Mike Johnston: 10-Day Plan For Faster Hands, Pt. 1 

The most encouraging thing for me is that at 82 yrs. of age, I can still learn something that improves my playing. Thank you.

I like to practice single stroke roles on a pillow with heavy marching sticks. I use slow, but full strokes first with fingers, wrists, then arms, 5 minutes each, totaling 15 minutes. I increase the speed by 1bpm about each day.

I've been teaching for 30 years and I use this system with my students and it WORKS! Thanks again bro!

Thanks for share'n your knowledge. I have for the first time, found a use for the internet. Bought my first kit at 59 yrs young, playing geriatric punk/rock....whatever. Best of times...I'm loving drum"n.

just wanted to say thank you for this video. my double strokes went from clean @75 bpm to 125 bpm (clean) in 10 days. on average, my other rudiments gained about 20 bpm in 10 days. i did practice for about 3 hours a day, but i really can't believe how big the improvement was. Thanks for this awesome video! you got a new subscriber today!

I have been practicing this for about 2 weeks and it has been pretty awesome to see it come around. Every day i seem to use less thought to sustain the exercise at tempo, and then as any good thing should it comes out naturally in playing. Had a friend who i play with regularly mention he noticed an improvement in my technique, so that was a nice confirmation that i am on the right track! Thanks!

Drums are really fun. 😄

Trying to watch this at work with no sound.. The captions/subtitles on this are hilarious! .... "Perry did a little" = Paradiddle-diddle :P

Hi mike I've been playing drums for 17 years and your helpful tips are great. Thanks man

Awesome info, as soon as thinking isn’t involved the true magic happens in music and in life. Love you in a brotherly way Mike!

Spot on! His hands look like a hummingbird's wings

Great job, Mike. I am a former educator and player myself. You have a great personality and great approach!

Slow and steady wins the race! Thank you for the upload and reminder. Be blessed

The link to the story is here. www.drummagazine.com/lessons/post/10-day-plan-for-faster-hands/ Some people have asked about Mike's sticks. He plays a Vater 2451.

Best drum teacher ever! About to sign up for Mike's Lessons and buy all your books

He is doing flams Correctly! Everytime I hear someone playing flams, the grace note and main note are so close together that it sounds like one note. Good job.

This WORKS! I did it a little differently. I haven’t played in 5 years so this was an incredible way to regain my coordination. I did each exercise twice as long and for 20 days. All my rudiments are 200 bpm plus now: thank you MIKE!!!

That lesson, for me, is GOLD! Because I was thinking exactly in the same way you said (left-left......) and it's helping me a lot!. Thanks! :D

Thanks for the tips and sharing you’re knowledge. I play snare since I was 5 years old. And now 41 years later still learning trying to get better. It is really as you say, mind over muscles as I think of it. This will really help 👍👍

This makes good sense. I guess you could say it's more hand eye coordination and smaller bits of information that you can store and recall more swiftly.

what a brilliant teacher

"No baby bounce stuff" 🙂😄😆🤣😜🤪 Have a nice sunday!!!! Greetings from germany Christoph 👏👏👏👏👏

i love how he says the students were as fast if not faster than me.... i very much doubt it

Will incorporate in my daily exercise. Thanks alot.

I always find something helpful, even if its not the full lesson, and so I am encouraged. In this lesson counting the quarter notes out loud which I found difficult before is becoming easier. This lesson reminded me to do this.

Q : do you know what a metronome is? A : A little short guy from the big city. God bless Y'all.

This is true for reading also. We have inner monologue going on when we read. The key to read faster is move eyes swiftly through lines. Same goes for drumming. Need to shut down the inner monologue and Get your hand working.

4:10 is the best part of the vid

Honestly, for me, I feel like my left hand just doesn't have the natural ability for speed, but I do have the rudiment muscle memory.

He has a great way of explaining these things

Bro thanks for this 10 day plan... Seems to be working... 🍻🍻🍻

The Oakland Stroke from Tower of Power is founded on the Paradidle- diddle

FANTASTIC lesson. Thanks Mike!!!!

When talking about Double Strokes, You start with a wrist 2 tap, but end in a faster "open close" technique. These are two different techniques....same thing for the paradiddle..(once you start playing faster{i can see your fingers open and close}).sometimes we don't realize we are doing the open close as it is very natural outcome after playing rudiments for a while... wanted to point that out..

Always explained so simply. Cheers Mike!

that works on every instrument. I play Guitar for over 26 years now, and everytime i come to a new technique, i pratice it as slow as possible. After 2 oder 3 Weeks my fingers literaly fly over the strings.

ok day one is today!! lets try it

Mike - power packed lesson amigo! fantastic hits on 5 of the rudiments! Thank you!

If you're hurting your hands, you may want to consider investing in some drumming gloves. They take a little getting used to, but they help absorb some of that shock you get from the sticks. Also, with the speed, it's ALWAYS a good idea to start off slow, and go up. Don't forget to stretch beforehand as well! That's something ALOT of drummers forget, and why they find themselves cramping up and hurting after so much time.

Awesome Lesson Mike

Probably as long as you feel fit. If you're going for endurance, go for 2 minutes. If you just wanna get your rudiments down quickly (say, before practice with a band or something) then just go up and down in your speeds, and increase the time you spend at top speed more as you go along. Basically, you set your own goals, then accomplish them. :)

There's no way around it, try this out and your hand speed will develop. The flam exercise, I think it's number two, next to Stick Control, is one of the best warm up tools I have ever used. Thanks Mike!

Excellent! I will be focusing on flam taps and paradiddle diddles.

The workout is crazy but it is to nice Im really thankful for this video Men its make you work hard but you see thee progress when you play And people be like you toke some lessons or someone teach you the and just by telling this people no Mike Johnston 10-days workout thats all they just think I'm playing around but I'm not. Actually yesterday one of thee people of the Church I go to thought that there was another DRUMMER on the drums but when he saw he was like you your taking lessons finally I just told him what I'm doing just my 10-days workout

Wow Mike Johnston is the rare video host who's equally good at drumming and speaking. It's interesting that every great drummer has videos like this because they know that's what people are searching for online - 100k views - but you don't get great without understanding that fast hands are at most a symptom of solid fundamentals and not really useful in isolation. Sells videos though!

MIKE, you're a best! THANK YOU.

Really appreciate this Mike.

fantastic looking drum set

Very well said... this is a fab perspective for many players to keep in mind when practicing. Peace.

It's the Mike Johnston ghost note pro by DW with the bar that can fit on either side removed. I'm sure you can get it on amazon or a similar retailer.

Just good straight up teaching

A lot of it is dynamics. Each part of the drum kit is more or less audible or sensitive than the other (ex. toms are less sensitive and harder to articulate with than the snare or cymbals). I would say use a pillow to do some of your rudiments. It definitely builds your strength.

Great technique for learning ostinatos

Thank you sir, this is exactly what I need.

Thank you!

Awesome lesson. Thank you.

Thanks Mike your the best.........

Saw the article in Drum! magazine. Very impressive!

Thanks Mike

Thanks, you're right. Obviously, the pad is not a replacement for the kit and will try the pillow thing you and Dan suggested as well.

Best teacher!

Great stuff Mike

you can do all of these in one lesson by keeping them all at the same tempo and building them up to a faster speed . Try playing paradiddlediddles hand to hand at 140 bpm .

the best so far I found

Awesome awesome video! Thank you

master teacher. thanks.

Y'all should check out Tommy Igoe's Great Hands for a lifetime dvd, really cool stuff on there along these lines. Might wanna also check out a book called Stick Control. That book alone will keep you busy for years!

WHAT and WHERE is that ROOM! OMG - it's beautiful... your house?

wow this is awesome, excellent tips!

Interesting that the grip in his right and left hand is so different. Pointer on the right hand is curled behind the stick creating a fulcrum at that point, while the pointer of his left hand is uncurled/straight. Also much more of a german position in the left hand, whereas his right hand is more American/french. This is especially noticeable at minute 5:00. I wonder what implications such technical differences between hands might have for building speed (if any).

Awesome! Thank you!

"As soon as it starts to get sloppy, write down your score" Oooook.... *checks notes*.... One.

very helpful thanks

Makes good sense

Amazing lesson!

very informative thanks.

You just inspired me dude!

"zaggity ziggity zoggity" xD

Hi Mike, I get so much help from your videos. Thanks for the pushing!!

i will use this for basketball to dunk good, just repeat slow jumps

it's the Mike Johnston Ghost Note Pro Pad! :)

How do you do the Para-di-dul-di-dul?

Why shouldn't I use the moeller stroke for the doubles? Is it in general or just for this exercise because you want develop your speed?

Wow! there's so much I don't know. I didn't recognize one of those beat names and I've been "playing" for 30+ years. My speed, of course, is very very slow.

The pad is the DW Mike Johnston pad

thanks for all my brother!!!!

Great Plan!!

Is it necessary to practice the paradiddle diddles accenting the left hand too?

Fantastic

How many measures do you have to play at a certain bpm for it to be your "max?" For instance, lets say I can play doubles at 200 bpm but only for a couple of measures until my wrists give out, does that still count as my max?

Sir I have a question is your practice pad stand a snare stand?

nice video bro... thanks for sharing! :D

stay relaxed

awsome!

What is a good tempo for beginners to control my doubles are weak ?

what is the last exercise's name? (didn't understand name that mentioned on the video) 5:03

Hey Mike, would you mind sharing what practice pad you are using? It's such a beauty

I am using a Sound Percussion drum pad. Really been working on the paradiddle and par addle diddiles and have have gotten good speed with them. Then I go to the kit and my speed is cut in half and sounds sloppy. What the heck am I doing wrong.

is it okay to take it slow before we test our fast speed

thats what confuse me too...yeah i can max out at certain speeds and but for how long...more details please...and by the way i did do the ten days ,i have been playing for 30 yrs and i have seen an increase..fun stuff...i will do this again as well..i wonder if that is ok