Some very common questions that crop up among drummers are things like "Why do I get tense when I play fast?" "Why do I find it so difficult to play that pattern on double kick?" "Why does my playing not sound tight, even though it feels like I'm playing well?" The answer may not be right under your nose but it could be right behind it.
Your brain is an incredible thing. Without your brain you wouldn't have much hope of playing the drums, never mind that complex Vinnie Colaiuta lick. However it has its limitations. One of these limitations is the fact that it can only process one thing at a time. This in itself is not a problem but failure to realise this fact can lead you on a wild goose chase for answers that may be right under your nose. Socrates said 'The only true wisdom is knowing you know nothing', keep that in mind as we move on.
How to be a plate spinner
When you play a groove or fill on the drums you are simultaneously using 2, 3 or 4 of your limbs together. The brain, amazing as it is, can only deal with one thing at a time. For example, right now it's dealing with reading this text. If I ask you how your foot feels on the floor, your attention is directed there. You probably weren't aware of how your foot felt until I asked the question. For the period of time you were asking yourself how it felt you were no longer paying attention to this, but presumably your attention returned pretty quickly. It's a lot like plate spinning - you're dealing with a lot of things but you can only attend to them one at a time.
So, how does this apply to double kick patterns or tensing up? Well, it's very possible that the problem is with some fundamental aspect of your technique that you're unaware of because your focus is on something higher up. Even though you can only focus consciously on one thing at a time you can effectively program parts of the brain to work on autopilot. This is how you're able to do most complex tasks. Take tennis, for example. You wouldn't try to perfect your backhand before you'd learnt to walk. To deal with the problem of an unsatisfactory backhand you have to make sure that your balance, movement, posture and breathing are all working well. The problem is that when you move your attention away from these basic movements they can change without you realising.
Say you're working on grip and stick control. You have a list of things to look out for while you’re working on a single stroke roll: Am I letting the stick rebound naturally? Am I gripping the stick too tight? Is the stick coming up to the same height each time? Am I striking the drum in the same place each time? Are my shoulders relaxed? Am I breathing naturally? etc. etc. When you ask yourself these questions it's easy to feel like you're doing all of them when in fact you may only be doing one or two at a time. When you're checking to see if the stick is rebounding naturally your shoulders might be getting tight. When you're making sure the sticks are coming to the same height you might be hitting the drum in a different place every time.
When most tennis coaches are asked how to create top spin they say you have to roll the wrist when you hit the ball. A researcher video taped a lot of pro tennis players and coaches playing this shot and slowed down and analysed the footage. None of them rolled their wrist! They thought they were, and that's what they taught their pupils, but they weren't doing what they thought. I discovered the same thing for myself when I was teaching a student the free stroke. One of the things to look out for when playing the free stroke is that the stroke starts and ends high. You don't pull back before playing the stroke - the stick just goes straight down. Even though I'd pointed it out to him many times it was still happening and he just couldn't see it. Finally I got the camcorder out and videoed it. When he watched it back it was clear to him what he was doing. When he'd left I videoed my own stroke and realised I was doing it a little too - I was also doing lots of other things that I didn't think I was.
2 + 2 = 3
Here's a quick exercise to demonstrate the difficulty in focusing on two things at once:
Sit upright. Hold your right hand up in front of your face so you're looking at your palm then make your hand into a fist.
Now lower your hand until the back of your hand touches your leg and extend your fingers apart from your index finger which remains held in place by your thumb.
Now, go between those two positions playing 8th notes at about 60 bpm (i.e. each second your hand hits your leg with your fingers open. Half a second after that your hand is up and in a fist). Make sure you fully extend your fingers when you hit your leg, and make a tight fist when your hand is in the air.
Easy, right?
Forget about your right hand for a second and do the same with your left hand. For each of those exercises you're moving your arm up and down and essentially just having to tell yourself to open your fingers when you hit your leg. You'll probably find you can get this up to quite a speed without a problem.
Now, do it with both hands alternately - like a single stroke roll. When your right hand is on your leg your left hand is in front of your face. Make sure the fingers are stretched out when your hands touch your leg, and are clenched when the hands are in the air. If it's easy, speed it up a bit.
You'll probably find you can't go as fast when you're doing both hands together. You may be surprised to find that it's more difficult than you anticipated.
The point to note is that you've done each hand on its own and it's easy. Putting the two together doesn't really feel like anything new. The only thing that really changes is that you now have to divide your attention - you can't check if your right fingers are open when your left fingers are closed because you can only focus on hand at a time. When you start to notice it's going wrong you generally just notice that it's going wrong - not specifically what isn't happening that should be.
Apply this to your drumming and it soon becomes clear that while you're trying to play a complicated lick the basics of your technique might be suffering, and you don't really have much of a chance to even notice it. You need ways to break down complex patterns to make sure that the components are all running smoothly.
Do the Hokey Kokey
Now, take the previous example and think about how you'd improve your performance. We know that the problem is one of directing conscious attention and we know that by repeating an action we can start to burn it into 'muscle memory' and essentially put it on autopilot. So, the first thing to do would be spend more time working on each hand by itself. Then you'd put them together slowly and see what things happen together that you can group and focus on as a single item - perhaps really thinking about what it feels like to stretch open your right fingers while clenching together your left fingers and vice versa. The final aim is to make the actions in such a way that the hands are performing as well together as they do individually.
Imagine a car engine, a factory, an airport, any system at all - a system being an interaction of two or more elements. It's clear that the overall performance of the system depends of the performance of its parts. Any part working inefficiently will affect the system as a whole. The tighter the interaction of the parts the more the inefficiency of one will affect the whole. In short, we want to make sure that the cylinders are all firing properly, the conveyor belts are running at the right speed, the planes are taking off on time, etc.
There are two areas of focus here. The first is the action of the individual element - is it doing what it should be. The second is the interaction of the element with the system - this is more difficult to isolate, but focusing on the first half of the equation will help the interaction part.
There's a simple way of applying and testing this - do the Hokey Kokey. Take any groove and figure out the part that each limb has to play. Figure out how it would play that part if that's all there was and make sure you can play it by itself. For example, with a single stroke roll play the right hand part and watch the motion to make sure it's smooth and efficient. Then, put the left hand in, keep staring at the right hand and make sure that nothing in its motion changes. Take the left hand out, again staring at the right hand making sure it's motion doesn't change. Shake your left hand all about if you like, then do the same with your right hand.
All subdivisions are equal, but some are more equal than others
You'll probably find that it's much more difficult to play the left hand part by itself than the right hand part. That's because you're used to playing 1 + 2 + and locking in with the click. If you have to play e a e a (the off beat 1/16ths) then although you're making EXACTLY the same motion with the stick the click now occurs in the middle of a stroke (rather than when you hit the drum) so physically there's nothing obvious to try and line up with it.
If the left hand can only play its part when the right hand is playing its part then you might consider that a weakness. After all, every subdivision has its place and length and they all have equal value. Because the smaller subdivisions move by so quickly we tend to focus on the main ones (quarter notes and maybe off beat 1/8th notes) and the ones in between are often neglected. As long as the ones we're focusing on seem to be in time we don't tend to pay much attention to the others. But, if those subdivisions aren't played in time they will affect everything else and that is a common cause of a groove not feeling tight.
So if you want to improve your single stroke roll and the performance of your weaker hand in one fell swoop then practise the weaker hand part (off beat 1/16ths) to a click by itself and make sure it's as smooth and efficient as the stronger hand part. Then add the stronger hand in the Hokey Kokey fashion and make sure the movement of the weaker hand stays the same.
You can apply the Hokey Kokey exercise to a groove too. Make sure you can play each limb's part on its own to a click. That includes ghost notes. Once you have figured out the most efficient way of each limb to play its part you want to make sure that this doesn't change when you introduce the rest of the system. This is the essence of independence exercises. Imagine videoing your self playing a groove. If you zoomed in so you could only see one limb, that limb should look smooth and efficient. It should look the same as it would if it was the only thing that was playing.
It's in the details
If you find yourself having trouble making rudiments or double kick patterns sound clean and accurate try the following exercise.
Play the pattern with one limb quiet and the other accented. Pay attention to the rhythmical pattern that the accented limb is playing.
Now swap and accent the other limb. Again, pay attention to the accented limb.
In the case of the single stroke roll we are usually accustomed to hearing the rhythm of the leading limb and its relationship to the click, the rhythm of the off beat 1/16ths isn't usually a focus.
Now play both limbs at the same volume but try and hear the pattern that the first limb is playing. Then with them still playing the same volume try and hear the pattern that the other limb is playing. This exercise will give you practice at directing your attention to all components of a pattern to make sure they're doing what they should be. If a cylinder is misfiring you'll be able to notice it and correct it to get everything running smoothly again.
A nice way to apply similar technique is to use two different sound sources. For the single stroke roll play the right hand on the hihat and the left on the snare. The interplay of the off beat 1/16ths and the click will be obvious. For double kick patterns try playing the exercise slowly and replacing the right foot part with your right hand (on a floor tom or the snare). That will give you a chance to really hear what the left foot should be playing.
The impossible triangle
You've probably seen the impossible triangle. At first glance it looks like a triangle made out of 3 fence posts. However, on closer examination you realise that they're angled in such a way that they can't possibly join up. It is possible to make a real life version of this illusion, but it only works if you view it from one specific angle. Look at it from any other angle and it's clear that it doesn't add up. This is the problem of the single focus. Often it may seem like you're doing everything you should be but something just won't fall into place like you expect it should. Perhaps the problem is being overlooked and you need a tool to get in there and find it. The best advice I can give is to approach the problem from as many different angles as you can and it won't be long before you identify the holes. Once you know what and where they are it's not too difficult to patch them up. Just remember that often things are not as they appear - don't believe everything you see.
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