I’ve been a musician for quite a while but finally bought myself a drum kit.
As a guitarist I know not all practice is good practice, or at least productive practice. For example, practicing scales up and down the neck will help learn those scales… but can make soloing sound super robotic.
Was hoping to get some advice for being productive while practicing rudiments, but any other practice advice is welcome too :)
Make sure to try and play with dynamics; how loud each hit is. This makes a huge difference in not sounding robotic.
Would you be able to elaborate on how to practice that? Any exercises you know of or vids to watch?
Inserting ghost notes in simple grooves is one way, but even just practicing paradiddles with the accent on the first PA- of paradiddle instead of doing it all at he same volume.
Also gets you to practice singles and doubles at the same time.
Like this: https://youtu.be/-imiZIrGwXE
And for ghost notes, Rob Brown got a good exercise video as well: https://youtu.be/dt_D_cVHqec
But both are more intermediate level drumming. At a beginner level, the main priority is staying on time. Doesn’t matter how simple the groove is, play to a metronome and make sure you stay on time. That’s the whole point of the drums after all; keeping time.
I’ve actually been practicing paradiddles with the accent for a bit, so I should def focus on not doing the accent lol. And even for other rudiments, I’ve noticed that whenever I try to incorporate the kick drum it’s hard for me to not bring my right arm down a little harder than my left. Something I am working on.
I’ve been trying to play to a metronome as much as I can, and I’ve figured out that my time is definitely not as good as I thought it was either haha. Even after playing and recording guitar to a click for a while, there is a lot less leeway for drummers it seems…
Thanks for the tips! And I’ll be sure to check those vids out as well.