I love to practice drums! Sometimes, it’s frustrating and other times invigorating, and sometimes it’s somewhere in between. Regardless, I enjoy being on the drum set. The actual feeling that comes from striking a drum is very...
Read moreJazz Drumming
I just had the opportunity to play a nice jazz gig in a great venue backing up a jazz pianist. It was a classic jazz piano trio – piano, bass and drums. We played standards and one original composition. There was no rehearsal for this gig!...
Read moreCommunication and Listening
When hearing music being played – whether I’m a listener in the audience or a participant on the band stand – I really enjoy the interplay that can happen between the musicians. Most often, this is experienced in a...
Read moreFollow-up to The “Count Off” – Counting a Tune In
I seem to have made an assumption in my prior post when talking about how to count off a tune or how to count in a tune. My apologies. I described how to click your sticks together while counting so that the band can start together. I failed to...
Read moreThe “Count Off” – Counting a Tune In
Many times, as drummers, the band leader looks to us to count off the tune so that everyone starts together and also so that the tune has a groove from the first note. I find that I like this approach as it gives me a chance to think about the...
Read moreFollow-up to Compliments and Ego
In the last paragraph of my prior post I mentioned that… “I am usually the best person to listen to when it comes time to access my skills as a musician and, more specifically, as a drummer.” Let me augment that by saying that a...
Read moreCompliments and Ego
After playing a set at a gig, sometimes people come up to me and say nice things about my drumming. This can be anyone: the casual listener; a patron of the bar who’s had a few drinks; and/or a fellow musician up on the band stand with me...
Read moreConsistency and Practicing
It has been my experience that consistency plays a important role when trying to improve. I am talking about consistency in terms of the amount of time spent practicing; the actual time of day that is chosen for practicing; and the practice...
Read moreLearning How to Practice
Many of my students have had trouble learning how to practice while sitting down behind the drum set. Quite often, they play the things that they can already do and don’t spend enough time on new challenges. Instead of telling them not to...
Read morePatience
Learning to be patient with myself has been an on-going process for me. This seems to get harder and not easier when I’m trying something new on the drum set. The more I’m able to execute complex ideas that have taken me a while to...
Read moreLearning to Dance, Drums, Repetition and Patience
Recently, I have spent some time trying to learn how to swing dance (Lindy Hop) and also ballroom. Being a drummer, I thought that it would be fairly easy to feel the rhythm and stay with the beat of the music. Well… sometimes it was and...
Read moreDynamics
It’s been my experience that when playing music, it’s important to have a sense of dynamics. Not everything is meant to played as loud as possible. This is true whether you’re at a jam session (“sitting in”) or...
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