2 hours ago
I have started tracking my drum practice the way golfers track their game, and it has made my progress much easier to see. Instead of just playing for an hour, I record one simple score for each session, such as the highest clean tempo for a rudiment, the number of mistakes in a four-minute groove, or how many bars I can play with a click before drifting. I then compare the numbers against how difficult the exercise was, because a fast double-stroke roll and a slow backbeat are not the same challenge. That is exactly the idea behind a golf handicap: a raw score only means something once it is adjusted for course difficulty, so you can compare a hard day with an easy one fairly.
If you want to see how the adjustment works, a free golf handicap calculator is a good example, and I used this one to understand the logic: https://freegolfhandicapcalculator.com/ . You can then build your own drum version with a notebook or a spreadsheet, rating each exercise from 1 to 5 for difficulty and noting your result next to it. After a few weeks you will see a trend that is more honest than just feeling good or bad about a session. I would like to hear how others here track progress, so share your method, the exercises you measure and anything that helped you stay consistent.
If you want to see how the adjustment works, a free golf handicap calculator is a good example, and I used this one to understand the logic: https://freegolfhandicapcalculator.com/ . You can then build your own drum version with a notebook or a spreadsheet, rating each exercise from 1 to 5 for difficulty and noting your result next to it. After a few weeks you will see a trend that is more honest than just feeling good or bad about a session. I would like to hear how others here track progress, so share your method, the exercises you measure and anything that helped you stay consistent.