Can You Actually Improve as a Drummer Without Practicing on a Drum Kit?

Brett Roberts

3 days ago

3 min read

Brett Roberts playing drums during a live performance

If you don’t have access to a drum kit every day, does that mean you can’t improve as a drummer?

Not at all.

There are plenty of things you can work on when you’re practicing drumming without a drum kit.

How to Practice Drumming Without a Drum Kit: Work on Your Time

One of the most important things you can work on anywhere is your sense of time.

You can tap your foot, clap rhythms, practice subdivisions, or work with a metronome. You don’t need a full drum kit to start developing a better internal sense of time.

Try putting on a metronome and counting quarter notes, eighth notes, triplets and sixteenth notes. Then try to feel those subdivisions without actually playing them.

It sounds simple, but this kind of work can make a big difference when you get back behind the kit.

Use a Practice Pad or Other Surface

A practice pad obviously doesn’t give you the same experience as playing a complete drum set, but it’s a very useful tool.

You can work on singles, doubles, paradiddles and other rudiments. You can also work on your consistency, control and dynamics.

The goal isn’t just to play these exercises faster. Try playing them slowly and evenly first. Listen to what you’re actually playing.

Work on Coordination

You can also work on coordination away from the kit.

Tap one rhythm with your foot while playing another with your hands. Try different combinations and gradually make them more complicated.

You don’t need to start with something difficult. Start with something you can actually control and build from there.

Listen

Another thing you can do anywhere is listen.

Pick a drummer you like and really listen to what they’re doing. Don’t just listen to the song as a whole. Pay attention to the groove, the fills, the dynamics and how the drummer interacts with the other musicians.

Try to figure out what they’re playing. You might not be able to reproduce everything right away, but the process of listening closely is part of becoming a better musician.

Think About What You’re Playing

You can also practice without physically playing.

Think about a groove you know. Hear it in your head. Think about where the bass drum, snare and hi-hat are falling. Think about what you might play over a particular section of a song.

This may sound strange at first, but being able to hear something before you play it is an important part of becoming a better musician.

But You Still Need to Play the Kit

Of course, there are things you can’t completely replace.

You need to spend time behind the kit to work on things like moving around the drums, playing with all four limbs, dynamics and actually putting everything together.

The point isn’t that you don’t need a drum kit.

The point is that you don’t have to wait until you’re sitting behind one to work on your playing.

If you only have 20 minutes with a kit, having already worked on your time, coordination, listening and ideas away from the drums can make those 20 minutes much more productive.

Whether you’re just getting started or you’ve been playing for years, there’s always something you can work on.

Sometimes the best practice is simply figuring out what you need to work on next.