There are a variety of ways to improve with out having ready access
to private lessons.

1. Play along with the radio/CDs. To add variety, try playing with
some secular songs. In fact our worship team does songs from
U2/Evanescence/Simple Plan/etc in order to bring more people into
the church.

2. If you can read sheet music, try some lesson books in
Jazz/Rock/Pop style. If you don't read sheet music, you might think
about learning to.

3. Order some instructional videos, plenty of artists have them out
to help drummers improve.

4. Try web sites like Vic Firth (http://www.vicfirth.com/) and Tiger
Bill (http://www.tigerbill.com/). Both have a lot of information
including how to play better.

5. Practice, and more practice. Use a metronome, play for 1-5
minutes doing alternating one handed quadruplets/triplets. And work
up the bpms. The faster you play the less your arms/wrists move,
and the more your fingers are used to move the stick.

6. Before I play any set, whether on the worship team or otherwise.
the last thing I do is pray to God, that he uses my skills and plays
through me to let me worship him, because ultimately, he is the one
that has given me my skills, and using them in worship to praise him
is AWESOME!

Hope this helps.



--- In drummers4christ@yahoogroups.com, John Hopper
<icu_nurse_john@y...> wrote:
> Hello,
> I have been playing drums for about 5 years now in church,
but am stuck in kind of an advanced beginners stage. I live in a
small town, so lessons are not readily available. I love to play
and worship the Lord and sometimes am inhibited from playing what is
in my heart since I lack the skill to actually pull it off. If
anyone has some tips or speed drills or something that will help me
develop more of my non-dominate hand I would really REALLY
appreciate it. I also still have some trouble with some killer
fills or rolls. I would like to learn one similar to Sonic Flood
on their Spontaneous Worship song. Anyway, thanks for letting me
ramble.
> John
> Murphy, NC
>
>
> Until the King returns,
> John Hopper
>
> ---------------------------------
> Start your day with Yahoo! - make it your home page
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]