{"id":37667,"date":"2022-09-30T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-09-30T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.drumeo.com\/beat\/?p=37667"},"modified":"2023-10-30T07:22:07","modified_gmt":"2023-10-30T14:22:07","slug":"balance-of-chops-and-groove-aaron-spears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.drumeo.com\/beat\/balance-of-chops-and-groove-aaron-spears\/","title":{"rendered":"What&#8217;s Better: Drum Chops Or Groove?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/0zH2TqPgx7Q\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>&#8220;You gotta chop responsibly and love what you do more than anything else.&#8221;<\/em><br><br>Aaron Spears is one of the most requested drummers we&#8217;ve had at Drumeo. And what an experience it was!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With huge gigs under his belt (like Ariana Grande, Usher and Backstreet Boys, the GRAMMYs with James Brown and American Idol tours), Aaron knows what it takes to play in the big leagues. Much of that is the careful balance between <a href=\"https:\/\/www.drumeo.com\/beat\/how-to-practice-drum-chops\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">chops<\/a> and groove.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"box-snippet\">\n<div class=\"shadow\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"content\">\n<div><i class=\"fas icon fa-solid fa-lightbulb\"><\/i><\/div>\n<div class=\"text-container\">\n                    <strong>Watch Lesson<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.drumeo.com\/beat\/beginner-drum-chops\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Drum Chops For Beginners<\/a>\n                <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>Before his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=7pE269o2STg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">2006 Modern Drummer Festival appearance<\/a> thrust him into the spotlight, Aaron honed his chops by shedding in his basement, trading licks with other drummers every Tuesday. This casual gathering eventually grew into a &#8220;fight club but with drums&#8221; where 40-60 drummers &#8211; including some big names &#8211; would get together to share ideas and &#8216;battle&#8217; for fun. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It helped him develop his skills while building on ideas he heard from other drummers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In this lesson, Aaron talks about how to express yourself on the drums and be creative without taking away from the music. He cautions drummers to respect the instrument and respect the other musicians you&#8217;re playing with, and talks about musical styles where there&#8217;s more space to play around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you&#8217;re a Drumeo member, you have access to Aaron&#8217;s complete video course called &#8220;The Building Blocks Of Drum Chops&#8221;, a masterclass on how to approach chops musically and tastefully. If you aren&#8217;t a member yet, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.drumeo.com\/trial\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">get a free 7-day trial to Drumeo here!<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Lesson Index:<br><\/strong>0:00 &#8211; SONG: &#8220;Caught Up&#8221; by Usher<br>3:55 &#8211; Introduction<br>6:30 &#8211; Finding the balance of chops and groove<br>9:50 &#8211; SONG: &#8220;Give The Lord A Praise&#8221; by Gideon Band<br>14:14 &#8211; How to approach chops in different musical styles<br>17:45 &#8211; How Aaron got into playing chops<br>21:00 &#8211; SONG: &#8220;No Tears Left To Cry&#8221; by Ariana Grande<br>24:35 &#8211; Tips for playing pop music<br>27:10 &#8211; Jamming to a click vs. a song<br>29:50 &#8211; SONG: &#8220;Gasoline Dreams&#8221; by Outkast<br>35:00 &#8211; Why you should chop responsibly<br>38:02 &#8211; The biggest differences between the Usher and Ariana gigs<br>40:30 &#8211; SONG: &#8220;Love Me Harder&#8221; by Ariana Grande<br>42:49 &#8211; Keeping the backbeat during fills<br>44:27 &#8211; Aaron&#8217;s advice to drummers<br>46:46 &#8211; SONG: &#8220;Dangerous Woman&#8221; by Ariana Grande<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Aaron Plays:<br><\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sonor.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Sonor Drums<\/a><br><a href=\"https:\/\/www.zildjian.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Zildjian Cymbals<\/a><br><a href=\"https:\/\/remo.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Remo Drumheads<\/a><br><a href=\"https:\/\/zildjian.com\/sticks-mallets.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Zildjian Drumsticks<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Follow Aaron:<\/strong><br><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/aaronspearsofficial\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Facebook<\/a><br><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/aspears\/?hl=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Instagram<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n<p><iframe class=\"email-form-include-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.drumeo.com\/weeklyemail\" frameborder=\"none\"><\/iframe><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s the eternal question: should drummers be fast, complex players, or simple groovers? Aaron Spears shows you how to balance both.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":195,"featured_media":38007,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4019,4038],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drummers","category-full-lessons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drumeo.com\/beat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drumeo.com\/beat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drumeo.com\/beat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drumeo.com\/beat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/195"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drumeo.com\/beat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37667"}],"version-history":[{"count":36,"href":"https:\/\/www.drumeo.com\/beat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37667\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48873,"href":"https:\/\/www.drumeo.com\/beat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37667\/revisions\/48873"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drumeo.com\/beat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drumeo.com\/beat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drumeo.com\/beat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drumeo.com\/beat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}