I work sporadically on Rick Beckham's "The Rudimental Drummer," a brutal book of modern rudimental torture - er - exercises.

I don't practice a lot, but I put a lot of thought into what I listen to, as it affects my playing. Lately I'm listening to a lot of bebop from the late 50s and early 60s, something I haven't done in years.

I'm also working on rekindling a technique that's gotten rusty for me: playing clean straight 8th notes with a brush in the right hand by sweeping back and forth (not striking), and improvising around it with bass, hihat, and cross-stick in a light bossa/latin style. When done right, it sounds like a shaker or a cabasa. But it's really hard for me now, even though I used to do it a lot.  

hmm...

definitely the left hand, and single heel up bass work.  wanna make both faster and controlled.  my righty is always doing the more demanding stuff, and i feel unbalanced.  same is true with my feet.  heeldown is ok, but doesnt seem as fast as heel up stuff.

Besides listening to a lot of my own work lately ... no, I'm not egocentric, but consumed with updating my website's Demo page and preparing new samples for my presskit for which Keith (aka Mister_Acrolite) has GREATLY assisted me by lending his ears, making critiques and suggestions (thanks Keith) ... there hasn't been much time to practice.

I have, however, been able to put a few hours in each day this past week on the following:

• Basic time keeping and grooving with the metronome. Trying to deepen my pocket and remain more consistant through progressive drum fills.
• Playing along to the radio a lot; moving up and down the dial.
• Finishing up the last few pages of Future Sounds by Dave Garibaldi.
• Continuing to machete my way through Gary Chester's The New Breed. I plan to work out of that back until I die.
• Working with a variety of play-along CDs.
• Creating new fills and embellished grooves.
• Setting up my practice room so I can start recording myself again while I practice. I haven't done that in a long time.
• Tracking percussion grooves for my new practice loop CD ... scheduled to be released(?) ... only God knows!
• Redesigning and updating my press kit (promotional package).

heh heh...me too "machete"--that's good.  Starting to open up my playing and working around the kit in a more natural way, working on fills, always fills...

I'm working on a few things other than just farting around. First and foremost I've been working out of Marco Minne..whatever his name is's book "Progressive Interdependence: Beyond Independence." And I've been working on the book "Stick Control" (thanks to this forum). Finally, about every other day, I've been working out of the book "Progressive Independence" by Ron Spagnardi.

I'm working on trying to condense my practices in a way that I can still work on a lot of different material, but not take 4+ hours to do it.

As of right now, my extremely lengthy practice includes the following:

- Rudiments: Both hands and feet work on rudiments.
- Double bass: Do exercises out of a book I have leading with all hands/feet combinations.  Also have an endurance drill I do to increase speed/stamina.
- Rhythm & Meter: I warm up with the artificial groupings exercise toward the start (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and then all combinations of those).  I then work on one "etude" while playing an ostinato with the feet.  After being comfortable with the piece, I move it around my kit.
- Jazz: I work out of a few different books and work through about a page a day from each of them.
- World Drumming: I work on about a page/section from each of three different styles - latin, african, and middle-eastern.
- Sticking Patterns: I do one page per night with both my hands and feet.  These are exercises with accents, doubles, etc.
- Technique Patterns: Exercises to build finger strength/dexterity.
- Left-Side Lead: Work on some more basic rock exercises with my left hand and foot leading.
- New Breed: 1 pattern per day (with all variations).  All melodies played against it.
- Linear Time: Work on my more funky playing with this book.
- Killer Fillers: Real basic figures, but it helps to get used to moving around the kit and building speed.

STill working on left foot clave stuff, but lately I find myself working on my jazz ride technique.

i should be finished johnny rabb's book jungle/drum and bass by the end of march.then i'll work on bozzio's ostinatos or marco minnemann's book.marco's book looks crazy but i've got to finish rabb's before i start anything else.

I've finally gotten around to starting the One Surface Learning book that I bought here at the Cafe. It's pretty basic stuff, but it's good to go back to the basics once in a while. And for someone like me whose reading skills are piss-poor, it's good exercise.

I've also been concentrating on hand-foot exchanges, ala Terry Bozzio's exercises from his first video.

I'd love to dig more into independence stuff, but I've barely got enough time to sit down behind the kit for anything other than gigs and rehearsals lately. Another thing I need to go back to is Clayton Cameron's brushes video. Ahh time... I need more hours in the day!

My practice has lately been confined to working on my grip and left-hand independance, all on one of three  practice pads I have for the sake of different durometers of surfaces.  I've also picked up the brushes occasionally and worked on basic technique with those.  I haven't been worrying too much about the pedals, as I don't really base my sound too much around the bottom end, although I should.

How is that book? I was considering buying it, but I don't know if it's worth it.  Could you describe what it's like please?

Listening well enough to follow the flow when it changes so that I'm seemless.

Leading with the left hand rather than right.

Apologizing for being an Ass.

and this:

http://animaldreams.net/Petro.mp3

Dave

- The two Bop books by John Riley
- Future Sounds & THe Funky Beat by Garabaldi
- Conversations in Clave by H.Hernandez
- New Breed by Chester
- Essential Techniques by Ed Soph
- Rick's Licks
- Extreme Independence
- Latin studies in books by F. Malabe, I. Berroa, M. Martinez, Robbey Ameen, Chuck Silverstein & E.Uribe
- Advanced Funk Studies by Rick Latham
- working on new speed techniques by Buddy Rich(via Jojo Mayer) and right hand thumb technique
- Around the Drum Set (my own book exercises)
- Double Bass Drum (my own book exercises)
- Speed and Endurance (my own)
- Left foot jazz independence (my own)
- Single Bass drum (my own)
- Playalongs by everybody and their brother
- working on writing my own fusion project so practicing for that
- AND MORE>>>>>>>>>YES, I have a lot of time to practice. From 8am-4pm - 6 days a week. Then, it's time to teach.

I am currently working on my left hand coordination, and putting some effort in a better left foot (hi-hat).

I just joined a new band, which plays harder rock than I was used to play. So I'm doing a lot of double bass stuff, and try to remember the grooves of all 32 (!!!) original songs the band plays. Have to get those tight in a month or two. Then we will be recording something like 15 songs. Probably 12 of them will be released at the end of the year, when our debut-CD hits the markets....  

Erwt

yep it is!

I got the guys in our band to incorporate a 13/8 at one point where we've just come out out of a 6/8, sort of to mix things up a bit. The crowd was sort of swaying and dancing to the 6/8 and when we got into the 13, they really went crazy! Everyone sort of let lose of the conventional styles they were used to got real tribal. It was so fricken cool!
The way we do it is - 3 sets of three, then 2 twos.

Dave