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Cross-Training
A System For Improving Your
Practice And Your Playing
by Marc Dicciani

M any drummers practice regularly and put in

enough time to see gradual improvement. Often,
however, progress comes very slowly. Why is this?
at least three to four hours a day, six days a week, with the
minimum being two hours a day, five days a week.

The cause is most often one of two factors: You’re not The Cross-Training Method
practicing enough, or you’re not practicing correctly. To get the most out of your practice time, you should work
No one can help you find more time to practice, but on each of the following five categories every day: technique,
you can learn ways to improve your woodshed ses- styles, improvisation and musicality, reading, and “other.”
sions, regardless of how long they are, so that you Technique refers to the physical and musical ability to
can achieve the desired results. There are also ways execute the ideas that you hear, imagine, or would like to
to find hidden time to work on your drumming with- imitate, synthesize, or create. Specific things to work on in
out having the sticks in your hands. this category include control, accuracy, sticking patterns,
What follows is a practice method I’ve developed from work- accents, hand/foot coordination, and brush technique.
ing with hundreds of students over the years. It’s built on a few The styles category involves studying, learning, listening
simple concepts, the most important of which I call cross-train- to, and practicing all styles and genres of drumming and
ing. This means developing your overall musicianship by rotat- music—rock, funk, jazz, metal, Afro-Cuban, Brazilian, drum
ing your practice topics through several general categories, ’n’ bass, etc. Don’t limit your potential by referring to yourself
with each section reinforcing and
helping to improve the others.
ESSENTIAL PRACTICE TIPS
Set Some Goals 1. Be sure to listen. It’s one of the most 5. Wear ear protection, and take breaks fre-
Whether you’re practicing two important ways of learning the drums and quently to give your hearing a rest. Your ears
hours a week or eight hours a day, developing your own voice. Listen to record- will become fatigued long before your hands.
it’s important to set goals and stick ings of the greats to understand the drums’ role
and rich tradition. Listen to the musicians you’re 6. Plan your practice routine carefully and
to a regular routine so that you can
playing with, to ensure you’re communicating change it up every couple of weeks to avoid
practice as smartly, efficiently, and effectively, and to the music you’re playing, so working on the same thing for too long,
productively as possible. you know its form and structure. And record and which may slow your development. And
I ask my students to consider the listen to yourself playing so you can hear what remember to take breaks when you’re trying to
two major objectives of practice: sounds good—and what doesn’t—as you devel- achieve a particularly difficult goal. When you get
op your personal style. back to work, you may be surprised to see that
maintenance and development.
you’ve made real progress.
Maintenance practice allows you to 2. The drum pad can be a valuable tool for
stay in good playing condition and improving certain aspects of your playing, 7. Good practice sessions should be both fun
sustains your current level of play by but you should try to spend most of your time on and frustrating. Fun because you’re playing the
keeping your muscles, tendons, liga- the drums, especially when you’re working on drums, and frustrating because you’re working on
skills where musicality, touch, tone, timbre, feel, things you don’t do well—yet. Always practice
ments, strength, endurance, tone,
balance, and dynamics are essential. When you do with purpose and a goal, and seek out the advice
and touch in performance shape. practice on the pad, keep your feet moving. Those of a good teacher when necessary.
Developmental practice is what you muscles need maintenance and development too.
do to improve on your existing skills 8. Practice every day, even if it’s just for a
and to add new ones. 3. Contextualize. You need to practice and study short while.
in a musical setting whenever possible. For exam-
On days when I can practice for
ple, when you’re working on a funk groove, you 9. Concentrate and focus while you practice,
only thirty minutes or less, I work on should try to do so with a band or a bass player, or and eliminate distractions (television, cell
maintaining and maybe slightly at least with high-quality play-along recordings or phones, etc.). You’ll develop much faster, and
improving my current skill level. But CDs by your favorite bands. If you have no option improved concentration and focus will come in
it’s during longer practice sessions— but to practice alone, sing or hum a melody or handy when you perform as well.
bass line while you practice.
ninety minutes or more—that you
10. Be patient. Becoming the drummer you want
really grow as a player. To develop 4. Practice at many different tempos, to to be requires hard work, and drumming skills
rapid growth, you should practice for stretch your comfort zone and to recognize develop over many years—a lifetime, in fact.
that different tempos require different play-
ing approaches. •
80 MODERN DRUMMER • MAY 2009
Reprinted by permission of Modern Drummer Publications, Inc. © 2012 • www.moderndrummer.com
only as a rock drummer PRACTICE CHART
or a jazz drummer: You’re TECHNIQUE STYLES MUSICALITY/IMPROV READING/LITERATURE OTHER
a drummer. Studying
rock styles will inform
and influence your jazz
playing, learning jazz
will expand your Afro-
Cuban vocabulary, and
so on. You can develop a
unique voice by explor-
ing and fusing many
styles, regardless of what
your primary type of
playing may be.
Improvisation and
musicality: Every time
you play the drums,
you’re improvising.
It may not be in an
extended solo, but when-
ever you’re at the kit
you’re making countless
spontaneous decisions
about how and what to play, and those decisions are made with fairly long. And be sure to prioritize—at the top, include topics that
more conviction when you practice improvisation and interpretation. need the most work or that you’d like to develop quickly. Your list
There isn’t a single way to play something; there are many. So be will change frequently as you discover new concepts to work on.
creative and trust your imagination. Other musical concepts that fall Once you have a complete list, create a table that looks like the
into this category include improving feel, touch, tone, and balance chart above. Write our five categories across the top of the page,
between sounds. Be sure to pay as much attention to how you’re with four blocks underneath each one. Fill in each block with an
playing as you do to what you’re playing. item from your master list that fits in that category.
Reading includes sight-reading charts as well as poring over
snare drum/drumset literature. Good reading skills are cultivated Put It Into Practice
by recognizing basic rhythmic patterns—quarters, 8ths, 16ths, and Now you’re ready to start your session. Each topic, or block,
triplets. Depending on your career goals, your ability to read a drum should be practiced for at least twenty but no more than thirty min-
chart accurately—and to play it musically the first time you see it— utes. When you’ve finished practicing one concept, move directly to
may be critical to your future success. It’s certainly a good skill for the block in the next category. In other words, after practicing tech-
all of us to have, as it enables us to think and express our ideas nique block #1, move directly to styles block #1. Continue across
visually. There are many ways to dramatically improve this skill. the page until you’ve finished the reading/literature category. Then
Practice reading pieces written for solo drumset, complex single-line go down to technique block #2. Note: I usually skip over the “other”
rhythms, snare drum etudes (not exercises), transcriptions of grooves category until I’ve put down the sticks, whether I’m taking a break,
and solos, and longer excerpts from various method books. riding the train to work, or relaxing late at night.
The “other” category focuses on ways to gain skills and Each day’s practice session should start where you left off the day
knowledge without having the sticks in your hands. Examples before. When you get to the bottom of the page, return to the top.
include reading MD, practicing and experimenting with various Keep practicing the items in these blocks until you notice some
tuning methods, transcribing recorded performances of grooves improvement. Then create another blank practice chart and fill in
and solos, watching drum DVDs, writing music for snare drum the blocks either with items from the last sheet to continue working
or drumset, reading biographies of famous drummers and musi- on or with some new items. Depending on how much time you
cians, listening to CDs, and even checking out drum manufacturers’ spend practicing, each chart should last between two and four
Web sites. weeks. Make sure you date and save each routine so that you can
track your progress.
The Practice Chart
During your practice sessions, you should move between each of
Marc Dicciani is the director of the School Of Music at The University
the five categories above, spending about the same amount of time
Of The Arts in Philadelphia. He’s performed and toured with countless
on each one. To organize your time, create a master list of things renowned musicians and entertainers and has conducted drum clinics
you want to learn or improve. Write the categories across the top of around the world. For more info, visit dicciani.com.
the page so that you have five columns. In each column, include
everything you want to work on in that category. The lists should be

82 MODERN DRUMMER • MAY 2009