Speed (part 1)

Happy Monday drummers. Ready for another week of practice? This week is all about developing speed.

There are many important facets to a good technique. Good technique is necessary if you wish to play fast. This is equally true if you want to play uptempo tunes (and therefore need to be able to cleanly execute your beats at faster tempos, with energy, clarity and feel), which requires endurance in your technique, OR if you wish to develop speed in your rudiments, which requires stick control, wrist and finger development and a lightness of touch.

Today: Developing the ability to play beats at faster tempos.

Some of the best advice I can give is to say that you should make it a habit to know what tempo you are actually capable of playing comfortably, and then build on that. Audio technology can help here. Here's an example. The song 'Georgy Porgy' by Toto, features that famous single hand 16th notes on the hi hat groove at nearly 100bpm. That takes some practice to develop. I created slower speed versions of the track using the time stretch function in Logic Pro X, so that I had versions at 76, 84, 90, 94, 96 and then the original. This is like working with a metronome, but you have the added advantage of being able to lock in with the bass, absorb the syncopation happening with the piano part and laying down the groove against the vocal phrases, ALL of which is important iIn order to develop that groove.

Summary: Learn how to create slow down tracks, and your practice time will change (for the better) forever.

If you don't know how to do this, don't worry, I'll cover it in future posts, and in the meantime you can google it anyway. I recommend Logic Pro X because I use it and I know it works. There are other apps which can also do this but I can't guarantee that the results would be as reliable.

Groove on!