About 13 years ago I went on a sort of binge of practicing where I basically broke everything I did down into component parts and rebuilt myself from a technical standpoint the best I could. I took advice from top drummers of whom I could gain an audience with and turned myself into a technical machine that could play drums rather well.

Then I got busy with gigs, playing music with other people and the lot. Playing drums was not so much a factor as was becoming part of the machine that created a product to define within people a primal need to express themselves with rhythmic contortions and gyrations. (read- I had taken the gig with a disco band)

As I was pursuing this technical renaissance of mine, one thing that really helped me was scheduling a time to begin practice, and defining what I would work on in that time frame. I started out fairly light, with 15 minutes of rudiments, 15 minutes of drum machine practice, 15 minutes of reading something or other, and 15 minutes of feet (I was playing double pedal back then)

As time went by, this little 1 hr session was growing by leaps and bounds- I started expanding my 15 minutes on rudiments into 30 minutes, and eventually 1 hr. The feet thing ended up at 45 minutes, the groove study was 1.5 hrs, and it got to the point where I was practicing a solid, focused 6 hrs per day, 7 days a week. AND I was gigging at night!! On the same drumset. I would not sleep until my drums were ready to go the next AM.

Now I have such a busy calendar that I have to abide by it. Finding time to practice is something I intend to do and I also want to start teaching again. I play probably 6 times a week if not more.....20+ hrs/week on the drumset but it's nice to work out all the cool little things I hear in my mind.....

Living one's life in small 30-minute increments can give you a stellar perspective.......








_________________
13612
www.billraydrums.com
www.myspace.com/billraydrums

OMG THATS AMAZING..my practice takes about two hours and i only do 10 mins of rudimets,10 mins of streching, and i spend the other time playin alog to music and working on my technichality and other aspects to make me a better drummer,......but not nearly as long as you








_________________
Ask not what ur drums can do for you,but instead ask what you can do for your drums

MYSPACE.COM/ASTEV13
MYSPACE.COM/REDROCKETTHEBAND

astev13 wrote:

OMG THATS AMAZING..my practice takes about two hours and i only do 10 mins of rudimets,10 mins of streching, and i spend the other time playin alog to music and working on my technichality and other aspects to make me a better drummer,......but not nearly as long as you

One thing I discovered after awhile of doing all of this- I only really needed about 1 hr tops of focused practice a day to really maintain, and anything past that was just superfluous.








_________________
13612
www.billraydrums.com
www.myspace.com/billraydrums

BillRayDrums wrote:

astev13 wrote:

OMG THATS AMAZING..my practice takes about two hours and i only do 10 mins of rudimets,10 mins of streching, and i spend the other time playin alog to music and working on my technichality and other aspects to make me a better drummer,......but not nearly as long as you

One thing I discovered after awhile of doing all of this- I only really needed about 1 hr tops of focused practice a day to really maintain, and anything past that was just superfluous.

I learned that too, though not through such an extreme fashion. Five minutes of focused practice is better than an hour of unfocused practice. To quote the late and great Vince Lombardi, "practice doesn't make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect."

I spent about an hour last night with Master Studies, a practice pad, a click, and an older pair of VicFirth Dennis DeLucia. Those accent exercises are fun.








_________________

Dr. Rodney McKay wrote:

Well, I only know one thing and that is that flying darkness that eats energy can only be very, very bad.

http://www.MySpace.com/PageFive

SGarrett wrote:

BillRayDrums wrote:

astev13 wrote:

OMG THATS AMAZING..my practice takes about two hours and i only do 10 mins of rudimets,10 mins of streching, and i spend the other time playin alog to music and working on my technichality and other aspects to make me a better drummer,......but not nearly as long as you

One thing I discovered after awhile of doing all of this- I only really needed about 1 hr tops of focused practice a day to really maintain, and anything past that was just superfluous.

I learned that too, though not through such an extreme fashion. Five minutes of focused practice is better than an hour of unfocused practice. To quote the late and great Vince Lombardi, "practice doesn't make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect."

I spent about an hour last night with Master Studies, a practice pad, a click, and an older pair of VicFirth Dennis DeLucia. Those accent exercises are fun.

Master Studies!! Man, I gotta go grab a copy of that book. I'd forgotten all about it!!








_________________
13612
www.billraydrums.com
www.myspace.com/billraydrums