Making mistakes is the cause of way too much anxiety to most musicians. The reason is that we tend to irrationally link our worth as musicians to how perfect we sound. While quality is important, perfectionism is a trap.

Creating drum beats is part of the process of writing and arranging a song and here we are going to learn how to use a couple of interesting techniques and ideas. In order to expand our options and apply our creativity, we are going to reason in terms of levels and stages. Use the drumless audio files to play along and experiment with your ideas.

Phrasing is a topic of fundamental importance for every drummer, as it constitutes at least half of what we do. However, the study of this subject tends to easily disorient drummers, due to the large amount of options, directions and solutions available. That’s why I have tried to organize the materials collected over the course of many years in a gradual and coherent program, with the intent to provide a go-to manual full of musical ideas and effective phrasing techniques.

The shortcut to fluent and flowing drumming is to dedicate lots of practice time to jamming and improvising. This is why I have put together a bunch of tracks for you to develop this skill and have lots of fun with. 5 loops, one for each main subdivision: eighths, sixteenths, triplets, shuffle and half shuffle.

What’s the reason why it’s so effective to study with a teacher rather than being self taught? There are four main things a great educator gives us and there are also three important elements that we should consider when looking for an instructor.

A classic mistake many drummers make in their formative years is focusing exclusively on pure hand and foot technique, assuming that eventually all parts will work together automatically, just by playing. Unfortunately overlooking the interaction between upper and lower limbs is one of the main causes of lack of groove and bad time feel in drummers.