The worst is when you think you're in the zone and you watch back and you're not. It's basically cry in corner of the shower time at that point.

You should do a lesson on “the best songs for beginning jazz drummers”

Reason 2 and Omegle is like the coke/Pepsi challenge. In a small sample, people prefer the more sugary option. But no club is going to play non-stop chops. If the Omegle guy had them listen to 5 min of chops or 5 min of groove, people would take groove.

Feel (Groove) gets you gigs and chops get you views! It’s a new paradigm! All great working drummers have feel, some may also have chops. Groove is how we fit our drumming into the music ... playing with other musicians.... to get gigs it must feel good! Impressive Chops don’t get you gigs, unless that’s what the rest of the musicians want from you. Most song writers want their song to feel good, your chops may get you noticed, but if the feel suffers then you won’t keep the gig. Bottom line play with musicians, learn to leave space to groove, and hold the chops back for your Instagram or KZfaq channel!

One thing to add here is one from your 80/20 course: "Think of the drum kit as an orchestra of separate instruments." Each of them needs equal attention in order to make the orchestra feel and sound good. I paraphrased it ofc but it stuck in my mind so much i think of it every time i sit down to play.

This is my favorite lesson you’ve done. As a bassist my mind is on groove not flash and when a drummer grooves man oh man the possibilities are endless with the 2.

I have nothing but respect for the subtle feel of the drums. I've played for several years in a funk/soul/dance band as the bass player, and have played with a number of different drummers. People subbing etc. And sometimes things just.... fit. It's effortless. Other times you feel like you're constantly finding your spot in the groove, and at the end of the gig you're mentally tired. It's hard to put your finger on it exactly but there are some very subtle things going on in the recipe of a groove.

Next level is to sing the hi hat part w out playing it then sing the bass drum w out playing then sing the snare w out playing it, then sing the down beats then the up beats while playing. This will tighten you up like never before!

Ouch Nate, stop being mean! (replace the word mean with HONEST) and while I'm at it, how are you inside my head and know what I'm NOT doing??? I needed this video on day 1, you're 14yrs late, that's on you!.

This is the perfect video. Every point made is accurate and described articulately and I'm so glad this channel exists.

Chopps gives You thrills. Pocket pays Your bills.

I can definitely agree with #1 as a new drummer. I thought I could just do it if I learned the groove. Nope. I have to learn feel. This is a lot harder than I thought it would be 😅

I practice pocket all the time. Its essential to sounding tight even with your band. You've got nothing to loose. You can only get better

my feel improved when i started working on my stick handling technique - for a long time, i didn't think it was that important, but stick control and feel there translates all over it's just a few super basic drills, but i think it is a key differentiator between noob drummers and serious students who have a crisp touch and i'm just saying this after weeks of work. who knows how and what else will develop and what i'll uncover on the journey

DUUUDE! Love the honesty in this one. Great opportunity for self examination. Thanks for bringing up this convo and sharing some wisdom.

The drummer in my imagination is amazing,but my body can't express that level of greatness

Haha you are the best Nate, not only a problem solving master, a learning engineer, an amazing coach but, cherry on top, very entertaining! Thank you

So many players... and NOT just drummers, don't practice and focus on groove and feel! I have had many overconfident students get deflated after showing off their "chops", when I puzzle them with an "easy", medium tempo groove. Immediate redirect in their practice time. LOL

I'd like to state that even us seasoned church drummers struggle with this. Feel and pursuit of good time is a life-long quest. For me, being a rhythmic guide to other musicians helps me. I might be able to come up with a really slick groove for a tune, but if our the worship leader or our golden-aged pianist have a hard time following it, I might have to simplify things to help them with their time.

I feel as if my feel feels like i need to work on my feel. That’s how i feel

Guys. Just practice your grooves at 30 bpm and below with micro-time shifts in metronome. That will ease your pain in a long run

Your aproach seems great, the importance of what to practice cannot be overstated. A clear system + consistency gives the best results

8:34 It must've been the 'stache! That's the secret to the groove!

When you did the thing yesterday while playing bc you were confusing yourself! It's funny that's exactly what I did for myself.

"Common, It's Rushing"... "Don't Ever Do That Again"... Classic lines so applicable. So many great drummers, makes me feel so small. BUT , I'm just an 70 Year Old, retired guy who plays for Recreational fun. I resurrected drumming in my life after 50 YEARS (1969). I can't touch these guys, but However, I would love to be able to come close to Steve Gaad on Aja. I now have a better understanding of the key Phrases: CHOPS, POCKET< GROOVES .... Thx 80/20 !

The great Fred Dinkins once told me, "if you can't dance to it, how can you expect the audience to?"

Dude u need a cymbal endorsement...u have almost 100k followers. How cheap are cymbal companies to not send you a set of cymbals. Pretty cheap investment on their part...seems a home-run to me!!!

If you play an edrum kit, open a DAW app, play along to a generic bass, chord track, and record the MIDI data as you play along. This lets you see that actual note placement and the velocity with incredible detail. I thought I was rushing, but I was actually dragging. *Note: if your velocity is maxing out on any of the drums, fix the sensitivity on that pad. This is common with the bass drum.

for what it's worth, I like the Freddy Mercury stache

you are correct.. ghost notes..or a great internal subdivision "clock" is key..

One of my favourite songs to play to (Days by Flow) is all about groove, and it's quite the dramatic piece. It's not a hard song to play, but playing perfectly in sync with it is somewhat challenging and feels amazing. It's a great practice song for practicing pocket. Otherside by Mikeschair is another great groove song. Granted, live with other people is the best way to learn, but I find these two songs work because placing the beats where they are on paper works as groove (helps get the feel down)... if that makes sense to you?

Playing with the metronome through my PA as I play is great but I also like playing with the drum beats on my Roland keyboard. It's nice to just listen then only match with the bass drum Rhythm, then hi hat and bass drum and keep adding until you match with the full drum beat from the keyboard and can stay in the pocket with it for several minutes. The goal is for somebody to come in the room and thinks you have the set mic'ed up since they see you are playing and hear it through the speakers as well.

Ouch...Mr 20...I fear you are inside my head. Very cool and observant. The whispery stuff though...is actually quite scary. Thanks for a great vid.

A have a similar exercise where I play a groove (HH with the foot) and I "mute" 1 limb at a time, going clockwise, and then bring them back and start again going counter clock. Or I play 1 limb alone and start bringing in the other limbs like: RH+LH, then RH+HH, RH+K etc. The idea is that I can really focus on the rhythmic relationship between different parts. Thanks again bro!

Church drummer, checking in here to remind you, always play with a metronome

Thanks for the tips as always and you nailed the comment about ghost notes.

“I’m gonna ask you to be honest with me - and more importantly, be honest with yourself.” Hahaha, hey, that’s Zach Danziger’s line! Thanks for addressing this topic, Nate.

Really excellent video! Very much needed! 👍🏻👏🏼

I think it’s also really important to play to backing tracks with your own made beats since I feel that’s easier to get a feel for then someone else’s beat. Besides that what you mentioned with the books is definitely true, you need to implement the things out of your book into your playing in order to really benefit from it. But hey great video!

Just the video I needed. U rock!

Love your drum channel! So reel and informative!

Hey, I really want you to look at Josh Garza and more than any other track of his “Often mistaken for the sun”. I like you. You’re an honest guy, and consistent in another way I can’t put my finger on.

Awesome haircut from 15 years ago. I like how you just put it out there.

Nice video. can u also do a series about reading sheet paper n rely on it/ how to do a full gig without any of it

I do practice pocket but not near as long as I should. Great vid bro, gonna do the leg practice and see how it goes.

Not actually a drummer, but I am someone who has made a little bit of change as a rhythm guitarist. The best thing I've done to actually improve my groove is subdividing parts in my head, it forces you to tighten up your playing by landing on these smaller places that aren't necessarily on the page, and has helped me understand more complicated rhythms. Guitarists tend to value chops even more than drummers, which has made a decent rhythm guitarist a hot commodity, especially in genres outside of funk, jazz, and blues

Good vid my man! I value your focus on the intangibles. Also 1:53 👍

This is an excellent video about how to learn how to lock everything in the pocket so to speak but I have to question if that is "feel" given the fact that many great "feel" drummers of the past didn't always lock in and play perfect time. Levon Helm, John Bonham, Art Blakey and so on. The list is long and covers all genre other then true studio players. Speaking of studio players, having studied with Gary Chester I can tell you if you weren't nails with the time he'd jump all over you but that's time not feel.

Dig the lesson on feel. If while you are playing you are not trying to make someone dance,or feel the mood you are trying to bring to the music, something is off. Feel me up. Haha!

In that omegle experiment I kind of wondered if chops did well because it was solo. Also your videos get me thinking I was told to quit by a teacher because I naturally swung a bit on everything and my left hand is naturally too weak to play rudiments. Years later with KZfaq I wounder if I should have just double downed and developed my shortcomings in to feel

Doing god's work

Man you're awesome, one of my favorites ✌🏼👌🏼

absolute gold

Play words, not numbers One strike per syllable (obviously) Here’s two six-stroke rolls: your mother loved this park what the hell did you say Let the accents fall where they naturally fall when you speak the phrase - the playing is instantly more musical than it is when played by counting, and the two phrases have different feels - suddenly there are three levels of accents you can control, because everyone has learned the prosody (the rhythm) of speech It helps with feel. (So....should we play in the Romance languages for slower dance music?) Patrick

This guys the king!

Thanks, Nate! Great video!

This channel is giving me huge imposter syndrome attacks

I think if you took at the studio effects off the colenburg video, it would still rock but not sound as hip.

Thank u !! Love your channel

This is great advice. Just don't need to scroll to 9:15 on the video to actually find it. But hey it's free!

Nasty questions!

You are so good at KZfaq

I NEED the peanut butter...

3 Reasons ur feel sucks, your wayyy to uptight, your wayyy to uptight, and your wayyyy to uptight - it also helps to know what your tryin to play instead of sounding like your guessing, awkward people sound akward, doe's cat be swingin because dey loose, and play loose and know their notes

Amazing stuff as always 👌

yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah so I jumped in for a band for a few shows and during rehearsals the singer/guitarist says - that has never felt so good! It never happened again - I don't know how I did it but I knew it was killer at the time... ahhhh

Great list of players right up front here

hes the one they call dr feel good

Feel like the trick to good feel is to work on smoothing out the gross muscle movements

0:40 - I think the fell would be better if you woke up first. 🙃

Nate, I run out of words to say how incredible your channel is, thank you so much for the content and you also look damn hot with the mercury mustach

I tried to show “my money”, but no links allowed 😅 However, I actually spend about 50/50 on groove/chops, and the same goes for my uploads. But I think I spend more time on groove because I don’t read or write music. My ears is all I’ve got! 🤩😂

Great stuff

Mucho appreciato.

Awesome!

you're right.

Ha! It wasn't UNTIL I got a church gig and started recording it every week that I realized all these devastingly depressing truths! The good news is, at least I'm not living a lie! The bad news is, I still have to watch the playback each week and cringe!

Groove vs chops... Let me make an analogy here... If you work out and go jogging, fine! Good for you!! But do you actually run to go everywhere all the time? Didn't think so!!

How to improve feel? Listen to Digable Planets and A Tribe Called Quest on repeat for a year. If only it were that easy. Hey, did I hear you sneak in a mention of big beat on this vid? I will always ask about big beat. Everyone gotta practice feel, not just drummers. I was listening to my four to the floor when I was playing behind my drummer friend. Playing quarter note comps on guitar MUST be easy... NOT! I was totally screwing up my friend's solo space. Been practicing feel for my solos, but the most important thing is to have that peanut butter feel when you are laying it down and accompanying someone else--and grooooooving.

who is 0:20 drummer? I can’t find only the movie

Poor guy had to compliment Nate Smith even though thats his own name.

Why do my drums have no rebound

It's so obvious. Play with the biggest baseball bats you can find. Some well known drummers talk about holding up to 7 sticks in one hand. Once you go from holding what used to be a normal 'weight' to holding'heavy' and back. It's very empowering.

OH YEAH!! FEEL - DA POCKET!! While my "feel" pretty much sucks right now - (for me to ** consistently ** nail the feel,

🎼💙🎵🎶 80/20

The bottom line is that the 'pocket' is where we keep the money.

I feel this is directed at me lol

Nate, how on earth, with your light touch, do you break cymbals and hats??

im actually too trash and slow at flowing good chops so all i practice is pocket rip

could someone tel me who's playin" at 6.53 ?

I wonder if there should be a video game for drums similar to guitar hero which would measure volume and placement on a simulated drum set?

What's the best iphone metronome app?

....and that's how you get the feel.

ngl i was hoping to go on that conspiracy tangent

Confidence strangled, self-conscious is as like someone turns the hot water on in the kitchen just as you take nice hot shower because you was freezing to the bones

If you can’t dance yourself you just may not be funky enough make someone else dance.

I like chunky peanut butter

7:05 name of this song plz 🙏

6:49 source?

99% of the people I've taught over the years think that they have good rhythm, and the hardest part of my teaching is showing them that their perspective is not accurate, basically because they have not developed the ears to hear the difference between what they sound like and what they think they sound like. Thanks for your videos Nate, keep it up!