getting some speed

[rachelnguyen]

Is it just me? Or is it hard to play at fast speed?

Here's the thing. When I first started playing, the problem with speed was that my arms would get tired and stiffen up. Now, after a couple of years of getting my butt kicked in class on a regular basis, that is no longer a problem. But I do still have a problem with speed. I find that when I am playing at breakneck pace, my head starts to play tricks on me and I start to wonder if I am still playing the rhythm correctly, or I start to lose the sense of where I am and I get myself in a muddle and like a needle skipping across a vinyl record, I go down in flames.

Today I was practicing a tough solo phrase from Koreduga. Just fine at a normal pace, but speed it up a bit and I couldn't stay on it.

And the other night I was playing the accompaniment to Dansa and as we picked up speed, I just got a tiny bit freaked out and had to concentrate REALLY hard not to screw up. Does this get easier? Do you guys have any techniques that help you? I want to be able to fly on this thing!

[Carl]

The only way I know to get faster is to keep practicing, there are no shortcuts to straight time on the drum.

That being said, I will usually work a technique on 3 speeds,
1: crazy slow 60 bpm or less! I've been known to go as low as 40 bpm.
2: average speed (fast enough for the feel to come through) 75 - 90 bpm
3: fastest speed that I can keep up and not make mistakes.

After playing at speed 3 for a while, I will experiment with playing faster. If I have already played a technique at the other 3 speeds, the experimental speed is usually surprisingly fast. If I go at it "cold" it would not go as well...

This is a case where I strongly recommend working with a metronome. Mostly so you can keep track of your "top speed" for whatever you are working with. When you are ready to stretch out, put the metronome only one or two clicks above your latest top speed. When you can do that for 3-5 min without mistakes then you have a new "top speed".

If it's a particularly difficult passage, I will do the 3 speeds at 5 min. per speed for a total of 15 min before I really try and push the speed! This is a long process, but I guarantee that it will help you play faster! or your money back!

A student of the late great Alen Dawson (great drumset teacher) came to him complaining that while working on a particular technique he was at the same "tempo" for 3 months. Allen shot back "3 months? that's nothing, I've been on the same tempo for 3 years!"

Speed is not everything, but it is one of those things that you never stop working on...

C

[Djembe-nerd]

Allen shot back "3 months? that's nothing, I've been on the same tempo for 3 years!"

Off topic, but interesting. I don;t remember the artist.

After a show, a man came up to the artist and said " I would give my life for playing like that".

Artist " I gave up my life to play like that".

[rachelnguyen]

Hey Carl,

Thanks! That is helpful. Especially the practicing at three speeds thing. I am going to give it a try on that solo phrase.

R

[e2c]

I think it *is* hard, and, as Carl said, the only way to get better at it is to spend time playing and practicing.

Doing dance accompaniment might be very helpful; at least, it has been for me, because of the need to play the same parts at length and at various speeds. It has helped tremendously with my feel for the music and with confidence - the repetition just nails it, somehow.

[michi]

After a show, a man came up to the artist and said " I would give my life for playing like that".

Artist " I gave up my life to play like that".

Many years ago, during a golf tournament, Gary Player (one of the then best golfers in the world) holed out from a green-side bunker from more than ten meters away. A spectator in the crowd said "That was just luck." Gary Player walked over to him and said "Yes, it's funny--the more I practice the luckier I get."

The key to speed for me is to relax and, no matter what, not to think. As soon as I start thinking (especially about how fast things are going), it's over.

Every year at the end-of-camp party at Bundagen, inevitably Sibo starts playing Yole. When that happens, you know you are in for a treat. That's because he always insists on pushing the tempo to around 200bpm. It is actually possible to play that fast. But definitely not when thinking about it...

That, and endless repetition is what it takes, I'm afraid.

Cheers,

Michi.

[Carl]

The key to speed for me is to relax and, no matter what, not to think. As soon as I start thinking (especially about how fast things are going), it's over.

I think the long repetitions are a big help towards the not thinking thing... even at the slower tempos, you can only think about what you are doing for so long and then your brain will get bored, that's when the magic happens.

C

[michi]

I think the long repetitions are a big help towards the not thinking thing... even at the slower tempos, you can only think about what you are doing for so long and then your brain will get bored, that's when the magic happens.

Yes, I agree.

BTW, maybe we need start a page with Carl's Quotable Quotes? To paraphrase:

"I play the best when I'm bored out of my brain..."

Cheers,

Michi

[e2c]

You guys might get a kick out of this...

when I 1st started taking djembe lessons and working on stuff at home, I would often deliberately wait until I was very sleepy to actually play the things I'd been learning. (As opposed to listening, repeating them, digesting them.)

it worked, even though I almost fell asleep on top of a drum one night.

[michi]

You guys might get a kick out of this...

when I 1st started taking djembe lessons and working on stuff at home, I would often deliberately wait until I was very sleepy to actually play the things I'd been learning. (As opposed to listening, repeating them, digesting them.)

it worked, even though I almost fell asleep on top of a drum one night.

I did get a kick out of this

And it's not at all silly. Somehow, disengaging the higher cortex seems to help. The rhythm definitely doesn't come from the frontal lobes and intellect. In fact, the frontal lobes seems to get in the way, if anything.

I quite often go to sleep with some rhythm still quietly churning over in my head. As consciousness drops off, the rhythm keeps going...

For the first two years or so after I started drumming, I used to go to drumming circles a lot. Every opportunity I got, I used to run (not walk) to get there and play. (These days, I don't do this quite as much because drum circles can be very much a hit and miss affair, but I digress.)

I remember being in a drumming circle on more than one occasion where I'd really be enjoying the groove, the sound coming of my drum and listening to how it blended with all the other drums... Next thing I know, I'd suddenly "come to" and realize that I didn't know where I'd been for the past 10 or 15 minutes. Somehow, my mind had gone into this altered state of consciousness. Trance-like, if you will, or like a deep meditation. Unaware of time and thought, and totally disappearing into the rhythm and the moment. Magical experience, especially for someone like myself, who's an engineer and normally not at all into this meditation thing.

Yet another thing the djembe taught me...

Cheers,

Michi.

[Carl]

BTW, maybe we need start a page with Carl's Quotable Quotes? To paraphrase:

"I play the best when I'm bored out of my brain..."

Here's another one for you:

The brain is over-rated....

Next thing I know, I'd suddenly "come to" and realize that I didn't know where I'd been for the past 10 or 15 minutes.

I heard about this great concept a while ago, it was specifically talking about creativity, but it can apply to just about any activity.

The concept was called "flow" the experience is a lot like what you describe. You become lost in the activity. They found that the key to entering "flow" is to be challenged significantly so that you need to rely on your skills, but not so much that you are not able to do it. Challenging enough to not be board, but not so much that you panic. You get the idea?

My take on what happens is that the critical mind does not have the time to get in there and question what it is you are doing. It is a pure expression of experience. Since you are not "reviewing" the experience with your critical mind, you do not notice the time flying by.

-C

[e2c]

Yes - I deliberately chose to play then because my analytical side was shutting down in a big way; also because of the relaxation thing. (No need to work at it!)

In fact, I think one of the things I most enjoy about percussion (all kinds) is that a lot of my brain just goes on autopilot. I love *not* analyzing and just doing. (Although I'm not an engineering type, I am very analytical/verbal etc.)

As for being in a light trance, no doubt... it's a very pleasant sensation, I think.

[Djembe-nerd]

I quite often go to sleep with some rhythm still quietly churning over in my head. As consciousness drops off, the rhythm keeps going...

I have been talking of re heading my first drum and yesterday night after the class where I took the drum and played it, It cam in my dreams, I don't remember the exact context of the dream but I was playing the drum

Quite often, when I practice at home, I just take the drum and start drumming, no accompaniments, no routine excercise, just whatever comes naturally. It will be a mix of everything that I knwo, but randomly....and those are the times when my speed is the fastest and consistent. The music makes sense but I can't duplicate it later cos its so random

[e2c]

i dream about playing percussion quite often, but it's *never* anything that exists in real life (if that makes sense). I wish some of the things I've dreamt were real, because they'd be fun.

Carl, I think there are a lot of different names for - and ways of describing - the concept you're calling "flow." I think most dancers and martial arts people are very familiar with it.

[rachelnguyen]

Well, my friends,

I just want to update you on the pesky Koreduga phrase. I tried Carl's recommendation and worked at three different tempos for about 15 minutes. It definitely helped..... and helped to stop thinking about it, too.

Then, voila, my teacher showed up for my lesson and after working on Sunu, which is the rhythm du jour, he said

"Ok, Koreduga"

which we haven't played in months. You KNOW I was psyched I had worked on it all morning, LOL.

And yep, I was able to play that phrase pretty flawlessly. Now for the other 4 dozen phrases I need to work on.