Drums, Music, and Loops.
Browse my drums and music blog below to find free drum lessons, articles about the music industry and musicianship, and free drum loops. You’ll also find other fun content such as the occasional review, and news.
I believe in quality content, and you’ll see my educational articles have been published by magazines such as Modern Drummer, whilst the lessons based on my book Concepts, published by Hudson Music.
I hope you enjoy my drums and music blog, and if you’d like to learn to play drums, you can also check out my drum lessons. Or, if you’re looking for a drummer to play on your songs, explore my remote recording services.
Pros and Cons of Modern versus Vintage Drums
So, here my thoughts and opinions on the topic of modern and vintage drums. There’s something inexplicably cool and desirable about vintage gear. It looks cool, it sounds great, and it always impresses people; producers love the old school stuff. Some argue that old...
My Drumming Roots
In this article, we explore how to find your drumming roots. I decided to get introspective and go about finding my drumming roots are to trace my lineage; my drumming family tree, if you will. Now, of course, I know who my favourite drummers are! But I wanted to look...
A Drummer’s Album Review: “Hikari” by Oceans Ate Alaska
Here's my album review of "Hikari" by Oceans Ate Alaska, a Birmingham-based Metalcore band. I wanted to share my thoughts about this record because I found it really interesting, both from a musical and drummer’s perspective. Having learnt about it listening to the...
Beginner’s Drum Lesson: Developing a sense of groove
In this Beginner's Drum Lesson we’ll explore how to make your drum beats sound more musical and groove better. Has the following ever happened to you? You’re trying to learn a new beat, but something doesn’t sound quite right, like your bass drums or snare drums...
What Makes a Great Drum Teacher?
An ancient Chinese proverb says “to know the road ahead, ask those coming back”. It's a good one, right? In our journey to becoming better drummers, we want to learn from the best drummers around, that's a no-brainer. However, not all of them have a knack for / are...
Drum Lesson: Get More Out Of Your Triplets Part 3
Core Skills Timing: You should aim to explore the accuracy of your strokes, ensuring that the rhythms are clear and performed cleanly. Motion: Be aware of your movements! Moving these rhythms around the drum set might involve motions that you’re not used to, so take...
Drum Lesson: Get More Out Of Your Triplets Part 2
Core Skills Timing: You should aim to explore the accuracy of your strokes, ensuring that the rhythms are clear and performed cleanly. Motion: Be aware of your movements! Moving these rhythms around the drum set might involve motions that you’re not used to, so take...
Drum Lesson: Level-Up Your Grooves With Ghost Notes
Hey! So, in this ghost notes drum lesson, we’re gonna take a look at developing your snare drum phrasing using grace notes to embellish your back beats. We can really enrich the groove of our beats by using nice details on the snare, but we need to make sure that our...
A Professional’s Guide To Becoming A Self-Employed Drummer
You should totally quit your job... Be self-employed! Face it, you’re not actually happy with what you do, are you? You could be putting your skills to a more productive, creative and fulfilling use. Testament to this is that everyone’s got a little business idea...
Is Your Attitude Stopping You Being The Best Drummer You Can Be?
Since I started teaching drums as a full-time thing a few years ago, I started noticing that when learning or, more specifically, becoming a pupil in our adult life, students above 25y/o seem to behave a bit like children. Now, I don’t mean this in a negative way at...
Simple Hacks To Become A More Confident Drummer
This quick blog entry deals primarily with the issue of confidence (i.e. how to become a more confident drummer), which is quite a personal thing, I suppose. You see, I was born musical, and consequently taught myself how to play my instruments: the guitar, bass, and...
10 Tips For The Self-Employed Drummer
I’ve been a musician pretty much all my life, a semi-professional one for many years, having gone full-time a few years ago. The music industry is a tricky one to navigate as a self-employed musician, as there's a lot uncertainty. However, it can be very rewarding,...
Famous Musicians from West London You Should Know
London, the Big Smoke. It’s without a doubt one of the most exciting cities on this planet. It's rich with historic and cultural heritage, and home to world famous musicians. It is massive yet everything is within reach, and its North, South, East, and West divisions...
An Easy Guide To Learning and Playing Drums By Ear
A student of mine recently asked me how I learn to play music, and more specifically, drums just by listening. So, I thought I'd write a quick guide to learning and playing drums by ear! To me, learning the skills to playing drums by ear isn’t as too complicated. In...
Apply Yoga Techniques to Learn Drums Better
This article explore how to learn drums better by using yoga principles. These will help you: Gain awareness of your body and muscles in the context of developing technique Improve technique by changing your approach to practice Gain freedom and spiritual peace when...
How to Play Drums Like Yourself
On the road to developing as a drummer, I think it’s important to nurture a our own drumming style as part of our musical self-expression. For me it's ultimately our influences that shape our style. As Ralph Peterson puts it, one must imitate and assimilate what we...
Can Chinese Philosophy Improve Your Drum Practice?
Drum practice or Netflix? We’ve all been there... Struggling with whether you to do some drum practice and nail those paradiddles or continue watching Netflix. Getting off the is never easy! But, why?! And could applying ancient Chinese medicine principles be the...