We all have our favorite earbuds, speakers, or headphones that we enjoy using to listen to our favorite music. But many of us face the challenge of struggling to hear what the drums are actually doing on recordings.

Sometimes it’s tough to discern the kick pattern, and sometimes it’s really hard to tell if you’re hearing snare ghosting or additional hihat notes. And oftentimes there are so many layered parts on a recording that it’s tough to pick out what you should actually play on the drums.

This is the struggle for a lot of drummers, and I want to help you solve this in two ways:

#1) Explore how a higher quality pair of in-ears or headphones can make detailed listening easier

#2) Teach you strategies for listening more deeply and picking out parts - with whatever headphones you may have

Here’s an important listening / “mixing” truth you need to understand:

Turning up the bass on a recording doesn’t always make it easier to hear...

One of the funnest things to do as a drummer (regardless of what level you’re at) is to play along to a great record. Putting on your favorite song and jamming out is so cool, and that’s how pretty much every drummer gets started learning the drums. This is also a great way to stay musically motivated and inspired as your grow and develop as a player.

But a lot of times there’s a challenge associated with this task: What do you do when it’s hard to hear exactly what the drummer on the recording is playing? It can quickly become frustrating when you’re trying to play along…but you’re realizing your parts are never lining up with his parts. This is where learning a song can suddenly become exasperating. How do we get around this? Here are my “song-learning” steps that I think will help…

1. Before you ever actually play along with the recording, listen to the song a few times. Familiarize...