The Real Reason You Can't Flow Around The Toms Like The Pros

First things first - grab your free transcription here.

The idea for this week’s video dawned on me when my (practice) roommate was out of town, and (as you do) I added an extra tom to the house kit to make a 5-piece.

I don’t think my hands are spectacular, but I like to think they’re pretty decent. And I’ve got a lot of experience flowing around the kit when it’s a 4-piece.

But all of a sudden, with that extra drum, it was like my hands regressed 5 years. I was getting tense, missing drums, hitting rims…

What gives?

This was my first clue that something more than simple hand speed is in effect when we see great “flow” drummers like Vinnie Colauita and Dennis Chambers - or modern greats like Gergo Borlai and Xavier Ware - fly around the toms as if the laws of physics didn’t exist.

If it’s only hand speed, try the experiment in the video - play a simple sticking pattern (as I outline) on the snare, and see what the speed limit is. Then, try to orchestrate it around the toms, with the same clarity, without missing or mis-hitting. If that’s hard, you might benefit from today’s lesson.

Proprioception. The awareness of where your body is in space. It’s what allows you to close your eyes and still touch your nose with your index fingers.

But I would argue there’s “drum proprioception” too. Memorizing deeply where all your drums are in space.

We may think we know - obviously we have eyes - but if we can’t play around the toms as fast as we can play on the snare, and/or if our speed and precision decreases when we add an extra drum, it’s not just hand speed.

No worries - the simple exercises in today’s video will get you started.

Hope you enjoy!

4 Modern Drum Ideas Most Drummers Miss

First things first - grab your free transcription here.

Did you know that there are unique musical ideas modern drummers are “cooking up”, which could help add variety and flavor to your ideas today…

…that most drummers probably don’t know about?

I’m not talking about faster chops.

Nor am I talking about “Dilla everything”, or stacks, though both have their place.

I’m talking about some really unique approaches to the drums that aren’t hard to do - they’re just stuff you wouldn’t necessarily think of if you weren’t looking.

And they can be very musical - when used wisely.

For this video, we’ll draw from drummers from Xavier Ware (of thumbnail fame) to Adam Deitch, to Cleon Edwards and Dana Hawkins.

We’ll talk about what makes these 4 approaches unique - i.e. why it isn’t just the same old thing you’ve already seen - we’ll show you some basic examples, then we’ll show them in context and demonstrate some of the musical things you can do with them.

If you’ve seen some of the “non-chop”/”non-dilla” flavors of modern playing and wondered how to get some of that, or reached a “plateau” with your existing ideas, and need an injection of inspo, maybe one of these approaches is for you.

Hope you enjoy!

I Was Wrong About E Drums

First things first - grab your free transcription here.

If you know me you know - I have historically not been a fan of E-drums.

And historically, E-drums haven’t been very good.

Sorry.

“Twacky” rubber, or mesh heads with unrealistic tactile responses.

“Gated” sounds that omit all the '“analog” gradations and “messiness” of acoustics.

And their general…unsightly…appearance.

And over the years, various E-drum companies have offered to send me drums to review, but I’ve always refused.

But this year, it just so happened that when one such manufacturer DMd me, I was in a bit of a “YOLO” state of mind. I needed a gear review for the content calendar anyway, so I said “yes” - on one big condition: there was zero guarantee of a positive review, and I wouldn’t propagandize for them. If they sent the drums, they would get a candid review - upsides, downsides, and all.

The company - Roland - agreed.

What followed was a comedy of errors: the sheer enormity of the shipment, which barely fit in my mail room, and required an environmental’s nightmare worth of boxes. My comic ineptitude with making sure I had all the cables, connecting them properly, then connecting everything to my digital audio workstation, so I could bring you the sound.

I really wanted to hate them. But I failed.

The truth is…E-drums have changed. These aren’t your great uncle’s E-drums. The response is way better, both tactilely and in terms of mimicking the sound response of “real” drums. The appearance is way more similar to a mid-tier acoustic “wrap” kit than their predecessors. This is a kit that actually looks good in the den or rumpus room. And the one item Roland requested I feature - the recorded sound - is really good, especially if you don’t have pro mics and a lot of experience mixing and mastering your acoustics.

Still, they’re not perfect, and they’re not for everybody.

For my complete review, including misadventures, pros, cons, and a cheeky flow warmup (the transcription), peep the video!

Hope you enjoy!

This Is Killing Your Progress on Drums

First things first - grab your free transcription here.

This week sees a return to an old hobby horse. Practically what put 8020 “on the map”.

Years ago, while developing one of my courses, I took a survey. I was interested in the mistmatch between drummers’ stated goals, and their practice routines. I had expected something like poor time-management, and/or a few adjustments at the margins. What I found, of course, was a complete-and-total mismatch.

Complaint: “I don’t know why what I practice isn’t coming out in my playing!”

Goal: Play clean, musical fills and beats, be able to get around the kit.

Practice routine: the literal same exercises out of drum books that they’d been doing for decades. Hand warmups, abstract “independence exercises”.

Addendum: Plus a decent dollop of “literal transcription of whatever I saw on Instagram this week”.

Since then, course materials have evolved somewhat. I and others are producing materials that more resemble real-world playing.

Many of these “contemporary” materials even emphasize the “missing piece”, which we’ll get to. It’s just that many players are explicitly skipping that part.

So - what’s missing?

Let’s look at language learning. Say you memorize a bunch of literal sentences. Then you go to a bar and try to hang out with native speakers.

No one would be surprised what they practiced “wasn’t coming out in their conversation” if they hadn’t practiced making their own sentences and free-associating with the vocab they’d learned.

Heck - let’s even take this to a different instrument. Let’s say you practiced a bunch of scales, and even some simple Charlie Parker transcriptions on the horn. Then it came time to solo on a different tune. Nobody would be mystified that they couldn’t solo over Dolphin Dance if all they’d practiced was CP’s solo on one chorus of Confirmation.

But somehow we don’t notice the “missing piece” on drums: practicing improvisation.

And not just unstructured improvisation; improvisation with relevant vocabulary, with guard-rails and increasing degrees of freedom. Improvisation that begins with kernels of exactly what you eventually want to play, then steps you closer to…well - fully improvising…with that stuff.

So why?

I have a couple of pet theories.

One is that drums are less “solo-based”, in that, especially if you don’t play jazz, you can go an entire lifetime just playing the repetitive loops we call “beats”.

Another is that “written out” stuff is easier to teach - a teach has only to improvise in front of a camera or microphone, then hand the recording off to somebody to transcribe, then that goes in the book.

And the third is probably that we like written out stuff more too. It’s less cognitively demanding. More like reading a book and less like writing one.

But around once every few years I have to draw a line in the sand and say “this is what’s killing drummers’ progress”. The culture of courses has evolved from abstract hand exercises to relevant vocabulary, and even improvisation practice with the ideas.

I’m trying, in a small way, to evolve the norms around actually doing that part.

Hope you enjoy!