Make My Hands Great Again (again)!

Or Maybe it should be called Make My NDH (non-dominant hand) Great For Once…

Hey friends!

Last week we talked about how our NDH is responsible for holding us back. For example; our singles and doubles can only be as fast, smooth and dynamic as our slowest and clumsiest hand. Therefore, developing our NDH is absolutely imperative and will make a huge difference in freeing us up to play everything we want.

Here are a few practical strategies I recommend:

1. Practice in front of a mirror - NDH should match the grip, stick-height, and rebound of your DH.

2. Practice leading with our NDH -This is huge! Our brain puts a lot of effort into locking in with the downbeat. Because of this extra attention, we’ll be able to make the micro-adjustments needed to correct deficiencies in our technique.

3. Play triplets - Downbeat responsibilities shared between hands.

4. Use our NDH more - (brushing teeth, opening doors etc.)

Here’s another fun sticking exercise to add to the one from last week:

There’s obviously a lot more that can be done to develop our hands. Hopefully these exercises and tips can help along your journey.

See you next time!

Make My Hands Great Again

‘You are the weakest link. Goodbye.’

If we are only as strong as our weakest link, our non-dominant hand is to blame.

Not only is our non-dominant hand (from herein referred to as NDH) less coordinated and weaker than our dominant hand, we use it SIGNIFICANTLY LESS too, which further perpetuates the issue - brushing our teeth, eating, turning on the lights, opening doors, playing sports, picking things up…

I recommend that my students attempt to use their NDH more, starting with brushing their teeth *careful not to poke yourself in the eye…

Here are two practical things to practice:

1. Exercises leading with your NDH

2. Triplets, triplets, triplets!

It sounds simple, but, after 20 years of teaching, I’ve found that these things help to strengthen the relationship between our mind and our NDH. Students quickly exhibit better technique, faster hands and more accurate hits (timing and location).

Here’s a fun and simple exercise I developed for students who are looking to develop their NDH:

*Repeat each exercise until it feels comfortable, then play all four in a loop.

Next week in Let’s Talk Shop, I’ll be sharing some more advanced exercises for students looking to Make Their Hands Great Again again.

How Often Should I Practice?

“There is more than one way to skin a cat”

Seriously, who is skinning cats?! And why are they doing it so often that we need a saying for it?!

As we discussed in the last post ‘A Balanced Approach To Practicing’, there are many ways to develop into a proficient drummer. However, the common denominator is TIME. There is no hack, fast-track or way around it.

The goal should be to play EVERY DAY. Whether that’s 5 minutes or 2 hours.

Developing coordination and limb-independence requires our brain to develop new neural pathways. Those new pathways are delicate and need repetition to develop. It goes without saying then, the longer we go without practicing, the more those pathways fade.

It can be challenging to get to the kit everyday. Sometimes, you’re too busy. Sometimes you just aren’t feeling it - on those days, just go sit at the kit and putter around a little. You’ll be surprised how often your mood changes and next thing you know, a half hour has passed. Even if you don’t succeed at playing every day (you won’t), your development will begin to compound and you’ll soon be surprising yourself and others by playing things that recently seemed out of reach.

That is when what I call the ‘Cycle of Progress’ begins - the better I get, the more fun drumming becomes, the more I want to practice, and so on…

Now that we have laid out what to practice (last weeks post) and how often we should practice, next week we will be diving into some specific exercises and concepts that I have been using with students over the past 20 years!

*No cats were harmed in the making of this post

A Balanced Approach To Practice

Teacher - “What did you practice this week?”

Student - “I mostly played with songs.”

Teacher - “. . . ”

It doesn’t take long before a student realizes that playing along with music is INSANELY FUN. Not only is it fun but it’s also a great way to implement all the things you’ve been practicing. But, If you’re only playing songs, what is there to implement?

It’s a chicken-egg scenario.

This is why I like to teach students to approach practicing like we should a balanced diet. - if we hit the major ‘food groups’ on a regular basis, we should have the ‘nutrients’ to mature into drummers who have the adaptability to play in any scenario.

Here are some examples of things to ‘eat’ (eye-roll) on a regular basis:

• Rudiments/Stick Control

• Coordination Development

• Reading

• Speed Development

• Metronome work

• Exploration and Experimentation

• Playing With Songs (Of Course!)

Let’s Talk Shop

Hi!

I’m super excited to announce that starting next week, I will be making regular drum related posts on this page. I will be talking about everything from “Technique Fundamentals”, “How To Practice” to “How To Develop Speed” and “Why Do All My Fills Sound The Same”.

There will also be lots of fun exercises and videos as well. So, follow on FB and sign up for notifications so you don’t miss anything!!