Turns Out, Drum Technique Is Really Important

First things first - grab your free study-guide here.

In my teaching, everything needs to justify its existence. (Or at least that’s what I tell myself.)

There aren’t any exercises there “because somebody said we’re supposed to do it.”

Everything answers to a musical imperative. And you can probably guess the reasoning: if you want to get good at something, you should at least start with the assumption that the most efficient way to do it is to practice that thing.

Following this logic, I didn’t make technique a prerequisite for anything. “If you’re trying to playing something musical and it’s a bottleneck, deal with it then.”

Trouble was…

…I started to see the same roadblocks developing in multiple specific cases.

For example, somebody trying to play linear improvisation having trouble getting their ghost notes in time.

Somebody trying to play funk on the hi hat finding the consecutive notes challenging.

The common denominator was hands. (For this video, at least. In real life, sometimes it was also one or both feet.)

And that’s one exception to the “practice exactly what you want to play” rule: when you keep hitting the same issue across multiple things you’re trying to play, it may be more efficient to take a breather, and practice that “hub skill”.

“Shoot. That’s the same thing as a prerequisite.”

And then I was back in the nicotine-stained back-room of Ace’s Custom Guitars on East Main, with my elementary school drum teacher staring me down, saying “you can’t play the kit until you master these books on the practice pad.” (Names changed to protect the innocent.)

I don’t want to be that guy. And I won’t. But what I will say is, with you want to do musically as a starting-point, backing up to some technique prerequisites can be helpful.

And not just to play fast or fancy stuff.

To get your ghost notes on a slow grooves in the right place.

To play a fill without tension.

To get a good, consistent sound out of the drum.

Not to mention to play into…older age.

So I put together a video on it. One which includes maybe the most comprehensive study-guide I’ve ever made, so you’ll want to download that. (At the top of this article.)

Hope you enjoy!

A Better (?) Way to Learn Jazz Drum Solos

First things first - grab your free transcription here.

I’ve got a feeling the title and thumbnail will go through some further iteration before the public sees them.

So if you’ve been following the channel, you know we’ve done a fair bit on “grand unified theories” of improvisation. Like - first order: arranging phrase lengths creatively while keeping 4/4 in your head. Below that, attaching specific drum licks of the same length, and learning to play them. Below that, substituting specific licks and shapes creatively to create your individual “tool kit”. To extend on that, different phrase lengths that can create “odd” shapes.

And we’ve looked at this taxonomy for…shall we say…fusion…styles of improvisation.

But it’s no less useful for jazz. After all, everything has a length. And through my teaching this year, it’s occurred to me that this rhythmic system can solve one of the more fundamental issues learning to improvise for jazz drums: how to get transcriptions of the greats into our playing.

Sure others have put this together, but not we’re doing it!

But, super-broad-strokes, “mainstream” approach to learning jazz drumming was:

1. Rudiments

2. Transcribing the greats

3. Long ellipses

4. Mastery

Like the South Park Underpants Gnomes, those ellipses were doing a lot of unheralded work. They were actually the main part of the challenge. Because it’s obviously one thing to transcribe verbatim, then copy greats like Max Roach.

And there’s probably a “long way” where if you transcribe enough, eventually the vocab will get in there via brute force, like a newborn learning language.

But I think we can do better.

And the “lego blocks” system, or whatever the name-of-the-week is, helps this immensely. If we start by learning to sequence and rearrange “lego blocks” - i.e. basic vocabulary - while keeping 4/4 in our heads and taking care of all the details like timing, touch, subdivision, the hats on “2 and 4”, etc…

…then we can just substitute any hotlick from Max, Philly Joe, et al, right into the matrix, as long as we account correctly for the link.

It’s…ALIIIIIVE.

Or something.

Anyway, in this video, we start by presenting the system, in brief, then move swiftly to substituting real jazz drum vocabulary. All in the hopes that you can shorten the process between not playing jazz solos at all, and being a complete master, by having a useful toolkit you can deploy even as you’re doing into greater detail learning the masters.

Hope you enjoy.

Why Matt Garstka Holds Himself Back

First things first - grab your free transcription here.

I’d been struggling to put something into words until I saw an instragram post from Matt a couple of weeks ago.

Here’s the gist: Matt had just helped a friend “PR” (personal record) in the weight-room. As you do, he began drawing drum analogies.

“There's power in being consistent and making slow progress,” he said.

“It feels like you might not be moving forward because you're just doing the same set of things and just doing a little more of them. But in the background, quietly, that strength is building.”

Then, the crux: “I'm always…almost holding myself back a step [and] holding myself …accountable for for quality, not just quantity. Not just hitting some number of BPM.”

And there it was.

One of the most common questions people ask me is “when should I increase the BPM?”

And it’s not that the answer is “never”.

Indeed, there are specific instances in which you should be practicing things at a range of tempos. Or when you’ve mastered something enough slowly, and you can increase the bpm a little.

I guess the point is where you put “adding speed” on the priority list. And it’s way down the priority list. Below touch, subdivision, idea flow, unisions, and comfort with the idioms. (“Feeling natural”, as Matt puts it.)

It’s below being able to do everything you do comfortably in the practice room with a camera rolling, or a teacher watching. Or onstage.

I’ve told students “I’d rather you become an absolute ninja at groove, improvisation, and flow at 85 bpm or below”, then, and only then, start to increase the tempo.

But I’ve often worried if I was out on a limb for this. Maybe we should be pushing for speed earlier on the checklist.

That’s why I found Matt’s instagram post (in its entirety here) strangely reassuring. “Here’s at least someone else - and one of the most respected modern drummers out there - saying he holds himself back, and values quality over quantity.”

Hope you enjoy this interrogation of Matt’s musings.

Finally, if you’re interested in a tour-guide for this journey, I’ve got 1 coaching slot left before the program shortens from 24 lessons to 20. We’re currently conducting interviews. For more info and the link to apply, click here.

5 Reasons Your Chops Don't Sound "Pro"

First things first - grab your free transcription here.

This week’s video speaks to a frustration that’s well-represented in the Youtube canon, but with what I hope is a more-novel-than-usual solution.

You practice stuff to improvise better on the drums.

Then you watch the drummers you admire, and what you’re playing doesn’t sound anything like that.

It’s not just that it’s a very-proto facsimile, that requires a ton of time to develop.

It’s that it’s not even in the same universe. You’re practicing French, then you see great drummers play, and it’s Russian.

And most lessons I’ve seen on the subject jump off of that premise by giving you some licks to play. And we’ll be doing that as well, but I also attempted to put the entire thing in context. Today’s video will be a journey through the “layers” of why you might not sound “pro”, beginning with the layers most likely to affect beginners, and progressing to those more likely to affect advanced players.

It’s like IT diagnosing your computer issue, starting with “is it plugged in”.

And for drummers, the “is it plugged in” is simple: are you even studying vocabulary that bares any resemblance to what you eventually want to play. If not, why?

Then, we assume you’ve gotten some basic “real” vocabulary, and can mix-and-match it, but you “still” don’t sound pro.

Great. Now let’s talk about timing, touch, and dynamics.

Still don’t sound “pro”?

Great. Now let’s talk about changing subdivisions instead of always playing 16ths.

Still not?

Cool, now we’ll talk about odd-length phrasees.

Still still not?

How come you’re always “orbiting” the snare? Why aren’t you using polyphony more creatively? etc.

And I link from some of the early chapters to more detailed videos on the methods. But think of this week’s video as a framework to guide your direction with improvisation. And once you get past the first 3 stages, it becomes way more about taste and the direction you want to go.

Plenty of great drummers, for example, play in a more “jazz” style, with most of the ghost notes still on the snare, and other surfaces used for accents.

Or, you can go full-Cleon-Edwards, inventing your own polyphony, and “breaking” every “rule”.

Finally, if you’re interested in a tour-guide for this journey, I’ve got 1-2 coaching slots open before the program shortens from 24 lessons to 20. We’re currently conducting interviews. For more info and the link to apply, click here.