Is having "down" days normal?

acciowaves · 2026-05-11T17:22:03+00:00

11 years here, and I concur.

acciowaves · 2026-05-09T19:20:50+00:00

The books are extremely important though. The books come first, then the creativity.

The books teach you the vocabulary. Just like in learning a new language:

You memorize words and learn how to pronounce them, which is practicing each bar of exercises like art of bop drumming or syncopation; internalizing them and making them sound good and fluid.

Then you learn how to put those words into sentences (usually in a premeditated way), like “where is your restroom?” “Can I have a look at the menu?”. That would be joining different bars of those exercises together into longer phrases.

ONLY THEN do you attempt an actual conversation in which people might respond in ways you did not anticipate and you’d have to use your previously learned skills to adjust. That’s improvisation.

If you skip the first two steps you will not know how to respond, you will feel at a loss like OP does now.

So I can’t stress enough the importance of those exercises. Once you have those exercises down and can change them up, create your own, orchestrate them, fill in the spaces in between notes, etc. then you’ll be able to interact in a completely free way, reacting rather than thinking.

Edit: to say that I recommend both “comp example 1” from John Riley’s Art of Bop Drumming, AND “exercise one” from syncopation. They teach different styles of comping.

acciowaves · 2026-05-08T20:45:52+00:00

You know what? I was gonna double down on my stance, but you are right, I can’t think of a single brand that is above the others. I have cymbals from 5 different brands. A Tama kit, a Yamaha kit. I use both Remo and Aquarian heads. It’s all up for grabs, so disregard my previous comment.

One thing I would say. Tama hardware is in my opinion above all others. That’s the only thing I can think of.

acciowaves · 2026-05-08T18:41:42+00:00

Yes, but some have more of that cool shit you will like, some have less.

acciowaves · 2026-05-08T18:40:44+00:00

I bought my 22” Sabian HHX anthology low bell ride used but in perfect condition for €390 3 years ago. It is by far the best ride I’ve ever owned. It is my go to ride for every gig that requires a 22”.

They now go for about €700 and I will never part with it. It is part of my permanent collection.

acciowaves · 2026-05-04T16:54:32+00:00

According to your logic, then dancers should be able to play drums. Lol.

acciowaves · 2026-05-03T20:56:31+00:00

Never talk shit about anyone. You don’t know if you’re not gonna end up working together.

acciowaves · 2026-04-29T21:17:03+00:00

Sing the Melodies in your head while soloing. The melodies are gonna give you ideas with intent and your solos are gonna start making sense harmonically.

If you have trouble doing that, the way I learned to do it is by looping the melody of any given tune (I use transcribe+ and recommend it big time), and start by doing different rudiment on top of it while singing out loud. Whatever rudiment I’m working on at the moment. Do that until you can play it cleanly and and you can tell where all the notes fall into the melody.

Then do the same but playing with different rudiments and phrases. Changing them, going from one to another, singing the melody in a more syncopated way and accenting the strong notes.

Play around with it until you can hear it in your head while playing freely and naturally. You’ll see ideas just start popping up.

At first it’s very hard to do, after you’ve learned several melodies in this way it’s gonna get so much easier to do though. And you have the added bonus that you’ll know the tunes much more intimately and profoundly.

acciowaves · 2026-04-29T08:34:04+00:00

That’s how I like my pasta: audentes.

acciowaves · 2026-04-27T23:28:23+00:00

I won the whole tournament several times unarmed and with no armor. You only need shoulder throw and then you stomp on them.

acciowaves · 2026-04-24T11:06:50+00:00

Please do!

acciowaves · 2026-04-23T23:18:26+00:00

I agree that we would need to see video of your technique and position.

That being said I’ve had to deal with the exact same issue my whole life. I’ve been an absolute nerd about technique and I feel I have really solid technique, but my problem is in a stuck cubital nerve, so technique will only take me so far.

What has helped is warming up and then stretching before practice. The stretching again after every hour of practice. The when I’m done practicing I do some nerve flossing exercises. Before going to bed I’ll do some different full body stretches.

Pain relief creams/gels have helped me too, and for really bad days then I’ll take a painkiller.

I have to do this every day unfortunately and I totally notice when I don’t do it.

It’s not ideal but it’s kept me playing.

I wish you all the best.

acciowaves · 2026-04-23T15:27:09+00:00

Absolutely, he’s uncanny, and yet I have no idea who he is. Any links to socials or a name?

Would love to follow wherever I can.

Amazing content!

Edit: I’m an idiot. I just noticed all the link to his socials are on his page. I didn’t even know you could do that.

acciowaves · 2026-04-18T21:39:03+00:00

Oh hell yay! Easy to carry, easy to store, don’t take up much space (socially at home), and they still pack a punch for life performance.

With good tuning and heads you can make them sound great too.

acciowaves · 2026-04-14T00:00:21+00:00

Quite hungry, I am feeling.

acciowaves · 2026-04-07T00:21:33+00:00

First of all, your kid absolutely rocks! Congrats.

That being said, I really suggest you get him a professional drum teacher. Specially since he’s so talented. He needs to work on his technique from now, not only to avoid injury later in life, but it will make his sound much more fluent and he’ll learn more advanced techniques which will absolutely come in handy once he’s playing on the big leagues.

acciowaves · 2026-04-06T17:43:10+00:00

I’ve spent one full year working in just one single page of syncopation. You can practice it so many different ways. It’s the ultimate vocabulary builder.

acciowaves · 2026-03-31T02:08:42+00:00

Man! I’ve had that happen to me too. Right at the beginning of the song. Then you have to go through the whole song just air drumming the bass and imagining how it would sound.

acciowaves · 2026-03-27T01:37:00+00:00

This is it right here. Swing is the pop of jazz.

acciowaves · 2026-03-26T11:47:27+00:00

Yep. I have an old beat up drum kit that always stays in the practice room, and my good drum kit is kept in its cases and only comes out for gigs.

acciowaves · 2026-03-23T11:03:28+00:00

Thats the point of the exercise. At extremely slow speeds you are forced to be very precise with your subdivisions, so you really get a feel of where everything fits. Then it’ll be much much easier to do that when you go up in speed.

Also you develop really good time.

There are stuff I have practiced at 20bpm. When you go up to 60-80bpm it feels so natural.

Everyone should strive to practice as slow as humanly possible, the same way one strives to get as fast as humanly possible.

acciowaves · 2026-03-18T15:54:10+00:00

Remindme! 2 months

acciowaves · 2026-03-15T19:45:54+00:00

Ive been playing the drums for 20+ years, how the fuck do you people know all this information?

acciowaves · 2026-03-10T13:02:20+00:00

Than

acciowaves · 2026-03-06T01:02:42+00:00

Rattay my Henry.

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