Playing with Confidence

Confidence when performing can be complicated. Everyone is different in terms of how confident they are, and how comfortable they are on stage in front of an audience. And the level of confidence can vary depending on many factors. Experience and technical ability are of course huge factors in building confidence on the drums. Having them does increase your confidence, but at least for me, even playing at a relatively high level and having a respectable amount of experience is sometimes not enough to shake the nerves off. Nervousness before performing can unbalance a player, and mistakes during a show can also bring them into their own head in a way that feels self-critical and leads to thoughts in the vein of, “Everyone here is judging me negatively”. These things lead to feeling small, turning inward, and ultimately result in a more feeble attempt to play the drums than one is capable of.

The point here is that confidence is key to playing the drums well. They demand it. I’ve always thought about the drums as tough, able to overwhelm, and confident in their own right. Made of wood and metal. They’re durable, resilient, and – confident. In order to harness them we have to be the same. The sound of the drums will shine when you play like you mean business. If you play like you’re afraid of them, they will eat you alive. Confident doesn’t mean loud, it means intention. And it also means being comfortable enough with the material we’re playing as to allow us to be confident. Confidence can be faked to a certain degree, and sometimes we need to do that in order to get out of a tough situation (nerves at the beginning of a show, recovering after a mistake), but ultimately the faking can only be temporary. We need to develop confidence to be a good drummer, and true confidence flows from skill and experience. It flows from strong self-esteem. This may come more easily for some than others, but including this type of development in our practice is an essential part of the pursuit of making the drums, the rhythm, and the groove all it can be.

All in Good Time,

-Alexander Cook