🎥 Watch: Why You Must Record Yourself (Video)
Most drummers want to get better quickly—killer chops, stronger time, more control, more groove, more confidence. If you’ve overcome some of the typical stumbling blocks like the myths of 1) age, 2) talent and 3) the “need for a drum set,” you’ve come a long way. But beyond these issues, there’s a tool that dramatically accelerates improvement, and almost no one uses it consistently:
Recording yourself.
I’m talking about recording your practice, your gigs, your rehearsals, your ideas, your grooves, your fills, your time feel, your sound, your dynamics… everything.
Don’t worry–I’m not going to suggest you record everything every time. That would be ridiculous. But I am suggesting that you record yourself at appropriate times so you can glean the information you need to about that particular event and your playing in that moment.
Pretty much every great musician records themselves. Every serious drummer should. It’s one of the fastest ways to expose blind spots, confirm strengths, and create real, noticeable progress.
But here’s the real reason this matters:
There is almost always a difference between what you think you’re playing and what you’re actually playing.
And you will never know the truth until you listen back.
That gap between perception and reality?
That gap is where your improvement hides.
Many drummers spend most of their time inside the playing experience:
In that moment, what you think you sound like is distorted by volume, adrenaline, room acoustics, your monitors, and your own internal bias.
No matter how trained you are, it’s almost impossible to objectively hear yourself while you’re playing.
But when you listen back?
You suddenly hear everything with clarity:
Recording yourself cuts through the illusion and reveals the truth.
And once you have the truth, you can fix anything.
This isn’t just a drummer thing.
In his autobiography, Eric Clapton describes a powerful method he used early in his career:
That’s it. That was the whole method. And look where he ended up.
If Clapton was taping himself as a teenager, what does that tell you?
Self-recording is not optional for serious musicians.
Dave Weckl talked about this in one of his early instructional videos—Back to Basics or The Next Step–I can’t remember which one.
He was playing a complex 16th-note funk groove with paradiddle-ish sticking and lots of ghost notes.
Onstage, he thought it sounded slick. Controlled. Subtle. Perfect.
Then he listened back.
What he actually sounded like was:
Recording revealed the truth—and he fixed it.
By the way, speaking of paradiddle related funk grooves, my favorite pattern to use when playing that way is the inverted paradiddle which I’ve written about extensively elsewhere on this blog. Check out these articles : 1) “16 Exercises to Build Facility with Inverted Paradiddles” and 2) “16 More Exercises to Build Facility with Inverted Paradiddles”
OK, now, back to our regularly scheduled programming.
Be brutally honest:
Most drummers never find out.
Recording exposes the truth, and the truth is how you grow.
This is where your real drumming lives. Listening back teaches you:
These recordings reveal:
Record players who inspire you. Learn from:
Here’s something that happens to every drummer:
You’re onstage.
You play something.
It feels wrong.
You panic inside.
You think: “I suck on this tune. Why am I on drums?”
I’ve been there.
Then you listen back later—and your playing is absolutely fine.
Recording protects you from lies your brain tells you in the moment. It keeps your confidence grounded in reality.
These sound shockingly good.
Still the standard for drummers who want portable stereo audio.
Great if you want clean audio into:
Used by drummers everywhere for combined video + audio practice capture.
Day 1: Record a simple groove for 1 minute
Day 2: Record one fill 10 times
Day 3: Record a song chorus
Day 4: Record some rudiments
Day 5: Record a 3-minute practice flow
Day 6: Record a groove at slow, medium, fast
Day 7: Record a full song
Recording yourself is honest, humbling, encouraging, revealing, and transformational.
Give it a try and let me know what happens. I read everything you send me. And I answer too.
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