You as a drummer are only as good as your feet (technically speaking, at least).

You could be a drum corps marching band extraordinaire and blaze through every hybrid rudiment ever conjured up, but if your right foot can’t play in time….where does that leave you on drumset?

If you’re struggling to play fast on the bass drum…Or you’re able to play fast - but not clean and loud - today’s solution is for you. The best thing about this is that it works for any kind of foot technique, whether you’re heel-up or heel-down.

Here’s what we’re covering in today’s video!

• How to adjust your pedal for maximum speed & power
• How to get rid of bass drum “flutter” where the beater buzzes on the head
• A simple exercise to put everything into practice to solidify and strengthen your right foot
• BONUS: Discover your pedal’s “natural tempo,” which allows you to achieve...

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...

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...