First things first - grab your free transcription here.
The genesis of this lesson is I’ve been onboarding a bunch of new students lately, and creating programs for them that combine their personal goals and my goals for them, and this put me in the head space of wondering…
…”what is a suite of skills that I’d like all my students to have when they’re done working with me?”
As I practiced that afternoon, more ideas about this subject bubbled up. (The practice room is another big source of video ideas.) I think the skills required to consider ourselves “advanced” at the drums have evolved since I was a student. With the huge/important disclaimer that technical skills should not supplant the value of creativity or music-making, and that there are non-technical ways to be a good drummer, it feels like the bar for “practice room hounds”/”technical aptitude” has been raised.
One example is the near-ubiquity of one-handed 16th notes.
They’re certainly not “new”. Harvey Mason, Mike Clark, Tony Williams, Lenny White, Clyde Stubblefield, etc. all knew their way around some one-handed 16ths. But the way music has evolved made them a mainstay of modern drums, and now practically every “good technical” drummer can do them.
Ditto with things like 8ths with the hats, something Tony Williams made famous, and people like Lenny White, Billy Cobham, Steve Gadd, Weckl, Vinnie, Dennis Chambers, Gary Husband, etc injected into the lexicon.
And ditto with 3 other skills.
In this fairly-exhaustive video, I’ll not only outline the “5 essential skills for a modern advanced drummer”; I’ll also show you how to approach them, and even link to deeper videos where it’s appropriate.
And disclaimer again - don’t fret if (a) this style of playing doesn’t interest you - that’s perfectly valid, or if (b) you’re working your way up to this stuff, but aren’t there yet. These skills take a long time.
With that out of the way, I hope you enjoy this lesson!