Be Set Up & Ready to Go! Maximise your drum practice - Part 1

We want to be able to walk to our practice space and just get into it with as minimal distractions as possible.

Have everything ready to go. I mean EVERYTHING!

Don’t have something in the next room or in a drum case thinking that, ‘I just need to get that and then I can get started’. It’s just a small thing, but it can be enough to put you off getting started.

Here’s a common story that I encounter often when it comes to practicing:

One of my students, Tim was having trouble getting the focus and drive to get into his core workouts. Tim has a busy job and works from home. He works in blocks of 60 mins (50 mins on + 10 mins break).

We mapped out a plan, and his worked out that his 10 min breaks will be the perfect time to get in some focused workouts. He could get his mind off work and have the satisfaction of knowing he would be improving his drumming skills.

He has his electronic kit set up in a shared family room next to his office, but was always finding a reason not to get into his practice due to the distraction of having to move something before he could start.

He was keen as mustard to get into it but even these little distractions were enough to throw him off.

What he did next was to get a dedicated practice pad with a stand and a set of sticks that he kept in his office with him. They took up minimal room and were there ready to go, right beside his desk. These didn’t leave the room and were always kept in the same spot primed for action.

Guess what… it worked!

When his 50 min work block was done, he swivelled on his chair, grabbed the sticks (which sat on top of the pad) and got straight into it!

8.5 minutes for a workout and 1.5 minutes for a bathroom break.

Tim was on fire and his drumming is coming along in leaps and bounds. Because of no distractions or having anything to set up he gets straight into his practice and now has developed this as a habit.

How can you set up an area that is ready to go for you?

Be creative and look at what you can do to make it happen. It could be a closet, a tin shed or a pad tucked in away under a desk.

Let me know what your practice space looks like!

Remember,

If you’ve got 10 mins, you can get in a workout!

Click here to read PART 2