Note also the Education/Practice page.
There is a distinction between the following terms:
See Jojo Mayer’s explanation.
“An amateur rehearses until they can do something right. An expert rehearses until they cannot make a mistake.”
Tips:
Before any practice perform warm-ups.
Areas to practice are listed on Practice Elements page. Specific exercises can be found on Exercises page.
The main goal in practice is to have focused activity. Some say that, with drums, it is 70% mental activity (focus) and only 30% physical activity (muscle exercise).
As the main idea is focused practice, a multiple-hour might not necessarily proportionately contribute to improvements in playing.
Try to change something in the procedure every couple of minutes, to keep the mind active. If, at any point, you notice that you’re thinking about something else, that is already not practice. Try, for example: play an exercise leading with the right hand, than with the left, then with eyes closed, then focus on hearing, etc.
Drum practice should be exercised daily. The generally recommended time is at least 1-2 hours.
Two times per week are classes with an instructor. All other days, students do their homework and exercises.
Niels Myrner lists the following timeframes:
Dave Weigert, in Workshop for bass and drums, provides a sample timeframe along the practice areas. The time includes
The practice areas depend on your specific needs.
Always have a practice plan before you start. Even if just jamming, start the session with the idea that you will be just jammin’.
Example lesson plan:
Some plan examples below.
Mike Johnston uses the 4-stage method:
This method (see resources below) also recommends having separate parts of the practice routine:
dessert, improvisation. As you get better at improvising, you can start improvising over certain ostinato (repeated) patterns or exotic time signatures.