Learn New Rudiments FASTER!

So in teaching Students for over 20 years, I’ve definitely learned a thing or two about how Students learn and why learning new actions can be so difficult.

Part of it is just their bodies (or specifically their hands for example) inability to execute an action we want it to do.

To deal with this, I have found a few techniques that seem to be pretty effective.

One of the techniques I found is the concept of the Mind and Body connection.

Sometimes, getting our hands to do what we want them to do can be the hardest thing. After all, imagine how hard it was to learn paradiddles for the first time.

If your hands are not used to going R L R R and then L R L L, then you’re not necessarily going to get it right away.

Ok, let’s say paradiddles are easy, but what about cheeses and flam drags and flam fives, etc?

What about learning how to march in step for the first time.

Anybody have difficulty playing on the upbeats when your feet go down on the downbeats?

I would imagine it is pretty difficult because it’s pretty difficult for everyone.

Our bodies natural tendency is to have the hands hit the drum and for the feet to hit the ground at the same time; it’s easy and it’s comfortable which is why our bodies default to that action.

But when it comes to feet, then hands, then feet, then hands…it’s pretty difficult to coordinate those actions.

So in that case, you want to take it slow, know what needs to happen in your brain and then force your body to do what you know to be correct.

It can be pretty difficult at first, but the more your FORCE your body to listen to your brain, the faster it will be for you to learn a new physical action.

What do you think? What other techniques do you know of that can help you learn new actions faster?

For more perspective, make sure to watch the video below: