Not super proud to say I've learned all of these lessons the hard way over 40+ years. Yes, you can learn them the hard way if you like. Do not recommend. One set of habits revolve around playing nicely with others: - Don't wait until the previous band's drummer has cleared the riser to have your gear set up and cases put away. - Likewise, when your set is over, strike your gear before tearing it down. - When sharing backlines, don't even ask to borrow cymbals, sticks, or snare drums unless they're explicitly loaned to you.

I've been playing 62 years and never wore ear plugs. Now I wear hearing aids which are way more expensive plus I have tinnitus which got real bad since the early 80's. All you young drummers take heed on this issue and protect your most valuable musical asset, your ears. Great job Rob, everything you covered is essential to good playing and longevity. Thank you Sir!

"The core of our job as drummers, is to keep steady and consistent time while we're doing everything else on the kit." Man, this is the best piece of advice for every drummer. I always keep it inside me. Thanks, man!

I love how you address these things. You can tell that you are a good man with a heart for drummers at all stages.

I played for YEARS with incorrect grip. Luckily I never encountered pain issues, but I also had zero comprehension of rebound. My playing changed virtually overnight once I figured this out.

I’m a teacher myself and love your essential comments for beginners to advanced drummers. One habit that intermediate drummers fall into is playing their fills much louder than their main groove!

As always, great advices! Thank you Rob for this! ❤ If I can add one, which is more playing oriented, record yourself as often as possible. 😮 And take the time needed to analyse your records. Note the obvious bad things, but, perhaps more importantly, note the good things. I bet you’ll remember some of these thoughts at the next rehearsal… When I started to play with my bandmates, I was obsessed with recordings. All of the bandmates was kindly laughing at me for this 😅. I recorded and analyzed ALL our rehearsals since. And I sent them each audio file, just after our sessions. They was reluctant to do the work at first, but at the end of the day, they finally started to do the job. Three years later, every member of the group came to me and thanked me greatly for being insistent all this time. You can’t underestimate the power of recording yourself. Trust me, each minute you take for this is as efficient as a minute of playing in your musical journey. You can’t imagine how much things I learned on my own journey doing this ❤

I'll never forget the first and only time I played in an amphitheater without hearing protection, the ringing started about an hour after and lasted over a week. Rob always has great info/advice but please do not play without hearing protection. Great Job Thanks!!

When I was a kid I had to play kits setup by other people for school concert events and at friends' houses. Most were not hard to play. It actually helped me play more precise because I had to focus and aim. It was like target practice.

The band that I used to play with always invited 1 or 2 bands to the gig. All the drummers invited sat to low and I had to rush to the stage to properly adjust the seat when it was our turn to play. Very annoying.

Super beginner here. My drum set up is constantly changing but I am enjoying the process. I've made the metronome a friend and I rely on it heavily. Almost hard for me to play without a 'nome.. Great content Rob!. (P.S. My mom plays accordion, her timing sucks...)

Hi Rob, I really enjoy and appreciate your videos. You are an excellent communicator/teacher. I've been playing for 46 years, and everything you covered in this video is so important. I evolved through all those bad habits as a young drummer. I was blessed to study with Gary Chester for several years, and he set me straight on all of these habits you mention here. Two that are so important: 1. If you're playing to a click - be married to the click!! If you're not playing to a click, you are the click. Have command of the time and the groove. My job as a drummer is to make it easier for the band to play their best. If I'm backing up a singer, my job is to make the singer look and sound great. And, if I can't do that, then get out of the way. 2. A good throne/stool can enable you to play your best. If you're uncomfortable, your playing will suffer. I know spending $250 on a throne isn't a sexy purchase, but it can make the difference between having a bad gig and a great gig. I never play a gig without my Spinal-G throne. Thanks for all you do!

MAD RESPECT!! Absolutely love your channel & how much you teach us all. Thank you!!

Best free coach out there! Always relevant content.

Rob you're so unintentionally funny..I was digging that shirt the whole vid.😂

Great info!

Solid advice. Thankfully, I never picked up these bad habits. Great channel...and killer shirt!

Thanks Rob for another great and essential video! Positive vibes to you and family ❤

always glad to watch an upload, Rob. thanks man.

Awesome advice. You nailed it!

You're the best! I LOVE your analogies! Especially the metronome part!

Rob, this is the most informative drum site, from tuning to playing. Thank you. Been following you for a few years.

Really spot on advice on all aspects of playing and setting up this wonderful instrument...❤

Thank you man! ❤

Great teacher , Thx Mr. Rob “Beatdown” Brown…For your tips and advice on the kit!

Always good info Rob! Thanks man!!

Thanks alot sir for this lesson.

Thanks for this!

Thanks coach. 👍🔥🔥🔥🔥

Superb advice! 100% agree 👍

Well said. Very logical!!

Love your channel man!

Been playing 35+ years and all your videos have some relevance. I feel many “advanced” players need more of what you’re putting down than they’ll admit to. Like your grip advise. I did your whole Year of the Hands & it was a game changer. The Ahead Spinal G is by far THE best throne out there. Not only does that center channel help your back, but it also keeps your genitals from going numb on long gigs (Same principle as a split seat on a road bicycle). Thank you for these, Sir! You’re the best of many!❤️🤘🏻🤘🏻

Great tips here. Very informative. Cheers, Rob! ✌️

Very sage advice on hearing protection, Rob. Funny thing is, it isn't the loud drums that will kill your hearing over time, it is things like cymbals that will slowly take the top 5-10 KHz of your hearing range away, possibly without you even noticing. I was required to take a hearing test at work last year, as part of our Health monitoring, even though I started wearing hearing protection some years ago when drumming, I did not score very well on the test. I have lost about 6 kHz of the upper range of my hearing over 35 years of drumming and I will not be getting that back, now that it has gone. My advice to any drummer is to ALWAYS wear hearing protection when you're at your kit, no matter what you're doing, this damage is irreversable. Thanks for a great video, Rob.

Thank you Rob. Quality content as always :)

Great video Rob

Well said..😊

Well said ❤

absolutely superb advice - listen and put into practice!

Wise words my man, love it.

Thank you man for providing always great lessons, i'm a beginner drummer and i love it so much but i feel that it's so important to begin with solid rock fundaments...and you always give something to think about and tips to improve it. Peace and greeting from Italy 🖖

Late comment, but I have always loved and appreciated your sage advice. Been hanging around this channel for a hot minute. Cheers, boss Rob!

great video!

This is a great video!

Thank you Rob! It is always good to know that I am am teaching the right things to my students, just in another language. I will share this video with those who are more experirenced speaking english (which is also an important lesson for young musicians). Greets from Germany

Been playing for years, always love your guidance! Bad habits creep in so it’s always a good thing to step back and take a fresh look at everything. You absolutely kill it Rob! 🤙🏾

Tips from the top. The Boss 👍🏼👋👍🏼

Thanks for another awesome lesson! I agree 100% with every one of these points. You are the one who turned me on to the Ahead Spinal Glide throne & I can't thank you enough. It's a great piece of equipment, and I can't imagine playing for very long without it. I'm also a huge fan of playing to a metronome. Gap click & displaced click are my favorite ways to use my metronome. Finally, a big YES to hearing protection. My dad got me started with foam ear plugs in the early '70s, when I first started in a rock band. I kept on using them through high school, college, and the Army Band. Now, playing without ear protection just seems wrong. At 65, my ears are just as good now, as when I was a teenager.

Regards Rob,very cool video 📸

Hey Rob, thank you so much for your continuing advice on metronomes. I could never get a handle on one until I followed your advice. Your advice changed the way I play!

You make the best vids man ❤

All great points! Been playing over 50 years. Still guilty of a couple of those bad habits! Thanks!

as someone whos been playing over 20 plus years, I can attest to the affects of all the bad habits mentioned. Especially the proper grip. Ive been watching your videos for some time now and my playing has drastically improved so thank you very much!

LOVE the Ahead Spinal G throne!! I got the bicycle seat style.

ty as always

Clean bill of health for me (and I should hope so for as long as I've been playing!). Thanks Dr. Beatdown. Have a great weekend. 🙏

I agree with all 5 .Great advice

Thanks!

Keep up the great work Rob from woburn, Mass. You are the best instructor and also best drummer out there hands down!!! No pun intended!

Good job! I have been playing for a bit now (~40) and it wasn't until 3 years ago when a met a pro drummer. Obviously, I asked him to show me som''n. 2 bars in, he says STOP - YOU'RE HOLDING THE STICKS WRONG! It took a bit to learn proper matched grip, but it was well worth it! (Couldn't believe I didn't know that). He also pointed out my BAD POSTURE on the kit. I have to remember to use the backrest on my Roc-n-Soc throne for vertical back REFERENCE & not to relax on. Also, I still tend to lean forward just a bit and "follow" the targets as I move around the kit. I realize now I have to stay in correct natural posture while gracefully? moving around the kit. Thanks for helping me mentally process this while I'm writing. Great stuff here to START UTILIZING THESE LESSONS you and others present.(I do spend some time with Eric's lessons - oops),. Admittedly, I am not religious about CONSISTANT PRACTICE of lessons. I tend to feed a song into the Roland TD-27 and jam to that (Of course, that's not like jammin' w/somebody, but I'm looking to play with other musicians). BTW, I noticed the Syncopation lesson book. Who is the author again, please?😎MANY THANKS to YOU for your hard work, strait-up talk and GROOOOVEY STYLE. Next, I'll be checkin' out your vids on the Stupid Weak Hand and Funkin' up my Hi-Hat. GOD bless you, man!

3:33 same thing happens if you sit to high. IMO basically 90 degrees is ok, it depends on each body´s proportions ( legs length, arms length and torso length) I ve had neck and back problems for sitting TOO HIGH 10 years ago. Too low is also bad, specially for the lower back and hips. 90 degrees is what works for me, and playin RELAXED with shoulders Down and Back.

Good video for the beginners. All of the tips are really important not only to get good at playing, but also to be able to have a long career. With the first one I just kept on thinking about Daru Jones. You did say for your body type though 🤣 In ears with an EAD 10 works well too. As long as the earbuds have foam tips they usually are good for 12-20 dB of reduction. I also like the Eargasm earplugs. I tend to use them when I'm playing a gig where I can't get a monitor feed.

Playing drums 37 years. Just started piano. Keyboards are lighter. Still love ya, Rob! Best All Around YT drum instructor! 🥁🤠

You give good advice Rob 👍

Love it! I was very lucky, my teachers taught me all this stuff! I started working with the click in my third lesson...

On point bro, i know all too well of these hiccups especially points 2 and 4 after playing on the 'house' kit at a gig and just seeing the anarchy that some peeps have to deal with lol. Big ups Rob.

“You are going to thank me for this video at some time in your life”. I am ALWAYS grateful for your videos, all the time 😮

Great lesson on the economics of drumming. That's how I see it as well. I can't help but emphasize the metronome to my students. My main takeaway was about the shoulder height alignment with the cymbals. I'll definitely keep this in mind for the future once I have my dream kit. And yeah, I was definitely digging the t-shirt the whole time. Lol. Flamuel Jackson. 😎

As always, great advice. You got me, a metronome, I’ve got the app on my phone and I mostly haven’t used it for………30 years. I’ve been told a few times to slow down or speed up by the lead singer/pianist (my wife). Thanks for the reminder and always enjoy your videos, something positive to take away with them, even after playing mostly right, all these years 😀

I am finishing up Syncopation... myself. It's always in my rotation. Cheers!

Good advice

I'm guilty of at least 2 of those baaad habits. Thanks BeatDown B. for the reminder.. So important. Thanks for your content - always enjoy

I'm 66, been playing since '75, all your advice is solid, few comments, I've always put my cymbals up high so I can hit them at an angle to my stick and also so they will project into the room better (a club gig thing), seat height should be such that your thighs angle down slightly but are not parallel to the floor, and stick control is essential, and pad playing to warm up and improve this should be part of your daily playing routine, also a central part of daily practice should be practicing patterns and breaks on the kit to a metronome, and NOT just playing to music (as I did for so many years), because you cannot improve your kit playing skills just by playing to music, you must work on particular kit skills apart from any music, and this must be done to a metronome. So many drummers I recorded could not play to a click track because they had never done it and were unable to keep to it in the recording sessions, and they are the band's principal time keeper, so that's a big problem. Listen to that comment, folks - it's something no drum instructor ever told me: "the core of our job as drummers is to keep steady and consistent time". That must be the first thing every drummer student learns and gets into their brain. And lastly, anytime I ever played a live gig I had to wear ear protection, otherwise my ears would be ringing after a short time of playing. Ringing ears is a sign of damage that over time will result in hearing loss. Great vid, these are truly to top picks.

50 plus years of drumming and I watch all your videos because your cool and because I’m cool 😎 . Mickey Mouse rack toms, lol. Always drove me crazy to see those! Mistreated my ears for years and now I live with constant buzzing sounds (ear protection is a must)Thanks for everything Rob

Love it.. I played drums for almost 15 years with no technique until 3 years ago.. still working on these.. 1 to 3 and 5 are like a religion to me now.. still struggle with 4 but I always play along with recorded tracks if that counts at all

True story about hearing protection. I have tinnitus permanent in my left ear. Part of it is drums, part of it in from a Marshall Stack in a rehearsal room. It doesn't get better. Another bad habit is not taking your drum teacher's advice to heart, well, if you have a good one. I did. He was a Berklee grad and was an amazing musician. He could listen to Rush and write the drum parts and it was playing. Anyway, he told me I had to push over the top, meaning I wasn't practicing enough. I thought an hour or two a day was enough. He said 3-4 and if I did, I would be a great drummer. I guess I'll never know. He's gone now, died in a car accident on the Taconic, but he was a righteous dude and a good man.

Thx Rob! I'm going to make all my students watch this!

Good stuff! I played drums (and other percussion) from about 1971 to 1979, and then about a year ago I started up playing again just for fun after I retired. I can relate to all of these things. For setting up the kit, I had, and still have, an ancient Ludwig kit, and the floor tom would not go any higher than having the top head 24 inches off the floor. As I kid, I knew I wanted it to be MUCH higher than that but heck, the factory hardware wouldn't allow it so I figured I was stuck with that. Getting my left stick onto that drum, especially playing traditional grip (which is how almost everyone was taught back then), was tough. Having the floor tom so low also forced me to have the seat too low! Look at really old pictures of the Beatles and see how low Ringo Starr would set his floor tom in those days to get an idea how awful this was. When I went to set up my kit again a year ago, I threw away the factory legs for the floor tom and built a new set that were long enough. I've only seen a few new drummers in recent times, but for some reason they all insist on putting their snare drum so low that it would need to be raised half a foot before they could possibly play rim shots, and it would need to be raised much more than that just to be where it should be. I don't know where that idea to put the snare drum way down low between their knees comes from, but they do it. Learning to hold the sticks correctly came with practice, in my case. Once I reached a decent level of playing ability, stick-holding became correct, automatically. When I learned to play in the 1970s, the only kind of metronome that anyone that I knew was aware of, was the pendulum kind with a mechanical 'click'. I'd been told I should practice to a metronome and I believed it, but I couldn't hear the darned thing when drumming, so I never used it. When I started up last year, I bought an electronic one and I play it through computer speakers, as loud as needed. Ear protection was the only thing where I was ahead of the curve. Literally NOBODY wore ear protection under any circumstances back in the 1970s, but I did. I knew one other drummer who was very good, who admitted to me that after a long practice session or playing with his band, he couldn't even hear people talking to him. I always wore GOOD foam ear plugs (there's a huge range in effectiveness for this kind - get the ones with a really firm consistency) with shooting muffs over the top, and I still do. Lesser protection seems fine at the time you are using it, but you can tell the difference AFTER you stop, but you can only tell if you have experience at comparing excellent protection with ordinary protection. Several years ago I was on a canoe trip with a bunch of folks from all walks of life, and there was a very young rock musician who had no idea that his ears were already shot until some of us started talking about the birds we were hearing, and suddenly he realized that he couldn't hear any birds at all, and that he hadn't heard any birds in years!

OMG, Progressive Steps To Syncopation! Brings me back to when I took lessons as a kid.

I had no idea that the snare and floors should be same height. I will defintely be checking my kit set up now

I'm thanking you for this video NOW!😂

thank you.

Thanks sirr

At least I did learn to 'sit high enough' because back in the ancient times ;-) Ringo and Dave Clark sat Crazy High! Every other of these bad habits, I (like other commenters) learned the had way! Thank goodness, now, young drummers have great access to sites and instructors like Rob! Thanks for the reminders.

Thankyou Rob. You may have just saved my hearing. I’ve been hot on ergonomics from day 1 to avoid back and arm injuries but totally neglected my ears. Buying the dbuds right now

Excellent video and advice. I watch your clips because I start thinking of your topic, and the next thing I see is you commenting on what I was thinking, you are a mind reader lols. BTW, I would add to your comment about setting up your drum set do's & don't - make sure your cymbals move freely and don't hit each other or your drum rims. I remember watching a band play years ago and the drummer broke 2 cymbals because he had them layered on top of each other (stands too close) and they kept hitting each other. Man, that was one expensive gig.

Hi Rob! thanks for this video! so useful. I'm a beginner - or intermediate beginner, if there is such a thing 😂 - and trying by best to avoid those habits. Your channel's great. Can you send the link to that video you're referring to, regarding the best use of a metronome? I've recently started recording myself (I've a couple of drum covers on my channel) and realised that I'm a bit off sometimes, although I was trying to keep up with the metronome track in my headphones. 😐 to my slight defence though, the drumless track I was playing over to, was occasionaly off too I think. Could this be the case?

....cause I'm coool...😂 Love your videos! Sometimes I do just watch....because...well...you know

Great vid! Another habit: develop your left foot early! I’m a fairly new drummer but I wish I’d spent the first year or two developing my left foot at the same time as my other limb independence. Much easier to learn at the start then trying to introduce it late imo!

Having the ride up high and angled towards me is my go to. Feels like holding up a newspaper. Great tips on this one

I dig it 👍

Great advice. Along with stick technique I would also encourage new drummers to try different sticks. For years I was using sticks that were too thin and light. Stepped up my game when I changed sticks.

Thank you for including ear protection. I started protecting my ears when it was too late. I wear them to preserve what hearing I have left. And you're right: the other instruments DO sound great when I have my earplugs in!

8:00 I didn't even take note of what the shirt said, I love it lol

Sitting too low, yes i agree! Can´t help thinking though about the awesome B.J. Wilson 🤣

I just use the same shure earbuds to practice that we use on stage, mostly because I also practice with the metronome. Also, I'm so thankful that I had a great teacher at an early age who stressed the importance of kit setup, and he advised me on which first kit to buy. I ended up with a Tama Rockstar, this was 1990. The Rockstars came with a great tom holder and I was able to get the toms within a half inch of each other. I saw so many people with the "Mickey Mouse" toms and always felt kinda bad for them!

All great tips! What baffles me is when these amazing drummers that weigh 400+ pounds (we know who they are) and when they sit at their throne, it’s like they are standing up. I don’t know how they continue to function like that…but they can certainly groove. 🤷

I recently changed my setup. My point was to get everything closest and more comfortable as i could. And I just noticed that is veryyyyy similar to yours 😅

AGREED 1000%