Effective and Efficient Practicing

I managed to get about 30 minutes' worth of practicing in on Sunday evening. I pulled out a book I have owned for a few years, but never managed to spend any time learning the material. The book is called "Future Sounds" by David Garibaldi. According to Modern Drummer Magazine, it is one of the top 25 drum books published (I believe the original article was published in the August 1993 issue, so it is a bit old).

I ended up working through the first page, and felt that there was a lot that this book had to offer to both myself and my students. This got me thinking about my practice habits.

I don't get to practice my drums nearly as much as I'd like. I have too little free time, so I manage to practice about an hour per week. I began wondering how I could get the most out of my compressed practice time. The answers began coming to me swiftly, but I think there is more than what I have deduced insofar. I call it "Effective and Efficient Practicing".

It is effective in the fact that a great deal of self-discipline is necessary. The student must sit down at the kit with the intention (i.e. goal) of accomplishing something attainable in a given practice period. Learning one page of exercises is attainable in an hour; learning an entire chapter is not. In a compressed practice session, there is no time for playing the drums -- practicing patterns and skills the student already knows; there is only time for material the pupil does not yet know, or is not yet comfortable executing. If the practice session is an hour long, dedicate the first ten minutes to rudiments and warming up. If the practice session is thirty minutes, spend 5 minutes warning up. If the practice session is less than 30 minutes, then it may be important that the student begins working on the exercises immediately if any progress is to be made. Focus is key to cramming such material in such little time. The student must be on-task and focused the entirety of the practice session.

The practice session should also be effective. What this means, is the student should be practicing material that works on many aspects of his drumming skills, rather than focusing on one. A student who practices only rudiments on the snare drum in an accelerating fashion (open-close) in an effort to develop speed is only focusing on one aspect of his drumming. Rudiments are important, but in this instance the practice session isn't as effective as it could be.

A practicing drum student should focus on many key areas during the practice session. Time is likely the most important. Coordination and independence probably come second in importance, while speed, musicality, and dynamics encompass other important areas, though they are often overlooked. The development of one's creativity is sometimes addressed in a practice session, but more often than not, only happens when one is playing the drums. An effective practice session would use proper material that would address many of the above key issues. After working through the first page of Garibaldi's book, I found that his book did address many key practice issues that I mentioned earlier.

The exercises in Garibaldi's book include metronome markings. In other words, it would be beneficial for the student to practice the material with the aid of a metronome. In fact, it's beneficial to practice all material with a metronome, but many students find the metronome intimidating, or they are too lazy to bother buying one. The first page dealt with some basic coordinated 4-way independence using the paradiddle (and its' inversions) between the snare drum and the hi-hat. He also changed things up by permutating the beats and the accents. [ed. note: To really understand what's going on here, it would be best if one examined the book. My apologies go to those who have no idea what I'm talking about.]

The accents are a nice addition to the exercises. This allows the student to develop a higher degree of musicality while playing the drums. Furthermore, if the student plays the exercises from start to finish without stopping, then the exercises develop the student's sightreading abilities.

Yes, it was a good practice session. I left the drums feeling better than I had all week. I accomplished my goals for the practice session, and I found material that I plan on pitching to my students in the future. Apparently, drumming is also therapeutic.