Your Best Self Through DRUMMING with Chris Lesso

“You train how you fight and you fight how you train.”  Navy SEAL saying You can’t just THINK your way to being a better drummer and human being. Living the art of possibility and potential takes continuous massive action. This is about having SYSTEMS NOT GOALS, and then living the never ending process of re-examining your systems, recalibrating them, measuring the results, and repeating. LTR...

Unlock your FREE video and workbook guide to start OPEN HANDED DRUMMING today:  chrislesso.com/OHD   Make SOME percentage of your playing OPEN HANDED now! Even if you only play this way a little at a time, the worst that will happen is you'll come up with new ideas and your hands will balance out and get stronger. You'll cultivate GRIT by going bravely into the unknown and trying somethi...

'We play who we are.'   'Life through rhythm' is realizing our best selves through drumming. Your drumming will only rise as high as your inner world. This is LTR! We build our inner strengths to create the outer expression. Bruce Lee's approach and attitude was also LTR. Bruce understood that self expression from movement was the key. The drums are capturing your MOVEMENTS, turning it into a...

What do you focus on when you sit down to practice? This time can easily be whittled away by not knowing what to focus on, getting distracted, playing what you already know and meandering off the path of your vision. Find out the four essential areas! LTR (Life Through Rhythm) is an attitude and way of life using drumming as a force to unleash focus, confidence, and self expression in all you do....

There is something I call 'The 4 Offenses Of Drummers' (see the separate blog and video lesson on my website and Youtube) where drummers must be aware of the four greatest offenses they can do to at worst get fired, or at the very least highly annoy the other players in the band. This list came from talking to many musicians OTHER than drummers, and finding out what drummers do that get in the way...

Are you ready to TRANSFORM your life through DRUMMING? Click the link to find out how! chrislesso.net/LTR What does studying body language and the brain have to do with drumming? It has EVERYTHING to do with it! LTR (life through rhythm) is about studying outside disciplines to get better at your main discipline. If you want to improve your golf game, steal from cooking. If you want to improve you...

The 4% edge is a feeling to get intimate with, where we stretch not snap . In studies done of peak performers, pushing just 4% above your current skill has been found to be the golden ticket to growth. This magic ratio may seem small, but micro steps forward that compound over days, weeks, and months, is how we embrace the art of impossible. Take a piece of crumpled paper in a ball and throw it. N...

If you think there are consequences and risk, then it’s real, even if you’ve completely made it up. If there are no real consequences, I have to create them. Affirmations and visualization may or may not work, but I use those methods anyway to help me. Declaring my goals and vision to the world creates a pressure I invented. If it works to get the project done and helps push me to do the work dail...

How did you fail today? This is a great question to ask daily. This may seem negative at first, but harvesting your failures is where your greatest lessons lay in waiting for you. Wear them as badges of honour! This takes courage and humility, and is not for the faint of heart, but this is where greatness lives. This is my talk at F***Up Nights Toronto, in which I told a story of one of the worse...

Listening is becoming a lost art. I am no expert, but I realize it is a muscle, and it has to be flexed daily. How many people around you do you know that REALLY listen? It's becoming rare. Have coffee with a friend, and their phone is on the table waiting to be paid attention to like a puppy. There has never been a time in human history when this has been more of a challenge. Just being AWARE of...

'When The Pressure Is On, Use RLG' You're walking towards the stage... you are nervous, sweating, unsure of yourself, doubting yourself, trying to remember... why am I putting myself through this ordeal again?? Sound familiar? We have all experienced this, and if it's not in music playing drums live as I do, then it is going on to 'life's stage', whatever that is for you. A life dedicated to safet...

LTR (Life Through Rhythm) is an attitude and way of life using drumming as a force to unleash focus, confidence, and self expression in all you do. Are you ready to TRANSFORM your life through DRUMMING? Click the link to find out how! chrislesso.net/LTR If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using one of the buttons on the side! Take a second and leave me a review for the LTR DRUMMING PODCAS...

‘You don’t choose the drums, the drums choose you.’ This is how I feel about what I do, and many of us feel this way about our craft. It is an OBSESSION, we love it, it is our fun and joy, our escape from the world. Motivation is not needed, in fact sometimes the challenge in when to walk away and not ever do it! But there are two other areas that are the very foundation of the craft you love, and...

Don't let TENSION in your drumming hold you back! Enrollments are now open to find FLOW in your technique:   chrislesso.net/LTR   Technique is the HOW of what we do, the study of MOVEMENT. Flowing motions equals a flowing sound, so 'how you move is how you groove'! This is not about getting as fast as we can or competing with other drummers, but about SELF EXPRESSION, and removing any ba...

Shyness kills learning! We only have so much time on this earth to grow, and it will go FAST. Whether you are introverted or extroverted, shyness is something to overcome if you will get the most out of every opportunity. This is especially true when having the courage to approach your heroes to seize the moment, because once it's gone it will NEVER come back. Fear of the MOMENT will pass, but fea...

Music is more about the MOVEMENT and SPACE between the notes, rather than the notes themselves. In drumming, I call this 'the martial arts of drumming'. How you move is how you groove! When you play drums, even if you tried you can't help but sound like YOU. This comes from how you glide through in the air between your notes. Your movement creates your sound! Think of the rhythms we hear&nbsp...

'Know the rules to break the rules.' Question everything, stay curious! This to me in drumming and life is embodied in Stewart Copeland. His drumming and attitude was a bombshell which challenged me to be bold, break the rules, and be myself. I love his concept of 'why do I have to always play a backbeat?' He challenges the norm, and walks the path of true expression, authenticity, and individuali...

I just watched a great special on Netflix, 'Standup For Drummers' by Fred Armisen. This was a fun reminder for three essential concepts: history, humour, and finding the balance of 'caring so much we find the zone where we don't care', or not giving a f**&. Let's get into all three concepts, then dive in and enjoy watching this special. LTR (Life Through Rhythm) is an attitude and way of life...

If you can last through the mundanity of the 10,000 reps mindset, you will open the floodgates to a freedom that you can't even imagine! The best in the world all have this self discipline, from Bruce Lee, Frank Sinatra, and Kobe Bryant. This is about getting to the state of 'non thinking' by doing so many reps that you free up your mental bandwidth to unlock our peak creativity through FLOW, and...

This idea was born from students coming to my studio thinking they had to live up to a certain level, or come in a good mood, or come to play well. That's great if it happens, but also show up tired, in a bad mood, not feeling like playing, not at your best. If our practice is a LIFESTYLE, we can't judge ourselves, or try to live up to perfection. We just need to SHOW UP consistently, and accept t...

This was an awesome drive getting in the zone with amazing drummer and outstanding human Aubrey Dayle! Aubrey shares his incredible story on how he came close to dying, and his rise to coming back stronger than ever. These are some seriously heartfelt and deep insights that will show you how to take these lessons to your drumming and your life. LTR (Life Through Rhythm) is an attitude and way of l...

In the NFL, the difference between the best in the league and the worst in the league is only a margin of 2%! This is because the standards in that arena are so high; we can take these same standards and hold ourselves accountable to these as well in our daily practices. The difference between excellent and OUTSTANDING is a tiny gap, that takes work and daily discipline to stay on the path. 'Miss...

Go back and have fun watching the original classic 1980’s movie The Karate Kid! I loved this movie growing up, but there are a lot of great lessons to take into life. Here, I go into my top 3: sharpening your FOCUS, surrounding yourself with great people and seeking MENTORS in your life, and the power of compounding precise and disciplined DAILY REPETITIONS in your PRACTICE. Have fun watching this...

This is a story from one of my mentors, the great teacher Jim Blackley. He passed away shortly after this was filmed, so this is a tribute to the man he was, and the impact he had. The lesson he shared here was to focus on going inward, doing the WORK required and not always searching outward for answers. There are no hacks or quick fixes, just long hours spent building slowly over time. This is w...

If Bruce Lee was only a badass martial artist he would still be remembered, but it was his philosophy combined WITH his craft that made such an impact on the world. Bruce Lee was always one of my favourite 'drummers' because there are so many connections to Bruce's martial art Jeet Kune Do to drumming. We can learn so many physical and mental approaches to make our craft and lives better. Bruce al...