FREE drum practice planner
Get the drum practice planner to optimise your drumming
Why is a drum practice planner necessary? We have had several messages from the Total Drummer community asking for help because they are struggling to stay motivated and make progress due to lack of practice. This is a classic situation and we’ve all been there at some point.
So we made this drum practice planner along with the tips below to help. Many people have started our courses, particularly the free Faster Hands course and have made huge progress for a while. But then they have lost motivation and slipped back into their old ways. They then get frustrated because they haven’t being able to maximise their progress after starting with the great technique and increased speed that they developed in week 1 from the free course.
Every drummer has been there and a systematic approach to your drum practice is the key to preventing this from happening.
How to keep getting better every week
There are a few simple tricks to use so read on and and we’ll explore them.
The thing is that even though the number one thing I want to do every day is drum, life is busy and it’s so easy for this passion to get lost beneath all the other stuff. That’s a reality and rather than get frustrated about it we need to accept it, be systematic and make sure regular practice is a priority.
The gains are made from frequent practice sessions rather than irregular long sessions. But more than that, if we aim for unrealistic practice sessions we are far more likely to do nothing. If you plan a three hour practice session it’s likely that when you come to do it you’ll get stressed because you can’t give up three hours of time. What often happens then is that we decide to reschedule that session for another day and do nothing today so we can do our other, seemingly more important tasks; whether that’s homework, seeing friends and family, cleaning the house, etc. There are a million things which can get in the way.
So instead set realistic sessions that you can easily fit in without ruining your day. You’ll progress much faster if you do four fifteen minute practices each week instead of one hour long session. Not least because when you set a fifteen minute practice, you’ll often end up doing more. It’s the act of sitting at the kit that’s hardest. Once there we love it and tend to play beyond what we planned.
So the first tip is set several achievable short practice sessions each week.
There are two things that have really helped me that might help you:
- I use Google calendar to organise my life. Things that I want or need to do every week are scheduled as ‘goals’. You can do this on the app (not on desktop currently) by clicking the red plus sign and choosing ‘goals’. Let’s say you wanted to do 4 x 1 hour drum practices each week. You create that goal, choose the colour for that goal and schedule it. Then it automatically schedules that in every week for you. You can move the times around but at least they are there automatically placed in your calendar and the rest of life can be scheduled around it. It also learns your time preferences so each week it puts them where it knows you like them.
- If you’re not into digitally organising your life then you might like to print off a drum practice planner. Make sure the sessions are scheduled in again and write on the drum practice planner what you will practice for each session. Having it scheduled and also the content planned in advance really helps to motivate. Also you can tick it off after each session and that really helps to motivate you. Even though it’s a simple, silly act, it gives you that dopamine reward hit and spurs you on. You can also record how long you practiced for each session and what your weaknesses were.
It’s all about showing up consistently at regular intervals. Even if it’s only for a small amount of time each session – make them regular and consistent and you will progress.
Your FREE drum practice planner
Here is a totally free drum practice planner that you can print off. It goes hand in hand with the Total Drummer timing course but you can amend it to suit your goals.
Each week or practice session you can start a new one and fill it in before you get to the kit. It will keep you focused and motivated and allow you to make notes on your weak areas so you know what to focus on next time. It’s a simple thing but it really will have a huge positive impact.
If you want a journal style practice planner that will last you a whole 12 months, you might like to grab a copy of the Total Drummer Practice planner. It has been proven to help students stay motivated and focussed which leads to greater progress as a drummer.
Now let's tackle the No 1 most important aspect for any drummer
Timing! Every drummer needs amazing timing no matter what stage of their drumming journey they are at.
By clicking below you can gain access to a FREE 'Drummer Timing 101' drum course that will give you the knowledge, tools and exercises that you need to quickly get your timing up to the level it needs to be.
It will provide:
- The two main types of timing to master
- MP3 backing tracks to practice with and develop great timing
- Full sheet music for all exercises
- Video demonstrations of every exercise
And more than that you will also get a ton of other great free drum resources to make you a better drummer such as playalong tracks, articles, exclusive video lessons and more. And it's all free!
Watch the video to get a feel for what the drummer timing 101 course entails and then scroll down to get the course immediately.
Start today and develop perfect timing
So let's start the course today. Do it now and begin your drummer timing 101 course and start developing perfect timing. It won't happen instantly but if you follow the lessons in the course you will start to feel the change very quickly.
