Will reading music make you a better player? Is your playing ability suffering right now because you can’t read music?

Maybe you’ve taken the time to learn, and you’ve been left wondering what all the fuss is about. It’s not like your groove and pocket became better after learning to read. So do we drummers really need to learn to read music? Is this important? Let’s unpack this a little.

Ringo Starr, John Bonham, Chad Smith, and Buddy Rich are just a few famous players who never took lessons - and who most likely never read a musical note. Legend has it Buddy Rich would listen to the band play the tune once, then he’d jump on the kit and play it. No chart, no notation. Each of these drummers were (and are) a force of compelling groove and musicality, and their inability to read sheet music or drum charts didn’t seem to hold them back in any way. What they may have lacked in the book-learning department they made up for with ear...

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...

I recently heard a gig horror story involving a drummer who failed at his job in more ways than one. The sad thing is, he may not have realized how badly he was failing and wreaking havoc on the band.

Now my point today actually isn’t to share with you all the details of how this guy failed miserably. It’s really to give you some preface to today’s video, which highlights the “5 Toxic Drummer Habits You MUST Avoid.”

This particular drummer actually excelled at all the usual “drummer skills” that come to mind, like solid timekeeping, appropriate playing (playing for the song), arriving on time prepared, and in general “sounding good” on his instrument.

So what went wrong?

The drummer on this gig had an ego problem, and his lack of respect for the bandleader and overall arrogance led to a whole host of issues that good timekeeping and proper playing couldn’t solve. He failed to have the vocalist's best interest in mind,...

I remember playing a church rehearsal when I was in college where I was struggling to remember what was coming next in the song. I had a chord chart next to me with some notes I’d scribbled, but they weren’t doing me much good. I felt clueless as to what to play at the end of each song section, because I wasn’t really sure what kind of fill should happen. Sometimes I wasn't actually 100% sure what was coming next, so that made it pretty tough to know whether to play a fill. Everything felt like a stressful mess, and I was honestly pretty lost. I was faking my way through the song, but I probably sounded anything but professional.

I remember that particular week when I was in school, and I was so busy that I literally was scrambling to listen to the songs for Sunday in the car on the way to the rehearsal. My phone wouldn’t plug into the radio of my 1997 Honda Accord, so I had it sitting in the cupholder blasting the songs loudly enough to hear while driving. I...

Happy Friday! I’ve dubbed this weekend a "bye-week" on the channel. (Maybe some of you astute viewers happened to notice that a video didn’t go up today!). So instead I’d like to shoot you a sneak peak of an upcoming lesson in the works.

I’ve been getting questions about drum stool height... How do you know what your ideal stool height is? How does this factor into your height, playing style, and foot technique? Let’s dig into this. (Stay tuned to the channel, because the full video on this will be up soon.)

I’m just under 6’4” tall. For you metric folks, that’s roughly 193cm. I measured both drum thrones that I use often and found both to be right at 22” (56cm). If we do the math here, that gives us a 3.45 to 1 ratio - or 29%. My throne height is 29% of my physical height. So take that for what it’s worth, and use this as a starting point if you’d like. But there are other factors to...

Sometimes the most practical, helpful thing you can do to be a better drummer is relax. Literally.

Relaxation is something we’ve learned to appreciate here at the Clark Household since having our baby 2 months ago! Any chance we can get pays off.

But it’s easy for me to say “relax!” while playing the drums, and it’s another to actually do it. Ultimately it comes down to a couple of things…

• Build up your playing from a technical standpoint so that you’re not constantly bumping a ceiling. Here’s a recent video that will help you with that.
• Physically relax while you play. Listening helps a bunch, and here’s a link to today’s video that will help you with exactly that (+ a bunch of additional tips for getting better sounds out of your drums!)

Beyond these two core tips, logging real-world playing experience with actual musicians is the best way to rapidly grow in these skills. But I also...

In January of 2016, I was in a unique position that provided an interesting opportunity.

I was doing music full time, which consisted of teaching lessons regularly and playing gigs every weekend. I was doing some extra music-related work regularly also, but I had a good bit of down time during the day - especially mornings. My wife and I had just gotten married a few months before, and we were living pretty cheaply in our tiny 450 square foot apartment. (If you’ve ever watched some of my oldest videos, you’ve seen a glimpse of that place. Most of the time we don’t miss it.)

I was honestly getting a little bored, because I couldn’t just practice drums all day (#noiseconstraints!). Lessons didn’t happen til afternoons and gigs didn’t happen until evening. How could I spend the first half of my day wisely so that down the road I wouldn’t regret this time in life when I was blessed with so much spare time?

I decided to put myself to work at...

Nearly 5 years ago, I moved into an apartment and had to figure out how to “make drums work” in a limited space with lots of noise constraints.

I had my usual acoustic drums that I hauled out on gigs regularly, but I had to figure out how to practice consistently in my living room without disturbing my neighbors. This ended up being quite a journey, and in the end I was able to boast that I never received a single complaint from a neighbor over the 2.5 years I lived there.

I’ll tell you a little about how I did it, but first I want to focus on the biggest things that these 2.5 years taught me. Believe it or not, these lessons are valuable for ANY drummer - no matter where you live.

• Know what you need to practice. I like to call this the “diagnose and prescribe” sequence. Be aware of your weaknesses on the drums, and diagnose them. Admit that your doubles sound horrible or your backbeats aren’t consistent. Then prescribe some action...

There’s something you must lose if you want to gain speed, control, and stability on the drums. Maybe you can relate to this…

But first I have to hijack this email with something else I'm excited about. I hardly ever share personal, family stuff in these emails, but this is something I have to tell you.

My wife and I had a baby this month!

We're thrilled to welcome our new baby girl into the world and to spend less time sleeping and more time changing diapers. :) Life is super busy in a new way right now, but thanks to the modern technology of a digital business the Non Glamorous Drummer can keep humming along as usual. We now have an extra mouth to feed here at the Clark household, so be sure to enroll in my premium courses on the website. ;) Just kidding - This isn't a hard sell, so do what you want to. But if you do want to sign up for a course I won't stop you.

Ok on with today's promised email lesson...

When I was in high school, I had my chops together and I...

I learned the hard way that trying to impress other musicians with your playing will get you nowhere. That’s one of the biggest mistakes you can make, and I was making it constantly in high school and even into college.

When playing with other musicians, especially if they were well-experienced pros, my priority was constantly to “show them what I got” and make sure they could tell that I’m a “good drummer.” I felt like I needed to demonstrate at least a little of my technical ability every so often so that they knew I could play more than just groove and time. I needed to throw a 32nd note fill in there so they could see my facility around the kit. Most of all, I needed to look like I was working hard to make these things happen - because I was a “good drummer” with fast hands. Then after the gig I was pretty much just dying for feedback from the guys I’d played with. I wanted to hear anything - but especially some good...