Become a Better Drummer in 2020
By Jason Renfrow
A new year and a new decade are upon us. Hard to believe that it’s 2020 isn’t it? Is your New Year’s resolution to take your drumming to the next level? It’s one of my resolutions and I have a plan to finally make it happen. Here are my top 3 tips to how we can improve our drumming in 2020.
First, foremost, and most importantly, we need to set short and long term goals and put it in writing. Trust me, I know we have all heard the same advice a thousand times before but how many of you have actually picked up a pen and piece of paper and actually written down exactly what you want to learn? I can admit that I haven’t, even though I know that studies have proven time and again that writing down goals increases your chances of reaching them. So go get a pen and paper and let’s get started.
Ask yourself this simple question: By next week, or month, I want to be able to...? For me it’s “By next month I want to understand the origin and be able to play the Purdie Shuffle.” And just like that I have an actual goal to work towards accomplishing.
So what’s your short term goal? Did you write it down yet? I already feel more focused and less bogged down by the never ending amount of things I want to learn.
Long term goals are going to take a better part of a year or more and can include things like joining a band, performing a live gig, or refining tempo consistency. Joining a band is my long term goal and I wrote it down. What is your long term drumming goal for 2020? Did you write it down? By setting goals it gives us a sense of purpose and direction and makes learning feel more manageable.
In order for us to reach the goals we just wrote down in Step 1 we now have to find the time to actually practice. Whether that’s behind the kit, practice pad or just active listening we have to find time every day to practice if we hope to succeed.
How much time? That all depends. How much time do you have to dedicate every day? 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour? The more you can dedicate the better. For me, I know that I can spend one hour each night. The point is we have to set our goals and make time to practice. Keep in mind though that the amount of time you practice is less important than the quality you put into it. Quality over quantity every time.
We now have our goals and practice schedule set, what’s next?
Now we have to decide how we want to structure the time we have. My advice is to choose things that will develop your technique, reading, and coordination such as rudiments, chart-reading, four-way independence, etc. To be a great drummer in today’s age we have to be well-rounded musicians. We are going to be much more successful if we can focus for a good 15 minutes or more on something specific and moving on only after we feel like we have made progress. This is much better than spending an hour just playing with no focus or structure. I know the temptation. Sometimes it can be hard to work on rudiments for 15 minutes straight when all you want to do is play along to music. I have been there, but if your goal is to learn rudiments you have to practice the rudiments and you have to practice them over and over until its second nature. If I have an hour to practice I set a timer in 15 or 30 minute intervals depending on what I am working on. Once that alarm sounds I move on to what I wanted to accomplish next in that practice session. Sometimes that can be singles for 15 minutes, doubles for 15 minutes and then move on to sight reading. There is an overwhelming amount of things to work on which is why setting a schedule helps it to feel manageable. Like anything in life there are no shortcuts.
My final suggestion is to make sure you are having fun. If drumming something new becomes a chore it’s going to be hard to stay motivated. Set aside 15 minutes to play along to a song or create something on your own to keep it fun. Follow these few steps and I can assure you 2020 will be the year you finally become the drummer you want to be.