MasterMind Drummer
Newsletter #50
Dec 2nd, 2024
It’s ALL in your head…
Alright, we’re going a little deeper today. I’m pulling back the curtain and bringing you further into my world. Strap in, and let’s do this.
Last week, I mentioned that I don’t often write anything down when learning new material. My process is simply to listen—whether it’s while I’m out going for a run, or if I’m biking to the studio. It’s built into my day.
Now, this approach isn’t exactly groundbreaking, but there’s more to it than meets the eye. Today, I want to share a deeper look into how I learn material, while also taking you back to where this all began. Some of it you might relate to, some of it you might not. But I’m confident you’ll find it interesting…
So, in full transparency, I was just 13 years old when I started experimenting with visualization and subconscious training as tools for my drumming.
True story!
And here’s the thing—they’re both tools I still very much use to this very day.
I know, I know—13? It sounds a bit far-fetched, right? But it’s true. Let me share a little anecdote to bring you into my upbringing a little more, and what led me to experiment with such powerful concepts at such a young age.
Let’s rewind to the late ’80s & early ’90s—the golden era of personal development and mindset coaches.
Whether it was Tony Robbins’ Personal Power, leaning heavily into discovering your full potential, or Kevin Trudeau’s Mega Memory, focusing on cognitive performance through visualization, resources for leveling up were everywhere. If you wanted to become more, the tools were there, ready and waiting.
Well, my mum was one of those people. She wanted to become more. She was deep in this world— and she had them all!
I have vivid memories of being a kid, following her around the house (and the car), as the stereo blasted voices proclaiming her potential and that her life was within her control.
These are strong and very real memories for me.
I remember being fascinated by the big, clunky plastic cassette holders—10 tapes in a molded case. I’d play with them, examine them.
This was very much my childhood.
What’s interesting is that I had completely forgotten about this. It wasn’t until years later, when I started my own personal development journey, that those memories came flooding back.
They had been buried, overshadowed by the challenges of my teenage years and early adulthood I guess.
But they explain a lot—why I’m wired the way I am now and why this subject feels so natural to me. It seems I absorbed so much of it indirectly through my mum as she tried to better herself.
Unfortunately, it didn’t work out so great for her. She struggled a lot, and life only seemed to get harder for her over the years.
I’ll dive into those reasons and her influence on me at some point. I’ve connected some dots recently that helped me process a lot of that history.
But that’s a story for another day.
For me, when I found personal development later in life, I felt an almost overwhelming sense of “coming home.”
It was like a switch flipped. Reading the books, watching the videos, listening to the talks—it all felt heavily ingrained in me, as though I’d always been familiar with it. And honestly, I think I had been, through those early experiences.
It’s funny—I thought this journey was just a natural progression for where I was in life. But now I’m not so sure. Was I always heading this way? Helping others unlock their potential on and off the kit?
Maybe it was in the cards all along.
They say in golf that if you find your swing within your first 10 years, you’ll have it for life. Maybe personal development works the same way. I was introduced to this world so young—it must’ve planted a deep seed within me.
In short, my personal development journey started taking shape in my early 20s. As a young father, I wanted to be the best version of myself for my son.
It started with exercise—running and weightlifting—which led to experimenting with nutrition. As I started to see results and feel good about myself, I naturally gravitated toward mindset, which eventually led to an interest in psychology.
It’s more nuanced than that, of course, but that’s the nutshell version.
The wild part is that I never connected it back to my mum until a few years ago. Certain speakers, certain ideas—they’ve triggered those memories, bringing it all full circle.
Now… how this all relates to my drumming? Well, I picked up the sticks when I was 13. I had tried a year or so prior but didn’t connect with it then. It wasn’t until I found myself on my friend’s brother’s kit one day, played a beat for the first time, and everything felt right in the world.
From that moment, I was hooked.
My path in learning was much like everyone else’s—tackle all the ‘go-to’ rock songs first!
At the time, I had already been learning guitar for two years and was working on some Nirvana tracks, so I decided that “Smells Like Teen Spirit” would be a good starting point.
Listening to the track from a drummer’s perspective, I quickly realized it was much harder than I had initially thought, especially for a total beginner. Dave’s drumming on that track is fantastic, as we all know.
But I was determined, and I also knew I needed all the resources I could muster.
Without even really thinking about it, I pulled out my twin tape deck, (a prize I won from a school ‘Blue Light Disco’ a few years earlier), grabbed a fresh cassette, and started making a two-sided audio tape I could listen to while sleeping, explaining how to play the song.
I broke down the sections, spoke very specifically about the parts Dave was playing, and even detailed the pieces of the drum kit he used in each verse, chorus, and the guitar solo.
There I am, at 13, recording myself speaking in a calm and relaxed tone, just like the personal development coaches I’d heard on the tapes my mum used to play. It was as though I was trying to put myself into some kind of hypnotic trance—which, in hindsight, I guess I was.
Looking back, I find it funny that:
A. I thought this was a feasible method to learn the track, and
B. I actually went to the trouble of creating the tape.
I didn’t even hesitate; it just made sense to me as part of the process.
I wish I still had that tape. It would be hilarious to listen to now.
And did it work? Well, that’s a hard metric to gauge, but in my opinion, in short, yes! I learned the song extremely fast and, honestly, developed on the kit very quickly in general.
I’m self-taught, always have been, and have always been a relatively fast learner on the drums. I credit a lot of that to my early adoption of techniques like this. If not in specific techniques themselves, certainly in the mindset that ‘I can’ learn anything.
So, how do I use these techniques now? Well, I’ve made tapes and specific audios many times since then—not so much about drum parts or songs anymore, but moreso about unlocking my potential on and off the kit.
Just last year, I made one targeting a couple key areas I wanted to improve in my life. I’d listen to it while sleeping, letting the ideas sink into my subconscious.
The thought process behind these audios is simple: by repeatedly hearing these specific messages, I feel like I’m unlocking the door to a new skillset or mindset towards it, before I’ve even grabbed the handle.
And I know this works. Without a doubt. I truly believe I can learn absolutely anything on the kit—but, the only catch is, its only IF I want to learn it. That part is key. If I’m not interested, it’s just not going to happen.
So, tying this all back to the start, another powerful process for me is deep visualization.
When learning new material, I go for long runs and listen to the tracks—but not just as a passive listener. I visualize myself sitting at the drums and performing the material. I don’t just hear the drummer; in my mind, I am the drummer.
These tools—visualization and subconscious training—have been game changers for me. I know they’re a big part of why I’m able to approach my craft with the confidence and intention that I do.
It’s an intrinsic internal belief that I have the ability to do literally whatever I want on, and with, this instrument, and are techniques I still rely on to this day.
Now, I’m not saying everyone needs to go out and start recording themselves talking to themselves, like I do—I’m sure that’s not everybody’s cup of tea, but if you’re not already experimenting with deep visualization, you’re missing out.
Whether it’s learning new material or simply spending time believing you can do more and be more on this instrument—that it’s all on your terms—visualizing it will help. It’s been an absolute game-changer for me, and I can’t recommend it enough.
Next time you’re learning new material, don’t just rely on repetition to remember the parts. Instead, put yourself in the drum throne. Visualize yourself there, playing the track.
Picture every detail—the cymbals, the drum sizes, the feel of the sticks. This approach not only speeds up the learning process but also ingrains the belief that you can do it, because technically, in your mind, you already have. 
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Let’s leave it there for this week.
As always, thanks for reading these, and thanks for all your feedback, too. I really appreciate it.
I read them all. So please, if you have any thoughts, send them through, and let’s get a dialogue happening.
Don’t forget… Stay hungry (and stay healthy!)
See you next week.
Stan