Here is a simple game to try. It will give some structure to your practicing and help your drumming (of course, because you’ll be practicing). The game will help improve your concentration, reading and groove. It is meant for beginners and or kids.
Take a page of beat exercises you’ve been working on….good examples would be The first page of the eighth note beats in “The Funky Primer” or the first page of beats in “The Mini Monster Book of Rock Drumming.”
Before you can play the game, you must have spent a good amount of time working on each exercise on the page….make sure you can play each exercise. If you are still struggling with the mechanics of each exercise, you are not ready for the game.
The idea is to play each exercise multiple times, and then, without stopping, go to the next one, and play that one multiple times. Continue this until you go from the first exercise on the page to the last. If you can do this, without stopping, you win.
The rules:
1) You win the game by getting to the end of the page.
2) No stopping.
3) Pick a tempo and stick to it.
4) Play each exercise multiple times before going on to the next one.
5) No mistakes.
6) If you stop, or make a mistake, you have to go back five exercises. (if you mess up on exercise #7, you have to go back to #2)
Two other versions of the game
1) Go backward, from the last exercise to the first
2) Go forward AND backward: from the first to the last, and then from the last to the first.
At first try to play the game without a metronome…..when you can play the game successfully without a metronome, start using one to add a level of difficulty.
This game will solidify your ability to play the beats you’ve been working on, and force you to practice a lot. Plus….it will be fun.
He first gained attention as one of the winners of Modern Drummer magazine's very first drum solo contest, judged by Rush's Neil Peart.
He's played with Oz Noy, Will Lee, Alison Krauss, Curtis Stigers, Emily Remler, Joel Hoekstra, GE Smith, Andy York, Marshall Crenshaw, Tony Shanahan, The Drifters, The Marvelettes, Big Brother and The Holding Company, and many other artists.
For more info: onlinesessiondrummer.com
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