How Getting Fired Taught Me Something Important About Drumming Fundamentals
During several college summers and falls, I worked at a local high school with the marching band. I generally worked with the front ensemble or “pit,” which consisted of all the mallet instruments, synthesizers, and other auxiliary percussion. This was a lot of fun, and a lot of it was right up my alley as a percussion performance major in college. I had never played in marching band myself, but I knew and understood the instruments the kids were playing.
To be honest, though, I always felt a little bit like a fraud in this job. This was classic “imposter syndrome,” where you feel like you don’t really know what you’re doing and you’re going to be “found out” at any moment. I felt like I was teetering on the edge of that cliff the entire time I worked this school job. The kids were great, the instructors were great, and the band director was a great guy to work for. But I always felt like I wasn’t really cut out for doing marching band, and I knew this couldn’t go on forever.
One fall, the school hired a third percussion instructor. We already had two - myself instructing the front ensemble and a second guys instructing the battery (drumline). But they decided to bring on a third drum guy just to help out and tie loose ends. He was a few years older than me, had earned a music education degree, and was actually a full-time band director across the street at the middle school. Naturally, I felt threatened.
During the preseason practice and band camp the new guy would just sit in on rehearsals, observing how we did things. I just knew he was sitting there going “man, this Stephen guy has no clue what he’s doing. I need to take over this rehearsal and get things moving here.” Was he thinking that? There’s a good chance he was. But I did my best to focus and do the best work that I could and not feel totally threatened when he would interject a comment or an idea while I rehearsed the group.
Turns out the new drum instructor was fantastic, though. He was nice, encouraging, knew how to interact with the kids, and he had this ability to teach them and challenge them all while having fun and keeping them in line. I immediately grew to like him, and I settled into the truth that he was much better at this job than I was. Thankfully I was smart enough to get over my ego, rest in the fact that I didn’t know much, and see what all I could learn from this guy.
We’d take turns rehearsing the pit, and we’d trade off doing warmups before football games throughout the fall. I’d watch what he did and do my best to internalize it. I’d ask questions, and we’d have good discussions about teaching methods and how to work with a group like that.
We came to the end of the season, and I faced the inevitable fact that I wouldn’t be needed the following year. I’d known it all along, and at this point I was fine with it. This marked the end of my “marching band clinician career,” and I shifted focus to one-on-one drumset lessons after college.
But here’s the big thing I learned from my replacement on the marching band gig:
Mastering fundamentals is extremely important. Do that, and the music will fall into place.
I’d never really thought about this before, even though my first drumset teacher actually took that approach teaching me. His philosophy was “I’ll give you the tools and you use them to do whatever you want to do.” He’d focus on teaching me good technique, coordination, and fundamentals from different styles of drumming. I could then take that and run with it. Now it felt like this philosophy was coming full circle, and I was also discovering my big mistake in my own teaching.
I was failing to teach mastery of fundamentals. I was jumping straight into making sure the kids could play the music for the halftime show, and we were slowly drilling it note for note. What I didn’t realize was that basic technique was holding them back. As soon as we started working scales, arpeggios, and other rudimental-style exercises, the students’ ability to execute the show actually increased - without even directly practicing the music!
I realized this was totally true with drumset, where the better you get at singles, doubles, and paradiddles, and the more you increase your coordination, the better you’ll be able to play anything that comes your way! Don’t waste time spending months learning a lick somebody’s teaching on YouTube, when your core lack-of-coordination is what’s actually holding you back. Fix the coordination issue first, then the lick becomes easy.
Or maybe you’ve been drilling doubles for years now and they’re still not coming together. Maybe the core issue is where your thumb is placed on the stick. Fix that, and the doubles fall into place. I can’t tell you how many one-on-one students of mine have had this realization. They’re struggling with playing loosely, but as soon as we fix one little grip issue they’re sailing along with relaxed strokes and smoother doubles.
Master the fundamentals, then the music will fall into place.
This is why my mission on the Non Glamorous Drummer centers around the non glamorous stuff. You gotta focus on the nitty gritty yet simple techniques so that you can excel on performing the complex ones. You can’t master the music until you master those fundamental techniques. That’s the truth, and that’s just the way it is with any musical instrument. I believe that anyone can learn the drums, but only when they’re equipped with the right know how. A lot of that right know-how starts with understanding the fundamentals as well as your personal weaknesses. Find your weak spots, fix them, master the fundamentals, and you’re well on your way to success.
I’m super thankful for that college fall working at the high school, simply because of that valuable lesson I learned from the more experienced teacher who replaced me. That realization was a turning point for me, forever shifting the way I taught my one-on-one students. Without that, I also may never have started the Non Glamorous Drummer YouTube channel. I launched the channel because I felt there was a need for simple, accessible lessons that help every drummer master the core issues we all face. Conquer those, THEN you can be the drummer you want to be.
Whether you’re new on the drums or not, always be practicing and brushing up on the fundamentals. Practice your singles and doubles every day. Practice a basic beat with your metronome every day. Sound amazing at the simple things, and the complex things will fall into place. Here are two playlists on the channel to help you specifically with speeding up your hands and freeing up your feet...
WATCH: The Key Grip Techniques that Lead to Speed, Precision, & Fluidity
That’s all for today! Stay non glamorous.
God Bless,
Stephen
