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How long should my practice sessions last?


dangeresque

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I just play for fun, but I obviously want to get better. I've been playing for about 3 years now, and I've practiced every day since then, but I usually don't have extremely long practice sessions. I think the longest I've ever played alone is maybe 45 minutes.

 

I usually play for about 15-30 minutes each time I practice, but I usually practice 2-3 times a day. Is this enough?

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Enough? That's up to you. Generally a music student should put in at least an hour a day to stay good and keep getting better. Ask the pros.

 

I personally play about an hour a day, depends on the day, lil more, lil less, but it's without break and its my full concentration on drums. It helps take my mind off problems in the day and it's a good break from other stuff. And I spend time here when I can't play drums.. after 10pm, parent sleepin.. etc. :(

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I agree that about an hour a day usually does it for me. But don't feel like you absolutely have to be behind the kit for that long all the time. Some days I'll just be too tired to do anything, so I'll just do what I can. And on days that I can't play the kit, I'll just play around with the practice pad for a while.

 

My thing is that I always have to play on something every day, whether it's the kit, practice pad, carpet, etc.

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Well if you are playing for fun then I suppose whenever you get tired of it is good enough. It's gotta be fun, right? But I see what you are saying. I've been playing for 4 years without any aspirations of ever being paid to play but I still wanted to improve. I usually played about 4-5 days a week for almost an hour.

 

I'd say 30-60 minutes/day and you'll see some improvement but it'll take a while. Depends a lot on what you wanna get out of it. If you wanna be able to play like the pros, those guys practiced several hours a day for several years.

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I don't have the luxury to practice an hour a day but what I've been doing is taking my sticks and pads with me wherever I go. In the car, I put the pad in my lap and train my left hand as much as I can. I also took the "bass pedal" from a cheapo walmart set and keep that work (w/o any drums) and listen to some beats and training my right foot while I am at work (software programmer) I have kids and horses so by the time we have done all our chores it is usually too late toopractive so I cover my set with towels and if I have time I try to play with brushes. Drum is not my main gigging instrument so I have to make time for my other instruments as well. However I've been progressing in drums and actually had been playing for a blue's band and with this young kids playing some rock covers. Also played with acoustic set. Jazz is my main style for my other instruments but with drums, I am not good enough to sit with a jazz band. At any rate drums realy help my other intruments. It is also visceral and good for me physically and I really enjoy it!

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Like the others have said, it all depends on the individual and how quickly you want to achieve your goals.

 

The other big factor is how efficiently you use your time. For example, if your one hour practice session consists of 15 minutes of goofing off for a warmup, 30 minutes of working on exercises, and 15 minutes of goofing off playing to CDs and watching the clock, you're not REALLY getting a full hour's practice, are you? On the other hand, if you have a solid practice schedule that doesn't leave any time for slacking, you may be able to get an hour's worth of work jammed into 45 minutes.

 

Frankly, I think 'time' is the worst way to measure practicing. If you approach each practice session with a specific goal, and then don't quit until you've achieved the goal, then you'll utilize the time better. Now, some of those goals might be time related (i.e. I'm going to work on doing single stroke rolls at "x" bpm for 2 minutes smoothly take a 30 second break and repeat 3 times = 7 minutes) but if you approach practice with a solid plan you'll accomplish more, IMHO.

 

After a while, you'll begin to recognize areas where you're weak, and then focus on working on those things in a structured way. Again, time might be a COMPONENT of this practice (i.e. I'm going to try to play a smooth shuffle beat for 3 minutes without F'ing up), but it's the activity...not the overall time...that matters most.

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I think that the length of practice time is gauged by what your goals are. The higher the level you want to obtain, the more you should practice.

 

When I used to teach young beginners, they were expected to practice at least 30 minutes. High school students at least one hour; college (music major) students at least 2 hours.

 

When I was in college, I practiced 8 hours a day, attend classes, studied, and held a part-time job. Needless to say I didn't get a lot of sleep back then, but my goal was to obtain my Bachelor of Music - Performance degree and play professionally. I don't have time to practice 8 hours a day now, but my gigs and session work counts for some of that.

 

Whatever your practice time is, I think it's important to have goals for each session, and to not just focus on one aspect of drumming. For those interested, I've written an article about practicing and how to set goals.

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i've found that, because of a recurring problem with my wrist, i can't practice for more than 1-2hrs. i've been working hard on technique so that i've eliminated the problem now, but the carry-over from two years of on and off hurting it means it's still not the best. this means i suppose that when i practice, it's got to be quality, and for that hour, because my main concern is not aggravating the injury.

 

it's tough, because i'm in a band where the other drummer is a professional, practicing 6 hours a day and gigging, whereas as i've just come out of my slackest year ever while finishing college. the tendency is to try and push the practice time out for as long as possible to match what he's putting in, but i just physically can't do that without injury. so, what i have done is try to devise ways of practicing that force me to stick to my own pace, and make sure at other times that i give the wrist plenty of rest, stretching etc....

 

what i've done is set a "speed limit" on everything i do (i.e. slow!), and force myself to keep at that slow speed and make every stroke a quality one, loose and free and accurate, as opposed to what i used to do, practicing things with the aim of increasing the speed at which i could play them and practicing things at different speeds, with the hope of gradually building up to that professional length of practice. i've been doing this for two weeks, almost every day with one or two rest days a week when i have a long band practice or gig coming up. the results i've found are that (1) the hour or two hours seems to fly when i'm playing at this speed, concentrating on it like this!! and (2) my wrists don't hurt nearly as much any more, and getting better every day!! obviously also these new good habits are filtering down into my playing away from this set-up, making everything feel cleaner and quicker when i'm playing at those avoided higher speeds.

 

comments, suggestions?

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Originally posted by john clarity

i've found that, because of a recurring problem with my wrist, i can't practice for more than 1-2hrs. i've been working hard on technique so that i've eliminated the problem now, but the carry-over from two years of on and off hurting it means it's still not the best. this means i suppose that when i practice, it's got to be quality, and for that hour, because my main concern is not aggravating the injury.


comments, suggestions?

 

 

Sounds like you are taking this in the right direction.

 

One thing that I didn't see you mention is warming-up. Don't know if you do that or not, but just in case, I'll mention a few things.

 

Playing drums is the most athletic instrument you can play. Like an athlete, we need to stretch and warm-up the body BEFORE we pick-up a pair of sticks. Then, once we've got the blood flowing, doing some slow (to fast) hand and foot exercises will really get the body where it needs to be for your practice session or gig. Stretching and warming up will get your muscles ready to learn; drumming is basically muscle memory right?

 

If interested, you can read my full explanation on stetching, entitled Warming-Up the Body, as well as a good (quick) 15 minute warm-up using sticks, entitled The Endurance Method; just click on the appropriate links.

 

I think it's great that you set you practice session to 1-2 hours. The brain does better when we break up our study times anyway, so why not the body? I think, and research has shown, that takes a short break each hour gives the brain time to fully retain what has been studied. You can always come back for more ... later. I also stretch and warm down after I'm finished playing.

 

Oh ... one more thing ... drink lot's of water when you play. All those toxins in your body's muscle have only one place to go, and drinking lots of water (during and after) you play will help flush out your system. You'll feel better too!

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Originally posted by john clarity

i've found that, because of a recurring problem with my wrist, i can't practice for more than 1-2hrs. i've been working hard on technique so that i've eliminated the problem now, but the carry-over from two years of on and off hurting it means it's still not the best. this means i suppose that when i practice, it's got to be quality, and for that hour, because my main concern is not aggravating the injury.

 

 

Where's your wrist hurt? My right wrist has been bothering me, particularly along the outside of the hand just below the knobby bone. It seems to be attributed to the motion used when playing the hats. I've been doing the same thing with my technique as you describe and try to play loose and fluid. Tendonitis?

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I'll attempt not to give such a wise ass comment this time.

 

You know, in all the years I've been drumming (and it's a lot) I've never ever warmed up. Probably a bad move on my part but as soon as I sit behind the kit and can't put off the urge to play.

 

Most of my practices I'm trying to accomplish something very specific. Whether it's working on something I'm weak at, learning a song or creating something specific. Then every once in awhile I like to just play for fun during a practice.

 

It's really impossible to put a time factor to practice. Someone who practices for 30 minutes and works on something specific will progress further than someone who practices for 3 hours but just goes over stuff they already know. Sometimes you can get what you wanted out of a practice in 10 minutes, other times you will struggle for hours and weeks or longer to accomplish something.

 

Having specific goals for each practice is a great idea as previously mentioned.

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One of the best things about being unemployed is the opportunity to play for 3-4 hours at a time. After about 1.5 hours, I feel like I'm finally getting warm -really warm- and I'm playing things I wouldn't have even attempted in the first hour of play.

 

The trick is to do an actual 10-15 minute warmup, then get to the matter at hand. I like to find a challenging book to work through and get it done. The first several pages of exercises in Gary Chaffee's 'Linear Time Playing' get me really loose.

 

I suggest you try to carve out a day in the next week when you can sit and play for a looooong time. Focus and enjoy it.

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Another thing to consider when you set goals is to look at your long term goals. Short term goals are great for individual practice sessions, but long-term goals will give you an indication of what you'll have to do along the way.

 

For example, if you were just starting out but wanted to be able to fill Neil Peart's drum seat in two years, you'd probably have to schedule a whole lot more practice/lesson time than somebody with more modest goals. On the other hand, if your long-term goal was to be able to play a decent shuffle beat in a year, you probably wouldn't have to worry about quitting your day job to find more practice time.

 

Anyway, the point is that it's not only the final outcome that you have to take in to consideration, but also what kind of timeframe you're working with to achieve the outcome. Obviously the more you want to acheive more quickly, the harder you'll have to work to get there.

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Originally posted by dangeresque

I just play for fun, but I obviously want to get better. I've been playing for about 3 years now, and I've practiced every day since then, but I usually don't have extremely long practice sessions. I think the longest I've ever played alone is maybe 45 minutes.


I usually play for about 15-30 minutes each time I practice, but I usually practice 2-3 times a day. Is this enough?

 

 

The simple answer is: your rehearsals should last as long as you feel comfortable playing.

 

There is such a thing as over-playing and possibly even over-practicing. This happens when you wear your self out both physically and emotionally, and when you're doing something you love, you should never intentionally wear yourself out.

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How about: A lifetime.

 

 

There's a lot you can learn about drumming, music and being a musician without sittin down with your instrument. I think if you try to pick up something new each and every day, when you do sit down behind the kit, you have a greater perspective of all the possibilities before you and ways to achieve your creative vision. Exercising your mind, ears and soul is as important as practicing your physical technique and knowledge of theory.

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Originally posted by drummercafe



Sounds like you are taking this in the right direction.


One thing that I didn't see you mention is warming-up. Don't know if you do that or not, but just in case, I'll mention a few things.


Playing drums is the most athletic instrument you can play. Like an athlete, we need to stretch and warm-up the body BEFORE we pick-up a pair of sticks. Then, once we've got the blood flowing, doing some slow (to fast) hand and foot exercises will really get the body where it needs to be for your practice session or gig. Stretching and warming up will get your muscles
ready
to learn; drumming is basically muscle memory right?


If interested, you can read my full explanation on stetching, entitled
, as well as a good (quick) 15 minute warm-up using sticks, entitled
; just click on the appropriate links.


I think it's great that you set you practice session to 1-2 hours. The brain does better when we break up our study times anyway, so why not the body? I think, and research has shown, that takes a short break each hour gives the brain time to fully retain what has been studied. You can always come back for more ... later. I also stretch and warm down after I'm finished playing.


Oh ... one more thing ... drink lot's of water when you play. All those toxins in your body's muscle have only one place to go, and drinking lots of water (during and after) you play will help flush out your system. You'll feel better too!

 

 

a warm up is definately included, and much more so now than a year ago. it's also a far easier curve up from slow warm up to playing, though when the whole aim of the practice is keeping it simple and slow, that level is reached soon enough. one thing i forgot to mention is a number of stretches i got from a physio last summer that i find are superb for both stretching out the tendons/wrists etc beforehand, and for relieving tension after. i'll detail one below later. as i'm singing these days also, i drink a fair bit of water anyway... and you feel better when you do too.

 

the exercise i use - a GENTLE stretch, mind, don't force it:

 

make a fist with your hand, outstretched comfortably in front of you- just enough to do the next part. with the back of the fist facing up, wrap your thumb under your fist where the fingers of your fist are, and the fingers of the other hand loosely around the fist ( i think i usually have the first two fingers on top, other two on the side). the aim is to gently bend the arm the wrist with the hand around the fist, until you feel the slightest strecth. DON'T STRETCH IT TO FEEL A BURN OR ANYTHING, you'll hurt yourself. just hold the stretch at the point before you feel a strain for a few minutes, then let go and move your wrist around a bit. for me, it generally feels so much looser after five minutes of this gentle stretch, and if you want you could do it again, stretch it a little bit further, but never to the point where there's pain of strain in the tendon.

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Originally posted by ulank



Where's your wrist hurt? My right wrist has been bothering me, particularly along the outside of the hand just below the knobby bone. It seems to be attributed to the motion used when playing the hats. I've been doing the same thing with my technique as you describe and try to play loose and fluid. Tendonitis?

 

 

last year, it was the back of my wrist- the tendon running the length of the arm to the wrist, due to technique, i was straining terribly, absolutely tendonitis. that problem has healed (and i have another exercise to ease that which i'll detail also) but the carry-over from that has been causing my trouble even as that problem has disappeared as i improve my technique. where it's been hurting lately is the inside of my wrist, which i've found odd, especially as the part you describe doesn't hurt at all anymore. it doesn't affect my playing like the other pain did, but it's still worrying.

 

today, i'm sitting here typing after playing three gigs in three nights with minimal pain. two were hard ( the sunday night one went on just one song too long, so that i could feel it beginning to ache) but i got through them, and a day's cycling yesterday, with not much concern. the other great thing is the type of practice i've been talking about has been paying dividends already, never minding the lack of injury- i'm absolutely thrilled. as well as the stretching i mentioned above, i also used stuff called difene gel on the wrist when it was beginning to ache. it's an anti-arthritic (which is good as i don't want arthritis!), but it's a stop gap measure really that you can only use for a short time. what it did for me is that it relieved the inflammation of whatever that was there, so that i wasn't layering more pain on top of what was there. i see it as a kind of kick start, or a fresh start, for the wrists while changing technique. it's done it's job too, in that i only had to use it for those two days. now i suppose it's just a matter of keeping it that way.

 

 

exercise for relieving tension in the tendon that runs the length of your forearm to your wrist:

 

using some sort of cream or lotion on your forearm to reduce friction, place your thumb in the middle of your forearm (where you will feel the tendon that runs to your wrist) and gently run your thumb the length of your forearm, til your fingers meet your elbow say, where you will feel the base of the muscle that this tendon runs from. if you have a lot of tension in your arm, this will probably hurt, as it did when a physio did it to me first!! take it very easy at first if this is the case, and gently work out the tension in the arm. also, if there's a lot of tension in the tendon, you'll probably see it turn red at the skin as you work it out- i've been told by massage people that's a sign of a lot of strain and tension in the muscle. after doing this gently for ten minutes or so, you should feel a difference, and since that type of pain you descibe begins at the base of the muscle further up your arm, there should be less pain in your wrist.

 

a word of warning- don't do it in the other direction. i did this once, and i think it only served to move the tension from my upper arm down into my wrist. it hurt! and i had to play a gig with it like that.... :mad: :mad: :mad: . you can work out the wrist locally in the same way as above, but from my own personal experience, i would say to be careful about it if your wrists are as delicate as mine ;)

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Originally posted by ulank

How about: A lifetime.



There's a lot you can learn about drumming, music and being a musician without sittin down with your instrument. I think if you try to pick up something new each and every day, when you do sit down behind the kit, you have a greater perspective of all the possibilities before you and ways to achieve your creative vision. Exercising your mind, ears and soul is as important as practicing your physical technique and knowledge of theory.

 

 

 

i like this, and here's why- the pro drummer i mentioned is part of a new initiative here, a bit of a jazz club which gets some of the best jazz musicians in ireland to come here and play with the house band, which he's part of. i've been talking to him lately about the amazing leaps and bounds he's been making in even just the last three weeks, trying to find out what he's been practicising to do so. his answer was, "listening". he'd been checking out the style of music he was meant to be playing, which is not his musical background, picking up on things he liked that the drummers were doing and working on implementing them himself. there's also the truism that you learn a hell of a lot more by playing with other people, especially very good musicians, than you do playing with yourself (sic, and you may say sick!) , and that's a shining example of it. i've found myself that the best gig he's heard me play, which i won't go into, was after i had spent two weeks, not practicing drums, but playing guitar and bass a lot in between hectic study for final exams. a different perspective can give you a lot sometimes.

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small mercies etc, i am enjoying for the first time i can remember since i noticed pain when playing without it. i used the new camera i spammed about here a while ago to record myself yesterday, and to my eye it looks like i'm working towards a decent approximation of the guys i've seen on videos that i want to play like. what i'm doing in the first 20 seconds or so is basically the exercises i've been doing for the last two weeks, rudiments around the kit at even much slower than on the video. if anyone out there with a more expert eye than me would like to comment or help me out on any aspect of it, technique, drum position, whatever, i would be more than grateful to hear from ye. i'm not trying to do any particular solo here or anything, just playing to see what it looked like, and yes, the snare is turned off ;)

 

http://www.compsoc.nuigalway.ie/~johnclarity/meplaying.wmv

http://www.compsoc.nuigalway.ie/~johnclarity/meplaying2.wmv

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Originally posted by john clarity




last year, it was the back of my wrist- the tendon running the length of the arm to the wrist, due to technique, i was straining terribly, absolutely tendonitis. that problem has healed (and i have another exercise to ease that which i'll detail also) but the carry-over from that has been causing my trouble even as that problem has disappeared as i improve my technique. where it's been hurting lately is the inside of my wrist, which i've found odd, especially as the part you describe doesn't hurt at all anymore. it doesn't affect my playing like the other pain did, but it's still worrying.


today, i'm sitting here typing after playing three gigs in three nights with minimal pain. two were hard ( the sunday night one went on just one song too long, so that i could feel it beginning to ache) but i got through them, and a day's cycling yesterday, with not much concern. the other great thing is the type of practice i've been talking about has been paying dividends already, never minding the lack of injury- i'm absolutely thrilled. as well as the stretching i mentioned above, i also used stuff called difene gel on the wrist when it was beginning to ache. it's an anti-arthritic (which is good as i don't want arthritis!), but it's a stop gap measure really that you can only use for a short time. what it did for me is that it relieved the inflammation of whatever that was there, so that i wasn't layering more pain on top of what was there. i see it as a kind of kick start, or a fresh start, for the wrists while changing technique. it's done it's job too, in that i only had to use it for those two days. now i suppose it's just a matter of keeping it that way.



exercise for relieving tension in the tendon that runs the length of your forearm to your wrist:


using some sort of cream or lotion on your forearm to reduce friction, place your thumb in the middle of your forearm (where you will feel the tendon that runs to your wrist) and gently run your thumb the length of your forearm, til your fingers meet your elbow say, where you will feel the base of the muscle that this tendon runs from. if you have a lot of tension in your arm, this will probably hurt, as it did when a physio did it to me first!! take it very easy at first if this is the case, and gently work out the tension in the arm. also, if there's a lot of tension in the tendon, you'll probably see it turn red at the skin as you work it out- i've been told by massage people that's a sign of a lot of strain and tension in the muscle. after doing this gently for ten minutes or so, you should feel a difference, and since that type of pain you descibe begins at the base of the muscle further up your arm, there should be less pain in your wrist.


a word of warning- don't do it in the other direction. i did this once, and i think it only served to move the tension from my upper arm
down
into my wrist. it hurt! and i had to play a gig with it like that....
:mad:
:mad:
:mad:
. you can work out the wrist locally in the same way as above, but from my own personal experience, i would say to be careful about it if your wrists are as delicate as mine
;)

 

Very cool. Thank you for the info sir.

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