Do you remember the first gig you ever played, first song you ever learned, or just that first moment when something got you really excited about the drums?

I think we can all pinpoint one of those moments, because we all have a reason deep down inside why we play the drums. Something happened at some point in life that lit a fire that drives us to keep working at the nitty gritty non glamorous skills that help us to nail our favorite songs.

That big, motivating moment for me was when I got dragged into playing in the high school worship band at my church. I love looking back at this story, and I actually have a blog post about it on the website right here if you want to read the full story.

I was unprepared, timid, and didn’t want to play in front of people. But the “trial by fire” created by the opportunity to play in church completely transformed my relationship with my instrument, and I quickly started learning some key skills that would carry over...