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Time. It's something a drummer obsesses over almost more than anything. 

How do you go deeper with your concept of time? How do you begin to understand the finer details of subdivisions? 

Don't just watch the video. Try this exercise out for yourself.

The Moving Click exercise will quickly reveal any weakness in your understanding of accent & pulse permutations. The exercise will increase your ability to detect time fluctuations almost immediately and fix them. (It will also help to develop patience and concentration.)

Get the PDF & MP3 for the Moving Click HERE

Creating phrase shapes using groupings of two's and three's. 

This is a very simple and effective exercise for developing your own ideas with some of the most basic building blocks of time - groupings of 2's and 3's

Once you have the exercise I present in the video down you can:

• voice it around the kit
• change stickings
• embellish accents with flams, doubles, etc.
• play over various foot ostinatos

Make up your own phrases! Shed them! Share them! Tag me!

Ok. Here's the deal.

You want to be great. You want to have a deeper understanding of how time functions. You want to be comfortable with phrasing in odd time signatures. You want to know what a polymeter is and how it works. 

The only way to gain these qualities is through dedicated, focused practice.

I wrote The DrumMantra Books for myself. I wrote them so I could study concepts that I was beginning to discover but didn't quite have a full grasp of yet. Some of the exercises I was writing required meticulous planning and thought due to the inherent complexity of the concept. Take polymeters - these little rhythmic entities can take many measures before a resolution occurs. For example, a quarter note, a dotted eighth note, and a five-note grouping create a pattern that takes 60 beats to resolve! 

When I began to realize that just because I was selling books didn't necessarily mean that people were practicing the material correctly which is why I created the ...

75% of drummers do not have a clear, consistent, and effective practice routine.

We surveyed nearly 100 drummers and collected some very eye-opening data. Check it out:

Notice that despite practicing 30 to 45 minutes per day, most of the drummers don’t have a clear, consistent practice routine to follow. (For all practical purposes “sometimes” is a veiled "no").

Some other questions we asked besides practice time, and routine was what they most wanted to improve, and what their biggest hang-ups were in the practice room. The answers were almost unanimous.

When I talk about polymeters in clinics and workshops it can garner some blank stares. It makes sense. Many drummers haven't spent much time thinking about or studying polymeters.  

I'd like to give a simple explanation for you t begin thinking about. If we hit the concept from a few different angles it will not only click, but it will also start you on a path of study that will lead to a whole new territory of rhythmic possibilities. So let's take a quick look at the polymeter.

A polymeter is two or more meters happening at the same time. These meters share a common subdivision, so in essence, a polymeter is different groupings of the same note values being played alongside one another. For example, 3 sixteenth notes being played over and over at the same time as 4 sixteenth notes are being played over and over. They begin together, then grow further apart in their starting note until finally (3 beats later in this case) they re-align and...

If you haven't gotten to know my education style yet, you will soon discover that I love looking at the inner-workings of time, subdivisions, and coordination. 

I want to show you an interesting exercise from my book, The Foundational Series. This exercise is fairly simple to understand but is a little tricky to actually do.

I was recently at the Chicago Drum Show and talked to quite a large handful of drummers from all different walks of the scene. Weekend warriors, professional players,  educators, as well as students. 

Over 90% of the people who tried this exercise, regardless of skill level, couldn't do it. Some stayed at the booth for over 20 minutes continuing to work on it (which I love seeing!).

I began using this exercise as a "litmus test" to determine where the person should start with my materials. 

Here's a video of me explaining it in detail.

Have fun!