In order to do this we need to be able to listen to our playing either live while we are doing it or later via some kind of recording method. I recommend a combination of both as this way you get the best of both worlds.

For the less experienced players out there look through your notes or books etc and play something that grabs your attention and really listen to it while you are doing it, the idea is to focus on the overall sound and the make yourself change your attitude to sound better and more like how you want it to be. This is quite an abstract concept and like all things may take a while for you grasp the idea and be able to do it.

Now when I say listen to it I mean really concentrate on the sounds and each hit, I want you to feel and be able to change the sound by applying different pressure or hitting the drum in a different spot to achieve an improvement on the overall sound. You will need to play each chosen example for a while, 10 minutes or so is what I’m talking about.

By playing for this amount of time you will start to relax and be able to remove yourself from the concentration of actually playing the beat and be able focus on hearing exactly what it is that you are doing AND be able to change it to achieve a better result.

Do this for many different patterns and groove, rudiments you have in your chops bag, this will be a great period of discovery if you do it properly and achieve a better sound form it.

The next way to do the same thing is to record your playing on some kind of device and believe me we now all have access to much better recording methods that what I had when I first started to do this style of practice. Once you have practiced and recorded your performance you will need to listen back to it and determine truthfully if what you are hearing is what you truly believed you were playing.

I know the notes are probably correct but what I want you to be concerned with is the overall sound and the feel of the performance. Better still listen to it with another person there as well, this way you get to almost listen to your playing through the ears of another person. Nothing makes you sit up and notice bad hihat technique or similar than having someone else who is musical listen to something that both you and them know wasn’t quite as good as it should be.

To get the benefits of this style of practice it will take time but if you actually start to do it and concentrate on the end result of being better than you were before then it will work and you will be able to play things you already knew as good as you can at whatever stage you are at.

Good luck

Dean Tucker