Today’s post is serving a purpose none other than to give you a super nerdy, detailed breakdown of every piece of essential drumming and recording gear I use regularly here in my home studio. I hope you enjoy!

We’ll break this up into categories to keep things organized. Here’s what I’ll cover:

• Drums & Cymbals
• Microphones
• Recording Gear
• Room & Acoustical Equipment

*Quick note: I don’t have any official gear endorsements. So know that these are all genuinely my favorite things that I paid for with my money. :) Also, you’ll find that I’m a gear minimalist.

Drums & Cymbals

My main studio kit is a Gretsch Renown (gloss natural finish), which is maple shells with Gretsch’s “silver sealer” on the insides. These drums are smaller than standard rock sizes, but I believe they’re more versatile as a result (topic for another email or video!). The kick is 20”x16”, the two toms that I use...

We’re gearing up for Christmas here at the Clark household, and we're super excited for our 5-month-old daughter's first Christmas! :)

If you’re blessed this Christmas with cash gifts you’d like to use on quality gear investments, I’ll give you some good ideas today.

Whether you’re new to the drums or a few decades into the instrument, make sure you own these 7 important tools for success. Of course, this is isn’t an exhaustive list because I could just as easily send you another email next week with 7 more things. But these are the most essential, most important physical items that will contribute most directly to your personal growth on the drums. Here we go!

[1] Metronome

Seems pretty obvious. However, plenty of players fail to regularly practice with a metronome either because they’re lazy (I’ve been guilty too!) - or they feel it might damage their “natural, organic feel” on the drums. The latter is false, by the way,...

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...