Nothing is cooler than drumming as fast and as good as Buddy Rich.
Yet, the key to drumming faster isn’t actually about your speed. It’s more about getting your technique and spacing right, before starting to practice your drumming speed. And, when it comes to double-bass drums, you also have an additional pedal to play and integrate into your pace.
If you’re looking for fresh techniques on how to play your drums faster than ever before, you’ve come to the right place.
Read on for our top four tips that will have you drumming faster than the speed of light, with no sloppiness that can be detected when drummers go for speed and neglect their technique.
1. Drumming Faster 101: Start Slow
We know that the last thing you want to hear when you’re working on your drumming speed is that you need to slow down first.
However, we’re not asking you to slow down forever, merely to start slow, and then increasing your speed at a consistently steady pace. You might have started noticing that you’re struggling to develop the speed you want with the required control, and that’s most likely due to drumming far beyond your regular speed without taking your time.
Good technique is key to better and faster drumming, as well as preventing injuries like tendinitis from showing its ugly face or becoming chronic in nature.
2. Practice Your Rebound at Both Low and High Speeds
As drummers, we tend to focus too much on our striking quality, and way less about getting out of the way of our own drumsticks during the rebound.
Your drumsticks will naturally rebound off the surface of the drum right after striking it. The trick to having good form and playing faster is getting used to holding your sticks correctly, which will improve your technique.
Afterward, you can practice your rebound at slow and high speeds as you gently work your way up.
3. Use a Metronome
You really don’t want to have the best double bass pedal on hand, yet ruin the performance by your inability to keep the rhythm.
Having a metronome is essential to playing in time, which is one of the main jobs of a drummer. Whether you’re more comfortable with a physical metronome or a metronome app, just start playing to a metronome for a couple of weeks, and you’ll start seeing great improvements to your rhythm.
Nailing down your rhythm is critical to drumming faster while keeping your quality at the same level.
4. Don’t Forget Your Single-Stroke Rolls
When aiming for speed, don’t neglect your single-stroke rolls in favor of your double-stroke rolls.
A great way to practice your single-stroke rolls would be practicing 16th note single-stroke rolls to your metronome at different speeds. As we’ve previously discussed, start slow and work your way up.
Faster Drumming: Unlocked
Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither will your drumming speed. So, patience is key, and practice is the answer to all of your questions.
We hope that our top four tips on drumming faster were helpful to your practice. Just make sure to check out our blog for the latest news in music, as well as a ton of tips and tricks to help you become the musician of your dreams.
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