FASTER IS BETTER

Prestissimo!

Our longstanding joke remains a favourite during our sessions and despite the outrageous, provocative obvious, after years of spouting it out with a grin on my face, I’m starting to think there might be some actual depth and maybe even wisdom to grab from it. Follow me.

Of course faster is not better. However…

Day one of picking up the sticks it is what we do. Put your feet there, hold the sticks this way, count to 4, play a beat here, play a beat there and go. Why is it that we instinctively do this? This idea that when we do it faster somehow means we do it ‘better’? I mean it certainly works for riding a bike – kinda has to actually. I feel like it’s worth acknowledging that a part of us, not just the ego, definitely wants to get it done faster.
Regardless of the music you’re into (and whether it requires any speed at all ) we do tend to measure ourselves “against” other drummers who can play fast. Growing up it always seemed to be a pre-requisite for hoping to ever get the “pro” badge sent in the post.
Put the super fast record breaking guys aside, I’m talking about your very good, excellent career musos. Steve Gadd doesn’t get associated with being a speedy guy and yet, his hands are absolutely mega.

Anyway. What if this stupid joke could actually help us shaping up how we practice?
No, I don’t mean, pushing the tempo gradually and blasting through stuff quicker, one notch at a time – which I’m still guilty of doing of course. I’m talking about asking the question: what do i need to do/change to get this thing moving faster? It seems practicing the same way for a while and just pushing the tempo doesn’t yield a great deal of results, does it?

So? What are you going to notice that gets in your way? Where has your focus been all of these years? I know from experience, that for a loooot of us, it’s not really in anything else than “memorising” what to play (the sticking, the beat, the exercise ????)  and maybe a bit of ergonomic.
What else can you do to deepen your insight?

Speed is very much a by-product of control*.

So what are we trying to control?

1) Surely, the what* plays its part. You can call it sticking, pattern, formula, sequence of notes etc. We’ll take our beloved R L R R L R L L as an example and see what we can do with it.
Go on play it.
2) What we often forget to do is hear an actual rhythm though. Did you start with your right hand or did you start with a pulse in my mind? hmm?
So we have a pulse, we set a rhythm (16th note to make life easy) and off we go. RLRRLRLL
3) If you proactively think about the 16th instead of your hands, you should start hearing the placement of each note much better.
4) You now have a point of reference as to where those notes are sitting in time, you have an actual target to aim at rather than “remembering” the order of your hands, moving linearly [hard to pronounce for my french mouth that one!] through the sequence of strokes.
5) Confidence is building in the hands, the body eases off and you can start letting go a bit more.
Now two paths open in front of you (roll the dice to choose where to go next ⚔️).
You hear even more details and you realise that each hand are actually doing their own thing.
Musically and Physically.
6) So what’s going on on each side?
• RH: 1 – & A – E – –
• LH: – E – – 2 – & A
7) Can you hear it? Can you make it flow? How can you improve the execution? Which strokes are bouncing, staying down etc…
I think until you play one hand at a time; it’s actually pretty hard to answer these questions substantially, even with familliar patterns.
Doing less to refine the details in rhythmic placement and motion. Finding the natural flow of each hand has to be a pretty important key for when we play with multiple limbs.
8) So we’re back playing RLRRLRLL and there’s a good flow and even decent speed accessible now….but what if you keep the hands playing at the same ‘speed’ and start hearing what you’re playing as triplets or sextuplets. Are the hands still comfortable playing at that* speed? hmm?
Your ears are messing with you that’s what’s happening! Where are you resisting as a result?

So to me, and I genuinely don’t think that i’ve got very fast hands, this kind of approach has open a lot of doors over these last couple of years. Not focusing so much on what new material can i work on but rather how can I use the material that I’ve got (I mean realistically it’s vastly 16th note rhythms with combinations of singles, doubles and unisons ????‍♂️), look at it in new ways to help me break certain ceilings in my playing; musical or physical.
When you boil it down, your ability to zoom out objectively and acknowledge your mental approach, how deep can you hear and how you feel (physically rather than emotionally) will be key to actual, meaningful improvement. HEAD > EARS > HANDS [more on that later in other post]

So stop turning up practicing the same old things the same old ways!

This stupid joke and all of its tickles has helped me understand that “practicing”, a word that I’m struggling to hear more and more actually [more on that in later too!] isn’t necessarily synonymous with improvement – or meaningful one at least. It sounds very pompous to say but when I ‘practice’ I now either want to be learning or just playing.
Maybe it’s just me, but Practicing has always made me focus on the material, a kind of doing for the sake of doing. Learning however is a warm introspective cuddle and makes me focus on a skill…and so long that I get a little crack open I always feel much more excited and inspired by the process.
I guess the biggest conscious change with “practicing or playing faster” I’ve made over these last few years is to pro-actively get comfortable Hearing faster. I’ll never be a hardcore bebop blazer or a death metal blaster but I know for sure that my ears are most definitely holding my hands back…So that’s where I look the most during our sessions.
Food for thoughts.

Faster is Better. It asks some good questions about our habits, learning and our playing and if we don’t want to go all introspective it’s also just bloody good fun!! ????

* Control is a massive misnoma: the more you “control” something the less you actually do, the more you let go, the more you trust, the less you intervene, the less you work, the more efficient you are, the more pleasure you get/give. “Control” is just not the best picture we put in our head. When you next catch yourself working hard to “control” whatever it is that you’re trying to control have a think about how the surfers go out there in the ocean and ‘control’ the waves. ????