Hey,

I have been exploring this website for the past day, and am extremely impressed at the quality of some of the articles and the lengths that the drummers frequenting the site will go  to try and establish a point or help someone - particuarly Bart Elliott. Really Great!

In order to avoid confusion about the nature of my Topic, I have given a rather verbose explanation - however, you can just skip down to the "Question:" part if your short on time!

I am 20 years old, I have been playing Guitar for 10 years and have won numerous Australian national youth competitions for Guitar ( That was in no way meant as a "brag", mearly as a way of expressing a background, however limited in Music ). I have also been playing Drums on and off for the past 5 years, but in a completely undisciplined fashion. I have almost no technical proficiency on the instrument, but I do have a reasonably developed feel for what sounds good with the drum set and percussion.

If I look at the progression that took me and other players I know from an average standard to being a more advanced player, their are distinct similarities in the methodologies employed.

For instance, when studying for improvisational proficiency on the Guitar,  for the first while most people start learning the pentatonic scales, then move on to Major and Minor scales, then start looking at chordal playing, then modes etc.. All the while studying Solo's from the Great's across various styles and trying to gain insight into their thinking.

I have finally come to the realisation that in my heart I am a drummer, and am in the process of making the change.

I have a great teacher who studied at West Texas Uni and is very technique focused;  as well as the will to play however much is neccessary ( I am currently playing on average 8 - 10 hours a day ) but with all this practise time I want to make sure I am doing the right kind of things.

Question:

What relatively systematic approach would drummers of the Drummer Cafe community recommend to achieve excellence on the drumset from my current level - keeping in mind that I would like to make it my living playing as fast as possible. I realise this is a tough question, but it is meant to be opinionative.

My practise routine at the moment is similar to the 4 segment routine that Bart Elliot outlines in one of his 5 min excercises and usually involves Rudiments ( Single, Double, Paradiddle, Multiple Bounce Roll ), Time keeping excercises ( Straight 8, Straight 16 and Jazz 4 and Kick and Snare Permutations in 16th and 8th note Triplets respectively), Co-Ordination excercises ( Afro-Cuban Stuff mostly), Fill and Groove Practise and finally Free Playing. I also listen to alot of Music.

But what next? Where do I go from here? Should I do more snare solos? More Latin stuff? More Rudiments? What will take me to the next level and beyond! And how do I know when I'm ready? I am mostly interested in Latin and Jazz but the topic is meant to be eclectic.

Yours Confused,

- Andrew.

ps. I hope I have made my question clear, and apologise both for the rather verbose explanation and if I have incorrectly explained something!

Hey Andrew,

It sounds like you are in the right track, my advise to you is to keep listening to ALL kinds of music wether you like it or not you can always get something out of it, discipline yourself in practice, really, it sounds simplistic but most musicians just practice b/c it's the right thing to do, go in with a goal and work on that, and finally remember to take constructive critiscm, you will always be a student of the instrument, you will never learn everything there is to learn, so when someone gives you advise take it, and build on it.  

I wish there was an easy formula for me to give you like the steps you took in learning guitar, unfortunately I can't.  

Find the best drum instructor in your area and start studying with them. This will get you where you want to be playing wise much quicker.

Those who seek the easy way do not seek the true way - Dogen.

Man, you got's to get connected.  And you have gots to be in the rights locations man.  You got to have your finger on the scene, man, you gots to be hip, happening and cool.  Eveyone loves you, say the right thing at the right time.  And you gots to work man, work hard, not play on the computer all day like me man.  You play the style the man asks you too...and that gig means so much man- you love it.  It means more to you than your squeeze baby.  You gots to give, give and give to maybe get a drop of the juice back boy.  Yeah man, that's what U gotta do, for the rest of your life...your little insignificant life that is going to go by so fast man, faster than you can see.