The Final Step to Excellent Concert Preparation

As my students and I prepare for our Fall Percussion Concert this Thursday, November 3rd featuring the Clemson Percussion Ensemble, Steel Band, and Drumline, I thought I would share some strategies behind our concert preparation that others might find valuable as they...

Excerpt from Teaching Jazz Drumset

Below is an excerpt from my new article, “Teaching Jazz Drumset,” published in the October issue of the Jazz Education Network newsletter. To read the complete article, visit https://jazzednet.org/Teaching_Jazz_Drumset_Paul_Buyer. The fundamentals of jazz...

What I Learned from Warriors Coach Steve Kerr

Last week I participated in a live stream with Golden State Warriors head coach, Steve Kerr, who’s team won the 2015 NBA Championship and came within a play of winning a second one back to back. The program, called Cats in the Corner Office, was offered through the...

How Seeking Out Criticism Can Make You Better

In Ryan Holiday’s new book, Ego is the Enemy, he writes about the importance of criticism and humility, stating, “The art of taking feedback is such a critical skill in life, particularly harsh and critical feedback. We not only need to take this harsh feedback, but...

How to Inspire High Performance

I am an avid listener of a podcast called Finding Mastery (www.findingmastery.net), hosted by high performance psychologist Michael Gervais who has recently worked with USA Women’s Volleyball in Rio as well as the Seattle Seahawks. According to his website,...

What You Should be Doing in Rehearsal Every Day

For musicians, if you think about it, most of our time is spent practicing. In fact, one could argue that 80% of our time is spent practicing/rehearsing while only 20% is spent performing, and that may be high. As a result, it is easy for rehearsals to become routine...

The Fastest Way to Clean Your Drumline

The truth is cleaning a drumline is not a fast process. It takes a long time crockpotting hundreds of hours of practice and rehearsals during the course of a season, especially for college bands who perform multiple shows and a large quantity of music including...

The Story of The Classic Vibe

When something bothers me, I write about it. That is my philosophy, and if you look for a seed of inspiration in my writing, you will find that theme. As a percussion educator, much has bothered me through the years, and hopefully my articles and books have helped...

Welcome to my new website!

Welcome and I’m very excited to launch my new website! I first want to thank and recognize Whit Wagner at Liquid Propaganda for his world-class web design. I will do my best to post once a week and also keep my blogs short and packed with quality content. I...