STOP Trying So Hard to Groove on Drums - Do This Instead

Get 3 Videos in 3 Weeks (and find out when my course opens next) - https://the8020drummer.com/youtube-low

Get the transcription to this lesson (and get 3 videos in 3 weeks) - https://the8020drummer.com/lessons/groove

Here's my complete "time" lesson, for more detail and context to these exercises - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOBnMmUCMJU&t=293s

Something occurred to me the other day as I watched a Thomas Pridgen video:

Grooving isn't about trying hard.

In the video, Thomas plays opposite a less experienced drummer. The other drummer's trying *super* hard to groove, but it's obvious that Thomas' pocket is better.

But Thomas wasn't "trying" at all.

The whole thing reminded me of all the "jazz face" that happened at my old college after a visit from Marcus Baylor. We all furled our brows and tried to play "serious groove" for months after hearing Marcus.

Did it help? Not at all. Unless our goal was to look, as Ralph Lalama used to say... Never mind. I'm not going to finish that sentence.

It just so happened I was also listening to some Sam Harris podcasts this week on Dzogchen meditation - particular his interview with Mingyur Rinpoche.

Dzogchen teaches that the fact that there isn't a duality between thoughts and the thinker - the "locus behind the eyes" as Sam calls it - is an insight available at a moment's notice to someone ready to receive it.

Sam gives the analogy of realizing one wall of a restaurant is mirrors. Your perception changes, and you can't "not see it" after that.

Mingyur's father, Tulku Urgyen, showed Sam "the pointing out exercise", analogous to telling someone the walls are mirrors.

I love how I don't need to retain people's attention in this written description, so I can make is as long as I want :P

Anyway, what if "trying hard" to groove misses the point?

What if Thomas and Marcus don't have better pocket because they're "trying harder", but because they *see more clearly*?

Well, then we'd probably approach the whole enterprise totally differently.

This lesson suggests one way.

Видео STOP Trying So Hard to Groove on Drums - Do This Instead канала The 80/20 Drummer