Practice Hard and Practice Smart
I finish most emails to the corps by saying “practice hard and practice smart.” Practicing hard is of course a part of being successful in this game and we all generally understand that, but knowing what to practice is the other and perhaps more important aspect.
Most up-and-coming drummers spend their time learning scores — this is understandable. The competition season relentlessly comes around year after year whether we’re ready for it or not. But I’ve never encountered a good drummer who has not dedicated a substantial amount of practice time to the fundamentals of drumming – namely rhythm, rudiments and technique. This is what I practice, it’s what I teach and it’s what I look for in other drummers.
To me, good drummers are the ones who understand this, even when faced with a mountain of scores to learn and memorize for the coming season. Good drummers understand that their ability to express a musical line is in their understanding of the basics because all music, no matter how complex it appears to be, can always be reduced to a simple musical line.
Good players also understand that this process of becoming good can’t simply happen in between seasons of pipe band competition. It’s a process that you insert into your daily practice routine and constantly improve upon throughout the year and years ahead. It’s an attitude that looks farther than the possibility of winning the next contest.
Practice hard and practice smart!
Happy New Year.
Doug Stronach
Tags: bagpipes, doug stronach, drumming, pipe band practice, TPPB
Author: MajorWeb
January 13th, 2009 at 5:19 pm
Good words from Doug, but what exactly does Doug mean by a “musical line”? G.G.
January 13th, 2009 at 6:23 pm
Hi George:
A musical line is just another name for a phrase — can be a small one or two-bar line or a complete part but basically a group of notes that has a meaning larger than the individual notes themselves.
In context with the original blog, the musical line for a drummer is often very simple (a simple rhythm with an accent or emphasis on certain notes), but in pipe bands we mostly choose to ‘decorate’ the line with complex rudimental patterns (why we have a CONSTANT need to do this is a whole other story
.
Good drummers, as I suggest in the blog, are capable of seeing through the complex rudimental figures to get to the root of the basic musical line. The rudimental figures are there to make the basic line more interesting and not to complicate or hide it. This is why when we listen to really good drummers play we can ‘follow along’ and enjoy the performance without any need to understand what it is they’re actually playing. They are tapping into good rhythmical flow and musical phrasing which we all learn to appreciate as human beings from a very early age.
I guess ‘musical line’ is a jazz term now that I think about it. Didn’t mean to cross my idioms
thanks for posting!
doug s.
January 27th, 2009 at 9:25 pm
Wow! Thank you very much!
I always wanted to write in my site something like that. Can I take part of your post to my blog?
Of course, I will add backlink?
Regards, Reader