Drum Faster Without popping a blood vessel. It is possible. You won’t get tendinitis either.
Rather than holding your breath and moving the stick super fast from your elbow, take a step back, relax, and read this. The ability to play anything that you have ever seen any speed demon shred is within your reach. All you have to do is practice.
First thing’s first, let’s develop your “full” stroke. The way to move those pieces of wood through the air over and over again very quickly is by only throwing them down. The part where the stick comes up needs to be the drum sticks responsibility. So get out of it’s way. A full stroke starts up and ends up. To get back up, however, you do nothing.
This concept is as old as drumming, but it truly is the secret to everything: Drumming is like bouncing a basketball. You don’t throw a ball into the ground and then pull it back up. The REBOUND does that. Physics send that ball straight up and back to you. So we must use the same laws of physics for playing drums. This is how drumming must work in order to move quickly with sound quality.
Once you start to get a hang of the “full” stroke, start building up the tempo with some simple warm-up exercises. Simple 8-8-16 exercises are always good. Also, playing 6 bars of 16th notes at slow to fast tempos will help. It is very important while working on the 16th notes to not switch to “down” strokes. Playing a “down” stroke will inhibit the motion of the stick and not allow you to move quickly.
Practicing double stops (both sticks at the same time) will also help with your speed. If you can play double stops quickly without breaking apart, you can play 16th notes. Play “full” stroke with both hands together, slowly, and bump the tempo up over time.
You are well on your way to cranking out those fast licks all you want. Just remember to keep breathing, stay relaxed, maintain a good fulcrum, and LET THE STICK BOUNCE BACK.
You throw it down, the universe gives it back.
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