# Practice plan

Four weeks, twenty minutes a day. Every session: 2 minutes single strokes, 12 on
the week's work, 6 playing along with real music. The last 6 are not optional — a
groove that only works alone is not finished.

## Week 1 — the skeleton

- The kit and reading a groove; know the marks without thinking
- Kick and snare, then hat on quarters, then eighths
- Basic rock beat at 60 BPM for a minute, clean. Then 65.
- Count out loud, not in your head

## Week 2 — dividing the beat

- Switch the hat between quarters, eighths, sixteenths with the backbeat holding
- Kick on the "&" of 2 and 3, pattern click on
- Four on the floor, and switching mid-loop
- 80 clean beats 100 nearly

## Week 3 — loud and soft

- Accent each beat on sixteenth hats, then move it to the "&"
- Snare ghosts unmistakably quieter than the backbeat
- Open hat on the last "&", closing exactly on 1
- Record yourself once; listen for whether the soft notes are soft

## Week 4 — going somewhere

- One-beat fill on beat 4, landing beat 1 on time
- Three bars groove, one bar fill, round and round
- One non-rock groove: shuffle or half-time
- Play a whole song through, mistakes included

## If you are stuck

| Symptom | Usually | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Speeds up through the bar | Hearing notes, not the beat | Pattern click, four bars at a time |
| Beat 1 late after a fill | Too many notes in the fill | Remove a note; don't play it faster |
| Hat and snare uneven together | Two limbs, one habit | That pair alone, no kick, half tempo |
| Ghosts as loud as the backbeat | Same stick height for both | Exaggerate, then bring ghosts up |
| Falls apart at speed | Practised unevenly, then sped up | Back to the even tempo, +5 BPM a day |