Burning Drum

Your first gig is coming up, and you’ve probably noticed that you don’t feel prepared and you just know you’re going to you’re gonna make a ton of mistakes and otherwise embarrass yourself. Good! This is exactly how you’re supposed to feel! Now, how to best prepare for making a fool of yourself? I think… Continue reading A Beginner Drummer’s First Gig: What to expect and how to prepare

If you clicked on this article on purpose, it probably means that you’ve been dealing with some frustration with your progress on drums. You know exactly what you want to do, but you just can’t do it and you don’t know why. Or maybe you can do it under ideal circumstances, but not all the… Continue reading What to do When Drum Practice Makes You Feel Like an Idiot

My mom called me the other day, clearly frustrated that a friend of hers had helped her set up her drums with new heads, but had failed to tune them for her. When she expressed to him that she didn’t feel confident enough to tune them properly, he said “just tune them how you like… Continue reading Tuning Drums: Why is it so hard?

This is a post for the ladies, especially those who may be worried that drumming is a man’s world. But also for men who hope to get some insight into ladies’ experience. For context, I’m a 41 year old small female who’s been playing 2 years at the time of this writing. I’m a pretty… Continue reading Drumming While Female: The Gentle Sexism of Low Expectations

If you’re reading this, it’s probably because you’ve already noticed that it’s very hard to do different things with different limbs at the same time, and you’re wondering how in the world you’re going to learn how to do it easily and musically! Well, you’re in for a treat – as long as you like… Continue reading Limb Independence for Beginning Drummers

What is an accent? Just like placing an emphasis on a certain syllable in speech, an accent is simply an emphasis on a certain stroke or count. Why do drummers need accents? You’d got to remember that even though your drumkit can’t produce words, you’re drumming because you and your bandmates have something to say.… Continue reading Beginner’s Guide to Accents on Acoustic Drums