Bad Habits - WATCH OUT!
Everyone has them. No one likes to talk about them. In fact, most people don't KNOW that they have as many.... bad habits.
Let me start by saying that bad habits are different than tendencies. Tendencies are what happen to a general group of people when playing a specific type of rudiment, passage, etc. Bad habits are more specific to individuals and more often than not have to do with laziness.
Practicing without a metronome: This one can definitely be chalked up to being lazy. If you actually do not have a metronome, please go get one. It has been stated several times here at Rüdimentality that a metronome is key to Good Practice Habits. Most notably in the article cited. Practicing without a metronome will allow you to solidify your bad tendencies, like dragging a fast triplet roll or rushing a slow flam drag. When practicing on your own it is important for building consistency to have a metronome on at least 95% of the time. During competitions of course we don't have the Dr Beat + Long Ranger blasting in the back, but that's because until performance time we are tuning our hands and ears to play in time by using the metronome, and also to use our feet (when marching) for the pulse that the Long Ranger gives us. Do yourself and your instructors a favor and please practice with a metronome.
Not playing in the center of the head/pad: This little detail plays a major role in sound quality especially on smaller drums. This can be fixed quickest by watching your sticks when you're on a pad. When you're on a drum just a quick check with your eyes during rehearsals until you're consistent with bead placement is perfectly acceptable. This is an issue that shouldn't take more than a couple weeks to resolve as long as you're persistent with addressing it.
Practicing with the pad/drum at a different height than when performing: This often happens because we are sitting around with our line hacking on pads. As beginners and even intermediate level players it is imperative that you train yourself to play at the correct angle for your drumline. Bass is an exception where Bass players should practice similar to a tenor player when on a drum pad. The reason this is so important is you are still training your muscle memory and your brain on how to interpret the feel of the stick on the surface (pad or drum) and how to control that response.
Practicing without a mirror: Most often people don't have mirrors just lying around, waiting to be used. And if they do, they're probably not of reasonable size. Without a mirror it's a little harder to get used to looking forward while also adjusting and learning how it feels to play at 3", 6", etc. It's amazing how well the "feel" of the heights is increased by using a mirror. If it is at all possible rig up a mirror setup. One thing I did when I was growing up was place a pillow on the bathroom counter top and get a chair in there so that I could play with the bathroom mirror. My parents thought I was crazy, but boy did it help!
Anyone else have bad habits they've remedied? Feel free to share!
Advancement, Form, Growth, Practice | in Practice
Reader Comments (2)
mine has always been loose thumbs its a hard fix but im working at it
Good luck on that fix. Loose thumbs/no connection is a bad habit for sure. It may help for the interim to WATCH your hand as you play and force the change for a few reps and then try not thinking about it but watching in the mirror or video taping yourself.
Let us know how it goes!
~B5