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...

Nervousness and a little bit of fear hung on me as I walked into my very first drum lesson. I was a young 15 year old who had taken piano lessons for 7 years, but even those 7 years hadn’t prepared me for this new step out of my comfort zone. I liked the familiar, and I even thrived off of habit and consistency. But I’d known deep down inside for a long time that I really wanted to take drum lessons… one day… when I was older… when I was less scared of learning something totally new. One day I’d be more grown up and confident, able to take on a new challenge with ease and proudly join a band and be a great rock drummer. After all, that really had been my ultimate dream for a few years now. But now on this afternoon in May I found myself stumbling directly into this distant and even terrifying dream, and there was no turning back.

Armed with my SD1 drumsticks I’d purchased a few years before for a “junior drumline”...

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...

Today’s topic sort of takes us in a different direction, but it’s a logical next step after last week. Once you’ve gotten motivated by your favorite artists, bands, and musicians to work up your drumming skills…where should you start?

You’ve heard me say before that there are two sides to drumming: the musical side & the technical side. Really the technique has to come first in order to make music on the instrument, but simply by listening to music you can already be working up that "musical" part of your brain before you even start learning how to play the kit.

But as for conquering the “technical side”… Are there good method books out there that you should start with? Absolutely. By the way, before we even get into this, check out the recent video on the channel about how to read musical notation if you haven’t learned this before. I believe this is a crucial skill to gain, even if you consider...

A little over a year ago, I added an email topic idea to my list. It was called “get outside your own head and get inspired!” - all about hanging out with other musicians and receiving new ideas and inspiration from them.

I had that idea after I met up with two of the best musicians I know over coffee one morning. I was in the midst of working on a bunch of Non Glamorous Drummer content at that time, and I was feeling a bit musically bored. I needed some direction and some goals to set for the year, but I didn’t really know where to start or what to focus on.

At that coffee hang, the three of us nerded out on music and our favorite records, and we literally just sat there talking about music for an hour. I didn’t receive any particular enlightenment at all, but something about just being around the energy of other musicians helped to revitalize my motivation. I went home excited to practice, excited to record some new ideas, and excited to add new...

I had the opportunity a little over a year ago to attend a masterclass by one of my all-time favorite drummers. This masterclass wasn’t a clinic, though, where a bunch of folks gather in a music store to listen to their favorite fusion drummer shred for an hour. This was a true “masterclass,” where the objective was to actually just hang out and have a Q&A session.

Only 12 slots were open, so the group attending was kept small. This allowed for more of a “hangout” kind of vibe, where the masterclass was all about group discussion instead of watching a performance. The entire event lasted for 3 hours, and it took place in a recording studio.

For the first hour and a half, we all sat in a circle in the tracking room and just asked this drummer questions. We talked about the music industry, getting paid, working in studios, how to learn songs, and lots more. It was really fun being in a room with 11 other guys my age who shared my exact interests and...

I was playing a church gig years ago with a bass player I’d played with a bunch. He was one of those guys who was a lot of fun to play with, and he had a keen interest in my personal growth on the drums, skill-wise and career-wise. That day he happened to mention a drummer friend of his he’d like me to meet…

Now this drummer-friend wasn’t just any drummer. He was a monster-player who was currently touring with a major act, and who had toured with several nationally-renowned bands in the past few years. He had played on several records I listened to a bunch in high school, so I felt like I already knew him. The realization that I could meet him had the introvert inside of me very nervous. But of course, I couldn’t resist.

I was able to get in touch with this drummer, and we set up a time to just hang out and chat. It’s amazing the power of a mutual friend!

As we conversed and got to know each other, I got the feeling that this guy already...