Why Pro Drummers Don't Mess Up - Live Clinic

A few months ago I published a video on "flight envelope protection" for drummers.

The analogy had come to me while watching this or that documentary on aviation. (An interest of mine.) 

For context, this is one of the most frequent questions I get both in the comments on the channel and when I'm interviewing students. "How are pros able to be so free and never fear messing up, whereas if I deviate one inch from my pre-planned beat or fill, there's the possibility of a train wreck."

The answer, I realized, was "flight envelope protection". Many modern airplanes, with caveats, process all pilot input through a computer that mediates those requests before maneuvering the airplane. What this means in practice is they will not let you crash them.

"Pull back on the stick" at low speed without increasing the power in a conventional plane, and bad things. Do that in most modern "fly by wire" aircraft, and the computer will automatically command an eye-watering increase in thrust, and limit the "upward pitch" to keep you safely in the envelope.

And that's almost exactly what it feels like to pros when they play.

They can do almost anything, and there's a protective cocoon around their playing that will not let them train-wreck. (With shades of gray, of course.)

So - how do we build that in our playing?

It starts by understanding "inside out" improvisation. Rather than try to play with zero guardrails, then "debug" the mistakes, we start in a carefully circumscribed lane, and make it wider over time.

This applies to groove, improvisation...everything.

In my live clinic, I spoke about steps and methods I use with my students to build up this "envelope".

Hope you enjoy! Below is the complete intro solo.

The "Foundational" Drum Rhythm That's Everywhere Again

First things first - download your free transcription here.

The jig is kind of up on “modern drum whatever that’s suddenly everywhere.”

As it was with the “tom reversal”, so it is with this week’s phenomenon: you can find clips of Art Blakey doing it back in the ‘60s. Which is to say it’s not exclusively modern.

But that doesn’t mean it isn’t seeing a big resurgence.

Bring it in, you guys. Super quick “stoner thought” - for all the chaos it’s wrought, for all the “homogeneity” it’s encouraged among musicians, social media has poured 100 years of drum innovations into a large hadron collider, allowing the pace of innovation to skyrocket.

That might be why, when one speaks of today’s innovation, you can say Art Blakey “did it”, and Bill Stewart “did it”, and Virgil Donati, Dave Dicenso, and Keith Carlock “did it”, but Marcus Gilmore and the modern generation of drummers “did it and did it and did it”.

(The “did it” thing was ironically originally a joke about Marcus’ grandfather, Roy Haynes, and triplets.)

The lick, of course, is dotted 8ths in the left foot. Something that, once you notice, you can’t “unhear”, and which has a funkiness that’s difficult to fully explain, and my final stoner theory of the day is that that’s because ultimate it comes from West African drumming, and that we as humans find intersecting rhythms inherently funky.

If you feel like joining me today on a journey that includes all those drummers we mentioned, with honorable mentioned Tony Allen and Danny Carey, and not incidentally a pretty intensive lesson on how to get started using these rhythms in your drumming, I invite you to watch.

Hope you enjoy!

P.S. did you know you can sign up to be the first to hear when we open up new slots for Impossible to Fail, my flagship 1:1 coaching program? Just click here to sign up for the waitlist.

Great Drummers Don't Suffer From This, But Beginners Do

First things first - download your free transcription here.

Many drummers suffer from the “if a tree falls in the woods” conundrum.

Sound great by ourselves, then turn a camera on, or take the stage, and…we can’t find it.

Beyond the fact that this is normal, and not a sign you’re a “bad drummer” - indeed, “good in private” is a necessary first step before “good in public”…

…it’s also something we can use in the practice room.

There’s something I jokingly call the “3am test” with my students. Sometimes people will ask “when do I know when I’ve truly mastered this exercise?”

The answer: “when you can play it at 3am, fresh out of bed, in the rain.”

The experience of finding our performance lacking in public or on camera can be a tool we take back to the practice room, to inform the level our playing needs to reach. Which is why it’s so important, in my opinion, that drummers seek opportunities to perform in public, or on camera.

Onstage, not only are “people watching”, but acoustics are weird, setups feel different, and umpteen little factors all add up to take us out of our element.

Our favorite “pros”, obviously, don’t suffer the same falloff of their performance as we do. Beyond “making our best so great that 80% of it is still good”, there are things we can do to make sure the public performances are 80%, instead of 50 or 60. Then 90. Then 101.

Sure, there’s no substitute for raw experience. But “experience” doesn’t mean on tour with your favorite band. It can mean coffee shop performances, or jam sessions. It can even mean recording yourself and posting it on Instagram. Or, for the more industrious with fewer local ordinances, busking in a local park or square.

Finally, I share some experience from my past in which I’ve had that “in public falloff” of my playing, and how I moved on from it.

Hope you enjoy!

P.S. did you know you can sign up to be the first to hear when we open up new slots for Impossible to Fail, my flagship 1:1 coaching program? Just click here to sign up for the waitlist.

April 25 2026 Clinic Announcement + Thowback

You can grab early bird tickets to my clinic at CHBO Music in New Paltz on 4.25 at this link.

For folks who can’t make it, enjoy the throwback video!

In that video, I promise an uncut video of my Montana clinic from 2023. You can find that here.

And the complete West Coast Drum Shop clinic is here.

Be good, and see you soon!