I’ve lost count of how many hours I’ve spent trying to level up my drumming as a drummer, but if I’m honest, a lot of the biggest lessons had nothing to do with gear or technique in the traditional sense. What’s worked best for me, and still does, is actually pretty simple: context, restraint, and coordination.
Don’t Feel Like You Need to Read Music
One of the first big shifts as a drummer came when I changed how I approached notating ideas. I used to try writing everything out in full detail, every note, every rest, every accent. This probably came from when I was playing jazz, and it was a bit more rigid when starting out. It took forever to internalize charts and made the whole thing feel mechanical. Over time, I moved toward using scratch notation instead. Just enough to remember what I meant: rough shapes of phrases, fills, where things land. My playing didn’t have to follow the music perfectly; I started caring more about how it felt when I played it.
Stop Overplaying-Seriously
That also taught me to stop overplaying. It’s tempting, especially when you’re excited or practicing alone, to throw in fills constantly or play something flashy every four bars. But I noticed quickly that the groove suffered when I tried to do too much. So I pulled back. Now, I ask myself if a part is serving the music, not just showing off what I can do. It’s a humbling shift, but a necessary one.
Gear Doesn’t Matter That Much
For a beginner drummer, or even not-so-beginner, I’d say one thing loud and clear: your gear doesn’t matter nearly as much as you think it does. I wasted a lot of time fussing over sticks, pedals, heads, and setups early on. News flash: your gear doesn’t magically make you a great player. The best drummers can play musically on an average or beat-up set and make it sound great.
Work on Your Feet Just as Much as Your Hands
In reality, what helped me more than anything was working on my feet. Seriously. Hand speed is cool, but until your feet can lock into time and move cleanly between patterns, your whole foundation feels off. I spent weeks just getting my right and left feet coordinated, and it changed everything. Even my hand playing improved once the lower half of my body got tighter.
Metronome vs. Play Along Tracks
And then there’s practice. I tried the traditional metronome thing for a while, but it always felt a bit stiff. What worked way better was playing along to the music I actually liked. Apps like iRealPro let you drop into a chord progression or backing track that actually feels like music, not just a click. I still use it all the time. You can experiment, loop parts, shift tempos: it’s way more engaging than a dry click. That connection to music is what keeps you going when practicing feels like a chore.
Somewhere along the way, I realized that growth doesn’t come from stacking more complexity; it comes from simplifying what you already know and learning how to use it better. It’s easy to be distracted by gear or fast fill breakdowns on social media, but the real progress has always come when I slow down, focus, and just practice the basics.