Simple statement!

Today at the studio, I bumped into a student, he had a gig tonight and was having a quick solo rehearsal for a couple of hours, dedication!  He was a little nervous - nothing wrong with that, but as we passed, he was saying that we would
“catch up” for some more lessons with me, once he’s got this gig out the way and “made a fool out of himself”.

I raised an eye at him and said ‘No No, you’ll be fine, stay positive, enjoy it’.  I’ve played many gigs and been at the same situation that he was now in, not feel to confident, thinking ‘what if I make a mistake!’
I then heard the guy working there supporting my comment of remaining positive and going ahead, rather than back or downwards.

So when you have those moments in life where you confidence isn’t at its best, find your positives.
I always look at my positives;

• I’m teaching
• I enjoy my work and life
• I’m a kick ass drummer
• People want to learn from me
• I’m healthy
• Got great and supportive friends

Identify yours

So in closing, stay positive, there’s soo much that can bring you down, don’t include yourself us one of them.

Peace and Love. Ray 

To improve your playing, or anything else you do, its required that you practice or rehearse.

So when your sitting in front of the TV or waiting for something to finish, the time that passes could be spent practicing. Last night I spent I think half an hour (I didn’t notice the time because I was watching a movie - The Break up- and I stared to play doubles, then inverted para-diddles, para-diddles. The main objective is to play doubles for an extended period, focusing on consistency and stamina.

Another place your arms in front of you, make your elbows and wrists’ touch and open and close yours hands together making the fingers clap. You should do this for one hundred bars of quavers (800). The exercise is designed to build up stamina in the forearms, you should remain relaxed throughout the whole time, I cant over emphasize this point enough, if it starts to hurt - slow down, you start to grit your teeth - relax!

When your at that point where 100 bars is getting easy, get a metronome out and increase the BMP. This great tip is in full on the JoJo Mayer DVD :Secret weapons for the modern drummer.

These is my tips.

1) Take your time! In general people go stright in head first into tasks, which shows a keeness, but with reguards to learning something envolving all you limbs, take it very slowly at the start and then build it up and up and up!

2) Listen to other styles of music that you would normally, even better swap your Ipod with a friend and see what happens! Learn to appreiate the different styles.

3) Practice things that you can’t play, this is when your focus should be on learning something new, or adding things together eg. new fills to a much loved groove, or new style of playing to old fills etc.

4) Try everything left handed and left footed! The thought of doing something, anything opposite is un-natural, but in the case of drums and playing them, I think playing left-handed is the most challenging thing you could give your self! You’ll see when you try.

5) Remember that there is always something new to learn or look at! Someone will always come along with a new groove, fill, style, way of playing, new method… just make sure you have a go, at the very least.