Five Step Plan To Achieve Your Drumming Goals in the New Year 2025 (With Examples)!

As the new year rolls in, it's the perfect time to set fresh goals for your drumming journey. Whether you're a beginner just picking up the sticks or an advanced drummer looking to refine your skills, the start of the year offers a clean slate to rethink your practice routines, focus on new techniques, and push your limits.

But what exactly can you do to not only set goals but also stick to it?

In case the next year is not the first year you'll be practicing this wonderful instrument, it can help to reflect on your last year in terms of progress and achievements, practice habits, challenges and inspiration. I think this really helps you to understand your progress and to see if you are on the right track or if there are some adjustments needed.

Example

You can use the questions I'm asking myself as an inspiration:

• What were the biggest improvements in your drumming this year?
• Which drumming goals did you accomplish, and how did they impact your playing?
• Did you learn any specific songs, techniques, or styles that you're proud of?
• How consistent was your practice routine? Did you practice regularly?
• What exercises or routines were the most effective in improving your skills?
• Did you focus more on technique, creativity, or performance?
• What inspired you the most this year—certain drummers, bands, genres, or events?
• Did you enjoy your time behind the kit, or did it feel more like work at times?
• Which moments reminded you why you love drumming?
• Any areas you wanted to improve but didn't? If so, why?

As you can read in my last blog article "How I Finally Started Achieving My Drumming Goals (And How You Can Too!)", I'm a big believer in goal-setting in general. In case you don't know what SMART goals are, I'll suggest checking out the article first. I promise - it helps!

Examples

Here are a few examples of my new year drumming goals in the SMART goal format:

• 1. Master and perform all 20 songs from the setlist for "The Grand Jam" event in Frankfurt by May 24, 2025, with each song played at the original tempo with all original fills
• 2. Increase my single-stroke roll speed from current 160 BPM to 190 BPM (16th notes) with both hands, maintaining clean technique for 2 minutes straight, by December 31, 2025
• 3. Learn, record, edit, and publish a drum cover of "maybe (feat. Bring me the Horizon)" on my YouTube channel by the end 2025
• ...

Now it's your turn ;)!

Now that you have your overall goals, it's time to break them down into smaller, actionable exercises. This will help you stay focused and motivated, and make it easier to track your progress. I can highly recommend using the Drumbitious app for this. As an example, I'll show you how I break down my first and second goal into practice plans within Drumbitious:

First goal:

• 1. Create a new practice plan called "The Grand Jam 2025"
• 2. Create 20 new exercises each for one song from the setlist (including BPM, audio, video and PDF)
• 3. Add the exercises to the practice plan
• 4. Set a reminder for the practice plan

Second goal:

• 1. Create a new practice plan called "Increase Hand Speed"
• 2. Create or choose 5 exercises
• 3. Add the exercises to the practice plan
• 4. Set a reminder for the practice plan

Every time you are practicing, you can start your created plan with one click and you will be guided through the exercises. At the end of each exercise, you can leave a note, document your bpm and practiced time as well as how you felt during the practice.

This structured approach ensures every minute you spend practicing is purposeful and productive, helping you build better habits and faster results.

In case you set up exercises in Drumbitious it's super easy to track (and celebrate) your progress. A practice diary and statistics will be generated automatically for you and will for sure help you to see your progress and stay motivated. Sometimes even if you don't feel like you made any progress, it is there and just needs to be displayed to you ☺️.

I'm fully aware that life is full of change. I highly recommend to revisit your goals regularly and adjust goals, exercises and plans based on:

• Your progress and achievement rate
• Changes in available practice time
• New musical interests or opportunities
• Your enjoyment of the current routine

If the current routine doesn't work out for you or you don't enjoy the process at all it's hard to stick to it. Also add new goals in case you are highly motivated to learn something new.

Start Your Structured Drumming Journey Today

Ready to transform your drumming in 2025? Download Drumbitious for Android or iOS to set up your goals, exercises and practice plans. Need help creating your drumming goals? Contact me via email - I'm always happy to help you <3! Let's make 2025 your best drumming year yet! Happy new year and happy drumming 🥁!