The job of a drummer in a band is often understated; however, they play a central role. Drummers dictate the groove and the tempo of a performance, allowing guitar and bass players to follow suit.

If you’re looking to improve your drumming skills, it’s important to maintain a consistent routine of practice and hard work. Here are a few tips that you can follow to improve your drumming skills.

Learn the basics by exploring different genres

It’s important to master the basics of playing drums before you start developing your style. When it comes to drumming, there are different music genres—including classical, jazz, Latin, rock, pop—that you can explore and try out. Over time, you’ll come to realize what attracts and suits you best.

Once you pick your favorite drumming style from these genres and master the basics, then you can start incorporating your personal touch into it.

Focus on developing muscle memory

Once you’ve familiarized yourself with basic drumming patterns, it’s time to develop your muscle memory. Make a routine of playing with your eyes open for 30 minutes, and then playing with your eyes closed. Ideally, you should use your snare drum hand, syncing with a metronome.

Practicing with your eyes closed will help you develop muscle memory, which will allow you to play more efficiently. Moreover, it will enable you to start playing by feel—either front of the beat or back of the beat, depending on your personal preference.

Record yourself during the practice sessions

It’s generally good practice to maintain a regular drumming exercise pattern to improve your drumming skills. You can further improve the exercise’s benefits by recording a video while you’re playing so you can evaluate your progress—perhaps on a weekly basis.

You can analyze and re-evaluate your progress and learn about your weak points, allowing you to improve them on a timely basis. Moreover, if you feel like your style is sloppy, you can focus on playing with precision. You get the gist of it.

Try to develop your both hands

When you’re holding your drum sticks, it’s important to keep your hands relaxed. Your non-dominant hand is naturally weaker than your dominant hand; however, you can develop it over time with practice.

One good practice to follow is using your right hand to strike the soft notes and play more pronounced beats with your left hand. If you want to play more aggressively, you can use the fat end of the sticks by flipping them over.

Practice to keep the time

As a drummer, it’s important that you know how to keep the time for the song. You can use quality headphones so you can have the click in your ear; otherwise, you can use radio or a playlist during the practice.

Often ignored, it’s a tested method used by many professional drummers to ensure that they are in synchronization with the song and the rest of the band.

If you’re looking for an affordable and easy-to-use software for music notation to record your practice sessions in order improve your drumming skills, get your hands on Music Jotter.

It’s a user-friendly music making software for pc that can help you take your drumming skills to the next level. Try a free demo version or visit your website for more information.