The only time I have ever grown as a drummer is when I challenge myself with something I couldn't play and wasn't comfortable with. Going outside your comfort zone is the only way.
Thank you for putting progress into perspective. I was having a great time learning drums until I opened my big mouth and let the worship leader at church know I thought I was ready to join. My first Sunday is this week. I have had a terrible practice week--getting frustrated at not sounding like I think I should, anxiety about playing on Sunday, and lack of gratitude with how far I've come. When I started playing, my only goal was to learn a new skill and maybe pitch in to contribute on the worship team. In the last 7 days, my mindset has gone from, "It's not about me, my goal is to serve the song and help lead people into worship," to "Why can't I get this right? I'm going to sound terrible and embarrass myself and everyone around me." What??? Time for a radical attitude shift. This lesson couldn't have come at a better time. God is amazing!
Keep it nice and simple, take deep breaths, pay attention, and you'll be ok! Remember live playing mistakes come and go and float on down the river. I think having an immediate goal of THIS SUNDAY will really help you progress!
Stephen, thank you for all the inspiration. I occasionally sit in for the drummer at the Baptist church and I have come a long way. I’m 62 years old and still learning!. Been playing since I was 6! I am proud to be a Born Again Christian, and I really enjoy when you speak of Christ. Thank you again Brother.
Another great lesson, Stephen! Your videos are always a great use of my time. I'm fortunate that I started my drumming journey almost a year ago (at age 55) with the right mindset of wanting to learn and progress, but enjoying the simple accomplishment of playing the drums. My progress has been at a very deliberate pace, but it's always fun for me and I can now look back at almost a year and realize how far I've actually come. I am nowhere near my long term goals yet, and it may take a long time to get there, but I'll have a blast with my music and my drum kit every step of the way!
Steven, Sunday morning greetings to you from South Bend, WA. I have always admired your positive and motivating approach you put out on your channel. I am a 74 year old retired elementary teacher/varsity football coach, and you, my friend are the real deal. I totally appreciate all you do for all of us out here. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.❤️🙏❤️🙏❤️
Guys, I have another "problem". I don't have a goal, finish line,... I don't want to play on stage, don't want to gig with a band... I want just keep learning and and play for fun. So even if I want to hurry, I don't have reason. It's for me fun, relax, hobby... PS: maybe in future I will play live, iam not against that, just it's not my goal.
I'm 41 picking up drumming for the first time, I'm actually excited pushing my self, but i'm taking my time learning one part of a the music sheet at a time. I finally got excited to listen to the beat of the music and have that help me with playing rather that only hitting the notes, but i'm getting better at reading the music notes.
Drumming is very frustrating for me because of all the different things you need to learn , independence , feel, groove , hands etc.. but your right what’s the hurry , I tend to jump around a lot and never master anything real well, I’m working on your 30 day rock independence and I’m stuck at 8th notes on the hats , I’m staying focused on this but it’s new to me, keeping time with the hats , I’m not stopping till I go through the whole 30 day guide 😊
Sometimes this happens to me! So, I find a song with the pattern I want to learn and keep playing it. Sometimes I play other songs during that time as to not get bored, but AFTER I get that “Warmed up” feeling I go back and play my song with the part I want to learn. And soon I find time is flying……2-3 hours, are gone and I’ll video the beginning and the end of my practice. ALOT of times there’s aBIG breakthrough. I also use the Evan’s “Realfeel” pad. Keep plugging! Soon it will be a thing of beauty.
I used to play like animal in my teens. Then I got a back injury and quit for 20 years. I have aged veey well and now I am patient and learning from the ground up. Thanks for all of your videos. Just hitting a drum is great after so much time away.
This is really great advice. Thank you for sharing this. I didn't get past my being stuck until I started to set specific goals. For example, I decided in 2020 that by 2021, in one year, I would be able to play the song Rosanna by Toto. I knew it would take more than just learning the half-time shuffle, but it would take going back and build foundation that was lacking. So with every step in learning this song, I had to keep retracting my steps to the basic foundation of grip and fulcrum and triplets and ghost notes, etc., fix those, getting them down correctly and comfortably, then attempt the half-time shuffle, then get it to speed was another process. It was one year, but my drumming has improved a lot in this process in other aspects. I didn't just learn a song or mastered a new difficult beat, I actually began to move up in my drumming level.
Thanks for another great video Stephen! I started learning a couple months ago and I felt lost and stuck with my progress until I found your channel. Your videos, PDFs and paid lessons are helping me so much. I now know what I need to be practicing. I love the tip to write down my goals so I can track my progress and the tip to video myself playing. Thank you for sharing your faith! It’s very uncommon to find that on CZcams and very refreshing! Keep up the great work and God Bless!
this is exactly my experience (i'm still in the bad phase though as i lost motivation to practice) but i'm trying again, knowing that i will fail and feel crap but this is a necessary stage
Gotta say even after 30 years of playing this opened my eyes a bit. I've tried using each digit as a fulcrum as a stretch or exercise, but never gave the middle digit as the primary a second thought. Just played with it a bit and it hasn't opened up yet but I feel like there is massive potential there once my hand takes the hint. Thanks for this!
I picked up drums as an adult, meaning I have family, job, bills, other hobbies. So my goal was to have fun once a week with friends who were also musical. Music is a way to unwind and while there's an incentive to improve, this isn't a job, and won't be for the vast number of musicians. My lessons (lessons because you don't want to practice mistakes) focused on jazz and funk, because if I could play those, I could play rock and folk, or disco. I'd prioritize spending on lessons over equipment and organize your own band if possible. Learn how to read drum notation and standard notation, learn a little music theory and how songs are arranged. Learn enough keyboard so you can explain ideas to bandmates. Learn to sing and if you can't sing, learn to scat. Music is a collaborative effort, so always keep that in mind and suggest and be open to any new idea.
Already love the lesson 15 seconds in, as the opening beat is Heroes, my first song of the month in the community. Back then it was hard to play. I was bad or not as good as I thought I was then. Now I could play this and be relaxed doing so. It took me lots of work, dedicated practice and loads of uncomfortable situations. But this paid off! Now I am on a good way to get my first band as an adult. It is great to be on the way and cherish every moment of it. Thanks to you Stephen, who set me on the track to non glamorous drumming basic control. Who challenged me to try new ways and play things I would never have tried on my own. Thanks for showing me how to be a better drummer, a better musician and a better person !
Appreciate the lesson and your thoughts. I returned to drumming in 2022 after having not played for 30+ years. My experience with respect to hurrying is this has been sort of an undulating experience for me so far. I've progressed and enjoyed the process, but I've also experienced serious frustration on the lack of progress. Being fixated on something and not getting it to the degree that it paralyzes and kills the enjoyment and motivation, but also experiencing stick-tuitiveness with the slow, steady process of learning new things. Just showing up, being okay with sounding bad, settling in to long, arduous task and work of new challenges. I'm checking out the book. Looking forward. Thanks!
I am grateful that I get to play at church every week. And I saw a video that said something to the effect of, "When you make a mistake, do it again so it seemed like it was on purpose."
Such a powerful insight into how I need to apply this to all things in life and to my drumming As you said we generally know this but don't adopt it Everything has a season including us so .why not enjoy along the way Thanks Stephen really appreciate your effort in doing these videos God Bless you
Thank you for sharing your Faith, I love your content, your skill, and honest humility, and obviously your ability to stay on task, and professional with your teaching ability.
I love the little things and learning songs moment by moment and e.g. learning little hi hat motions and every moment was a joy I love the videos and helping me keep the little moments here keep up the good work
When asked how to be good at guitar, Joe Walsh replied,” You have to get out there and suck until you don’t suck anymore”. Eloquently and accurately stated. 😅
Very helpful. I’ve been on the verge of giving up for a while. Self taught but I work out of town so practice is difficult. I work on rudiments in the hotel room but I don’t seem to see any improvement. I have a lot to think about.
Keep practicing. I couldn’t do a ghost to save my life. The first time I did I jumped up and told everyone in the house. Don’t give up! The best part is learning something you could never do! It’s a blast since I’ve quit worrying and started thoroughly enjoying it!
Several months ago I bought a drum set just for fun and something to do. Unfortunately I'm not getting the time to practice as often as I'd like but I'm enjoying it.
This is so correct! Two thoughts from me. First - it has to be a good thing that old videos of you playing are worse than you could do now. Otherwise you're not getting better. Do you want videos of you playing from before today to be better than you could do today? Surely not! And second - the key thing with playing in public is to make sure that the things you are bad at/still working on are not on display - don't try them in public. Keep what you do to what you know you can do reasonably well. Do the simple version of the fill, not the one you aren't confident of pulling off! Work on that for next time! The band/audience will only notice if you overstretch and don't pull it off! Keep producing the videos Stephen. Exceptional advice.
The difference between an "apprentice" and a "journeyman" is practicing your trade. Reaching mastery is part practice and more so "gift". Most will never attain the ability of a Rich or Morello! My advice on the journey, especially if you're playing in a band is to protect your hearing. Too loud is doing damage. Hearing protection is a must..
I love how I always get both a drum lesson and a life lesson from your videos Stephen! As you were speaking I was thinking "man this guy is speaking truth. He's tapped in." And I wondered about your spiritual practice and seconds later you mentioned Jesus. lol divine timing indeed. Thanks for another wonderful vid!
I'm not sure what the exact ratio should be, but even PROS, at least when it comes to practice, often say you should spend most of your time practicing sounding like shit. If your sessions sound great, you aren't really pushing or challenging yourself. Drums are far more nuanced and difficult to do well than people give them credit for. A common complaint among musicians generally is that proper drummers are really hard to come by. It's a really important component of music. I'm willing to bet the ratio of good drummers to drummers in the aggregate is far lower than for other instruments. Bad percussion can sink a whole band, while mediocre musicians can be hugely elevated by a great drummer (see: blink 182). My theory of why drums are tricky is that mistakes and unevenness are readily perceivable, and due to how the sound projects and where you are in relation to said sound, it's VERY hard to perceive how you actually sound in real time.
Stephen, Love your videos and you purchase lessons, but please back off the distracting background music, it's too loud, thank you for your great lessons.
I subscribed when I thought you could teach me about being a better drummer. I unsubscribed when instead of hitting drums you started bible bashing. We are totally out of sync. But thanks for the drumming lessons.
Been practicing for 46 years now...I think I'm getting somewhere
The only time I have ever grown as a drummer is when I challenge myself with something I couldn't play and wasn't comfortable with. Going outside your comfort zone is the only way.
That's me every time I play - Ha
Thank you for putting progress into perspective. I was having a great time learning drums until I opened my big mouth and let the worship leader at church know I thought I was ready to join. My first Sunday is this week. I have had a terrible practice week--getting frustrated at not sounding like I think I should, anxiety about playing on Sunday, and lack of gratitude with how far I've come. When I started playing, my only goal was to learn a new skill and maybe pitch in to contribute on the worship team. In the last 7 days, my mindset has gone from, "It's not about me, my goal is to serve the song and help lead people into worship," to "Why can't I get this right? I'm going to sound terrible and embarrass myself and everyone around me." What??? Time for a radical attitude shift. This lesson couldn't have come at a better time. God is amazing!
Keep it nice and simple, take deep breaths, pay attention, and you'll be ok! Remember live playing mistakes come and go and float on down the river.
I think having an immediate goal of THIS SUNDAY will really help you progress!
I'm literally in the exact same spot lol
Stephen, thank you for all the inspiration. I occasionally sit in for the drummer at the Baptist church and I have come a long way. I’m 62 years old and still learning!. Been playing since I was 6! I am proud to be a Born Again Christian, and I really enjoy when you speak of Christ. Thank you again Brother.
Another great lesson, Stephen! Your videos are always a great use of my time. I'm fortunate that I started my drumming journey almost a year ago (at age 55) with the right mindset of wanting to learn and progress, but enjoying the simple accomplishment of playing the drums. My progress has been at a very deliberate pace, but it's always fun for me and I can now look back at almost a year and realize how far I've actually come. I am nowhere near my long term goals yet, and it may take a long time to get there, but I'll have a blast with my music and my drum kit every step of the way!
Steven, Sunday morning greetings to you from South Bend, WA. I have always admired your positive and motivating approach you put out on your channel. I am a 74 year old retired elementary teacher/varsity football coach, and you, my friend are the real deal. I totally appreciate all you do for all of us out here. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.❤️🙏❤️🙏❤️
Guys, I have another "problem". I don't have a goal, finish line,... I don't want to play on stage, don't want to gig with a band... I want just keep learning and and play for fun. So even if I want to hurry, I don't have reason. It's for me fun, relax, hobby...
PS: maybe in future I will play live, iam not against that, just it's not my goal.
I'm 41 picking up drumming for the first time, I'm actually excited pushing my self, but i'm taking my time learning one part of a the music sheet at a time. I finally got excited to listen to the beat of the music and have that help me with playing rather that only hitting the notes, but i'm getting better at reading the music notes.
Drumming is very frustrating for me because of all the different things you need to learn , independence , feel, groove , hands etc.. but your right what’s the hurry , I tend to jump around a lot and never master anything real well, I’m working on your 30 day rock independence and I’m stuck at 8th notes on the hats , I’m staying focused on this but it’s new to me, keeping time with the hats , I’m not stopping till I go through the whole 30 day guide 😊
Sometimes this happens to me! So, I find a song with the pattern I want to learn and keep playing it. Sometimes I play other songs during that time as to not get bored, but AFTER I get that “Warmed up” feeling I go back and play my song with the part I want to learn. And soon I find time is flying……2-3 hours, are gone and I’ll video the beginning and the end of my practice. ALOT of times there’s aBIG breakthrough. I also use the Evan’s “Realfeel” pad. Keep plugging! Soon it will be a thing of beauty.
I used to play like animal in my teens. Then I got a back injury and quit for 20 years. I have aged veey well and now I am patient and learning from the ground up. Thanks for all of your videos. Just hitting a drum is great after so much time away.
This is really great advice. Thank you for sharing this. I didn't get past my being stuck until I started to set specific goals. For example, I decided in 2020 that by 2021, in one year, I would be able to play the song Rosanna by Toto. I knew it would take more than just learning the half-time shuffle, but it would take going back and build foundation that was lacking. So with every step in learning this song, I had to keep retracting my steps to the basic foundation of grip and fulcrum and triplets and ghost notes, etc., fix those, getting them down correctly and comfortably, then attempt the half-time shuffle, then get it to speed was another process. It was one year, but my drumming has improved a lot in this process in other aspects. I didn't just learn a song or mastered a new difficult beat, I actually began to move up in my drumming level.
I needed this today. Thanks.
'What's your hurry?'
My bandmates
which is why you should organize your own band.
Very inspiring. Kind of brings it all into perspective. Thank you for this!
What a fantastic lesson. Thank you for taking the time to share these thoughts. Immensely helpful and appreciated.
Thanks for another great video Stephen! I started learning a couple months ago and I felt lost and stuck with my progress until I found your channel. Your videos, PDFs and paid lessons are helping me so much. I now know what I need to be practicing.
I love the tip to write down my goals so I can track my progress and the tip to video myself playing.
Thank you for sharing your faith! It’s very uncommon to find that on CZcams and very refreshing!
Keep up the great work and God Bless!
Thank you for all your amazing content!
this is exactly my experience (i'm still in the bad phase though as i lost motivation to practice) but i'm trying again, knowing that i will fail and feel crap but this is a necessary stage
Thanks for this video ! Help me a lot.
Thank you! You rock. I needed to hear this. ❤
Gotta say even after 30 years of playing this opened my eyes a bit. I've tried using each digit as a fulcrum as a stretch or exercise, but never gave the middle digit as the primary a second thought. Just played with it a bit and it hasn't opened up yet but I feel like there is massive potential there once my hand takes the hint. Thanks for this!
I picked up drums as an adult, meaning I have family, job, bills, other hobbies. So my goal was to have fun once a week with friends who were also musical. Music is a way to unwind and while there's an incentive to improve, this isn't a job, and won't be for the vast number of musicians. My lessons (lessons because you don't want to practice mistakes) focused on jazz and funk, because if I could play those, I could play rock and folk, or disco. I'd prioritize spending on lessons over equipment and organize your own band if possible. Learn how to read drum notation and standard notation, learn a little music theory and how songs are arranged. Learn enough keyboard so you can explain ideas to bandmates. Learn to sing and if you can't sing, learn to scat. Music is a collaborative effort, so always keep that in mind and suggest and be open to any new idea.
Great lesson, thank you ❤
Great advice, Stephen! I really needed to hear this now because I've felt stuck at my beginner level, which is not great.
Dude! Your timing is incredible. I'm getting ready to go practice and this drops. Awesome!
lol, this was what I came to post
Already love the lesson 15 seconds in, as the opening beat is Heroes, my first song of the month in the community. Back then it was hard to play. I was bad or not as good as I thought I was then. Now I could play this and be relaxed doing so.
It took me lots of work, dedicated practice and loads of uncomfortable situations.
But this paid off! Now I am on a good way to get my first band as an adult. It is great to be on the way and cherish every moment of it.
Thanks to you Stephen, who set me on the track to non glamorous drumming basic control. Who challenged me to try new ways and play things I would never have tried on my own.
Thanks for showing me how to be a better drummer, a better musician and a better person !
So helpful!! Don't feel as frustrated with my progress now. Nice to know I'm not the only mature learner out there as well. Thank you Stephen
this is the best video by far for drumming and beyond. thanks so much for sharing.
I dont even have the possibility to play drums everyday..... because my drumset is pretty far away in my rehearsal room -.-
Appreciate the lesson and your thoughts. I returned to drumming in 2022 after having not played for 30+ years. My experience with respect to hurrying is this has been sort of an undulating experience for me so far. I've progressed and enjoyed the process, but I've also experienced serious frustration on the lack of progress. Being fixated on something and not getting it to the degree that it paralyzes and kills the enjoyment and motivation, but also experiencing stick-tuitiveness with the slow, steady process of learning new things. Just showing up, being okay with sounding bad, settling in to long, arduous task and work of new challenges. I'm checking out the book. Looking forward. Thanks!
I am grateful that I get to play at church every week. And I saw a video that said something to the effect of, "When you make a mistake, do it again so it seemed like it was on purpose."
Such a powerful insight into how I need to apply this to all things in life and to my drumming As you said we generally know this but don't adopt it
Everything has a season including us so .why not enjoy along the way
Thanks Stephen really appreciate your effort in doing these videos God Bless you
Thank you for sharing your Faith, I love your content, your skill, and honest humility, and obviously your ability to stay on task, and professional with your teaching ability.
I love the little things and learning songs moment by moment and e.g. learning little hi hat motions and every moment was a joy I love the videos and helping me keep the little moments here keep up the good work
When asked how to be good at guitar, Joe Walsh replied,” You have to get out there and suck until you don’t suck anymore”. Eloquently and accurately stated. 😅
Thanks for sharing something that you believe in and had impacted your life
Hi , Have you got a link for the 3 part practice plan?
Very helpful. I’ve been on the verge of giving up for a while. Self taught but I work out of town so practice is difficult. I work on rudiments in the hotel room but I don’t seem to see any improvement. I have a lot to think about.
Keep pushing yourself it will come
Keep practicing. I couldn’t do a ghost to save my life. The first time I did I jumped up and told everyone in the house. Don’t give up! The best part is learning something you could never do! It’s a blast since I’ve quit worrying and started thoroughly enjoying it!
Several months ago I bought a drum set just for fun and something to do. Unfortunately I'm not getting the time to practice as often as I'd like but I'm enjoying it.
Thanks for the words of wisdom Stephen! I am my own worst enemy & critic
This is so correct! Two thoughts from me.
First - it has to be a good thing that old videos of you playing are worse than you could do now. Otherwise you're not getting better. Do you want videos of you playing from before today to be better than you could do today? Surely not!
And second - the key thing with playing in public is to make sure that the things you are bad at/still working on are not on display - don't try them in public. Keep what you do to what you know you can do reasonably well. Do the simple version of the fill, not the one you aren't confident of pulling off! Work on that for next time! The band/audience will only notice if you overstretch and don't pull it off!
Keep producing the videos Stephen. Exceptional advice.
I'm just happy I've gotten my 4 limbs to move in sync 😂
Good point, made well
The difference between an "apprentice" and a "journeyman" is practicing your trade. Reaching mastery is part practice and more so "gift". Most will never attain the ability of a Rich or Morello! My advice on the journey, especially if you're playing in a band is to protect your hearing. Too loud is doing damage. Hearing protection is a must..
Woow so helpful
I love how I always get both a drum lesson and a life lesson from your videos Stephen! As you were speaking I was thinking "man this guy is speaking truth. He's tapped in." And I wondered about your spiritual practice and seconds later you mentioned Jesus. lol divine timing indeed. Thanks for another wonderful vid!
A saying I heard from a different hobby that I think applies to my drum practicing, as well. "Slow is smooth and smooth is fast."
broooooo this is so real and im not even halfway through the video
I'm not sure what the exact ratio should be, but even PROS, at least when it comes to practice, often say you should spend most of your time practicing sounding like shit. If your sessions sound great, you aren't really pushing or challenging yourself. Drums are far more nuanced and difficult to do well than people give them credit for. A common complaint among musicians generally is that proper drummers are really hard to come by. It's a really important component of music. I'm willing to bet the ratio of good drummers to drummers in the aggregate is far lower than for other instruments. Bad percussion can sink a whole band, while mediocre musicians can be hugely elevated by a great drummer (see: blink 182). My theory of why drums are tricky is that mistakes and unevenness are readily perceivable, and due to how the sound projects and where you are in relation to said sound, it's VERY hard to perceive how you actually sound in real time.
Superb! Can you wrote the name of the book, please?
"The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry" by John Mark Comer
👍
Kickin Ain't Easy!
The biggest truth about learning the drums is when you get to the point to play gigs you have a lot of sh*t to have to haul to the venue. 😀
That is for damn sure! I love playing the drums, but sometimes I wish I'd taken up the piccolo instead.
If you are jamming alone with just one band member make sure it's the bass player.
Stephen, Love your videos and you purchase lessons, but please back off the distracting background music, it's too loud, thank you for your great lessons.
SLOW DOWN, to speed up your learning.
Ok this isn't even about drums but that haircut is cleannn
Whats your hurry? From a guy that refuses to play outdoor venues because his hair will get messed up.
Quick comment! Gottem!
"The painful TRUTH of learning the drums"
The painful part is when you realize that you sound just like every other drummer on You Tube.
And you're going to be REALLY BAD in the areas that need to most improvement.
I subscribed when I thought you could teach me about being a better drummer. I unsubscribed when instead of hitting drums you started bible bashing. We are totally out of sync. But thanks for the drumming lessons.