Practice Playing Drums with Headphones

One of my favorite ways to practice is to play along to music I like. Being able to listen to music and pick out the drum beat in your mind is a great skill. Even while in a car or bus and listening to music, I often pick out the drums and focus on exactly how to play the beat. You can take this even further and use headphones to play along to music on your kit. I like to use the in ear kind, or ones with some noise cancellation, but any kind will do.

By training yourself to play by ear, you strengthen the connection between your mind and your instrument. It will become easier to make up beats in your head and then immediately play them on the drums.

Playing along to music helps you focus on keeping time because you can use the song as a metronome. Playing entire songs from start to finish can also be good endurance training, especially if you pick long songs. You may also learn some new patterns or techniques from your favorite music, something that you can then incorporate into your own original grooves.