Lesson 10: How to practise so it sticks

You now have a grip, a beat, a click, four hi-hats, three kicks, three fills, dynamics, a rudiment and a song. What you do not have yet is a habit, and the habit is the only thing that turns those into playing. This last lesson is about the twenty minutes a day, and where they go next.

Watch first

The twenty minutes

Four blocks of five. Same order every day, so you never have to decide what to do, which is the moment most practice dies.

1. Hands. Single strokes and the paradiddle on the pad, with the trainer. Start where yesterday finished; when it is boring, five BPM faster.
2. Time. The money beat or the Levee beat, to a click, at one tempo. Members: one round of the gap click.
3. Something new. Whichever lesson is next, or one idea from it: a new kick placement, an open hat, a fill. Slow.
4. A song. Play along with one, all the way through, no stopping to fix things. Fixing is what block three is for.

Twenty minutes every day beats two hours on Sunday, and not by a little. The body learns drums the way it learns walking: little and often.

Block one, written out, so tomorrow needs no thought: four bars of single strokes into four bars of paradiddles, at whatever tempo yesterday ended on.

RLRLRLRLRLRRLRLL

▶ Play80 BPM−5+5

The log

Every tool on the site offers to save your session to the practice log when you stop, with the tempo already filled in. Fill in how it felt and one line of notes. The line is the useful part: “left hand dragging on the doubles” is tomorrow’s block one.

The log keeps a streak and weekly minutes. Do not chase the streak for its own sake; chase it because the day you break it you will notice how much you wanted to keep it, and that is the habit talking.

After lesson ten

• The other thirty-nine rudiments. Each has a page with the notation, the sound and how to practise it. Learn one a fortnight.
• The classic grooves. Twenty-two famous beats on the Groove Lab grid, from the Amen break to Rosanna, each with a page on what the drums do.
• A hundred songs with their tempos. The tempo database lists songs by drummer, tempo and level. Filter for beginner and you have your next ten songs.
• The polyrhythm trainer. When the hands and feet are comfortable, three against two is the next thing that will make your brain hurt in a good way.
• A teacher. A few real lessons early on catch what a video cannot see. Our guide to online lessons, free and paid is honest about both.

Practise

Today: the twenty minutes, in the four blocks, and the log filled in at the end with one honest line. Tomorrow: the same. That is the whole lesson, and it is the one that makes the other nine work.

One more thing

Speed, chops and independence are all good. None of them is why anyone wants a drummer in the room. Time and feel are, and those come from the twenty minutes, the click and the songs, done again tomorrow. Log today’s, and we will see you at block one.