Shaking off the Rust: Reviving and Revitalizing your Practice
Maintaining a consistent practice habit over a span of years requires an immense amount of discipline. Most people experience ebbs and flows; periods of time where they accomplish a lot and make tons of progress, and other stretches where they may stagnate or fall out of a routine. And that’s perfectly normal! Routines especially get knocked out of whack around the holidays and picking up where you left off can be a bit intimidating. If you’re feeling a little sluggish coming off of the holiday season, try some of these tips to get yourself back in the swing of things.
1) Revisit Familiar Material
If you did any traveling over the holidays or just got preoccupied with the festivities, you may have gone several days or even a couple of weeks without touching a pair of sticks. Your first time back may feel a little rusty, but don’t get discouraged. Give yourself a confidence boost by warming up with something you KNOW you can play. It can be anything - an exercise, a few rudiments, or a song you previously learned. Have some fun before getting back to the grind.
2) Listen to New Music for Inspiration
There are literally millions of musical artists around the world, almost all possessing the ability to share their own work through the internet. Try to seek out something you’ve never heard before. It could be a completely new style of music, or a band that was previously unknown to you. Chances are, you’ll find something fresh and inspiring that’ll make you want to practice.
If you’re unsure about what you should check out specifically, try finding and listening to a couple interviews of favorite drummers of yours. They’ll likely mention some of their influences at some point, which can be an excellent starting point. Learning about your favorite drummer’s favorite drummer can offer much deeper insight as to how they approach drumming and got to their level of ability. Speaking from personal experience, I discovered some of my biggest influences (presently) by hearing about them through other drummers I really admire. It only helps to know what inspires those that inspire you!
3) Learn Something Completely New
Musicians often hit walls when practicing certain materials. It’s just bound to happen at some point. If you feel like you’ve been throwing yourself into a wall working on something and it isn’t coming together no matter what you do, give yourself some space. Working on material completely unrelated to something giving you trouble helps to keep practicing from getting overly frustrating. With hundreds of instructional books available and countless video breakdowns on YouTube, a little searching is guaranteed to steer you onto a different creative path.
During my time at Berklee, I had the privilege of learning about a wide range of styles of music and drumming originating from various parts of the world. Studying styles of South American, Caribbean, and West African drumming has had a profound impact on the way that I play and interpret music. Exposure to these varieties of drumming made me want to practice and explore new ways to integrate them into my own playing style.
4) Explore New Sounds
Dabbling with a different sound palette can stoke all kinds of new ideas. You could try modifying your gear in ways that alter sounds, like muffling toms with a shirt, placing a splash cymbal or cup chime on the snare drum, stacking different cymbals together, or changing the tuning of your drums. Maybe consider purchasing some new percussive gadgets to further expand your drum set. The way your drums and cymbals sound when you play them has a direct impact on the way you play. In other words, your sound selections will influence decisions you make on the drums. New sounds equate to new possibilities!
5) Take a Drum Lesson
If all else fails, try taking a drum lesson for additional input. Having an outside perspective of your playing could help you discover weaknesses that you can then practice to improve upon, and provide some fresh materials that you may not have otherwise encountered or thought to try. The realm of drumming is staggeringly vast. You don’t know what you don’t know and it never hurts to have someone guide you along the way!
Ultimately, to get back into a healthy practice routine, it’s most important to just get yourself playing, whatever that may be! While practicing should never feel like a chore, discipline will carry you through periods where motivation alone can’t. You won’t get any better by not practicing!