The Greenroom

There’s more to being an auxiliary keyboard player than you think. All too often, keyboardists approach playing a secondary part like the primary, but if we’re not careful, this could be detrimental to what’s happening musically. So what should an aux keys player play? What sounds should they use? And what advice is there for playing ‘second fiddle?' Check it out here in this video blog.

Last month I had the opportunity to play drums for a night of worship that was recorded for a live record. There's not a lot of room for issues or mistakes on something like that, and we wanted everything to run flawlessly. It would have been much more challenging if I didn't play consistently. 

Sometimes we just forget to pay attention and let habits keep us in the dark. It's time to turn practice time into play time. 

When we chose drums as our instrument, we signed up to be the leader of the rhythm section and that’s a vital role. As we go so the band goes. So how do imperfect people play in perfect time? Using a metronome or click track is a great place to start but it’s no substitute for developing your “internal click.” Here are a couple of training exercises to help you develop your internal metronome.

Volume swells are simple to play. Just follow these guidelines to get you started.

Learn the knobs.

Daniel demystifies the slap technique for bass guitar.

Surrounded (Fight My Battles) is a song that builds forever. Jason shows you some ways you can extend songs like that with a solo acoustic leader.

Most people listen to music when they are doing something else.  If we musicians want to become better at our craft, we need to learn the art of critical listening.