Music

you liked that little rhyming title didn’t you?

I have been playing drums for about 14 years now. I should be a professional drummer by most standards now, but I have 1 weakness. I rarely get to practice. And what is more..even when I do sit down for some “quality time” with my set I have trouble coming up with new beats or exercises to practice. Evidentially, I am not the only one. It’s a common thing for Drummers to get stumped on practice material. <sarcasm>Well, in the last few years I have discovered this cool thing called the internet. </sarcasm>The internet, also know by some as a series of tubes (will that joke ever get old?), is chocked full of great sites and resources for us, the tapped out brain dead drummers who just want to practice something new, here forth known as the TOBDDWJWPSN…maybe we should form a Facebook group… I digress.

I have found a ton of sites, video lessons and such that I think will help, but I want to highlight a few of those…I suppose what I would consider the best of the best. And by all means, if you come across another great site that would fit in this category drop me an email or post it in the comments.

First off, you need to know 3 things…1. A decent metronome is a must. I recommend the
Tama Rhythm Watch. 2. Get an iPod or a portable cd player would work, and jam out to songs you like (i would think this is a no brain-er, but I am constantly surprised at what I hear people say) 3. YouTube is your friend. And you can find a lot of great lessons on there…and a lot of crap. Check out these drummers below for some great practice material.

Mike Johnston of “the Drum Lab” in Sacramento, CA.

www.mikeslessons.com or www.youtube.com/user/drumteacher76

I can not recommend Mike’s lessons highly enough. He is for all practical purposes “the Man.”You would be a fool not to check out his lessons…now onward.Mike has toured the US and Europe with Simon Says and FILTER. He has been doing private lesson’s for over 10 years. Mike also has insane foot speed and is often accused of playing a double pedal when he does not. Mike constantly comes out with fresh fresh lessons and seems to take a lot of pride in showing off not what he can do (which is amazing) but how good his students are. He has a wealth of knowledge and practice material on his YouTube account and on his main site offers iPod download for a small (but very worth it) fee. Here is a great lesson Mike did on improving your bass speed:

Derrick Pope

www.derrikpope.net or www.youtube.com/user/djp132

Derrick constantly produces great lessons and does his best to respond to questions that viewers have about his or sometime other’s videos. Derrick competed in numerous local and regional solo drum set and snare competitions, winning so many that he was eventually banned from several of them. I also love his site slogan, “Drum non stop.” You can get directly to his lessons page here or a lot of them are featured on YouTube as well. Derrick teaches with a very unique style and explains very in depth but in a way that anyone (even stupid drummers like me) can get wisdom from his lessons. Check out this lesson Derrick did on Double stroke technique:

Drummer World

www.drummerworld.com/drumclinic.html

This site has tons of short video clips and lessons. Topics including brush lessons, percussion, drums set, technique..and you get the picture. This place is a wealth of knowledge.

Dan Britt

http://www.dannybritt.com or www.youtube.com/user/DrumTVShow

If I can say nothing else about Dan and the way he teaches, I would say he does it with enthusiasm. On his YouTube channel, DrumTVShow, Dan welcomes lessons from lots of different drummers, making it packed full of lessons and exercises to keep you busy for weeks. Jeff Indyke (also another great teacher) has several lessons up on DrumTVshow. While the talking is sometime muffled and hard to understand, the advice is excellent. Definitely stop by and check out Dan’s lesson on Hand Technique Speed & Power in Drums.

I realize there are a lot of great lessons out there and probably some I need to know about. I would love to highlight some more on my blog but for now these are some that I watch, use often, and truly respect for their teaching ability and their willingness to help fellow drummers. If any of the teachers above happen to read this then let me say this..Thanks so much for helping me be a better drummer (I’ll stop before everyone gets misty…if you need a tissue I would suggest checking out a restroom.) Seriously, cheers to these teachers and those like them. More to come sometime soon.