Drumming In Harmony: What’s the Hurry?

“Mountains should be climbed with as little effort as possible and without desire…when you’re no longer thinking ahead, each footstep isn’t just a means to an end but a unique event in itself. This leaf has jagged edges. This rock looks loose. From this place the snow is less visible, even though closer. These are things you should notice anyway. To live only for some future goal is shallow. It’s the sides of the mountain which sustain life, not the top. Here’s where things grow.”
– Robert M. Pirsig, Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance

Welcome to the Drumming in Harmony blog series. Today, I’d like to talk about developing patience in your practice routine.

Let’s say you’re working on a rhythm that has some challenging 4-way coordination. First, you need to slowly figure out the basic coordination. The next challenge is to play the rhythm faster. Like many drummers, you may do this by slowly increasing the tempo until you reach the point where your control starts to waver and the pattern falls apart, repeating this process over and over until you can play the pattern at the desired speed. I used to practice this way and still believe it has it’s merits. However, I’ve found that you can miss a lot if you only focus on playing faster.

Over time, I have shifted to a much more patient approach to learning. Now when I practice, I never get frustrated by a lack of progress. In fact, I don’t even care if I learn the whole pattern during the session, I just enjoy the process of practicing. I also trust that speed comes naturally from learning to play something slowly, with relaxed feeling and good technique. Here are two ideas that I like to use to develop this approach:

1. Practice slowing down

Play a challenging pattern at a moderate speed, but instead of speeding up, gradually slow down your tempo to the slowest speed you can manage. Here’s what happens:

1. Very quickly, you find where you are wavering with coordination and having trouble lining up notes.
2. You see more clearly where you’re missing accents, rushing notes, and losing your sense of phrasing.
3. You also notice where you are using excess tension to play the pattern.

As you slow down, you get more of a chance to focus on muscle relaxation. This can be really helpful if you notice you are rushing a beat. For example, I’ve found this approach useful when working on Afro-Cuban and Brazilian rhythms, where it’s easy to rush the tempo because of the difficult coordination.

2. Break down and simplify material

Take what you are working on and break it down into smaller parts that are easier to play. Instead of working on 4-way coordination, try to learn to play just two of the parts together. Once that becomes easy to play, move onto playing 3 parts together. If I’m learning a piece of music, I might just focus on practicing one or two measures or working on a particular phrase.

Sometimes, I take one piece of the pattern that is really giving me trouble and play it over and over until I develop a strong muscle memory. I may even experiment and orchestrate that segment differently around the set.  The more that I linger on that part, the more I start to internalize the rhythm and discover different possibilities of playing it.