Drum Tips - Music Lessons - Stop Reinventing the Wheel

George Bernard Shaw's famous maxim - "He who can, does. He who cannot, teaches." -encapsulates the low esteem often placed on teaching, however, it is terribly wrong.

Should the little time we have in life be spent reinventing the wheel? Such a terrible waste! To go through one's life trying to figure out things that other folks have already figured out. This is why we study history, learning from the past so we do not repeat the same mistakes that have already been made by others.

Working with a great teacher is simply the most efficient way of benefiting from the efforts of all the folks who have already spent lifetimes making the mistakes you do not need to repeat.

Basic concepts have been figured out – invented, refined, and perfected over the past few thousand years. To sit and learn an instrument without the help of a good teacher is to try and figure out thousands of years of this – invention, refinement, and perfection – all on your own. The last time I checked, most people don't live long enough to figure out thousands of years worth of study on their own.

When I started getting serious about playing drums I had all these ideas floating around in my head, and my hands just couldn't keep up. I could have spent years trying to figure out how to get my hands to do what I wanted. Instead I started working with a great drum teacher in the San Francisco Bay area named Chuck Brown. Chuck had already spent the years figuring out what to practice. He was able to show me so many things that I would have wasted years figuring out. He helped me to quickly develop the tools I needed so that I could play the drums the way I was hearing them my head.

I have worked with too many "musician/artists" who believe that working with a music teacher will "smother" their inner creativity. This is absolute CRAP! Working with a good teacher will show you how to expand the vocabulary of your inner creativity.

Have you ever noticed that the really great musicians, artists, authors, actors, etc., are all happy to discuss the great experiences they have had during some form of formal training in their art.

The "wheel" is out there, it works great, don't waste your time trying to reinvent it. Go find yourself a great teacher, learn everything you can from that teacher and spend your time inventing new, fresh, exciting things that we have not heard before.

Drum Tips - Weighted Drumsticks? – NO!

Weighted drumsticks are NOT a very good idea. Some say that they build up your "drumming" muscles. The truth is they “Bulk” up your drumming muscles. Bulk is good for body builders and football players, but not for drummers.

Speed and precision in technique require long, lean, dancer type muscles NOT bulky weightlifter-type muscles. Practicing with heavy sticks will tend to desensitize your hands, when you should be looking to increase your sensitivity.

I remember as a young drummer, reading a letter to Hal Blaine published in Modern Drummer magazine. Someone wrote in asking Hal if he thought practicing on a pillow was a good idea. The theory being that because a pillow is soft, with no rebound, it forces your muscles to “create” the rebound - working to lift the stick as well as create the down stroke.

Hal’s response has stayed with me all these years. “Practicing on a pillow is fine, if you want to learn to play the pillow.”

If you want to play the drums, you should practice on the drums! (or a reasonable facsimile such as the remo practice pads)

My personal favorite practice pad is a small (4” x 4” x 2” high) block of Lignum Vite (Iron Wood) with a 2” diameter piece of rubber in the middle that has rebound characteristics very similar to a well tensioned 14” snare drum. I have carried it with me for years, it is very quiet and convenient to use for warming up before a gig or just practicing some stick control wherever you happen to be stuck with 10 or 15 minutes to spare.

Drum Tips - Becoming a Successful Musician

One of the guys from - either The Stone Roses or Oasis - I can't remember who but it doesn't really matter – anyhow - he liked the saying "Shoot for the stars, and you might just hit the moon!"

Setting your goals high will help take you further in life than those who set low goals. However, remember that setting the goals is only the first part.

The elevator to success is always out of order.
You must take the stairs – one step at a time.

1. Set your goals
2. Break down the steps you need to take to realistically achieve your goal into yearly, monthly, weekly, and daily goals.
3. Accomplish every one of your daily goals!

This is really true for anything in life - being a great drummer, being a great lawyer, being a great ANYTHING!

The only real secret to success is to have a realistic plan, broken down into daily steps. Finish one step every day and eventually you will reach your goal!

The key here is "REALISTIC" plan. If the goal is "become a rich & famous drummer" then the plan will be very complicated. There are a LOT of daily steps. It will likely take years to move through them and there are a LOT of diversions along the way.

If you create a realistic plan, and follow it diligently – you WILL eventually succeed!