A Study in Work

If my practice is intended to further my knowledge of rhythm or theory, I call that Study. If my practice is intended to learn a piece of music, I call that Work. And here we get to the hard part… Thinking. Generally speaking, thinking is terrible for drumming. If you are thinking, you have lost […]

Drilling Down to the Good Stuff

Drills are the practice of working on getting a particular tone, or working on a hand position, or focusing on a counting drill of some sort. When I am doing Drills I focus on these three ideas:   1) Stay Relaxed. It is very important to focus on proper technique. That includes posture, hand position, […]

A Practice By Any Other Name

So, what are the best practices for practice? This is a very, very interesting question. I think the best thing to do is to define what exactly we are talking about.   Practice: prac·tice (ˈpraktəs) As a noun: 1) The actual application or use of an idea, belief, or method as opposed to theories about […]

The Quest for Soot

Soot is fun, but it is also a bit of a quest. Many of you have already checked out “Searching for Chobi“, which touches on how interesting, difficult, and frustrating hunting down rhythms and their origins can be. Soot is very, very much that way. I first heard Soot on an album more than a […]

The Sacred Space of the Stage

I firmly believe that the stage is a sacred space, where artists share their emotions, their passion, their work, and their very humanity with the audience, and strive for connection, acceptance, and understanding. Our “Western Culture” hates those who are “not normal”, so every artist (EVERY artist) has had to deal with the shame of […]