Creativity: "The Random Phrase Generator"

Do you ever find yourself playing the same things over and over? You play something and think, "Man, I use that all of the time! I really need to come up with new stuff!"

Try this little game I like to call "The Random Phrase Generator". If anyone can think of a more interesting and exciting name for it, please let me know ;) 

A) Draw 16 boxes (to give you a full 4/4 bar of 16th notes). Cross out some of the boxes at random. *Being random is the key to this game, don't try to think about it!!!* Even better, if there is someone else with you, ask them to pick random numbers between 1 and 16 for you.

B) The boxes left over will give you a one bar phrase. 

Now use the phrase in as many ways as you can around the kit! I've drawn up some ideas to start you off:

C) Play the "random phrase" on the kick drum, under an 8th groove. You can of course play the hi-hat pattern on the ride, and change it to quarter notes or 16th's.

D) Play the "random phrase" on the hi-hat or ride. Keep the kick drum pattern simple to begin with, and add more when you get comfortable with it! 

E) Play the "random phrase" as ghost notes on the snare, adding the "2" and "4" back beat. This is tricky!! You are still accenting the snare on "2" and "4" but those ghost notes need to be nice and soft. Take your time with this one, it's a great work out for your left hand independence.

F) Use the "random phrase" as a fill around the kit. The example is just one of many ways you could orchestrate this, try moving it around.

I could go on all day showing you other ways to use this, but we haven't all day and really the idea is for you to get creative. Don't be afraid to try things, as crazy as they might seem!! 

Let me know how this worked for you and share your ideas!!

Have fun :) 

The Importance Of Being Accurate

We all want to play faster. We watch our favourite drummers play and marvel at how fast they move around the kit. It's something we generally use as an indication of how good someone is on their instrument.

What we often overlook, is what makes their lightning speed chops sound so good: Their accuracy.

Being accurate in your playing is not only essential for making what you play sound good, it's also essential for allowing you to play faster. If your rudiments are sloppy and out of time at 70bpm, they are going to be even more sloppy and out of time at 170bpm!

With that in mind, think about playing songs. You may well be able to play lightning fast single stroke fills around your kit, with out playing to a click. This won't mean a thing when you have to play these fills in a song, at a tempo that is dictated by the song, not you! You should aim to be able to play everything well at any given tempo.

Don't be in a rush to play things fast. Get your technique right at slow tempos and make sure what you are playing is accurate. If you practice things faster than your technical ability allows, you will only be practicing everything wrong, and once these wrong movements become habit and locked into your motion memory, you will struggle and wonder why you have to put so much effort into playing fast.

The best tool I can suggest for checking your accuracy is a metronome that will count in various note values.

I use a Yamaha Click Station. It has faders for bringing in the 8th, 16th and triplet 8th notes into the click. If you are practicing, for example, your single strokes in 16th notes, you can play along with every 16th note and hear if every note your are playing is in time or not.

If your paradiddles sound sloppy at 70bpm, then forget about 170bpm for now! Get them sounding and feeling awesome at 70, and work your way up in steps. I usually go up 5 bpm at a time.

Another good idea for checking your accuracy is a mirror. It might seem vain, but it's a great way to check that your technique looks correct. Whether you put it in front of your practice pad or next to your kit, being able to see what you are doing can really help you improve your technique.

Keeping your sticks at even heights, starting and ending your strokes at the correct heights, and keeping your movements in sync with what your are playing are crucial to playing accurately.

So, don't worry if you can't play as fast as you'd like, or as fast as someone else. It's not a competition, and that finish line that you are trying to reach doesn't exist! The world's top drummers are always practicing and getting faster (or increasingly accurate!). Practice is something that we continue to do for as long as we are musicians, and no one ever stops learning.

We all know the story about "The Tortoise & The Hare" (or at least I assume so!). The Hare is the guy who raced away and tried to play his paradiddles at 200bpm right away, got it all wrong for years and had to go back and fix his technique after he realised in hindsight that he got it all wrong. Meanwhile, the Tortoise took it slow, did it properly, enjoyed the journey and made it to 200bpm without breaking a sweat :)

Happy practicing.