Get ready to unlock your music learning super power! This trick is not something you would expect. It comes easily to some and is a learnt thing for others. Aside from, of course making a good practicing routine and sticking to it, the best skill you can have is being able to identify when you are doing something wrong.
It’s easy to grasp. If you are playing something wrong but you do not know you are, you are going to practice it and practice it incorrectly. This is going to cause you to make progress in the wrong direction and put time and effort into something that is wasteful. Unlearning something is way harder than learning it!
However if you are aware enough to know that what you did was wrong, then you will spend the time on figuring out why. This is so important to improving. When ever a student messes up a part or plays it with some bad technique and they make a face or say “nope/whoops/uh oh”. Then I always congratulate them on that. It shows that their brains understand what we are doing, even if their hands don’t want to cooperate.
If this is something that does not come easily to you or your student, I would recommend having them record themselves when they practice. This way they can take a “third party” approach to their playing. Without having to focus on what they are doing, just on what they see, they may be able to identify when they don’t look like they are playing properly, or when they don’t line up with the music. Another trick is to give yourself a rating after every rep. This allows you to think reflectively on what you played instead of just moving on to another rep.
As a drummer, the battle always takes place between our hands and our brain. As teachers, we should always nurture the brain and let the hands catch up, instead of the other way around.
-Hilary