What inspires you to play your best?

"It's time to explore the musical world inside and out of those

four walls you practice within"!

1. Material 

Play for the music! Know your material inside and out. Having charts available is a great way to run a track down.  Be aware of all starts, stops and breaks... Your rehearsals are a good indication of what will transpire during the recording process.

2. Tempo, Groove & Feel 

Know your tempos! Have them written down and practice each one until it feels great and grooves!

Take note, while working with a metronome/click track, really nail it in rehearsal and recording will be a breeze! If it doesn't groove... it doesn't get feet tapping and people moving!!

3.  Dynamics

Your groove will demand a great many things from you as a drummer... chops, stamina etc. As a musical drummer, it not just rudiments and all that. Try and listen to the other musicians around you as much as you do yourself. If your blasting away and the track needed a more subtle use of dynamics. For example - It may be a mix of some soft playing with brushes into some heavier stick playing. Your going to want those dynamic swells technically mastered in your rehearsals/practice time. Start as simple as you can and provide a consistent awareness of what is being played around you. If two people start screaming loud they only SCREAM LOUDER to be heard. Whisper what you want to say and see how many people say "What"? They will want to listen, feel compelled to communicate and... will love you for it!

4.  Gear

Come with great sounding gear. New or slightly played on heads are fine, if they are tuned for the situation, but don't try and make an old drum head sound new! Find your relative pitch and tune the drum to itself then to the others. See what sounds good to you and try a few things. Cymbals that cut at loud volume may not be suited for soft shimmering overtones and the opposite applies as well. Thin small cymbals, like a splash won't sound like a huge crash either. Listen for squeaky seats and pedals. Take the time to really fine tune your performance by giving close inspection to these small but often overlooked studio headaches.

5. Bag O' Tricks 

Bring all your extras. Various sticks, brushes, mallets, rods, blasticks, shakers, eggs, tambourines etc...  Pretty much, your whole bag of tricks. The same groove after adding a few layered multitracks of these extras may inspire a great final drum track... try playing with them and see!