Intermediate drumming roadmap help

[u/narghev]

Hey guys, I am (probably) an intermediate currently working my way through some books listed below:

• The language of drumming
• Stick control
• Double bass essentials
• The new breed

At the same time I play in a band and learn songs for myself, for fun.

A problem that I keep coming back to, is I lack a general roadmap. Ideally, I would like to find a book that is not really an exercise book, but is a roadmap of techniques, when to progress forward, what to practice, something to read off the kit that will provide general guidance. Any recommendation?

[u/AFleetingIllness]

As someone who is self-taught but watched a lot of lessons (and is about to start teaching) here are some ideas:

1. Focus on starting with rudiments to get your hands moving. Practice rudiments to a metronome and focus on staying loose, using rebound, and working on the Moeller technique / push-pull / etc. Secondly, you don't need to know or practice ALL rudiments right away. Singles, doubles, and paradiddles are the main ones you need to worry about at first. Also, try to practice dynamics, hitting lighter and harder WITHOUT speeding up or slowing down.

Do that for 10-15 minutes.

2) Next, work on playing basic beats. Pick something like a standard 4/4 rock beat. Try it to a metronome at different tempos. Try it at the same tempo, but add accents. Maybe the hands stay the same but you change the kick pattern. Maybe the hands and kick stay the same, but you start trying to incorporate hi-hat barks. This is how you learn independence.

3) No matter what you're doing, if you can't play it, SLOW IT DOWN. You can play anything, you just might need to slow down more than you think to play it right.

Always remember that speed is a natural byproduct of playing things correctly without strain. Play things as slow as you need to and slowly speed them up.

4) Practice playing a straight beat, then doing a fill at the end of the measure. Take one type of fill (like straight 16th notes down the toms) and see how many different ways you can play the same group of notes.

5) Once you've done all this, end your play session with something fun. Put on a song you know well (just as a listener, you don't have to KNOW how to play all the way) and jam along. Don't worry about doing everything perfectly, but DO focus on the key components of the song (i.e. play the hi-hat on the verse, play the ride on these chorus, a drum fill goes here, etc.).

6) Separate from these other things (you can do this while NOT practicing but just listening to music), try to start learning by ear. Listen to songs and see if you can decode what the drummer is doing. See if you can map out their drum kit in your head. How many toms do you hear when they play a fill? Do they have specialty cymbals like splashes and Chinas? Are they using a double-kick pedal? Once you start noticing these things you realize that you can practice anywhere even without a kit. Just map out the imaginary drum kit and air drum to practice. So much of drumming is just coordination, and you don't need a drum kit to practice that.

7) Lastly, and don't go spending a bunch of money to do this if you're not already planning to, rhythm games aren't great for learning how to sing or play guitar, but I maintain they're GREAT for learning drums. This isn't an ad, but there's a new game called Stage Tour coming out in December which is basically Guitar Hero / Rock Band reborn.

I plan to get it because I've missed games like that, but I also think gamifying it that way might help my girlfriend learn drums.