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A Deeper Purpose Behind Every Note

At DrumMantra, technical growth is just the beginning.
The real journey — the one that changes not just your drumming, but your life — is about discovering where your music comes from:
Are you playing from your head?
Or from your heart?

Recently, during a Drumset Mastery session, a beautiful conversation unfolded.
It started with technical talk — accent patterns, left-foot ostinatos, complex coordination — and evolved into something much deeper:

Performing Beyond Technique

Even while fully engaged in difficult exercises, it’s easy for your mind to wander.
Maybe you imagine yourself performing in front of hundreds.
Maybe you think about what it would sound like with a full band.
Or maybe, like we did, you begin to wonder:
"What kind of music do I really want to bring into the world?"

When you study deep rhythmic structures — like polymeters and layered phrasing — you're not just learning to play complex music.
You...

Big Band Drumming: The Philosophy, the Function, and the History

Episode 96 of the DrumMantra Podcast

Even if you never end up playing in a big band, understanding its role in the evolution of the drumset is essential to your growth as a drummer.

The drumset was invented in the early 1900s—born out of the ragtime era, evolving through early jazz, and designed to serve the music. It wasn’t originally created to be a solo instrument—it was built to support, to connect, to drive the band. Understanding this lineage gives us a clearer picture of what our instrument is really meant to do.

In this episode, we explore how drummers function in a big band setting:

• From early press rolls on the snare in New Orleans…

• To the birth of the swing pattern, comping, and articulation

• To the modern big band context, where the drummer becomes both the engine and the glue holding 20 musicians together.

Big band drumming isn’t just about playing what’s on the chart. It’s about ...

Yesterday, June 13, I was notified that the DrumMantra Podcast was named one of "The 20 Best Music Theory Podcasts of 2021" by Welp Magazine. This is the third year in a row that another site has named the podcast in the category of "must listen." I thank Welp Magazine for finding me, and for including me on their list of music theory podcasts for 2021!

Receiving the email from Welp led me down the rabbit hole of podcast metrics which ultimately landed me on a stats page that ranks all the podcasts in the world. All 2,472,245 of them. I was quite surprised, yet thrilled to learn that the DrumMantra Podcast is in the top 5% most popular shows in the world!

If you are an avid listener of the podcast, I must apologize for not being as consistent as you may wish. There are certainly times where I am able to get an episode out, on time, each week. I love those times. There's nothing better than getting to cross something off the "to do" list. And there are also times that I either get too...