How Much Did My Drumming Improve in 14 Years

It’s getting toward the end of the year so…playing retrospective!

Ever feel like all your drum heroes were “born with it”? Ever feel like you “should” sound better for the length of time you’ve been playing?

From time to time when those thoughts creep in, I find it’s helpful to look back over the years. Progress can be hard to see in real time, but nothing reminds you you really have climbed pretty far like a compressed look back in time.

And I’ve finally been on the internet long enough to put together a retrospective that will show convincing progress over time…without emailing old college friends for lost footage. Nope - I’m doing this entirely from the YouTube and Instagram archives.

The timeline starts in 2008. A few years out of music school. Playing what I call “student jazz”. Something convinced me I needed to be good at backbeat music to be well rounded, and it was maybe the best decision I’ve ever made in my drumming. (Being able to play back beats and big kits has made my jazz better.)

What ensued was a couple of years of just…weak, “jazz drummer” beats, and watered-down solos. I can hear some chops and ideas peaking their way through, but it’s like knowing a few words in a foreign language.

From 2014 on, things started to pick up. In 2017, I played the first “chops” thing that impressed me, and in 2019 I can hear I was starting to dig in and feel comfortable in the center of the beat.

But the crazy thing is by the time I started to sound good, it was already hard to remember what it was like before I knew what I’d learned. And, as I discuss, the more you lose touch with what it feels like not to know something, the harder it is to teach.

Will one of the earlier clips remind you or your playing?

Will this video inspire somebody who thinks they don’t have what it takes to keep going?

Who knows. But I invite your opinions.

Please enjoy this 14-year retrospective of my playing.

Hi Hat Stomp Beats - Steal This "Trick" From Steve Gadd, JD Beck, and Jason McGerr

First things first - download your free transcription here.

A listening suggestion I got in the coaching program I teach jointly with Jacob Evans inspired this week’s video.

“Have you checked out the foot-to-hand thing Jason McGerr from Death Cab does?”

I had to admit, I hadn’t.

But when the student pointed me to a video, I recognized what Jason was doing immediately.

“OOH - that’s the Steve Gadd 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover thing.”

But not just Steve. Also Vinnie, on Sting’s Mad About You from MTV Unplugged. Also JD Beck, Dana Hawkins…practically every modern drummer who draws any influence from jazz.

So I thought maybe it was time to try, in my own way, to John Danaher this thing. Like, what are the fundamentals of playing these idioms, which, I found out, the kids are calling “stomp beats”.

Well, it turns out there are a finite number of ways to stomp the hats, then play with the other hands. And most every stomp groove or lick you hear is made up of these few stomp “rudiments”.

So in this video, expect to discover:

• What those “rudiments” are

• How to make some basic beats with them

• More advanced beats and licks, including one thing I probably stole from Darion Ja’Von

• Two “famous” stomp beats, one classic and one modern

And the whole thing’s transcribed for you - just click here to download that.

If you’ve ever watched Steve, or Jason, or JD, or countless other drummer incorporating “stomps” with the hi hat foot into their grooves and wondered “how to do I do that”, this is a lesson for you.

Enjoy!

Could You Do The Gig: Erykah Badu

We’ve all got our “bucket list” of amazing artists we’d drop everything and give notice at our jobs to play with if they called. The Police, Soundgarden, Tigran, etc.

And this isn’t as far-fetched situation as you might think, especially for elite drummers like J.P. Bouvet, who cataloged his subbing with Periphery in his vlog, nor session/tour go-tos like Josh Freese, Steve Jordan, or Dave Elitch.

But it is a little far-fetched for us.

But that doesn’t mean we can’t indulge in the fantasy. We’ve just finished dinner. We’re settling down to watch an episode of Game of Thrones (a timely reference again ;), and suddenly the phone rings, and it’s…

Well, this week, for the inaugural installment of “Could You Do The Gig”, it’s Erykah.

And that’s no coincidence, because Erykah, particularly VH1 Soul/Chris Dave-era Erykah, is probably my number-one dream gig. Which doesn’t mean it would be easy.

Erykah is also a good first artist to feature on the 80/20 channel, because the thing that make her music difficult are the “pro skills” - the less than obvious stuff I detailed in my “5 ways pros can tell if a drummer’s legit” video. Stuff like learning songs quickly, locking up with the rest of the rhythm section, following non-verbal cues (and verbal ones), not tensing up onstage, etc.

Plus the whole “parking space” thing, for which I want to give credit to my friend Ian Allison’s friend Steve Goold. (I’m planning to do a whole video on the parking space soon and hopefully Steve will let me interview him.)

But yea - the parking space. On slow songs like Other Side of The Game and Tyrone, that parking space is hella-wide, and Erykah’s drummers - in particular Charles “Poogie” Bell on the live versions - parked that backbeat right in the center on every beat. That’s tough.

For this installment, I chose 3 iconic Erykah songs - two from the Live album with Poogie, one from the VH1 Soul show with Chris Dave.

How did I do? Think I could do the gig? And how would you do? Could you do the gig?

Check out the video to find out.

Enjoy!

The Joel Turcotte Lick That Nearly Broke Instagram

Anybody who’s been on drum Instagram in the last decade is probably familiar with Joel Turcotte, and if you’re not, you should be.

Not only is Joel a funny, irreverent, and entertaining personality, he brings this same approach to the drums.

Last week, Joel was in town on one of the last legs of a tour, so he swung by 80/20 HQ. So I handed him sticks, mic’d him up, sat him behind the drums, turned a camera on, and let things roll.

What followed was nearly 3 hours of drums and conversation. But today’s video is about just a tiny fraction of that material. When Joel was showing me a lick he’d been working on, I happened to pull out my phone and post it to Instagram.

I thought people would be excited to see Joel, but I didn’t realize just how excited they’d be. The video got a TON of comments and support, and many people (obviously) wanted to know how to play the lick.

Luckily, I asked Joel to slow it down, and demonstrate what we was doing.

In this video, Joel “guest teaches” you his lick, with me jumping in to transcribe things and explain further…

…then I “go rogue” with one of Joel’s concepts, and try to develop something of my own.

Hope you enjoy!