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Last night I couldn’t fall asleep for a long time. Not because I was not tired, because I was. Extremely actually. The reason was I was completely awestruck.

Last night, I went to watch Imagine Dragons live at TU here in Tulsa. It was a sold out show, so I knew it was going to be incredible. They started, and I was enchanted from the first note. They were incredible at creating an atmosphere where you were in that moment, and only in that moment. And pardon my blatant robbery of this line, but it’s the best description I can think of… I felt infinite…

But it didn’t stop there. As the show went on, they displayed something that I had forgotten. Something I miss desperately. A true passion for something, and an expression of your deepest thoughts in a way that relates to another group of people. For about ninety minutes, we were all together, all one, and of one expression. I was reminded of that.

Now, the point of my long description is this: put your deepest passion on display. But not for recognition, or accomplishment, or a possible career, but because people NEED it. You need to FEEL that passion, and others need to SEE that passion. It will be uncomfortable as hell. It will be terrifying as hell. But it will be rewarding as heaven.

Put your passion on display.

So if you don’t know, I play drums for my church basically every week. I love it. It is a great feeling getting to do what I love to do for no other reason than to worship God. But, I do get a little burnt out on every week. So, I started looking for another drummer to also play. 

I found him. A really cool guy, Andy, said he was definitely interested. We went through a couple practices, and today was his first time on stage in a long time. It went great. And here’s a big factor why.

Andy, along with the rest of the band, used a click track. Now, that seems pretty normal in churches today, but not for Andy. He had never used one seriously. This normally proves to be disastrous. Andy killed it. In practice, he had a lot of getting used to it, but by the second service this morning, he actually LIKED it. He said it made him feel more at ease with the rest of the band. 

So, to the drummers who don’t use a click, don’t want to use one, or do not have one, fix that. You have no idea how much better it will make you, and how much pressure it takes off you. Plus, practice with it every time, and get really tight with one, and you will win the greatest battle most drummers have when recording at a studio. 

Do yourself a favor, and get a metronome to play to. I have been using one for about 5 years now, and I can’t believe I never used one before that. I was just reminded of the huge improvement it made on me watching Andy figure it out, and I thought I would share it with you.

Thanks for reading!