Welcome to my Style Studies Play-Along Lesson Series. Here are a few performance tips that will help you with the charts. See below for links to the drum notation key and how to read a drum chart download.

1. Before playing through the chart practice the grooves for each section of the song until they become muscle memory.

2. For most of the charts there are written fills that include the stickings for each one. I would suggest learning the fills as written in order to add them to your repertoire. However, if you prefer, feel free to use your own fills.

3. I would suggest first playing along with the track that includes the drum part. Then, when you are comfortable with the arrangement of the song and confident with the drum part practice along with the track that does not have the drum part.

4. Whenever possible record yourself playing along with the tracks. I am fortunate in that I have microphones on all of my drums and connected to a ProTools interface. I can simply import the track, press record, then listen back and critique myself. You don't have to be this high-tech. However, I can't stress enough how valuable it is to listen back and hear what you did good and what you need to improve on.

5. If you are comfortable reading drum charts you will find all of the charts in this series straightahead and easy-to-read. However, if you are not, I strongly urge you to download a copy of my "Ultimate drummer" e-book. Here you will find almost everything you need to know about reading a drum chart.

Enjoy,
John X