DRUM HAND SPEED, POWER AND CONTROL

Develop Drum Hand Speed, Power, And Control!

There are three basic ways to play the drum kit with your hands. You can play each stroke using your wrists, your fingers, or combinations of both. In this particular lesson, we're going to go over the wrist technique and the advantages it offers. In the weeks ahead I'll follow this lesson up with two more covering finger techniques and combinations of wrist and finger techniques.

Why Use Wrists For Drumming?

Most people don't rush out of the gate with all sorts of amazing finger-technique, and thus they have to start with the basics. Playing with your wrists comes fairly naturally for most people, so it's an obvious starting point.
However, I would argue that maintaining wrist speed, power, and control is extremely important - even after you have learned to play finger techniques. There are a number of good reasons to develop and eventually combine both methods.
One thing many people overlook is that you get significantly more power when playing with wrists. Playing double stroke rolls on a low floor tom, for example, just doesn't sound right when played with finger-based techniques. Wrists provide the full power, and control necessary to make that roll sound clean.
Developing speed in your wrists also allows you to do more with finger-based techniques when you combine both elements together. I always try to keep my wrist speed as close to my finger speed as possible. Later, when you begin playing advanced techniques like the Moeller method, you will begin to see why this offers such an advantage.

Practicing The Drums With Wrists

Sometimes it can be hard to tell if you are truly playing using only wrists. It's easy to begin bouncing the stick a little in a double stroke roll, or using some finger technique in a simple paradiddle pattern. That's why I would recommend you spend some time practicing on a non-rebound surface. You can use something simple like a pillow, or a professional RTOM workout pad. Either way, as long as you can practice on something that offers very little or no bounce - you're good to go.
Practice playing singles (r,l,r,l,r,l,r,l), doubles (r,r,l,l,r,r,l,l), or paradiddles (r,l,r,r,l,r,l,l) along to a metronome. Set the speed fairly low and just focus on control. This is extremely important. Many drummers that want to develop speed start turning up the metronome way too fast. It is vital that you develop control over speed when first learning. Speed will come automatically once you begin to develop control over your wrists with these various patterns. Trying to shortcut control by focusing on speed will only hold you back. I've seen it over and over. Do NOT make this mistake.
Focus on staying relaxed and playing things perfectly in time with the click. Breathe deeply while you play, and work towards building muscle memorization. Train your muscles to play things right the first time and you will save years of corrective practice down the road.

Building Speed and Endurance

Once you have begun to develop your technique with solid control - then you can begin to develop speed and endurance. This is done best through repetition and controlled "burn through" exercises. Like a trained athlete - you need to push your muscles to the next level without losing control.
Start by playing singles, doubles, or paradiddles as sixteen notes at 100 BPM (or a moderate speed of your choice). Slowly move up in increments of 5 BPM until you are playing at about 50 BPM faster than when you started (in this example - 150 BPM). Spend some quality time at each speed - only increasing the metronome when you have played for a few minutes with complete control.
You may very well be able to play significantly faster than 150 BPM at the time, but that isn't the point. You want to develop control at all speeds, and the ability to play for extended periods of time. When you return to repeat the exercises (a day later perhaps), try starting out about 20 BPM faster than your last start point. Repeat and only progress to 50 BPM faster than the new starting point.
It may seem like a slower method of mastery, but it pays off in the long run. Don't rush through exercises or think that a particular speed offers no value to you. Dedicate two weeks to these exercises and see the results you get with daily improvements. I'm sure you will be pleased.

Advanced Drumming Tips

1. Try setting the metronome to half-speed as often as possible. For example, if you are use to playing sixteenth notes along with a metronome playing quarter notes at 200 BPM - play 32nd notes to quarter notes at 100 BPM. It is the same speed, but will force you to use your own internal clock between the less frequent clicks of the metronome.
2. Try to develop all of your patterns with right and left hand lead. If you haven't done this before - I'm sure you will find it fairly challenging.
3. Take what you've learned here and build a practice system around your drum kit using singles, doubles, and paradiddles and use the same tempo system to develop greater control.

ADD CREATIVITY TO YOUR DRUM

          Learn How To Add Creativity To Your Drum Beats

Tired of playing the same old beats? Sometimes as drummers we just need some fresh ideas to mix things up. This lesson will provide you with some tips and suggestions to fill your creativity toolbox.
 
1. Alter the Voices
Changing up a beat can be as easy as changing the sounds that make it up. This can include moving your lead hand from the hi-hats to the ride cymbal, crash cymbal, floor tom, or even a cowbell. Another option would be to change the snare shots to rim clicks or broken up snare/tom patterns. The main idea is take something you already know, and give it a new voice.
 
2. Change One Limb

Take a beat you already know, and change what one of your limbs is playing. You can change your lead hand from eighth notes to quarter notes, or change your snare hand to have additional strokes or ghost notes. Your kick drum could mix things up by changing the pattern or playing with a different technique (heels-up vs. heels-down, etc).

The main idea here is to keep the original beat flowing smoothly while a single limb changes it. Do one limb, then revert back and try another. You can eventually change multiple things to create an all-new beat, but the concept here is to create a range of semi-altered patterns that work well together.
 
3. Add Open Hi-Hats
Sometimes all a beat needs to take it to the next level is to have the hi-hats opened and closed on one or two beats. I typically like to add this on the "and" count of four (closing on the one count). It seems to work well over most music, so it comes most natural to throw it in there from time to time. That said, I like to mix it up and put it on other counts - even on the off-beat sometimes.
 
4. Change the Timing
This doesn't work for every setting, but sometimes you can mix things up by changing the structure. For example, taking a straight 4/4 beat and playing it as a triplet or swinging pattern. You could even add a quarter note and make it a 5/4 pattern to really mix things up.

Believe it or not, this can actually be used within a musical setting with a band too. No, you cannot alter the timing of what they are playing, but you can take a beat you already know and change it to match the timing of their song. You just have to pick a beat that doesn't already work. This is where you really start to think outside of the box.
 
5. Playing a Beat Backwards

Virtually every beat you play can be completely changed by reversing it. This is more experimental than the last tips, but it is still a great way to mix things up during practice. Sometimes it will work, and sometimes you will end up with something that is just un-musical. However, either way it is likely to challenge you in new ways and perhaps even give you some new ideas.
 
Try Them All
Give all five ideas a try. Don't skip over one just because it seems unusual at first. You never know what insight might be gained by trying something new. Play around and have fun with them. Even combine multiple elements to make things even more interesting.