Drumming Hurdles

What am I doing here? I got home from work, ate my dinner, and then came downstairs to the guest room where I keep my practice pad on a snare stand. I sit on my drum throne, right in front of a full body mirror, and turn on Lady Gaga's The Fame Monster album.

I am now the teacher and the student -- the student is in the mirror, and I am the teacher, closing monitoring my technique. Am I sitting up straight? Are my arms to my sides? Am I holding the sticks at the same height? Is the stick rebounding correctly? Does my grip look OK?

My drum teacher, Jason, told me that if I practice in front of a mirror, I will greatly improve my speed. The first thing I learned from Jason was how to hold the sticks, using matched grip and traditional grip. I quickly settled with matched grip, which is the most common grip.

Matched grip: grab the stick from about a third of the way down and open your palms so that the stick comes across diagonally; hold your fingers loosely around the stick, almost like you're shaking hands with it. Your index finger can be looser than the rest, but your thumbs must always be on the stick. Both hands are positioned the same.


Traditional grip: the right hand is in matched grip, while the left hand is facing up. The stick is held between the second and third finger.

My pictures probably make the grip look very easy -- it is, until you start playing (especially when trying to play at a very fast tempo). Drumming is all about the hands. When I played the flute, playing was all about breath control. I thought drumming would be easier since I would no longer have the dizzy, out-of-breath feeling I had as a flute player, but for some odd reason, I can't stay relaxed as a drummer. I always hold my breath the faster I play. Being a good drummer means being relaxed, but I simply can't. I have to work hard to stay relaxed...sounds paradoxical.

Even though I've been taking lessons for over half a year, I still haven't learned all 40 rudiments of drumming. Check out a good list on Wikipedia. My drum teacher said that the MOST important rudiment is a double-stroke open roll, which is right-right left-left, or left-left right-right. By now, I should be playing much faster than I do. A typical practice session is basically the video below (yes, that's me). I start off slowly and gradually build speed, which I do for about 15-20 minutes at a time. It seems easy, but it's super difficult for me to play faster -- my wrist aches, my back aches. In addition, I formed mini-callouses on my index fingers, which could be a good thing -- blisters mean you are playing incorrectly.

I read once (probably my Idiot's Guide to Playing Drums book) that if I'm in pain, then I must be doing something wrong. I really don't think I am.

I spend an even amount of time with the practice pad and the drum set. I usually sit with the practice pad as a warm-up or very late at night when everyone's asleep. Originally, I spent much more time at the kit, but my "chops" were weak.

In addition, I have a foot pedal to exercise my foot muscles with. My left foot is much weaker than my right; same situation with my hands.






So this is the life of a beginning drummer. It makes me wonder how someone at an expert level practices, or improves their skills.