As Obi Wan Kenobi told Luke in Return of the Jedi, “You’re going to find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view.”

An educated drummer will probably know what is meant when a drum teacher says, “Let the bounce do the work,” or, “Let the rebound do the work.” I know I do. However, as much as I hate to say “never”, I’m pretty sure that I will never say either one of these phrases.

(Time will tell if that declaration will come back to haunt me)

I really don’t like the notion that the bounce does the work, because it implies that the sticks will deliver the rhythms we want to play simply by letting it bounce on the drum head. Now, I know, and the educated drummer will know, that isn’t the case – that we actually control the bounce so that the rhythms we want to play are properly executed.

So, why don’t we say that?

In sticking with my philosophy of speaking universal truths, and having worked with plenty of young drummers, I know the importance of saying what I mean. We do not let the bounce do the work.

I tell my students that we allow the rebound to assist us. We, the drummer, do the work, but on a bouncy surface we allow the rebound to alleviate some of the work we do and that we are always playing every beat. Explaining the concept of bounce to the young drummer in this manner lets them know that they are in control of their sticks and how they react to the drumming surface. This way, as they learn how to play different things, breaking them down so they learn to place every beat, they learn how to control the bounce. As they get faster, build dexterity, and build muscle, they will increase their control of the rebound provided they also continue to focus on relaxing and staying loose while they play.

Additionally, as they play on different surfaces, they will learn how to adapt to the type of rebound. Many drummers have played on various surfaces, from loosely tuned heads with very little response to Kevlar heads that are very, very bouncy. Each type of surface will respond differently, so being able to precisely articulate rhythms depends on the amount of control we have over our sticks. If we’re not able to play rhythms on an ill-responsive head with the same kind of accuracy as a bouncy head, then what is the point of relying on bounce, letting it “do the work”? Not to mention the fact that drummers will play on all sorts of percussion instruments: there are snares and toms and their respective heads, as well as cymbals and percussion toys, each having their own surface qualities and response types. We need to be able to articulate accurately on all of those surfaces.

I demonstrate this concept by playing clear double-stroke rolls on curtains or my lap, both of which have little to no rebound (my lap, having muscles, have a little bit of response, you know). I then qualify this statement by letting my students know that they will probably never have to perform on a curtain or their laps, but that’s the type of control they need to have over their sticks. That way, when they play on drum, they can adapt, loosen up, and let the rebound assist them so they don’t have to do as much work.

Many young drummers that try to bounce everything out let their sticks flop onto the head as they play diddles, flams, etc. This always results in badly played rhythms because what they’re doing is trying to play the sticking patterns, the rudiments, instead of playing the actual rhythms.

It is very important to have a relaxed grip on the stick. This way, when playing on a bouncy surface, we can guide the stick at any speed, utilizing whatever the amount of response the surface gives us. Conversely, if we are relaxed, we can learn to manipulate the stick on a less bouncy surface by using more muscle but still with a relaxed grip. We can let our hands adapt to the rebound, or lack thereof, by using more or less muscle as necessary while being relaxed at any speed.

This is the manner in which I teach my drummers stick control. We do not rely on the bounce. We do not let the rebound do the work for us. We are always in control, doing the work but allowing the rebound to assist us. If our sticks and the rebound could talk, they would be calling us “Master”.

And that, young Jedi, is my point of view.

I got out of the car about 7:30 last night and heard someone playing his drum set.

Oh… we live in a condo, by the way.

It didn’t bother my wife and me because we live on the other end of the building so we didn’t really hear it unless we were actually listening for it, but I do remember feeling very sorry and angry for their upstairs neighbor (so I guess it did bother me).

While this drummer is actually pretty decent, he’s giving drummers a bad name. Many people think that the drums are cool and that drummers themselves are cool, but only during a performance or conversation. Any other time, people find us annoying. We drum on everything: shopping carts, the desk, the table, our laps… And then there’s practicing: the tick-tick-tick on the drum pad, the loud sound of the drums… it’s rare that I can drum on my drum pad at home without my wife asking if I’m going to stop soon.

We are annoying musicians to most. And the guy playing a drum set in a multi-dwelling building is a rude contributor to that. But, he’s also one of the inspirations behind this post.

There is no reason why he needs to drum on his kit, really. Yes, playing on your instrument of choice will help you to become more familiar with how that instrument feels, how to handle it, how to manipulate it, etc. But the drums are unique in that all you really need is a pair of sticks (and sometimes not even that). You pretty much need a saxophone to learn how to play the saxophone. Same with a violin, cello, trombone, etc. But drummers can learn how to play the drums with nothing but a pair of sticks and a surface to play on.

The other inspiration behind this post is a particular group of high school kids that just don’t understand this concept.

Back in February, at one of my high schools, several of the students got very, very disappointed when I told them we wouldn’t be using drums for at least two months. A deep sigh emanated from their breaths and all I could say was, “You don’t need to play on a drum to be a drummer.”

A good drummer should be able to sound good on a drum pad. If you sound good on a drum pad, chances are you’ll sound pretty decent on a drum. If you sound horrible on a drum pad, you are most definitely going to sound ten times worse on a drum. Everything becomes amplified: all the mistakes, the bad attacks, the lack of control… the rule of thumb is if you can’t play it well on a pad, it will sound worse on a drum.

In the end, if a drummer really loves the act of drumming, it shouldn’t matter if they’re playing on a drum or a tin can. The physical act of drumming should be fun, no matter the playing surface. Indeed, playing on a drum is fun, and it’s certainly educational, but time has taught me that a pair of sticks and a surface that can tolerate a beating is also just as fun if I’m playing well.

Plus, I can play in my condo without bugging the neighbors.

I’m pretty sure it was my age-out year of drum corps. I was walking across the gym at our housing site with my instructor/mentor/friend/boss, talking about… drums, probably… and we passed by one of my fellow snare players ramming beats on his pad. We asked him what he was doing and he said he was working on his chops.

In response I said, for the first time, “Remember: technique first, chops second.”

Technique, technique, technique. It’s important. Yes, chops are important, too, but without technique your chops will be useless if you hurt yourself.

If you look up “technique” at Dictionary.com, you’ll find the following definitions pulled from the Random House Dictionary:

1. the manner and ability with which an artist, writer, dancer, athlete, or the like employs the technical skills of a particular art or field of endeavor.
2. the body of specialized procedures and methods used in any specific field, esp. in an area of applied science.
3. method of performance; way of accomplishing.
4. technical skill; ability to apply procedures or methods so as to effect a desired result.

Okay, so let’s derive that technique is a specialized method by which something specialized is accomplished. Let’s specify this for drumming, shall we?

(Yes, you can also apply this to other disciplines)

Technique is a specialized method that helps to accomplish a specialized goal in a manner that allows the body to function naturally, with some modification, and promotes efficiency, fluidity, and prevents physical harm.

Several techniques exist for drummers and other percussionists to choose from, depending on what instrument they’re playing and what they want to accomplish. In my case, I developed a default technique that I use for general playing, but when needed I use another technique. The general technique I use is also the one I teach my students, and the reason I do is because I think it embodies the definition of “technique” that I presented above. As a teacher, my goal is to make sure my students learn to relax, play efficiently, and play in such a way where they don’t physically harm themselves. If they can learn to do these things, then drumming will be easier for them.

Learning and using bad technique will do the opposite; drumming will be difficult, consume a lot of energy, become a tense activity, and may cause detrimental pain that could have long term effects.

Now, let’s define “chops”. The closest thing I could find was on Dictionary.com’s pull from the American Heritage Dictionary:

Slang The technical skill with which a jazz or rock musician performs.

Meh.

In the drumline activity, at least where I’m from, I know that we use the term “chops” a little differently. “Chops” is certainly a slang term, and in my usage, it refers to speed and stamina as they pertain to muscle use. How fast one can play and for how long is an indication of having chops. And having chops is a good thing, of course. Without chops, a drummer is limited in how fast and how long they can play, obviously. Chops also aid in the betterment of technique. The more a drummer practices using a particular technique there will be an increase in the ability to use the technique more naturally as the muscles become used to the motions used.

Thus, a cycle is created: the better a drummer’s technique, the more speed and stamina will come as a result. As the muscles get exercised, chops will increase resulting in a boost in speed and stamina. As the chops increase, the technique used will be practiced, resulting in improved technique.

Now, let’s think about this. If a drummer has bad technique and continues to play and play, thus increasing their chops, and thereby getting better at using their bad technique, they’re basically increasing their muscle strength while supporting bad drumming habits. And, as mentioned before, bad technique can be detrimental to both playing and to the condition of the body.

Unlike the chicken-and-egg scenario, we know what comes first in the cycle: technique. When a beginner picks up drumsticks for the first time and attempts to drum, the way they hold their sticks and hit the drum or pad is, essentially, a form of technique. This is where the journey begins. Chops come from playing and practicing, and you can’t play drums without some form of technique, whether that technique is primitive and uneducated or refined.

Hence, technique first.

If the concept here is indeed cyclical, then why worry about it at all? If technique begets chops, which begets improved use of technique, then what does it matter as long as proper technique is used?

Young drummers should make sure that they actually DO emphasize the learning of good technique. This, of course, is part of the teacher’s job, making sure they are promoting good technique. However, young drummers should also know that the more they play, the better their chops will get. In the drumline activity, we do chops-busting things like hold rolls and accent patterns, but never, ever at the expense of technique. Chops will do then no good if they play with bad technique.

The moral of the story is: chops will come. Don’t worry about them. Good technique is the basis for everything physical. Concentrate on learning good technique and, I guarantee, the more you play, the more chops you’ll acquire.

Last year, after a drumline rehearsal, one of the students was sitting on the floor practicing a piece of music. She wanted to audition for a snare spot pretty badly and her chances were incredibly slim. My friend, the caption head of this particular drumline, told her she basically had one chance to show him that she was worth giving a spot.

She’d asked me if I could help her after rehearsal sometime, so there I sat, watching her, knowing that I would soon interject with my brand of help.

She played through the piece, blundering rhythms and phrases here, there, and almost everywhere, got to the end, looked at the music, and before she could start again, I pounced.

I said something to the effect of, “I’m willing to bet that you’re going to start the piece over, right?”

She affirmed my suspicions.

I then asked, “I’m also willing to bet that that’s how you practice at home, too, right? You play through something and then, instead of working on the things you had trouble with, you play through the piece again, right?”

Another affirmation.

Not everyone practices this way, but I know that not all students have good practice habits. I very often tell drumlines that I work with to ask me or one of the other instructors if they have any questions about how to practice, and very rarely do I get asked. And then, when I see them at the next rehearsal without any sign of significant improvement, I have to wonder how these people are practicing.

Expanding on my last post, 5-Minute Hands, I figured it’d be a good idea to break down how someone might want to go about practicing so that those precious five minutes don’t go to waste.

First off, if you’re playing something and you don’t like it, take a mental note. If you want to finish what you’re playing, fine. If you want to stop and work on the thing you just took mental note of, fine. As long as you come back to your mental note, you’ve accomplished the first step:

1. Go back and fix the thing you don’t like!

If you’ve got a 16-bar passage that you’re trying to learn and you’re having trouble with bars 7 and 8, playing the entire piece over and over and over won’t help you iron out the difficulties with efficiency. Sure, with enough repetition, you may smooth out some of the kinks and be able to get through those difficult bars, but it will take a lot longer and your hands and head probably won’t understand them or play them as well as if you took the time to break them down. Figure out what it is you need to fix; Is your coordination wrong or off? Are you having trouble with the rhythms? Having trouble playing it up to tempo? Can’t play the rudiments required to play the phrase? Sound quality bad? If you have a problem to focus on, then you can attack it. This leads up to the second step:

2. Break it down!

After going back to your trouble spot, don’t just ram through the pattern. Once identifying what it is within the pattern or phrase you’re having trouble with, start by playing the passage slowly until you’re comfortable playing it, concentrating on fixing the problem(s) you’ve pinpointed. Once you’re comfortable, speed up the tempo.

3. Push it!

When speeding up the tempo of the pattern you’re breaking down, make sure to go past your comfort zone. Make sure when you speed it up, you utilize the correct techniques! Faster doesn’t mean get lazy. During faster tempos you will still want to use the same basic techniques as at the slower tempos, but perhaps with some adaptations (another article). In any case, everyone has a comfortable tempo they can play things at and pushing the tempo past that comfort zone makes you practice applying the things you’ve just worked on at a tempo you can’t play. If you’re working on a piece that needs to be played at a specified tempo, you will also want to speed up past that tempo. In either case, this will help you to eventually be able to play the pattern at faster tempos, which will benefit you in the long run. It also lets your body know what it’s like to play the pattern at this faster tempo with your current skills and what you might have to do to get the pattern playable at this speed – loosen up, put more or less pressure on the fulcrum, figure out how to make the basic techniques more comfortable to use when playing faster, etc. Plus, when you…

4. Slow it back down!

…to your comfort zone (or to the tempo at which the pattern or phrase is supposed to be played, depending on what you’re working on), you should notice how much easier it feels to play compared to the faster tempo. This is a great psychological and physical psyche-out. By comparison, things that are difficult suddenly don’t seem as hard, right? This also gives you a chance to relax your hands again after “stressing out” during the faster tempo (though you should have been attempting to relax as you increased the speed!).

5. It’s all about context!

Once you’ve become comfortable with the pattern or phrase you’ve just worked on, then you have to put it back into context. Take the measure or phrase before it to make sure you can make the transition. After a few reps, take the phrase before, the pattern or phrase you’ve just practiced, and the phrase after, making sure you can transition out of it. Not being able to make the transition means that you can play the pattern or phrase but only by itself, which is only half the battle as it is part of a larger whole. Do a few reps of this before going on to the next problem.

You might find that you have multiple problems with a single pattern or phrase, and that’s fine. You can choose to tackle all of the problems at once, if you’re experienced enough and can focus on several things at the same time, or you can tackle one at a time. The choice is yours, of course, as long as you find a way to actually focus on the problems and figure out a way to solve them. The method outlined here is a simple offering, and applies to most everything you learn how to play. If you find that taking extra steps or less steps works better for you, then great. Whatever will make you efficient. And yes, this method can be done in five minutes if you just pick one problem area to focus on.

The great thing about this method is that it’s applicable to anything you need to practice, whether it’s a four-bar phrase, two counts, or just a simple two-note coordination problem. For example, if you’re having trouble with single measure and, while breaking it down, find that you’re having trouble with a specific part of that measure, you can start the process over to work out the specifics of the problem within the larger passage. Have a paradiddle into two left one-handed flam accents into a flammed tap-seven? Is it the flam accents that are giving you trouble? Break down the left one-handed flam accents first, making sure you can play them comfortable, before taking the whole measure.

The method can be applied to matter how small or how great the problem. It can apply to a simple rudiment, an exercise, or a piece of music. It can apply to technique or musicality. It’s a universal method. And sticking to the method will help increase the efficiency in your practicing. As you get better and better as a drummer, you may find that each step takes less and less time because your experience and skill are lending a hand to your learning and working out new things.

Coming full circle, I remember trying to impress upon her the importance of good practicing. Since she was learning the music to audition for my friend, I thought it important to ask her: “Do you think he would rather see that you can get through the whole piece, mistakes and all, or do you think he wants to see that you’ve worked on the piece by playing what you can play well?”

I’m sure that most of us have read or listened to interviews with drummers that talk about how they used to “woodshed” for 8 hours a day, everyday. They loved the craft so much, and wanted to be so good, that they devoted themselves to such an intense practice schedule.

Good for them, I say.

However, I’m willing to bet that most of us can’t make that claim. Not that we don’t love the craft, and not that we don’t love drumming so much that we don’t want to practice. But really, several factors prevent most of us from taking on such a regimen: school, work, people, short attention span, easily bored… Any one or a combination of those factors prevent the majority from sacrificing the rest of our lives in order to practice, practice, practice.

Some drummers, unfortunately, are worse; they don’t practice enough. I know that, having taught for 14-plus years, most of my students fit that mold.

As a teacher, it’s part of my job to find a way to inspire my students to practice. One such method involves a 5-minute practice schedule.

That’s right. I said, “5-minute practice schedule.”

One of my favorite stories to tell students is that I learned how to play flam stutters in 5 minutes. I sat down in front of the TV one night and, during a commercial break, I broke down flam stutters, starting slowly to get the coordination down and then gradually speeding up to a medium-slow tempo. As a result, flam stutters were no longer a mystery and all I needed to do from that point on was to continue playing them until the rudiment was committed to muscle memory.

The most important thing about practicing isn’t necessarily how long you practice, but how well you practice. Practicing for 8 hours a day isn’t going to help much if all you do is sit there and mindlessly drum, not really working on anything. Think about what most drummers might do if they sat down at a drumset or a pad for 8 hours. They might play one thing for a little while, then move on to something else because it gets boring, then another, then another, all the while not really thinking about what it is they’re doing; not noticing the things they don’t like and need to work on; not determining if they’re being consistent while playing repetitive patterns; not concentrating on keeping a good tempo; not focusing on good technique; not playing well…

Playing for long periods of time will certainly help any drummer just through the physical act of drumming, which can help increase stamina and coordination through sheer repetition, but it is important to focus on what it is you’re playing and making sure it sounds and feels the way you want it to as opposed to playing just for the sake of playing.

The 5-minute practice schedule encourages students to pick one thing they need to work on – a rudiment, a pattern, a phrase, a tempo issue, chops – and then focus on that one thing for 5 minutes. It should be easy to find 5 minutes in a day to drum. When they get home from school, do they eat a snack before they do their homework? They should drum for 5 minutes when they’re done. Do they normally go to bed at 10:00 PM? Then they should go to bed at 10:05 PM.

When I talk about practicing to my students, I tell them how they can practice 30 minutes a day, everyday, if they use this method. A particular example would be:

• Get up in the morning, get ready, and head off to school. Once at school, pick one thing and drum for 5 minutes
• During lunch, drum for 5 minutes before heading to class
• Get home and, before doing homework, drum for 5 minutes
• Take a break from homework. Drum for 5 minutes
• Eat dinner, then drum for 5 minutes
• Drum for 5 minutes before going to bed

That scenario outlines 6 instances of drumming for 5 minutes. At the end of the day, they’ve practiced for at least 30 minutes. If they focused on one thing for each of those 5 minutes, whether it’s the same thing or something different each time, then that’s 30 minutes of focused practice.

I know this doesn’t really promote long-term focusing, but this method at least encourages the student to find and make time to practice. And the beauty of this method is this: if the student really loves to drum, really loves the physical act of drumming, they just might end up drumming for more than 5 minutes at a time.