“Gear. Drums are round they sit on the floor and you hit them. (attributed to a number of drummers) Be careful of being gear focussed or thinking a better piece of gear will make you play better. It won’t. Just make sure your gear is serviceable, well cared for, of sufficient quality, and serves you…
“Booze and drugs. For the record I’m not against either. However if you think booze or drugs make you play better it’s probably that these assortment of lovely mind altering substances just make you think you’re playing better. Play straight. Embibe after. ” Booze and the haze-makers? Hell, I’m no puritan preacher—I’ve raised a glass…
“Playing a song you have three or four minutes to make the audience laugh or cry or just feel something. On those moments play for the song. Play with emotion. ” Three minutes, four if the bass player’s feeling generous—that’s your window, your wild-card wager, the kit’s confessional booth where the room hangs on your…
“Playing complicated fills and busy drum beats will often crowd the musical landscape and smother anything else trying to make it to the audience’s ears. It takes a level of maturity, and a high level of awareness to be a good drummer. ” Flashy fills and frenzy fills? They’re the drummer’s temptation—the cheap thrill…
“If you have to ask for it it loses its value whether it’s love loyalty or support. ” That quiet lock-in with the band, the nod from the crowd that says “you nailed the pocket,” the late-night text from a road mate that reads “got your back”? When it flows unbidden—love that doesn’t ledger the…
“Regrets hurt more than failure … don’t hold yourself back. ” That flinch before the fill—the one where your wrist whispers “safe, not sorry,” and you pull the punch on a polyrhythm that could’ve cracked the sky? Failure’s a bruise: stings sharp when the stick flies wide, echoes in the awkward hush after a dropped…
“You’ll stop worrying what other people think about you when you realize how seldom they actually do ~ David Foster Wallace” That phantom crowd in your skull—the one critiquing your grip mid-paradiddle, tallying every ghost-note ghosted, whispering “fraud” when the fill flies wide? They’re mirages, mate. You’ll quit the fret when the truth taps you…
“No matter what, you’ll be judged so do it anyway.” That invisible jury in the shadows—the one tallying your tempo slips, your borrowed licks, your “off” nights when the groove feels like gravel under tires? They’re always there, scribbling verdicts in the margins of your setlist: too loud for the purists, too tame for the…
“Don’t think you’ll hurt the team.” That knot in your gut mid-rehearse, the phantom fumble replaying in your skull like a looped lick gone wrong: “What if I drag us down? What if this fill fractures the flow, leaves the bass hanging, the singer stranded in silence?” Stop. The fear’s a thief—steals your sway, turns…
“If you can’t write down on a piece of paper, or list them, “this is what I want” Then you can’t have it.” That fog in your skull, the vague hunger for “more”—a bigger gig, a tighter pocket, a band that breathes your beat without the briefing? It’s smoke till you scratch it down: the…
