There are many ways to increase the quality of your drumming and they can all be summarized into these 3 vital keys…

1. Develop Confidence

Many wanna-be musicians will choose the drums because they are shy and want to remain in the background (that’s where I was when I started drumming back in 1976).

The truth is your body may be in the background, but your musical presence will definitely be noticed!

If you are going to be the drummer in a band, then you will be the anchor of the band. The other musicians will be relying on you to provide strong beats that will keep everything together. Everything you do behind your drum set will not only be heard, but felt, simply because you will be the all-important time keeper.

This notion of wanting to be a drummer so you can hide behind a drum set is ridiculous. You’re gonna hide from no one! That’s why it is imperative to develop confidence in your drumming, and the first way to do that is to forget about the notion that you are hidden. Your mind set should be to establish your place in the band. Know who you are and why you’re there. The rest will then fall into place.

Please don’t mistake confidence for arrogance. Confidence is what makes a good drummer a great drummer. Arrogance is what makes a good drummer a lonely drummer! I don’t know about you, but I certainly don’t want to play music with some cocky jerk who thinks he or she is better than everyone else.

2. Love Your Instrument

If any musician really wants to master their instrument they must absolutely love it. What do I mean “love it?” The best way to understand this is to relate loving your drums to loving a person.

Many people think “love” is a feeling, but it’s not a feeling. For example; I love my wife, but I don’t always like her (I suppose she can probably say the same thing about me).

Love is an action word. It means to adore, care for, learn about, edify, be loyal to, be devoted to, be committed to, support, protect, and promote. When you do these things the feeling of love automatically comes.

So, how can you tell if you really love your drums? You can tell if you love your drums by the priority you put on them. They must have some priority in your life, otherwise your drums are just a little hobby that you will only be mediocre at.

3. Remain Humble

To become successful in anything, you must absolutely be confident in what you’re doing, and knowledge can make you confident. But, be careful, knowledge can also make you think more highly of yourself than you should.

If you really want to increase your level of drumming it is critical to always see yourself as a student and remain open minded.

The mind is like a parachute, it only functions when it is open. That’s why it is so important to remain humble. Arrogant drummers never grow beyond their current level of drumming because they don’t think there is any more they can learn. How foolish! There is always more to learn… and any advanced drummer can learn from an intermediate, or even a beginner!

It’s critical to want to learn if you are going to increase your level of drumming, and remaining humble is the only avenue through which you can do this.

If you continue to learn you will then be able to teach. When you begin teaching, you will be amazed at the additional things you will learn (if you are currently teaching you will understand).

Conclusion

When you develop confidence in your purpose as a drummer, learn to love your drums by giving them some priority in your life, altogether with remaining humble, your level of drumming will increase considerably.

Dan Brown
http://www.articlesbase.com/music-articles/3-keys-to-maximizing-your-drum-skills-104447.html

Life is like a road. There are long and short roads; smooth and rocky roads; crooked and straight paths. In our life many roads would come our way as we journey through life. There are roads that lead to a life of single blessedness, marriage, and religious vocation. There are also roads that lead to fame and fortune on one hand, or isolation and poverty on the other. There are roads to happiness as there are roads to sadness, roads towards self building, victory and jubilation, and roads leading to defeat and disappointment.

Just like any road, there are corners, detours, and crossroads in life. Perhaps the most perplexing road that you would encounter is a crossroad. With four roads to choose from and with limited knowledge on where they would go, which road will you take? What is the guarantee that we would choose the right one along the way of self building? Would you take any road, or just stay where you are: in front of a crossroad?

There are no guarantees. You do not really know where a road will lead you until you take it. There are no guarantees. This is one of the most important things you need to realize about life. Nobody said that choosing to do the right self building thing all the time would always lead you to happiness. Loving someone with all your heart does not guarantee that it would be returned. Gaining fame and fortune does not guarantee happiness. Accepting a good word from an influential superior to cut your trip short up the career ladder is not always bad, especially if you are highly qualified and competent. There are too many possible outcomes, which your really cannot control. The only thing you have power over is the decisions that you will make, how you would act and react to different situations and self building.

Wrong decisions are always at hindsight. Had you known that you were making a wrong decision, would you have gone along with it? Perhaps not, why would you choose a certain path when you know it would get you lost? Why make a certain decision if you knew from the very beginning that it is not the right one. It is only after you have made a decision and reflected on it that you realize its soundness. If the consequences or outcomes are good for your self building, then you have decided correctly. Otherwise, your decision was wrong.

Take the risk: decide. Since life offers no guarantee and you would never know that your decision would be wrong until you have made it, then you might as well take the risk and decide. It is definitely better than keeping yourself in limbo. Although it is true that one wrong turn could get you lost, it could also be that such a turn could be an opportunity for an adventure, moreover open more roads for self building. It is all a matter of perspective. You have the choice between being a lost traveller or an accidental tourist of life. But take caution that you do not make decisions haphazardly. Taking risks is not about being careless and stupid. Here are some pointers that could help you choose the best option in the face of life’s crossroads:

Get as many information as you can about your situation. You cannot find the confidence to decide about self building way when you know so little about what you are faced with. Just like any news reporter, ask the 5 W’s: what, who, when, where, and why. What is the situation? Who are the people involved? When did this happen? Where is this leading? Why are you in this situation? These are just some of the possible questions to ask to know more about your situation. This is important. Oftentimes, the reason for indecision is the lack of information about a situation.

Identify and create options. What options do the situation give you? Sometimes the options are few, but sometimes they are numerous. But what do you do when you think that the situation offers no options? This is the time that you create your own self building options. Make your creative mind work towards self building. From the most simplistic to the most complicated, entertain all ideas. Do not shoot anything down when an idea comes to your head. Sometimes the most outrageous idea could prove to be the right one in the end. You can ask a friend to help you identify options and even make more options if you encounter some difficulty, but make sure that you make the decision yourself in the end.

Weigh the pros and cons of every option. Assess each option by looking at the advantages and disadvantages it offers you. In this way, you get more insights about the consequences of such an option.

Trust yourself and make that decision. Now that you have assessed your options, it is now time to trust yourself. Remember that there are no guarantees and wrong decisions are always at hindsight. So choose, decide, believe that you are choosing the best option of self building at this point in time.

Now that you have made a decision, be ready to face its consequences: good and bad. It may take you to a place of promise or to a land of problems. But the important thing is that you have chosen to live your life instead of remaining a bystander or a passive audience to your own life. Whether it is the right self building decision or not, only time can tell. But do not regret it whatever the outcome. Instead, learn from it and remember that you always have the chance to make better decisions in the future.

Tomas Labas
http://www.articlesbase.com/advice-articles/self-building-choices-and-smart-decisions-79977.html

I noticed during my illness and now years later, I lost a lot of self esteem and confidence. It is still hard for me to have self esteem and confidence. Many people try and bring it up or put me in positions but get frustrated when I cannot and stay the same sort of person. I cannot be assertive or have a lot of confidence or self esteem or communication skills when it is holding me back. I have accepted who I am and what I can and cannot do. Why can't others?

Why do people think I am lazy when I just know what I can and cannot do, and refuse to do anything which is setting me up to fail?

Yea, you may have excepted "it" but it seems you still don't like being that way. I was very depressed for a long time and instead of low self-esteem being a symptom of that illness I think it may be a cause. The anti-depressives lifted my sadness but not my self-esteem. That took some work with a counselor. The only thing I can say about that work is that I wish I hadn't waited so long to start because I feel so much better now. All the hard work was worth it. Good Luck.

If you have no self-confidence.
How do you Build up to where you have some?

do anything that makes you feel good and have people that you like around you instead of people who hate and criticize… or just do something crazy like skydiving lol

Please help…I love music and need some songs that will either a) make me more confident or b) motivate me to rise above everything in my way.

THANK YOU!

move along by the all-american rejects

As a leader you need to cultivate and build your team’s confidence. Your team should have confidence in them self as well as confidence in your leadership skills. In general people will judge the probability of future success based on past performance. As you work with your team you will build a consistent history based on past successes and failures. If you maintain a good track record of success you will create a sense of optimism that future projects will also be successful. If you have a record of disappointment, your team will probably view any new projects as having a high chance of failing.

It is the job of the leader to select projects that will contribute to an overall sense of success within his team. By starting with projects that the team all believes will be successful a leader is able to raise the level of confidence for the next project. Over time the confidence of a team can be built to a point that it can complete a project that would have been a failure previously. A series of projects can be completed easily and successfully when they are ordered in such a way to build confidence while the same projects can all be complete failures when done in a different order.

The first project should very easy. Historically nations have built monuments to remind them of their success. While it might not be appropriate to create a sculpture or triumphal arch for every project, some projects serve as trophies themselves. Once a team has had some success, the difficulty of their projects can increase drastically. When leadership attempts to paint a failure as if it was really a success or just hide it completely it often amplifies the failure instead of minimizing it.

Ignoring this gradual approach to more and more difficult projects is on of the major reason leaders fail. Obviously the market forces and other driving factors of an organization may make it impossible to do things in the best possible order. But the skilled leader should be able to take larger projects and break them down into tasks that are very doable. In this way you can achieve the organizations immediate goals and still give your team the ability to build confidence even when you don’t have complete control over what needs done next or enough ramp up time to do things in the way you would prefer.

Mark Shead
http://www.articlesbase.com/management-articles/leadership-how-to-cultivate-your-teams-confidence-76842.html

If you lack self esteem and are low in self confidence then you probably spend a lot of time wishing you had the confidence to act and behave in the way people with high self esteem do.

If you want to be happier and derive more from life incresing your self confidence and self esteem is the key and its easy to do with these simple tips.

What Low Self Esteem Means

Having low self esteem and lacking confidence in your ability to do the things youâ??ve always wanted to do can distort your views, making you think everything always seems to go right for everyone but you.

The Cure

In reality, people who appear to be high in self confidence and always seem to get what they want simply believe in themselves. Being high in self esteem opens you up to the possibility of success rather than failure.

If you are high in self esteem you understand that failing at something means just that, you have failed at one task, it does not make you a failure.

What is Self Esteem?

Self esteem refers to the way you perceive yourself and the way you think others perceive you.

If you have low self esteem then you will tend to have a low opinion of yourself, your capabilities and how people perceive you.

If you have a high sense of self esteem then you will have a positive and realistic opinion of yourself and how people perceive you. You will have a good awareness of your strengths and weaknesses.

How to recognize if you are suffering from Low Self Esteem

If youâ??re internal thoughts tend to begin with:

â?¢ I canâ??tâ?¦

â?¢ I mustâ?¦

â?¢ I shouldâ?¦

The chances are you are suffering from low self esteem

How to Build confidence and self esteem

People with a highly developed sense of self esteem have the self confidence to achieve their goals. Succeeding at the goals they set for themselves adds to the self confidence building blocks they already have in place.

Each successive achievement creates opportunities for greater success and self belief which increases their perception of self esteem.

Having a positive sense of self perception and self esteem is one of the most important factors for increasing your self confidence as if you believe you will succeed at a task then the chances are you will.

If you believe you are going to fail at a task, then you will act accordingly, and the chances are you will fail.

Tips for improving self esteem:-

â?¢ Make a list of all your strengths. Remember we are all good at something. Your list could include being a good parent, a loyal friend or a trusted employee.

â?¢ Perception creates reality so perceive yourself as someone who achieves the things you set out to do.

â?¢ Remember that success builds upon success, so set yourself small goals initially, and build on them.

â?¢ Believe in yourself. For every negative belief you hold about yourself think of four positive ones. If you canâ??t think of beliefs that are true at the moment then think of beliefs you would like to be true that you can work towards.

â?¢ Choose two things that you know you are good at and think of three ways you could work to improve each of these even more. By concentrating on areas that you know you are already good at will improve your confidence and be a good building block for future success.

â?¢ Even if you sometimes donâ??t feel like it always act in a confident manner.

â?¢ Make a list of positive affirmations that you can use to encourage yourself and raise your confidence.

â?¢ Surround yourself with positive, successful, confident people.

By practicing these tips aimed at raising your confidence and self esteem, you will begin to change the way you perceive yourself and the things you are able to achieve.

Increase Your Self Esteem & Get More From Life

As your self esteem increases you can start to think about the things you used to put yourself down for and use the same techniques to build on your confidence.

Donâ?? allow small setbacks to diminish your newly gained self esteem. Keep it in perspective and remember itâ??s just that, a small setback.

Sacha Tarkovsky
http://www.articlesbase.com/self-help-articles/self-esteem-simple-tips-to-improve-your-self-confidence-80878.html

In todayâ??s world, we cannot afford to be shy and reserved. We must have great self- confidence in order achieve our goals faster and be successful in our pursuits.

If you want to boost your self-confidence, attract the best opportunities, and be anything you desire to be, these great self-confidence boosters may help.

Great Self Confidence Booster #1: Beat Shyness

Shyness prevents you from letting people see the real you, because youâ??re afraid to say or do the wrong things or to appear awkward. The problem is, by being shy and hanging back from the rest of the crowd, youâ??re already decreasing your chances for success.

Overcoming shyness doesnâ??t mean that you have to start trying to dominate conversations or hog all the attention. People tend to get irritated with others who are â??attention hogsâ?.

Overcoming shyness starts with baby steps. Introduce yourself to society by opening yourself to people little by little. You can strike up conversations with your officemates. If you want anonymity, talk to people in airports, bus terminals, restaurants, or anywhere you can find someone who seems open to talking.

You can also establish relationships with people on the Internet. With the Internet being a medium where no one would really know who you are, you can actually start your foray out of shyness from there. Then graduate to talking more with friends, then with people you barely know, to people you totally don’t know.

Great Self Confidence Booster #2: Build Up Your Self-Esteem

A healthy self-esteem comes from an unconditional acceptance of yourself. You have to learn how to love yourself for who you are, and to be kind to yourself. You have to learn to appreciate yourself.

Instead of picking out your weaknesses, focus on your strengths. Instead of going through the daily cycle of beating yourself up, set a routine where you would tell yourself ten things you like about yourself. Do not be your own worst enemy. Become your own best friend. Love yourself for who you are.

Do not depend for anyone to love you first. If you think you can wait around forever to have someone love you, then you might get really disappointed. To be lovable, you have to love yourself. You have to be secure in your being, in your existence. Longing for others to love you first creates a climate of wanting and longing that people sense. It comes across as desperation, one of the inverses of self-confidence. Eliminate that part of you. Practice appreciating yourself, cultivate your love for yourself, and wean yourself from the addiction to approval by approving of yourself first.

Great Self Confidence Booster #3: Dress for Success

We must admit that people make their conclusions based on what they see. When they see a slob, they tend to stay away or write you off as not worth knowing. But when they see a polished look, an excellent look, they see success scrolling on a marquee on top of your head. When you look like you can take care of yourself, you send the message that you love yourself, that you are confident, and that you have what it takes to succeed.

Great Self Confidence Booster #4: Get Out There and Just Do It

Many of us donâ??t think we are capable of doing the things we want because weâ??re not sure about ourselves. Again, thereâ??s the dreaded voice of doubt. What you want is to be fearless enough so youâ??ll be able to tackle all the things youâ??ve ever dreamed of doing.

Fear of failure is a big factor in the crumbling of our self-confidence, and this same fear is caused by our insistence on focusing on the negative side of things. True, itâ??s never a bad thing to be cautious whenever weâ??re thinking of new ventures, adventures, and activities, but too much caution will paralyze us, making us unable to take action.

So why not start thinking positively? Think hard about what you want to do. Join activities that may enhance your leadership and teamwork skills. If you stumble over any doubts or possible problems that will come up, donâ??t immediately say, â??I canâ??t do it.â? Just imagine ways that will help you work around those problems.

Donâ??t just second-guess your plans. Trust in your abilities and the fact that you can bounce back from any situation. Thatâ??s already a big bonus. An even bigger plus for you is when you actually follow your dreams and achieve your goals, which would even make you feel confident that you can do anything.

Learning how to have great self-confidence is simple and easy. Accept yourself the way you are. Take care of yourself and acknowledge the fact that you are a very special person of great talent and ability. You can if you think you can.

Michael Lee
http://www.articlesbase.com/self-improvement-articles/how-to-have-great-self-confidence-using-4-selfesteem-boosters-135813.html

Sometimes the best secrets are hidden in plain sight. When it comes to developing confidence, there is one “secret shortcut” that took me years to understand, but it’s so painfully obvious that I want to kick myself sometimes for not being aware of it all along. The “secret” I want to tell to you about is acceptance.

Understanding the importance of acceptance requires a little creative thinking. It is important to remember that confidence is never an “all or nothing” situation. We all have confidence to some degree, but it is a fact that some people have much more that than others. It is also a fact, that no matter how low your self-esteem may be right now, you do have some confidence. So it’s a sliding scale, and just for the sake of argument, let’s say that the confidence scale goes from one to ten, with one being least confident and ten being supremely confident.

To further make this point, let’s say that right now your confidence level is a three on this scale, and your friend’s confidence is a six on the same scale. Now, it’s obvious that your friend is twice as confident as you, but at the same time his confidence level is still only a six out of ten, so it certainly could be a lot higher and your friend is very aware of this.

Now here is where the power of acceptance comes into the picture. Imagine that your friend, whose confidence level is a six, feels very bad about himself because his confidence isn’t higher. But let’s say that, unlike your friend, you understand that your confidence level is low, but you feel OK about that, and you’re not judging yourself because of it. In effect, you are saying “my confidence level “is what it is” and I feel perfectly comfortable with that.”

Now, who is going to be perceived as being more confident, you or your friend? YOU ARE! Every single time. Because if you accept your confidence level (no matter what it is) and are perfectly comfortable with it, you are going to come across as much more confident than your friend who does not accept his confidence level. You see how this works?

Another way of saying this would be, no matter what your confidence level is, accepting it and being comfortable with it will instantly make you more confident! Are you having an “aha” moment yet? I know I did when i first began to really “get” this idea. And the irony is, this is such a simple idea. Nevertheless, I overlooked this critical point for many years. Maybe you have too…

But once you understand the importance of acceptance, you can use this knowledge to immediately boost your confidence. All you need to do is begin where you are right now and make it a point to accept your current situation and your current level of confidence. Do NOT feel frustrated with yourself or your situation. Begin with a good feeling about where you are right now at this very minute. After a day or two of thinking this way, you will definitely notice a difference. When you begin any confidence building program from the point of view of acceptance, you are certain to see greater results in less time.

But be warned, if you begin trying to make changes in your life from a position of frustration, or self disapproval, you will find it much more difficult to create the results you want. Find a way to make peace with yourself and your situation where you are right now. Remember, the key to the whole thing is to start by accepting yourself just as you are right now. You absolutely can do this, and it WILL make a difference. Every single time.

Jon Mercer
http://www.articlesbase.com/coaching-articles/the-secret-to-real-confidence-107541.html

When you feel that you can do something, this mean that you have self-confidence. Now does that mean that you have a high self-esteem too. What is the difference, and what are the similarities?

In psychology we refer to the belief that you can do a particular task as "self efficacy" (for that particular task). It's an important variable, one that goes a long way towards predicting one's persistence in trying to achieve the task. Albert Bandura is the champion of self efficacy – google on his name and that term and you'll get more reading than you could ask for.

Self confidence is a more general sense of one's abilities, not directed at any single task.

Self esteem refers to one's opinion of one's self. It's a terribly oversold notion, and in reality is simply not all that important. It's certainly silly to think that it's important to "promote a child's self esteem", and in fact we'd all be better off if people would just stop thinking about self esteem and get on with actually becoming able to do things.