“break the mental logjam” and access the ideas you practice whenever you play

…with the ONLY course that combines the “language learning method” with a “step-by-step” sequenced course, AND gives you live instruction with me, all at a “no-brainer” price that saves you having to choose between this and your other memberships.

open for a limited time

You're practicing all this stuff in the shed, so how come you can’t access it when you go to play?

Instead, it feels like all that stuff you practiced…

…just evaporates.

Like you practiced the perfect speech, then you get up to give the toast, and, just, no words occur to you.

It's super common, and I used to suffer from it too. Now, I can cogent, clear musical thoughts off the top of my head most of the time. And when I talk to most drummers, they're not even trying to play like Dennis Chambers. They just want to play cool, clean, personal stuff off the top of their heads.

The problem is most drum education doesn't give you the right tools to take all those licks you drill, and inject them into your improvisation, so you can recall them in the moment.

And that's a shame, because there's a subject we're all familiar with, that does this WAY BETTER. Language learning.

somebody has already solved this. Language instructors.

Say you were studying a new language. You’d have a list of vocabulary words to memorize, then maybe a grammar lesson.

What a good language course will do is ask you to form your own sentences using the vocab you’ve just studied, with various degrees of freedom.

It can be as simple as “fill in the blanks with the right word”, all the way up to “talk extemporaneously about this topic using xyz structure.”

We even got this stuff in English class.

But how much of it have you seen in drumming?

It’s “memorize these licks,” then big pause, then “see ya later!”

so why don’t we see it in drums?

There's a very basic "missing link".

And it's "applying what you learned in an improvisational context, with guard rails."

The drum version of “use this in a sentence”.

So why aren’t more teachers talking about this?

Well, I’ve had the privilege to interview some of the world’s best drum teachers, and I think the answer is complicated:

Great players do do it, but mostly aren’t aware of what they’re doing. They also confuse it with the sheer amount of time they put in, and probably assume anybody who puts in 5 hours-a-day for 10 years is bound to figure this stuff out.

But that doesn’t help the player who’s committed and hard working, and wants to practice an hour every day, but has a family and/or responsibilities, and doesn’t have 5 hours-a-day to spend figuring it out on their own.

Great teachers mostly teach it, but don’t realize its utility/power as a game-changer. It took me years to realize this, but the world’s greatest teachers have something in common - they’re mostly teaching people who want to be professionals, in a college environment where there’s nothing but time to practice. If you dig down deep, most understand the “use words in a sentence” concept, but because they’ve never had to take a casual player and make them way better in a short period of time, they don’t always realize that it’s literally the difference between waiting years for things their students practice to come out in their playing, and shortening that period to just months.

Gradually a few “educators” are realizing this. People like Benny Greb, JP Bouvet, Jacob Evans, and, somehow, Yours Truly.

And I want to offer you something nobody else is offering. A hybrid mini-course and live experience for an affordable price.

introducing the flow mini course

The first and only hybrid course/live experience that includes a tested curriculum, live workshop, and feedback on your playing…

…and aims to take you by the hand and put you on the path to unlocking the log jam and accessing everything you practice when you’re playing…

…in as little as 40 minutes-a-day, and one week of practice.

If that sounds crazy consider this…

It takes time to travel, but it doesn’t take much time to turn.

My aim is to give you a big breakthrough in your perception, and your approach to practice - a change in course - so that, after a few months or years of implementing, you’ll be a different player.

Want to see an example of just one video from the course?

watch a real video from the flow mini-course

It’s from the “Riley Exercises” Mini-Module, and introduces the concept of using “claves”, like those from John Riley’s book, as “resolution points” for improv ideas, then filling in the sticking around them.

In the first incarnation of these exercises, I’m supplying you with both the claves and the sticking.

Here’s how it works…

“using words in a sentence” for drums - the method

Let me outline a few things I think I've discovered, which may sound obvious:

First, practice stuff relevant to what you want to play. Told you these would seem obvious. But it's astonishing how many of us don't do that. We'll play stick control, Allan Dawson, then maybe some groove independence. All great - but then we'll complain we can't play clean, musical fills off the top of our heads.

The obvious solution is to give yourself some vocabulary that reflects what you actually want to come out in your playing.

Next, create "training scenarios", with expanding degrees-of-freedom. This is the primary "missing piece" in most drum instruction. Here are a few examples, from "big training wheels" to "smaller training wheels":

1. Give yourself a shape, and orchestrate it around the drum kit, paying attention to dynamics, subdivision, and "zones" (that's there you hit the drums). You're "improvising" insofar as you can orchestrate, but you still have the bandwidth to make sure you're maintaining the shape, and that it's clean, and in time.

2. Give yourself two shapes or idioms, and switch between them on only one surface.

3. Give yourself two shapes or idioms, and switch between them on multiple surfaces.

4. Give yourself two shapes of different phrase lengths, so the phrases cross the bar line.

5. Give yourself more than 2 shapes.

6. Practice "trading" between groove, and a "switching exercise" of multiple shapes or idioms.

The above are just a few examples I like to use with my coaching students.

Finally rehearse or simulate making original thoughts, with expanding degrees of freedom.

Here are two of my favorite ways to do that:

1. Practice "trading" between improvising with constraints, and a "switching exercise".

2. Practice improvising with constraints like tempo, surfaces, and subdivisions, either in a groove, or fill context.

   
   

I'll pause, and ask two slightly uncomfortable questions:

If you started reading this page agreeing you'd like to get more of what you practiced into your playing, do you feel like you'd benefit from an approach like the above?

Second question - how much have you actually worked on stuff like this?

If the answer to the first question is "yes", and the answer to the second "not as much as I probably should have", you're in luck.

a different kind of drum course

Unlike my previous courses, this is not a course where you go off into the shed for 3 months, and go through a ton of exercises, and hope they work.

This is way more fast-action.

In this curriculum I’m going to give you a bite-sized chunk of exercises from the flagship live coaching program, and the philosophy behind them, then you’re going to practice them for around one week. Then, you’re going to submit me a video of you playing.

Then, we’re going to hop on a live workshop and talk about it.

This is an approach I’ve found way more helpful for some students than just 3 months of self-directed material. For one simple reason: without a coach evaluating you, you could have all the exercises in the world, but there may be basic details you’re missing.

The moment I realized this was when in the past year I got to see some videos of students who had done some of my past courses. And I have little doubt they helped. But to-a-one, these students all had little details where, once I made an adjustment, it unkinked the hose and let them access their full potential.

Are your subdivisions straight? Are your stick heights good? What about your zones on the drums.

It can even be hard to calibrate “how perfect does this need to be” if you haven’t worked with a coach. For some things, it’s really important to sweat the details and there’s a huge return on that.

For others, you just want to get them to “good enough”, then move on. And it’s tough to know which is which.

That's exactly what the flow mini-course will do for you. My aim is to give you a little direction change, and a little shot in the arm, so you'll be a little better-calibrated to continue the journey on your own. Or, if you choose, and we've got space available, upgrade to the full coaching program.

And here's the best part - this will not take a ton of your time.

You can do this in as little of 40 minutes of practice, over about 5-7 days. ALL IN! And yes, I believe you can have a little transformation that can change the trajectory of your playing in a small but meaningful way in that amount of time.

Here's exactly how this program will go:

how the program works

When you sign up, you'll immediately get access to the whole mini-course, complete with a bunch of lessons, transcriptions, and my brand new intro videos.

You'll also have a chance to indicate which days of the week and times are best for you. Then we'll schedule our live workshop around your availability.

Finally, you'll have a chance to submit a video of you playing the material, to get personalized feedback. This is the most powerful part of the whole system.

exactly what’s inside

The Flow Mini Course has a manageable 26 videos, organized into 11 “mini-lessons” that will take you step-by-step through “use words in a sentence method”.

The course is deliberately short, because I want you to be able to absorb a lot in just a week of working through it…

…and because the major breakthroughs come not from going away and practicing months of material in isolation, but from getting a quick, absorbable dose of the material, then workshopping the ideas live, with personal feedback from me.

TABLE OF CONTENTS - HERE’S EVERYTHING THE COURSE COVERS

course orientation

• Orientation video to show you around the system, tell you how to submit your videos, and where to indicate your availability for a group call.

hand switching mini-module

• Intro to hand-switching - your first encounter with “using drum words in a sentence”

• Hand switching exercises

full-kit switching mini-module

• Intro to full kit Switching Exercises

• Full kit switching exercises

• Intermediate full-kit switching exercises

“riley exercises” mini-module

• Intro to Riley exercises - your chance to “simulate” making drum phrases from “claves” or 2-bar syncopated rhythms

• Riley exercises - beginner

• Riley exercises - intermediate

advanced concepts mini-module

• Intro to 3-against-the-barline - a system you’ll use for more complex ideas that cross the barline

• 3 against the barline exercises

• Advanced switching exercises (that cross the barline)

• “Pure improv” practice - where you practice full improvisation, but with constraints.

hear from real coaching students

Does the combination of course material, live experiences, and personal evaluation work to transform your playing?

Here are 3 real students from the flagship group coaching program (from which the Flow Mini-Course is excerpted) to talk about their experiences.

And here’s an excerpt of a real coaching call, just like the live workshop you’ll get as part of the Flow Mini-Course.

imagine yourself in a program like this…

A brand-new mini-curriculum designed to take the “use a word in a sentence” method from language learning and transplant it to drums. A substantial dose of the step-by-step system to integrate what you learn in the practice room, so it will come out in your playing effortlessly, without you having to think about it.

Borrowed from the very curriculum these students above are raving about.

A personal video evaluation, which can highlight issues in your playing you weren’t aware of, contribute proportionality so you know which details to sweat and which to ignore, and reassure you along your path, all of which can add up to a small-but-meaningful direction-change in your playing.

And finally, a live workshop experience, where we can talk about our experiences with the material, you can ask me any questions you’ve got, and you can hear experiences from your fellow students…

…all in a small-group setting where we’ll keep the calls below 7 people, not including me.

If you’re thinking “YES, THIS IS FOR ME”, there’s probably one question you still have…

WHAT’S THE INVESTMENT?

Since last year, almost 30 drummers have invested around $2200 to join programs like my group coaching, which is structured to be 12 weeks long, and includes personal coaching from me. And that’s a great choice for a drummer who wants personalized attention. But I wanted to build something accessible to way more drummers. Which quite-frankly could give them a taste of the progress they can make with this format.

I wanted the Flow Mini-Course to be so affordable it’s a no-brainer.

That’s why I made a self-directed course you can do at your own pace, so I’m able to offer it for a very low price:

The Flow Mini-Course is just $97 for lifetime access to the material.

But this is not just your average “go away and I’ll see you in 3 months” experience. By combining personal feedback and live elements, we make sure you make a meaningful change in your direction.

Also, you can try it risk-free.

MY GUARANTEE

I’m very proud of this curriculum, and I’ve gotten great feedback on it.

That’s why I’m happy to guarantee it for 90 days.

Which means you can try the Flow Mini-Course risk free.

It also means you can get the material, try the feedback, hop on the live workshop, and still, if after 90 days you decide “meh”, I’ll refund you.

I’ve never offered this type of guarantee on a live course before, and it opens me up to some risk. But that’s how confident I am that this experience can change your playing for the better.

If it’s not the best mini-course you’ve ever tried, just write us an email at nate@8020drummer.com, and we’ll refund you, no-questions asked.

READY TO SEE WHAT THE Flow Mini Course CAN DO FOR YOU?

Join now risk-free, and unbreak the logjam…

…so you can start feeling cool, original ideas you practice come out when you’re playing…

…without memorizing…

…and without worrying it will disrupt the flow.

open for a limited time.

Frequently asked questions

Is this a brand new course?

Yes. The material is sampled from the curriculum of the Group Coaching Program, but it will be brand new to anyone who hasn’t participated in group coaching. What’s more, it has brand new intro videos.

why take this? there are multiple things out there, from drumeo, to courses and memberships of nate’s friends. It’s confusing to try to choose.

There are more drum instruction options now than ever before, many of them good. That’s why I’m very careful to give you something noone else is offering, so you don’t have to waste brain space wondering if there’s another version of this out there.

There’s not.

Unlike 99% of other stuff out there, the Flow Mini-Course uses two key things:

1. Sequenced instruction, so each lesson builds on the last - unlike any of those membership sites that are “choose your own adventure”, smorgasbord.

2. Borrowing the “use-this-word-in-a-sentence” model from language learning. Hardly anybody else is doing that, except for a very few of my friends.

But the Flow Mini-Course goes one step further and offers something nobody else is offering: personalized feedback and a live workshop with the creator. Nobody else is offering this combination of things, let alone at this price.

So you can rest assured that the Flow Mini-Course is the single live/personalized/language model/sequential solution to this problem.

What if I’m busy with something else or “don’t have time”? Won’t this be a big time commitment?

No. It’s designed not to require too many consecutive days, or too much time in any one day. If you have 40 minutes to an hour per day for 4-7 days to practice the material, plus 45 minutes to hop on the live workshop at a time we’ll schedule around you, you’ll have enough time to reap the benefits of this program.

What if I can’t make it to the live workshop?

We’ll schedule it around you! When you register, you’ll be asked to indicate your availability. I’ll group people together by their availability and schedule as many workshops as necessary to make sure there’s one that works for you, and that there are 7 or fewer people on each workshop (not counting me).

Do I have to be behind the drums for the live workshop? how will i make that work?

You do NOT have to be behind the drums, or anywhere near the drums. I’ll be behind the drums so I can demonstrate things, but the live workshops are a way for us to work through questions and roadblocks, and I’ll have seen your playing videos, so it’s actually helpful if we mostly just talk. As long as you have a fast internet connection and some kind of device, you’re good-to-go.

Why join right away? Why not wait a few days and think it over?

How many more days do you want to wait to get a potentially-game-changing breakthrough in your playing?

But also, since I have to make space in my calendar, the first people to sign up are going to get the best choice of their preferred times, and the longer you wait the greater the chances we’ll run out of space and have to close the doors.

How many slots do you have?

I can’t give you a specific number because it depends on how many people are available at each time, and how convenient to me those times are. Probably something in the neighborhood of 20.

How are you able to offer this so cheaply?

It’s frankly “below cost” for me. But I’m betting that it’s worth it for everyone - both because I think enough people who try the Mini Course will feel the power of the format and want to upgrade to group coaching, depending on capacity, and also that I’ll buy some “good will” from the community.

Plus it’s fun for me to help people.

And there’s absolutely no pressure to upgrade to group coaching afterward.

What if I sign up for the Mini Course and don’t like it?

We encourage you to at least give the material a try, but within the first 90-days, and as soon as you ask, we’ll refund you in full. (It may take a couple of days for your bank or credit card to receive the refund.)

Seen enough?

Join now risk-free, and unbreak the logjam…

…so you can start feeling cool, original ideas you practice come out when you’re playing…

…without memorizing…

…and without worrying it will disrupt the flow.