Practice Tip Tuesday:

Removing Mental and Physical Practice Barriers. Setup your practice space to encourage practice.

Today's Setup: Innovative Percussion CP-1R Black Corps Practice Pad / Vic Firth Corps Master Bill Bachman Tenor Sticks

Tip #11: The more comfortable you are behind your drums, the more likely you are to practice

As part of my lessons, I'm often asked to help setup and tune student's drum sets at their home. Almost every time, the front of the drums are setup facing the center of the room when I arrive. And this makes a lot of sense from a spectators perspective. When you think about setting up drums from a drummers perspective, it makes more sense for the playing side to face the center of the room. This is the side that draws a drummer in to play. I know I have a hard time walking past a drum set without wanting to play it. This removes a mental practice barrier. It has the added benefit of being more space efficient. And perhaps most importantly it removes a physical practice barrier, allowing the student to immediately sit down and play without having to walk behind, or sometimes climb around the drum set.

If you use your practice space to play with other musicians or facing a wall is otherwise not an option, ensure you have a clear, wide and uncluttered route to your drum throne and plenty of space behind your set so you don't feel crowded.

In the end, the more comfortable you are behind your drums and the easier they are to access, the more you will want to play.

Drummers, How is your practice space set up? Share a pic.