Being exposed to good music, listening habits foundational technique and playing with good time and sound is the key to achieving musical success. You want to sound good but more importantly strive to make the others around you sound good and you must know the music!

It isn’t about how fast you play or how impressive your chops are its about how appropriate your choices are for the music and how you can create appropriate parts. I see too many students who have all the grades yet when confronted with a real life musical environment they can lack the confidence to play within the ensemble. We all have the ability to play the drums and do it really well we just need that guidance and encouragement to look in the right places.

Some teachers will prescribe and aspire to play many snare etudes and claim their achievements. Many of these teachers miss the point. Many drum teachers have practiced hard and worked on so much material and display incredible chops but many fail to see and understand the relevance of these and the relationship to music.

My true belief for an aspiring drummer is that they should do the simple things really well. Keep it simple and work from a good foundation. Don’t get me wrong I love a good snare solo I have worked on many myself and a few key ones are great for helping you apply good technique however the student must not judge themselves against their teacher who can play hundreds of snare solos or play endless impressive chops. This can lead the student down many rabbit holes of poor information and practice material.

A teacher should have the compassion and humility to be able to allow the student to have the courage to one day open their own doors and explore music and its wonderful uplifting energy. Some of those doors maybe the wrong ones but with patience and humility the student will find the right ones. Patience is something we can all learn. To become a good musician/artist requires this skill. My approach is to provide simple yet transformative exercises which can get you sounding great on the drums and get you playing with music at the earliest possible time in your journey.

“ Try to think of singing and dancing, not marching ” Jim Blackley