What Helped Me Grow the Most as a Drummer

In my 12 years of playing the drums, I’ve had to work on a lot of things. Whether it was technique, coordination, timing, or any of those essential basics, I’ve had to do lots of practicing.

But when I started to go beyond those things and ask questions like “what’s the key to recording well?” or “what’s the key to playing the right parts?”, simply practicing was no longer the answer. This is where some additional strategies had to come into play...

The thing that helped me grow the most musically as a drummer was hearing recordings of myself playing with a band. The first time I ever heard such a recording of myself, I instantly knew everything I was doing wrong. I was hearing sections in a song where I knew that groove wasn’t quite right, that fill wasn’t the best fill, and I shouldn’t have gone to open hats at that spot in the song yet. More importantly, I was hearing what I sounded like in the context of a song. How did my playing fit (or not fit) with the parts the other musicians were playing? Did my drumming help propel the song and tell a story? Or did it bog things down?

I found that I was most often guilty of playing too busily. Whether the groove had too many notes…or the fills had too many notes… I quickly heard that these instances just didn’t FEEL right in the song. Though the busy grooves and fills felt exciting when I played them, they actually took away from the momentum of the song sometimes.

Listening back to these “board mixes” (recorded by the sound guy), I was enlightened. Listening to these recordings alongside good records full of good drumming, I was able to accurately compare my level of playing with that of my favorite drummers on top records. This was a huge turning point for me.

I now began to inherently “know” whether the part I was playing fit, because I now knew what it sounded like in the big picture. The experience of listening to myself taught me what certain things sound like in context. I was quickly gaining musical maturity, simply from listening to recordings of myself.

If you’re able to do the same, I challenge you to listen back to yourself at gigs or in rehearsals. Listen critically and evaluate the differences between your playing and your favorite drummer’s playing. A board mix is ideal, since you can hear what the sound guy was hearing. But if it’s just an iPhone sitting next to the kit, that’s great too.

And if you’re not playing gigs yet and you’re not playing with other live musicians, record yourself playing along with songs. Create drum covers, and go back and listen to yourself in the same manner. Any kind of “recording yourself” will help you grow a ton. Don’t underestimate the power of listening and the impact this method can have on growing your musical maturity!

Stephen