1.Listen to "all" styles of music. This boosts your creativity on the drums and makes you more aware of how to approach these styles if you ever confront them in your band.
2. Warming up before a gig or rehearsals. This is terribly underestimated. Spend 20 to 30 minutes warming up with drum rudiments and related sticking exercises. Practice them with music playing through a MP3 or Ipod. It's a great motivator and you'll be very loose when you get ready to play.
3. Singles and Doubles. Drum rudiments are made up of doubles and singles. Learn to play these as cleanly, evenly, and correctly as possible. Do the same with doubles. They make up all the rest! Practice and master this on the drums and you'll find everything else comes a lot easier. This applies to those that play the rock band game too!
4. Study a melodic instrument (not just drumset). This will give you a valuable understanding of harmony, chord structure and overall music theory. You can then be more involved in the arranging of your band's songs. You can also write your own drum charts more efficiently.
5. Videotape yourself playing drums. You will be amazed at what you can learn from this. Everything from that stupid look on your face while your playing the drums, to the snare drum that's tilted at a 45 degree angle.
6.Drummers get a lot of flack. We get blamed for tempo fluctuations, etc. Many other musicians have never even practiced with a metronome, but they'll often be the first to speak up about it. Take the time to talk to your bandmates about the importance of their contribution to timekeeping.
7.Try to practice drums 20 minutes instead of 2 hours. This is a little self-applied psychological trick that really works! After 20 minutes, you usually feel propelled to practice much longer anyway. You want drumming to be fresh and exciting, not dreaded.
8.Diplomacy is everything! If you disagree with your fellow musicians about something, bite your tongue! Keep your cool and approach the matter patiently and with great thought before you speak. Don't burn any bridges by saying the wrong things. You just might have to walk back over those bridges one day.
9.Protect your ears! We can't stress this enough. Most musicians take this for granted. Buy a good set of ear plugs and start using them, especially while you practice. Drums are quite loud and ongoing exposure is detrimental.
10.After a drum lesson, go home and practice any drum beats, grooves, or fills right away on the drums while it's still fresh in your head. Otherwise you tend to forget a lot of what you learned. Take lessons seriously. You're spending money so pay attention, take notes, make charts, organize your drum lessons, tape the lessons, and anything else you can think of to make the most out of it.
11. Beginning drummers always want to learn fancy drum beats and drum fills right away. But you must crawl before you can walk. Take the time to get the basics down real good on the drums and then you can tackle the more challenging stuff.
12.Ergonomics: The physical aspect of your playing (posture, how you hit) has a lot more to do with your playing than you think. When you are properly balanced, you have a center, and when you are centered you can move more freely and relaxed without any wasted motion.
13.Roll your drumsticks on a flat countertop before buying them. This way you'll know if you're getting a straight pair.
14.Myth: Drummers get all the chicks. Not true ... Singers do! All the more reason to be a singing drummer, huh?
15.Myth:Lars Ulrich is the greatest drummer in the world. Fact: It's actually Ringo Starr(drummer from Beatles).
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