Uff, lately I'm super pissed off at my playing. I've been playing guitar for 12 years, but the last two I've been focusing on drums. Lately I feel like I'm not making any progress at all - every part of my playing feels weak, my rolls sound sloppy, I'm just not content.

Maybe I'm too critical of myself - after all getting good takes time, and I know this from playing guitar. I really don't know.

Just a rant, as the title said.

SourApplez

United States61 Posts

October 21 2014 23:38 GMT

I'm very critical of myself as well and know where you're coming from. But think about this. I have played guitar totally for like 15 hours, so you're experience and skill dwarfs mine. You haven't been playing drums for all that long so you may not be as great as people who have for their whole life, but there are millions of people (like me) that don't even know what a drum roll is.

Keep it up, believe in yourself, and recognize how far you have come =D

aike

United States1629 Posts

October 22 2014 02:04 GMT

Playing an instrument is a weird thing isn't it? No matter how good you get, you will never be good enough in your own eyes. Other people may watch you play and say "Wow you are amazing" but we always retort with "My timing was off, I missed a bunch of notes, very sloppy playing in general"

Keep at it man.

Ryuhou)aS(

United States1174 Posts

October 22 2014 03:35 GMT

As a percussionist, i can definitely appreciate your frustration. I've played drums basically all my life (about 20 years now), and I still get so pissed at myself for not being able to do things i want to, as quickly as i want to. But it sounds like you're doing it the right way at least (by learning the rudiments and such). Keep at it man! Drumming uses muscles in your hands/fingers/wrists/forearms that don't normally get use. It takes time to build them up and then it all becomes muscle memory (which is the truth behind all drumming). Just practice everyday and then you'll hit that point where your hands just do the work and you're not even thinking about it anymore.

+ Show Spoiler [About Rolls/Practice] +

You might want to work on the roll breakdown like this guy, except with double stroke roll you do Right Right Left Left Right Right Left Left and so on, instead of the single stroke he's doing. It helps to start real slow and very gradually increase the speed until you're at your limit then gradually slow it back down. This is a great exercise for rolls, do it over and over every time you practice (it's also a great warmup!). Over time you'll get cleaner and faster. You can essentially break down all the rudiments like this (which you probably should if you're really serious about drumming). I usually run through all the rudiments like this as my first part of "warmups".

Anyways, have at it man! keep up the drumming!!!

And like my late instructor always used to say "Put-it in tha pocket!"

Ghost151

United States290 Posts

October 22 2014 05:14 GMT

You're right, it just takes time. And lots of practice. Two years is not a huge amount of time to learn an instrument from scratch, especially if you are not having an instructor help you out. And going from one instrument to another that have such intrinsic differences is like learning the new instrument with no prior experience at all, little else besides a general grasp of timing carries over two two instruments as different as a stringed one and percussion.

I'm currently doing this the other way around, trying (miserably) to learn guitar after 9-10 years of drumming on and off. A good sense of rhythm and solid time are great thing to bring to the table learning any instrument, but I have no ear for tonality (though I understand it well enough, playing with my cousin for so long) and I am really having a hard time breaking the habit of keeping my fingers from moving together on the fretboard. I also grip the shit out it, habit I guess from trying not to throw sticks all the time.

One thing that always pissed me off (and it still does) is *not* not being able to play something, as I love to learn new things, , but when I hit one of those creative "walls" when playing and can't do anything new at my level that is interesting. So then I seek out new material to try and learn (most recently pop/rock form the 70s/80s, started with the Rosanna shuffle and kept going form there) until I can incorporate that too.

FoxShine

United States156 Posts

October 22 2014 07:11 GMT

The drums are a really challenging instrument to get down. It seems easy to an outsider because you're just hitting skins and cymbals and everyone can make a beat with their hands. If your serious about getting better at the drums, there's a couple things I can tell you that were drilled into my head when I was learning.

The first thing is Rudiments. They are boring, but they are basically your mechanics. I hear you saying your rolls are sloppy, this will help them the most. "Single Stroke Seven" starting and stopping with opposite hands firmly and evenly builds strength and control. The 5 stroke/7 stroke double stroke roll is more or less snare only until your really good, but it really improves your 'sticking'. Getting these rolls nice and tight, alternating with proper accents is the goal. If you want quicker results learn Single and Double Paradiddles. You can do paradiddles around the drums starting and completing them between drums to get comfortable moving around the set.

Second, mindset, I mean the same goes with any instrument. It takes discipline and practice. A big problem drummers run into is they don't treat the instrument with the same 'rigor' as piano or something. It's easy to pick it up and improve sporadically. Dedicating some time to your rudiments, tempo, and form really pays off. A good mantra to live by, "Practice doesn't make perfect. Perfect Practice makes perfect." So sit up straight, center yourself, and be balanced when you play.

Herein lies the dilemma, aside from rudiments it's easy to be too critical about how your playing or hard on yourself. Trying to get certain things down can be really frustrating. So the other half of practicing is just jamming out. Just as much as you want to be disciplined when your practicing rudiments, conversely, you want to loosen way up and just feel it. Sit down for an hour or so and just play different things that come to mind, what you know, or try what you want to do, be creative. I used to jam for a few hours after practice, I found that after an hour or 2 of exhausting everything I knew or was working on, only then do I start doing new things or do certain stuff just "come together". Spend a lot of time to get over plateaus, but just remember that drums are ALL about dynamics. Seriously, this is the most fun thing to play with. There nothing better than just jamming out to the same beat or fill emphasizing different parts, changing accents, slowing down here, getting louder and softer there. Things start to sound waaay different and it feels reeeally good to get into the rhythm. Have fun!

OtherWorld

France17333 Posts

October 22 2014 09:50 GMT

Isn't making progress, then feeling like you don't progress, then progressing a lot again, part of everything you learn (especially concerning instruments)?