Sit down and listen to this record, and you’ll feel yourself becoming a better musician by the minute. I believe that every drummer should listen to John Mayer’s Where the Light is live in LA record. Whether or not you’re a Mayer fan, you truly can’t deny the world-class musicianship on every track.

The record features two world-class drummers, Steve Jordan and J.J. Johnson, and a whole host of fantastic musicians including bass players Pino Palladino and David LaBruyere. Check out the credits here on the Wikipedia page.

Grab a pair of headphones and get ready to listen along with me, because I’ll be including a bunch of Spotify links to all the tracks I’m talking about. Without further ado, here are the 5 biggest things every drummer can learn from this record.

#1: Undeniable groove is created by simple, musical consistency free of clutter.

If you’re unfamiliar with John Mayer or this particular album, the...

I was on a gig recently where I was reminded that it isn’t always our fault if our drums don’t sound their best.

I tuned up my kit at home, got everything sounding good, and I set up at the venue. I started hitting the drums, listening as the sound echoed throughout the fairly large room. The rack tom sounded way lower than it did at home, and the floor tom sounded strange, and the snare had this weird hum going on. Everything sounded fine at home! I had even used that snare at a gig previously where it worked great. Why did the sound of the entire kit suddenly change on me?

This gig was teaching me yet another lesson on “tuning for the room.”

It’s basically a drumming truth that your kit will sound different in every room you play. That’s a given that we can’t avoid. What we have to do is learn how to adapt to different rooms, making the most out of our kit sound in less-than-ideal circumstances. Whether the room’s awkwardly...