Having read a few articles, debated with a number of drumming friends and experienced a bit myself on the matter, I’ll throw in a few of my thoughts. The following points are a view on some of my experiences with practice and what has worked for me. Maybe it’ll work for you too? Be inspired and try out whatever you think you can use, and throw away things you already knew or don’t think will help you in any way. Here we go.

• Motivation & drive – why? I think this is the most important question to ask even before I start my practice. What’s the reason to why I play drums in a pipe band? What do I wish to achieve? Making sure I know my goal. Is it to play in the annual street parade, to play for my grand mothers birthday or play a competition with a band, or something else? Finding the answer to this question has helped me to a better and more effective practice. In this context, I will throw in a quote from Toots Thielemans: “Follow the goosebumps”.
• Diary & schedule. This has never worked for me. To me it would just be another job – I’ve already got one. Practice is driven by motivation and goals not by schedules.
• Basics – establishing a tempo and singing. Preparing the brain. Preparing when playing music, is something that I’m very convinced have had a huge impact in my practice and learning music. If I can sing it, I can play it. I think you have to be able to imagine what you’re going to play before starting whatever you practice. Establishing a tempo and singing/drum humming is something that I’ve noticed a lot of beginner drummers not doing. I think by doing this – the development in understanding music, technique and everything will increase dramatically.
• Listening to recordings. Something I really make sure to do when practicing, is watching and listening to videos and recordings of world class drummers and pipe bands. Get inspiration from other players and bands. There are some fantastic videos and recordings out there that’ll really get you fired up.
• Analyzing my own playing. Recordings. I’ve been using this on&off. Recently we’ve used it a lot with Balagan, where we don’t have rehersals every week. Making a video recording of myself can really get me working on the details. By recording myself, I find out how well I actually now the material and how well I execute the scores. Making recordings of myself and judging these afterwards is a very effective way to check wether I can play, what I think I can play. Also sending these video recordings to a drummer friend, a mentor or a drumming instructor is very good to help diagnosing the issues/problems with a score or a rudiment in a score, if I can’t pick it up myself.
• Practicing at a slow tempo. This has really worked for me when learning new scores or practicing dynamics. A slow tempo has allowed me to focus on details in execution and expression.
• Solutions to technical issues or other problems with a score. One thing that has always worked for me when I’ve diagnosed a problem with a score, is to play SLOWER & SOFTER.

These were a few of my thoughts on how to practice. Next up on the tips&tricks is my take on how to memorize a drum score – sharing what has worked for me over the years.