in the ensemble to gain insight to what you should be playing.
• Strive to emotionally move the listener, without shocking or boring them.
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