Continue to build your drumming skills with these basic steps
Take a look at the video to experience how you can nurture your inner drumming master
Whether you are learning to play drums for recreational purpose or as a professional musician, I thought I’d share with you some of the simple steps to help improve your drumming.
Just by simply putting these steps in place we can begin to experience rapid improvement. I’m returning to this subject because I have been reminded of how to practice again as I start my own journey learning a new instrument, the marimba.
Enhance timing
Its no shock to say that playing drums we need good timing. Timing is everything, one of the first skills to work on to experience success (my interpretation of success is joy, yours maybe different). Playing along to a metronome is key, by shifting from 100 beats per minute (bpm) to let’s say 104 is a huge difference. Feeling this difference takes time and practice working with tempo.
I find playing rhythms at various tempos along with a metronome is fine tuning my inner rhythm, just like playing intervals on a keyboard and hearing the difference between note variations.
Learning a new drum rhythm, for example there might be a lovely new rhythm to learn that you would like to master, whether that be play along with others in a group setting such as performing percussion music or drum-along to your favourite music may require the rhythm to be played at a tempo that is uncomfortable, physically out of reach at this moment.
Practice the drum rhythm at a slow tempo, so that it feels comfortable, and all that is focused on now becomes the sound of the rhythm, the feel of the rhythm in your hands and body and what the rhythm looks like when being played, more of being the observer in this case. Take your time mastering the rhythm – no rush is there? There is always benefit from focused practice… yes?
Developing feel
Developing feel is such a fun way to explore drumming and musical styles. There are so many inspirational drummers out there that we can draw upon as in developing feel – or a diving board where we can dive into the variations of groove. We have the best tool at our fingertips – we can drum along to music we love. This is huge! Not only are we discerning between grooves, we are developing our ear (listening skills).
Listening to as much music is key to develop musicality and knowledge. If we practice for an hour a day, it’s recommended we listen to music one hour a day. There are so many platforms where we can find a huge range of music. Back in my day learning about musical styles was suggested by the teacher, however now we can explore way more music that we would not have accessed in the past. Learning how to play drums has never been easier.
Gain knowledge
Whether you’re looking to drum for personal wellbeing, play with others or facilitate your own community drum circle setting or teach classroom percussion music, by understanding how we learn as individuals and or groups is vital to our personal development. As a teacher, personal coach and mentor I love seeing my clients excel on their musical journey.
Even the top athletes in the world have mindset coaches. Look at former professional tennis player Ash Barty (what an inspirational story).
OK so you may not be thinking of joining the London Symphony Orchestra… I get it, however a mentor can guide you through limiting beliefs, motivate you to take action and inspire confidence in your playing and creativity.
Strengthen self confidence
I remember when I first started out on my journey as a professional drummer. I began to judge my performance as not good enough by comparing myself to others. What a trap. Unfortunately, the teacher I was studying with at that time encouraged competition between players.
It had taken years and years for me to understand that my performance had been at high quality (I have many cassette tapes of past performances). I wasted so much time on those limiting beliefs. This is why I love to help mentor those who are stuck in a mindset of not being enough and shifting to one of inner peace and contentment with their drum playing and musical creativity.
Comparing ourself to others is a waste of time!
When we start seeing the uniqueness of our true self, we can come to music from a perspective of self-expression, joy, wellness and enlightenment.
Recap:
- Timing
- Feel
- Technique
- Knowledge
- Comparison
A little gift for you as you continue to build your djembe drumming skills
I want to help you out as much as I can so I’ve added some great hand drum beats for beginners and ensemble drums that accompany the djembe, called 7 Easy Steps to Develop Rhythm, Technique, Timing and Feel PDF. It’s filled with lots of tips on technique and how to improve your timing and feel, to really take your playing to the next level.
This is my gift to you and something that can accompany you on your drumming journey.
Get your instant copy for absolutely free!! Price $15 - FREE today!!
Download your FREE Djembe Drumming PDF Now
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Thank you so much for taking the time to be here. If you like this post please leave a comment below and share by clicking the button at the bottom of this page, many good wishes, Peta.