“Every positive change in your life begins with a clear, unequivocal decision that you are going to either do something or stop doing something.”   - Anonymous

Practicing a skill in any medium takes a lot of dedication, love, and discipline. Every sports player, musician, or professional in any field, spent countless hours working on their craft. The idea of being born with talent is simply a myth.

If you ask any one of these individuals if their “talent” came naturally, they would give you one of two answers. They would either tell you that their level of mastery came with extensive practice and sacrifices, or they would tell you it came easily. The individual providing the latter answer would simply not remember the time they put in to their craft because they loved it so much and they have no recollection of the “grueling” work they put in.

What I am getting at is if you want to get good at drums, you have to put in the time. Just like in anything else, experience is key. You need to practice and play with musicians as much as you can. When you are amazed by a drummer’s playing, you are actually amazed from the time and effort they put into it. “Wow, that would take a lot of practice to be that good!” It sounds silly but it’s true.

If you already have the basic gear necessities to play and practice, you can skip to the “Scheduling” Section.

If you literally have nothing to play drums on, then I'm going to help you figure out what you need. Some items will seem obvious yet others will not. I am going to share with you everything you need to start playing drums.

What You Need to Buy

Sticks

​Every drummer needs drumsticks, but what kind? There are literally hundreds of different types of drumsticks. So, if you are playing drum set, a good size to buy is 5A in any brand. This size is pretty standard for drum set. They are the “just right” size—not too heavy, not too light. If they seem a little heavy or too loud, you could go with 7As. 7A is the standard jazz drumstick size.

If you are joined school band or a community band, then size 2B is what you'll need. They are a bit bigger but they work better for concert snare drum and tom work.

Drumset, Snare Drum, or Practice Pad?

The next thing you need is something to hit with those sticks. Obviously there are drum sets of all sizes and colors. But you don’t need to start out by spending $800 on a drum set. You could start out with a snare drum or a practice pad. This would get you started practicing techniques like single stroke or double stroke rolls. Even learning to hit a drum properly can be tricky at first.

Drumset

If you are ready to buy a drum set, I have a great cost effective choice linked right here. Ludwig is a brand that has been around for over 100 years and they have always made great products. One other thing is that not all drum sets come with cymbals, stands, drum throne, or sticks. This one does! I’ll admit the quality of these cymbals aren’t very good but they will work great to start out. Good cymbals can cost anywhere from $200 to $500 a piece so that is an expense you can wait on! However, the drums are great quality Ludwig drums.

Snare Drum & Stand

If you want to start now but don’t have the money for a drum set, get a snare drum. This snare drum I have listed here is also a Ludwig so the quality is there. Snare drums are ideal if you are going to play in school band or a community orchestra or band. If you do buy a snare drum, you will need a stand to go with it. I have an affordable option shown here:

Practice Pad

For around $20, you can get a practice pad and work on almost all the drumming techniques you will need in order to sound good on a drum set. And you will always need a practice pad. I have three myself and I use them all the time. You can use them for warm-ups backstage before shows, late night practice when you can’t be loud, practicing on a beach, or on the john! They’re smaller and easier to transport than a drum set!

Percussion Kit

When a student joins the school band, a lot of schools require that you purchase a percussion kit. This is a kit that includes sticks, practice pad, bell kit, mallets, and a multi purpose stand. I would highly suggest getting a good quality one for two reasons. First, the cheap ones are really bad and will fall apart before school years end. Secondly, the resale value on a brand name kit will not go down by much. It will sell without trouble because people are always looking for these.

Metronome

One item that musicians overlook is a metronome. This is an essential practice tool for any musician. A metronome is a small electronic device or a phone app that makes a “click” noise at a perfectly constant speed that you set it to. The clicks are measured by “beats per minute” or BPM. For the math junkies, a metronome set at 60 BPM will click 60 times in one minute.

Almost all music is set to a constant pulse and it is essential for all musicians to have a solid internal pulse that doesn’t speed up or slow down (unless intentional). The only way to practice your internal pulse is to practice along to a metronome set to a perfectly constant tempo.

As a drummer, it is a bit more difficult to practice with a metronome because our instrument is naturally loud. And, as a beginner, it is difficult to control the volume at which we play. So, a lot of metronomes are too quiet to hear while we practice with them. The solution is to get some sort of an in-ear monitor or headphones. This helps block the outside sound allowing us to hear the click.

There are many metronome apps available on our phones that are free. If you go that route you could get these sound isolation headphones: Shure SE215-CL Sound Isolating Earphones. Or, you could use other headphones you already own for the time being but they might not provide very much isolation. Otherwise, you can purchase this ‘all-in-one’ in ear metronome: Korg In-Ear Metronome.

So here’s where we’re at for items needed to start playing drums:

Let’s get on to scheduling.

Scheduling

So how do you find time to practice?

Believe it or not, many players do not know how to practice.

The magic is in “learning how to practice”. You need to be aware of how to practice, how much to practice, and what methods to use to reach your goals.

Sometimes players have the speed or facility, but they don’t know what they are listening for with aspects of groove or feel. Sometimes players have good time and feel, but don’t know the techniques to push their chops.

When practicing drums, there are the two aspects of time management:

You need to schedule out your weekly practice time, and you need to schedule out what you work on during your practice time.

You can get so much more done in a week if you do this. 

Weekly Practice Schedule

With weekly practice, you have to spread out your time. Your brain needs time to digest what it has learned.

If you practice 15 minutes every day for 5 days, it’s better than one 2 hour practice session in 5 days.

Have you ever worked on a lick or beat to death and you just couldn’t seem to get it down? So then, you quit practicing for the day because you are frustrated. Then, the next day you come back to it and nail it on the first try? That’s because your brain muscle memory need time to process what you have learned to be able to repeat it the way your ears want to hear.

I have made a flexible 12-hour, weekly practice schedule for you. I am telling you that I need this to stay sane! I have ADHD so I need to have tasks scheduled out or I meander through the day and get nothing done! Sound like you?

Use this schedule to plan out your week so you know when you should be practicing! You can enter the time that you normally start your day and continue for 12 hours in 30 minute increments. If there is a extended period of the same activity (ex. WORK), just put a dark squiggle line below that time period and start with a later hour of the day below that.

Fill in these slots with your normal weekly schedule like WORK, GYM, CLASS, LUNCH, WALK DOG, and PRACTICE. You can print a new one out every week if your schedule changes a lot, or just print one out every season. This schedule will help you out with life in general, not just drum practice…but drumming is life right?

I would urge you to start the schedule in the morning even if you work early. If you got 5 minutes on the practice pad with your coffee, you would be doing yourself a great service!

Once you have your weekly schedule figured out, now you need to plan what you do during your practice time.

Practice Schedule and Log

I created a practice schedule and practice time log to help you here. I use this practice schedule with all of my students. It gives clear start and end dates of your lesson week, the materials to work on for the week, and a log of practice time. I even use this for myself every single week!

The practice materials list keeps me focused on my goals so I don’t get distracted, and the practice log holds you accountable for the actual amount you practiced all week.

This is a visual reminder and it helps tremendously. Remember, you have to spread out your practice time—no playing catch up on Saturday! If you did, you will see that from the previous week.

So you’ve honed your drumming craft by practicing and performing. You have good feel, rhythm, and time and you make good musical choices when you play. Why not share your talent with even more people and make extra money in the process? I make it sound simple but it really is. People would say I’m crazy but I am here to tell you why it’s not that crazy.

There are 3 reasons why I know you can be an online session drummer:

Yes, $1500 is a lot of money. There are some work arounds. There are free pieces of software you could start with. You could borrow microphones and other gear from friends. But, in this article I am going to focus on the most inexpensive gear that will get you professional results right out of the box.

You really don’t need to be an amazing drummer to do sessions. You don’t use virtuosic chops in a session gig…like EVER! You just need a solid feel and some experience in different musical styles.

Music that requires session drummers is very functional and rarely virtuosic or complicated.

A lot of times, the music calls for a very simplistic or cliche version of a style you have heard, because that’s what will get the point across in the track for the average listener. If a track is supposed to sound funky, it needs to sound like the most cliche funk you can think of, like Tower of Power or James Brown. Get it?

You don’t need to be Kenny Aronoff! If you don’t know who Kenny Aronoff is, he is basically the quintessential modern session drummer. He’s been on hundreds of huge recordings and played with artists like John Mellencamp, Stevie Wonder, John Fogerty, Jon Bon Jovi, Smashing Pumpkins, John Mayer, Alicia Keys to name a few. But, you don’t need to be him. He is the “goto guy” for huge name acts and has been doing it for 40 years! His name gets him gigs but also a hefty payout for the one hiring him! You’re affordable!

Also, do you ever think about all the media we see on a daily basis these days? Back in the 90s, you only heard music on TV, in movies, at malls, and in elevators.

There’s a greater demand for music now than there ever has been in history.

Almost every single business has a YouTube ad or some type of corporate video with music behind it. Apps, YouTube channels, Podcasts all have music!

And, just like indie bands that don’t have a big name, don’t get a lot of plays on the radio, or win Grammys yet still making a good living; there are countless indie filmmakers making short films and artistic pieces yet still making a good living. And they need music with session drummers too!

So, you don’t need $10,000 in gear, you don’t need to be drum set wizard, and the need is out there. You need to fill that void! Let’s get down to what you will actually need to get started.

What I Assume You Have

I have lead this article with some assumptions about you and your situation. If you’re reading this, you probably already knew what an online session drummer was which also means you probably are a drummer and you have a decent sounding drum set and some sort of practice space or room that you practice in.

I would also assume that you are reading this post on a computer. Not an ancient computer, but something that is no more than 5 to 8 years old with decent memory. A computer with at least a dual core processor and at least 8 gigs of RAM (you can get by with 4). This will get you started. Obviously, things will run more smoothly if you have more.

I am also assuming you sound good, play solid time, make good choices musically, and have experience in many different styles. There are a lot of different styles that can be specific but the main idea is that you can play all the “cliche styles” in music. Styles like rock, jazz, funk, “latin”, etc. This is where making good choices comes into play. You have to fulfill what the composer is going for so you need to be familiar with many styles. More on this later.

With online sessions, 99% of the time everything is sequenced to a click track (metronome). This means that you have to be able to play solidly to a click track so you can record something that will sync well to the writer’s music.

Some would say that being able to read music is a requirement. I would highly suggest learning how to read music if you don’t know how. But I personally don’t think it is essential.

So you already have a decent drum set and practice space, a decent computer, and intermediate to advanced drumming skills including the ability to play to a click track. Let’s move on to the gear you might still need to get.

What You Need to Buy

Audio Interface & Music Production Software (Digital Audio Workstation - DAW)

An audio interface is a piece of equipment that converts an analog signal (from a microphone) into a digital signal and then into your computer (usually connected by a USB cable). I love my Focusrite Scarlett 18i20. Focusrite makes very solid gear for their price point. This particular unit has 8 high-end mic preamps which is enough to record an 4-piece drum set. It connects via USB and is easy to set up. This will be one of the essential pieces you purchase because it is difficult to find someone that is willing to borrow out an interface. I am not kidding when I say that Focusrite is the way to go if you want professional level recordings.

There’s another reason why this particular purchase is so important. The Focusrite units come with Ableton Live Intro for FREE! That’s the music production software that you need to record with. It’s basically impossible to borrow someone else’s software so you will need this! You can always upgrade to the Standard or Suite version later but you will be able to record with the Intro version right away.

There is a lot of chatter about which DAW is better (ie Pro Tools, Logic, Cubase, etc). I can put all those debates to rest right now. All of these DAWs basically have the same quality and recording capabilities. They all can use the same high-end third party plugins.

The reason you should definitely buy Ableton Live is because the live performance capabilities blow all other DAWs out of the water.

If you perform live at all as a musician, you need Ableton Live. Even if you don’t run backing tracks to your music, you still need it for segues, cues, sounds, live recording, DMX lighting controls…you name it. This is the end all for live performance and it’s recording capabilities are just as good as any of the others. Period.

In-Ear Monitors or Headphones

Microphones

Microphones are essential to capturing the best sound from your drum set. There are so many different microphones out there that do a good job, but I literally have the most affordable options listed right here that will give you professional quality recordings.

Shure Drum Microphone Package

Again, Shure is a top brand. I will tell you right now that all the microphones in this package are literally industry standards in almost any recording studio. That means, these microphones are as good as you’ll ever need and they are extremely affordable. This Shure DMK5752 Drum Microphone Package comes with the amazing Beta 52A kick drum microphone, three SM57 microphones for two toms and your snare drum AND three microphone clips to mount to the rim of the drum. This package gets you well on your way to pro level recordings.

Rode NT5 Condenser Microphone - Matched Pair

Accessories

Sometimes you can find microphone packages that come with cables and stands which always saves on the budget. But, to setup the overhead microphones, you will need some tall boom mic stands and cables. These are solid choices I have listed here and you'll need two (2) of the boom mic stands for the overhead mics and one (1) short mic stand for the kick drum mic. I prefer the weighted base over the tripod so you're not tripping over the tripod legs in the walkway in front of the bass drum.

You'll also need as many microphone cables as you have microphones. You usually get a better deal with cables if you buy them in multi-packs. This one I have listed here is a pack of two. You'll probably want 20 foot cords but you could maybe get by with 15 footers.

I would also suggest you pick up the book “The Drummer’s Bible” by Mick Berry and Jason Gianni. It covers a very extensive range of styles with audio examples of the beats and it lists the artists that were best known to play the style. Playing styles for film and TV is all about “cliche styles” and what they sound like to the average listener, not a musician. (commissioned links)

That’s all the gear you need! If you’re not sure what to do next, I will be releasing part 2 of this series soon to keep the momentum going. It will be all about getting a good quality sound recording from your drum set. But, I will urge you that you need to start, and start now. You won’t get better at recording unless you do it…a lot. You can start practicing recording and getting quality sounds from your drum set while you work on promoting yourself. The networking and promoting portion will be part 3.

This checklist is very helpful after reading this article. It's laid out, plain and simple, so you can check things off as you go and plan your strategy.

I have provided a checklist of the gear I spoke about to get you going. Print this list out and put it next to your drums or work area. Goals need to be visible. I truly believe you need to see your goals on a daily basis to inspire you in order to have them manifest themselves into your life.

Thanks for reading!

Other articles that may interest you:
Definitive Drum Practice Guide from Beginner to Advanced - Part 1 - Scheduling and Gear
Definitive Drum Practice Guide from Beginner to Advanced – Part 2 - Practice Session

**Full Disclosure: I earn a commission if you click any of these links and make a purchase, at no additional cost to you.**

The album "Mickey Mouse Operation" by Little People (Listen on Amazon Music) is one of my favorites from the 2000s in the instrumental hip-hop genre. All the tunes are simple and really cool. This is a short transcription of the beat repeat section from the track "Moon", similar to the DJ Shadow Drum Transcription I did. The snippet I play here runs from 1:22 to 2:25. I also synced my new Drumlites to the track. (commissioned links)

There are a few quick 'linear flourishes' in here. Linear drumming is when only one sound source is being hit at a time--or when no two sound sources are hit simultaneously. The hits are usually in pretty quick succession too. A lot of times when drummers use linear drumming patterns in a song, they are not usually completely linear but only "linear-esque". I think the drummers usually make a conscious decision to do this so that the parts don't sound "too linear", and consequently, without variety or space to breathe.

A couple of examples of linear drumming I really like are "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover" by Paul Simon (Listen on Amazon Music) with drummer Steve Gadd and "Digital Bath" by the Deftones (Listen on Amazon Music) with drummer Abe Cunningham. Here is a good article on "Linear Drumming Fundamentals" from Modern Drummer if you would like to dive further. (commissioned links)

Also, a thing about drum transcribing...I don't use drum transcription software because transcribing is half the journey! I want to train my ears as much as my limbs, all while tweaking my brain! I know that transcription isn't for everyone but I feel like I get a lot out of it. I find an inspiring influence, a lick, or just a new way to approach a drum part to a song.

Thanks for listening!

**Full Disclosure: I earn a commission if you click any of these links and make a purchase, at no additional cost to you.**

**Copyright Statement** This video is not intended to infringe any copyright laws in any way. This is for the sole purpose of entertainment; no profit is gained from this. It is the copyrighted property of its respective owner(s).

This is one of the tracks from the remote recording sessions I did for the film Gringa--with zesty latin percussion! It was fun layering all of the percussion elements for this. I used congas, shaker, clave, and guiro to build this into a whole percussion ensemble. The score was written by Scott McRae and Ryan Rapsys and I was thrilled to be a part of the music department for this.

When I started playing music, I never got any music production or engineer training. I only studied music theory and how to play the instruments. I still haven't received any formal training for music production and I also know a lot of other musicians that haven't either. These days, with some decent equipment investments, trial and error, and trusting your ears, you can produce professional quality tracks like this. Now wait a minute, there's a bit more to it than that! But, the best part of remote session recordings is that usually you are not the mixer, just the engineer. So the journey is not as difficult as you might think! I will soon be adding videos talking about "how to do remote recording sessions".

Thanks for checking it out!

The gear I used here:
•Toca Synergy Congas
•Meinl Wood Guiro 
•Meinl Artist Series Shaker
•LP Aspire Traditional Clave


**Full Disclosure: I earn a commission if you click any of these links and make a purchase, at no additional cost to you.**

The definition for 'genius' reads as such: 

1. exceptional intellectual or creative power or other natural ability.  
"she was a teacher of genius" 

2. a person who is exceptionally intelligent or creative, either generally or in some particular respect.  
"one of the great musical geniuses of the 20th century" 

I'm pretty sure most people would define a genius as "really smart" and regard that person pretty high in our society. I guess that's pretty close to the definition. However, there's a few words that stick out to me in these two definitions: "natural ability" and "in some particular respect". 

The first definition states "natural ability". So they were born this way? They didn't have to do anything to nurture this ability? Does that make them smart? I really think this label gets thrown around too much. Most of the highly regarded musicians and composers would scoff at the idea that they didn't work hard to achieve their status. Some might've worked even harder without getting any notoriety for it. But the geniuses just wrote music that they heard in their head. One could say, genius is natural and automatic therefore it is not an achievement. 

Some contemporary musicians and composers who have studied at some of the most prestigious colleges have regarded the rapping rhythms of hip-hop music as genius. Was there a well thought-out procedure to procure these intricate rhythms? I would agree with this statement pertaining to some rap artists. But what the hell is a musical genius then? Somebody that is naturally creative at the right time in pop culture? 

Geniuses are rare. Having six toes is rare too! 

I bring this up because a lot of people talk about their favorite musicians as "a musical genius". We're talking about music here, everything is subjective! If nine people told me that Frank Zappa was a musical genius, the tenth person would tell me his music is terrible. Sure, he's creative, but is he genius? Years back, I once argued with a friend that Trent Reznor has been regarded as a musical genius and therefore I should check him out. He thought that it was a waste of his time because he didn't hear any genius in his music. Sure, he's influential, but is he genius? 

To me, a "musical genius" is an oxymoron. How can a personal taste qualify as being intellectual or "smart"? What do you think? Is there such thing? And if so, who are some of these musical geniuses? What did they specifically do to show high intellect or creativity?

This is a short tutorial on how I create an original audio sample loop from scratch. I use this approach whenever I need some creative inspiration to start a new track. When using this method, it can get very complex by using multiple sounds and splicing clips but I kept this video simple so the concept is clear. It's simple and effective and you can do it all within Ableton Live. I have also provided a printable "step-by-step original sample loop guide" if you want to save this for later.

During the mid to late 2000s, EDM and DJs were taking over the world. EDM, as general as that term is, was exciting and it had a bit of everything for everyone. It seemed like the edgy kids could still jam to dubsteb EDM while the trendy club jumpers could still dance to their 120 bpm dance music as soon as the bass dropped. It was definitely the most popular genre in the US and in most other countries. And let's face it, there's a lot of cool EDM out there. I could finally hear some of the weirdest and coolest electronic "extended techniques" of the most sophisticated 90s techno in almost any top 40 song now. I thought it was pretty cool! But, as the technology advanced and the tolerance of experimental electronics found it's way into mainstream, I also noticed a lack of something else: human feel. 

Now let me explain. I love instrumental electronic music and I realize there are rarely any human elements in the music itself. That's fine. I can like music for what it is. I'm actually not complaining about the lack of human traits in the music at all. I'm simply just noticing it. I am always one to embrace new technologies all the while paying my respects to the history as well. Give me a chance to explain where I'm going with this. 

Just like the highly-produced, image-driven, 80s American music scene, it was bound to change. In the 80s, pop music was mainly driven by MTV music videos and the image of the bands. This kept the human element while losing some of it in the music. All the records were produced with more synthesizers, more reverb and more gain! Everything was just more. During this time, the best selling album of all time, Michael Jackson's "Thriller", had drum machines driving the songs. It was commonplace. And all that was awesome too! I love a lot of the music from the 80s. 

The thing was that the next generation would want something of their own. And like any pop music shift, they would go almost completely in an opposite direction: Grunge. The image changed from drag queens and bikers to people dressing like they were homeless. The music was still loud, but it was raunchy. The singers were yelling, or yarling or whatever the hell they wanted. The production quality went from pristine and shiny to dingy and garage-y (grunge). It was like the grunge movement went back to basics and embraced human emotions, mistakes, and imperfections--also a great musical movement in my opinion. 

So with that movement in the history books and teaching us a little something about ourselves, where did that bring us after the EDM storm in the early 2010s? First of all, this is the storm that not only brought entire songs of completely synthesized instruments except the vocals but infected many other genres as well. Even in genres that have always been driven by live musicians! I have heard albums in country, hard rock, metal, and even folk genres with perfectly pitch corrected vocals, pristine drum replaced sounds that are aligned to a rhythmic grid, and guitar parts that no longer have feel or character because they were played too perfect and mixed into an oblivion. 

The significant change I noticed in 2012 was from the one group that was led by actual robots (allegedly ;-). They released an insanely popular electronic/pop record only they had a live drummer on every track. Daft Punk's album Random Access Memories was not only on every radio station but it also won "Album of the Year" at the Grammys. It's as if the populace wanted a bit more of a human feel to their music. 

Now I see a lot more groups adding live musicians, not only to their live show, but to their recordings as well. Even despite the expensive studio costs in recording live musicians vs programming the parts. It seems obvious to me that this shift is happening. Do you see it happening? Do you disagree? What do the most popular albums of 2017 and 2018 so far reflect?

This was a great percussion featured track! I really enjoyed working with Raphael Fimm on this. He needed urgent, African drum, "chase" music for the film "Zulu Wedding". So, I built this track up with real, handmade, traditional African drums and percussion from Ghana.

I would like to give a special thanks to Sowah Mensah and David Schmalenberger for teaching me this music and for the direction in purchasing these drums and percussion.

Here is an article with a traditional African song and more information on the drums and percussion here: This World Music: Gahu African Drumming & Dance.

This is the “beat repeat” section of DJ Shadow's classic, "Building Steam with a Grain of Salt" (Listen on Amazon Music) from 2:44 - 4:29. What's so interesting about this album is that it was entirely created by piecing samples together straight from vinyl records. I couldn't imagine doing that now given the tools we have today! If you haven't checked it out, it is an absolute landmark for instrumental DJs, hip hop, and really just music in general. It definitely had a large impact in a lot of genres we listen to today like downtempo, chillwave, trip-hop, etc. The album is entitled "Endtroducing" by DJ Shadow (Listen on Amazon Music). (commissioned links)

I wanted to transcribe this song because it wasn't played by an actual live drummer. Therefore, it calls for an unnatural but interesting playing style. It's a unique source of inspiration for a live drummer and I'm hoping it will draw me into this style and rear its head in my playing somehow.



The use of "beat repeat" is what I think had a big part in the creation of the drum n bass genre. Drum n bass beat patterns are found all over in this clip. If you were to take a few beats from one of these measures and repeat it over and over, it would sound a lot like a drum n bass track.

I have a deep interest in live drum n bass drumming or live jungle drumming. Some drum n bass artists I like are Photek (Listen on Amazon Music) and Amon Tobin (Listen on Amazon Music). Jojo Mayer and Johnny Rabb are a couple of masters at the live drum n bass style. They definitely brought a new level of technicality to drumming. (commissioned links)

Thanks for listening.

**Full Disclosure: I earn a commission if you click any of these links and make a purchase, at no additional cost to you.**

**Copyright Statement** This video is not intended to infringe any copyright laws in any way. This is for the sole purpose of entertainment; no profit is gained from this. It is the copyrighted property of its respective owner(s).