What did you practice back in the day during your "intense practice" period?
Gavin Says:
I used to practise with a portastudio (a 4 track cassette machine) and record myself and listen out for different things..such as "Internal sync" - to see if my bass drum was really in time with my hi hat - same with the snare drum accents and ghost notes - I was trying to play them together but couldn't always hear if they were. With those portastudios they had a pitch wheel which meant I could slow the tape right down and hear the flams that were sometimes happening between the hi hat/snare/bass drum - a whole lot easier than at normal speed. It was like a kind of aural microscope. I'd do the same thing when playing to a click - I'd record myself - and then listen back with the tape speed going much slower.
I was listening to a lot of Steve Gadd, Jeff Porcaro and John Robinson and I could tell that my playing didn't feel as good - as smooth and relaxed as those guys did. So that gave me a focus - a goal to try to get close to - I really wanted that kind of feeling in my time. Mostly it was learning to play on the back of the beat. I would play along to tracks with those guys on and then just listen back to my drumming (without the music going on). I would even go and stand outside my practise room so I could hear the playback of my drumming and imagine I was listening to someone else. It was easier to make a judgment like that.
I still work on timing things now - I always feel that my timing could be better.