Drumming Lessons DVD: Set Your Own Goals

Understand how to create syncopation and beat displacement to enhance creativity. Learn how tune your drums for the optimum sound and the variables that affect that sound. Work on four-way independence on the drumset. Understand how to create syncopation and beat displacement to enhance creativity.

The most important thing to remember about home drum practice is to keep your family happy. They need to be for you and not against you. Once they have agreed to have drums in the home, you need to agree on the amount of practice time. As for me, one hour daily is the magic number.

It is important to distinguish between the front and back of the drums. There are two large drumheads that come with every drum set which need to be seated on each of the two brass drums. This seating should start with the back head followed by the front head.

The first step in developing a solo, an important ingredient that would need to be addressed, is the proper execution of rudiments. Are your single strokes, doubles, paradiddles, rolls, flams, and so on, played well? You will want to execute these smoothly and with precision. It will present the difference of being a beginner or professional drummer.

Ever get in a slump and can’t get excited about drumming? This is often due to lack of motivation or stimulation. Just as you would read positive books of wisdom and understanding to improve yourself as a person, the same holds true with drumming. You must find ways to be excited about playing. The following offer a few suggestions:

Isolate your feet and practice nothing but them for extended periods of time. Play the samba bass drum rhythm “allot”. That’s always been a good one for getting your right foot in shape

Learn how tune your drums for the optimum sound and the variables that affect that sound. Know the “name” players in the industry and their contributions to the drum world.

Practice single strokes for LONG periods of time. Get them EXTREMELY fast to where they become “very” comfortable. If the rest of your technique is relatively good, your arms will not tire after that