Music On The Blog

You practice to maintain and hopefully improve your drum playing skills. Unfortunately many drummers don’t know how to get the greatest amount of benefit from their practice time. Frankly, no matter how much time you spend practicing you won’t make a lot of progress if you don’t use good practice habits.  On the other hand, you can accomplish a great deal in a fairly short amount of time if you do use good practice methods.

Most drummers just sit down and run through their repertoire.  That’s great for keeping up the things that you know and even for polishing them up a bit but you are not going to make a lot of progress as a drummer. For a practice session to be truly productive you need to focus on perfecting your technique, advancing your skills and increasing your musicality.

You should concentrate on playing every technique as perfectly as you can play it every single time you play it. This means proper stick and hand positions, stick heights, wrist and body positions and feel.  Practice does not make perfect.  Practice makes permanent and only perfect practice makes perfect, permanently.  Practicing with bad technique will only make it harder to well.

You should work to advance your skills every single practice session.  Learn to play something new or learn to play something you already know in a different way.  Go back through your old books from time to time and relearn old exercises or try them with a new twist to keep things interesting.

No matter what you are doing remember to play musically.  To get the most from your abilities you should be more of a musician than a drummer.  A drummer hits drums, while a musician makes music.  Stay focused on the musicality, whether you are playing a rudiment or a solo.

No matter how good you get or advanced your skills are, you will always need to practice to keep them up and keep advancing musically.  You can work up to greater lengths of time and keep some variety in your program to keep things interesting.  If you will focus on perfecting your technique, advancing your skills and increasing your musicality, you will improve by leaps and bounds rather than at a snail’s pace which will make practicing more rewarding and enjoyable.

An electronic drum set can be great for gigs or just a way to practice without bothering the neighbors. Get more insights and information on electric drum sets and accessories at electricdrumsets.net .

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Jamaica is an island known for its reggae music as well as its beauty. Jamaica is filled with brilliant color and flavor. This is truly evident in the diversity of its people, beaches, food, and it’s music.

Jamaica’s music has moved through many different variations. We have heard and seen performances of rhythms such as Dub, Ska, Congo, and Dancehall. All of these rhythms are known across the world as reggae. This music is a combination of African, American, Blues, and Jamaican folk rhythms. Though this style of music is original only to Jamaica, it is known and loved globally. This music had its origin with ska in the late 1950′s right about the time Jamaica got it’s independence from England.

It all started with the sound systems, and the massive open-air discos that established themselves on the streets of Kingston, Jamaica. It was in the 1970′s that the late Bob Marley took this art and made it an international craze with roots reggae, which was a heavy, spiritual and conscious sound. In 2002 Bob Marley’s album Exodus won album of the century. This proud, bold island had now made its mark on the world first because of its music.

In the 1990′s dancehall and reggae evolved, accompanied by the opinion that it contained more offensive lyrics that would encourage street violence and dismay. However, recently I have seen and heard a recent development going back to more socially and spiritually aware lyrics known by some to be the New Roots Movement. I find that this is a good turn for music in Jamaica and the rest of the world. One of the leading producers in Jamaica, Boby Digital, said:

“If you feed people with violence they’re going to be vile. If you fill them with love, they’re going to be lovely.”

Today you can see the great performances as the artists are showcased at events such as the Caribbean Music Expo, and Jamaica Sumfest. New Reggae artists such as Shaggy, Sean Paul, and Abijah have brought reggae even further internationally. These events usually take place on the north coast (i.e. Ocho Rios, Runaway Bay, Montego Bay, Discovery Bay) of Jamaica, and sometimes the south coast such as Negril, Jamaica.

It is highly recommended that those who are truly interested in Jamaica’s culture and music attend one of these shows. Some of these stage shows can be days long, so if you can’t be there for the entire show, you can catch at least one day of it.

About the Author

John-David Lusan is the webmaster for Jamaican-Travel-Tips.com which intends to spread the word about the great island of Jamaica and why it is the ideal vacation destination.